2025 NFL Draft tight end rookie prospects Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland are in a tier of their own. They’re the clear top two dogs, whichever order you have them in. And they are both expected to be first round picks in the draft later this month. But the truth is that everyone has talked them to death - including me. 

You can see where I have Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland ranked (with notes) in our Pre-Draft Rookie Tight End Rankings. Or you can hear me discuss them with Jim Coventry on the most recent Alarm Fantasy Football Show where we put the rookie tight ends into tiers. 

The truth of the matter, however, is that the draft will likely have a big impact on where we rank these guys for dynasty rookie drafts. If the younger Colston Loveland gets drafted before Tyler Warren to a good landing spot, for instance, it would be tough to make the argument for Warren still. 

 

 

 

As for the other tight ends, it’s fairly rare to have three or four high end tight ends come from the same draft. As you can see in the graphic below, the best TE3 in terms of career fantasy points as of now is Marcedes Lewis from the 2006 class. 

The 2017 class is still making an argument for the greatest tight end class of all time after 8 seasons which goes to show how long some tight ends can take to break out.  

So, why do we even look at deeper tight ends? Well, the rub is that we don’t always know WHO the fantasy-relevant guys will be. In that 2017 class, for instance, the top TE off the board was OJ Howard. 

George Kittle, the top TE of the class, was the ninth tight end off the board. In that 2006 class the Buccaneers took Vernon Davis as the TE1 off the board and also Delanie Walker as the 15th TE off the board nearly 170 picks later. Tight end can work in mysterious ways.

So we are looking beyond the two hype beasts at the top in Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren  to figure out who has the best chance to make a splash for you in fantasy football from the later picks. And the 2025 NFL Draft class has a lot to choose from. Here are the five I think present the best odds. 

 

 

 

Harold Fannin Jr, Bowling Green

Harold Fannin Jr lit up the college ranks. In fact, no tight end has ever had more receiving yards than he just had in his 2024 season. But we have to factor in that he did it at Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference. 

The wide receiver who has the record for the most career receiving yards in a college career also did it in the MAC - Corey Davis. We know how that panned out when he went top five in the NFL Draft.

Fannin also doesn’t have prototypical size or speed. And his movement on the field isn’t necessarily natural or aesthetically pleasing as he has a unique running style that could even be described as a bit “bow-legged”. 

That typically wouldn’t be a problem for us if the player tests well but a 4.71 forty yard dash at his size doesn’t really lend to big plays at the next level. It’s fairly rare for players that run a 4.7 or slower to be able to rip off big chunk plays.

All that said, if a team views Harold Fannin Jr as their answer as a “big slot” player in a full-time role, he could absolutely have upside in fantasy. A guy like Zach Ertz in that role in a similar speed range even had a 1,000 yard receiving season (though he did need 150+ targets to get there). 

The draft narrative for Fannin will be crucial - not only in terms of how early he goes but also to what scheme. If that all comes together, it’s hard to ignore the upside for a player that was THAT productive in college.

 

 

 

Oronde Gadsden II, Syracuse

If you like Harold Fannin Jr., you should probably also have Oronde Gadsden II on your radar. Both profile as undersized plus receivers that would fit into the “big slot” mold at the next level. Both also did their damage at smaller schools against lesser competition.

The tape for Gadsden is pretty impressive as well, especially his 17 contested catches in 2024 which led all tight ends (Tyler Warren was second with 13). Like his father, who also played wide receiver in the NFL, he started out as a wide receiver before deciding to bulk up to play tight end. 

If he can continue to bulk up from his 6’5” 243 pound frame without losing too much of his speed, he could be a full-time player at the next level. He ran a 4.64 forty which is just on the fringe of what we like to see though, ideally, we’d like sub 4.6 for difference-making speed.

The draft is obviously crucial for all of these guys. But it’s especially important for guys that only fit into a fairly niche category. Coaches that use “big slot” like Doug Pederson and Chan Gailey aren’t walking through that door for 2025. 

Gadsden can obviously block better than slot receivers but is he a good enough receiver to command a full-time role at the next level? Or is he destined to be a part-time contributor like Cameron Brate, Anthony Firkser, Kylen Granson etc.? The one thing we do know is that he’s not going to be drafted to be an inline blocking tight end so at least he falls on the side of the equation that has upside for fantasy.

 

 

 

Terrance Ferguson, Oregon

I always do my pre-draft rankings based on pure upside. Why wouldn’t we? I’m not looking for the next Austin Hooper that plays for a decade and is merely serviceable along the way. I’m looking for the next Darren Waller who’s basically a wide receiver that lines up at tight end. So the pre-draft rankings will often reflect that.

That said, the draft often dashes our hopes with those profiles. Guys like Elijah Higgins or Jaheim Bell whom we value for their pass-catching prowess sometimes fall off the radars of NFL teams and slide in the draft. At that stage we need to be realistic about who has the best chance to even be an NFL caliber player. 

As the pipedreams slide down the rankings, those guys move up. And Terrance Ferguson has the best chance to be that guy that moves up to TE3 or so for me post-draft if it plays out that way.

Terrance Ferguson isn’t super flashy. The scheme may have partially been to blame but he rally didn’t create much for himself. He only caught one of his 12 contested catch opportunities last year. He also only had 82 yards against man coverage. He did most of his damage vs zone and even had 142 yards on screens. His production profile in general is nothing to write home about.

That said, he’s probably the closest combination of size and speed to guys like Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland in this class. A 4.63 40 yard dash isn’t anything crazy but it was the fastest any of them ran at the combine of Pro Days. 

I would not be shocked to see a team take a look at him as the TE3 off the board as high as the second round and, if that happens, he could easily settle in as the TE3 of this class.

 

 

 

Elijah Arroyo, Miami

Every draft has the mystery box. Elijah Arroyo is ours this year. We got an extremely small sample size of him in college due to a serious knee injury that carved into most of his 2022 and 2023 seasons. He actually only registered 11 total receptions before his senior year in 2024.

In that senior year he put together some promising tape catching the football from projected first round pick Cam Ward. He was a menace out of the slot, especially on vertical and outbreaking routes. His size and wiggle at the second level made it difficult for linebackers and safeties to hang with him in the pass-game.

Arroyo is the classic “bad blocker for a tight end but good blocker for a slot WR”. They often took him out of the game for obvious run downs in favor of guys like Cam McCormick. If that’s happening at the college level, there are serious concerns that it will also happen at the NFL level - that’s how you end up with a tight end rotation like the Indianapolis Colts have had for the last seven years.

In true mystery box fashion, he impressed those present at the Senior Bowl with his performance before exiting with a knee issue. That’s already concerning given his injury history but that issue also prevented him from running the 40 at both the combine and his Pro Day. 

That leaves us with virtually no testing for a guy where athleticism is one of his main talking points. That said, in the sample size we do have we have plays like this where he hits over 21 MPH. So, there’s upside to be had if things break right. 

 

 

Mason Taylor, LSU

If you were going to build the perfect football pedigree, you’d probably start with former Miami Dolphin Jason Taylor. Maybe sprinkle in some Zach Thomas. That’s basically how you get Mason Taylor as Taylor is his father and Thomas is his uncle. And the result of that is a 6’5”, 251-pound NFL caliber tight end.

Now, I say NFL caliber tight end because I do believe Taylor will succeed at the next level. The question for us is HOW will he succeed. My concern with Taylor’s profile is how he was deployed at LSU. 

They not only kept him inline for nearly 50% of his snaps but they actually asked him to block on 16.7% of his PASS plays. Guys used in that fashion typically translate to blocking tight ends at the next left.

To buy into Taylor here you need to lean heavily into the notion that NFL schemes will deploy him differently. He does get a boost from “teammate score” given LSU is a wide receiver factory. But Taylor can be a scary one for fantasy even if he gets the draft capital as we’ve seen guys like Drew Sample and Darnell Washington go on Day Two of the NFL Draft for their blocking prowess. 

NFL teams clearly value it - look at the money that Josh Oliver and Luke Farrell got in recent years. If Taylor is the third or fourth TE off the board, he presents some risks in terms of your dynasty rookie drafts that aren’t there for the pure pass-catchers.