Ladies and gentlemen – it’s that time. It’s that time for us to once again delve into the most sacred of all football positions. 

The mythical centaurs of sport, somehow existing as half wide receivers and half offensive linemen. And the elite ones for fantasy football are as majestic as they are elusive. Yes, we’re here to help you lasso your own elite tight end for 2024.

 

 

 

Yes, really. And this isn’t our first rodeo, Ted. This is now our SIXTH year putting together the Ultimate Tight End Guide. So, we’ve got some tricks up our sleeve when it comes to identifying the prized hosses in this year’s crop. 

We’ve already given you the conditions we are looking for with our article on What Makes An Elite Tight End – which is a prerequisite reading to understand this guide. Now we get into the actual players for 2024. Here is your road map:

1. What Makes An Elite Tight End - Found here (read this now if you have not yet).

2. Standalone NFL Tight Ends - These are the elite guys. This is the article you are reading right now.

3. The Fades - Everyone loves to hate this article. But, for folks that play in a lot of leagues, it is just as important to know who NOT to draft as it is to know who to draft. If your favorite tight end is in this article, that’s okay – he can still be your favorite. Just don’t draft him in your fantasy football league. And quit your whining.

4. Yin & Yang Tight End - This is where the magic happens. Where we make something out of nothing. The short and sweet of this strategy is to wait on tight end then take two – a safe guy that you can start early (Yin) and the riskiest option with the highest upside (Yang). That’s how we found breakouts like Mark Andrews, Darren Waller, Logan Thomas, Evan Engram, Sam LaPorta, etc. Our Yin & Yang Tight End Rankings for this strategy are already available as part of the Dynamic Tier Fantasy TE Rankings and the writeup is coming soon. You’re welcome. 

Elite Tight Ends - NFL Fantasy Football

Since you’ve already read What Makes An Elite Tight End?, you already know what we are looking for. If you didn’t read it then I’m not mad – I’m just disappointed. Now go to your room and read it. 

Good, doesn’t that make you feel better? Since I’m sure everyone read it, I will now summarize what we are looking for. The bottom line is that we want tight ends in fantasy football with what we call “difference-making upside”. That doesn’t just mean top five this year – we are looking for top five of ALL TIME. Super megastars that are on the level of elite wide receivers. We’ve seen it. And it might not happen every year, but we’re there when it does.

After that, we at least want TEs with top five upside this season. In a 10-12 team league, you will at least have a leg up on half your league if your TE is top 5-6. If anyone does not understand that level of math, please message Mike Faiella on Twitter (@DaddysHomeFF) and ask him to explain.

Ideally, an elite tight end for fantasy will meet all of these conditions:

  • Be a top 2 target on his team
  • Block on less than 15% of pass snaps (ideally, around 7% or less)
  • Line up at wide receiver often
  • Create for himself vs. man to man
  • Have a knack for scoring
  • Run real, high aDot routes
  • Run really fast
  • Be part of a high-volume offense
  • Be part of a highly consolidated offense
  • Within the age apex for NFL tight ends

What we’ll do here is take the best options possible and, as always, break down The Good, The Bad and the Advice. 

  • THE GOOD - As much factual info as possible on why this player could be good.
  • THE BAD - As much factual info as possible on why this player could be bad.
  • THE ADVICE - My opinion on whether you should draft them at current fantasy ADP or not.

The Good or The Bad is information that can help anyone make their assessment – this is objective info and narratives that are within the range of outcomes. The Advice is my subjective opinion, which you are free to ignore. Doesn’t hurt my feelings or anything if you do. 

What? No, I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Fantasy Football 2024 Elite TEs: The Strategy & The Players

My strategy in 2024 is simple. Unless it’s some crazy stalemate in my draft where they all fall crazy far, I’m not taking the first tight end off the board. In fact, I’m fairly happy getting any tight end from this article at a good value. If I miss on all of them, no problem – we just do Yin & Yang Tight End and find this year’s breakout. Fantasy football doesn’t have to be hard.

If I do draft any tight end from this article, that is my “Standalone” tight end. By that, I mean I have invested enough in the tight end position that I’m not drafting two fantasy TEs in most cases. I’m starting this guy and I’m only grabbing a fill in for bye weeks. 

If I do miss out on all these guys, I will draft two using the Yin & Yang Tight End Strategy. But that is a different article. So, without further ado, let’s take a peek at these top stallions. 

Best Fantasy Tight Ends: Mark Andrews

The Good

For a lot of these NFL tight ends, the good is fairly obvious. So, the explanation doesn’t need to be long. With Andrews, we can just go through the boxes I mentioned above if you want.

  • Be a top 2 target on his team:
    • In every healthy year, he has led the team, not just top two.
  • Block on less than 15% of pass snaps (ideally, around 7% or less):
    • In six seasons, he’s never blocked on more than 2.2% of pass plays. On 2,586 career pass plays, he’s blocked 35 times.
  • Line up at wide receiver often:
    • Last year he ran 89.4% of his snaps from a WR spot, which was second only to Mike Gesicki at 89.8%.
  • Create for himself vs. man to man:
    • Mark Andrews was still top 10 in receptions vs. man-to-man last year despite essentially missing eight games. He’s always towards the top of this category.
  • Have a knack for scoring:
    • No tight end has more end zone targets than Andrews over the last three years.
  • Run real, high aDot routes:
    • Over 8 yards per route is rock solid.
  • Run really fast:
    • He could be faster, but ~80th percentile speed per Player Profiler gets the job done.
  • Be part of a high-volume offense:
    • This could be better but, the one time this team was even middle of the pack, he had a top five fantasy TE season of all time. And has finished top five even when this team has been bottom three in pass attempts.
  • Be part of a highly consolidated offense:
    • Zay Flowers got 100+ targets. Andrews and his backup Isaiah Likely combined for 100+. The next highest player got 61 (and that player isn’t on the team anymore). Usage of fullback/blocking tight end Patrick Ricard certainly helps with that.
  • Within the age apex for NFL tight ends:
    • Andrews is smack in the age apex at 28 years old. Travis Kelce had his first 1,000-yard season at 27. Zach Ertz had his at 28.

So, there ya go – checks all the boxes. But he also has one benefit that virtually no other tight end has. A true handcuff that you can plug directly into your lineup and start if Andrews gets hurt. When Mark Andrews went down last year, Isaiah Likely was a top five tight end in fantasy football the rest of the way. That is incredibly rare, and it absolutely moves the needle for us. 

This team once again has Lamar Jackson running the show. The only pass catcher they added in the draft was a fourth round pick in Devontez Walker. It’s once again Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews at the top with Rashod Bateman, Nelson Agholor and Isaiah Likely mixing in. Beautiful.

The Bad

Mark Andrews hasn’t exactly been the healthiest tight end. He’s missed at least one game in four of the last five years. And last year, after a brutal hip drop tackle, he had to have ankle surgery which caused him to miss seven games before returning to play the Chiefs in the playoffs. 

We don’t know what type of ankle surgery it was for sure but, given the nature of the injury (high ankle sprain resulting in cracked fibula), we have a suspicion it was the patented Tightrope surgery. This has been hailed as a miracle fix, but we saw guys like Tony Pollard and Darnell Mooney come back slow last year. Plus, Jalen Hurts had the surgery in college and, in 2022, he had complications where the hardware needed to be removed. It’s a recently invented procedure, so there’s not a ton of data on whether it’s the true magic fix we believe.

The other question we run into revolves around the other tight end – Isaiah Likely. There have been reports that they want to get Isaiah Likely out there more. They suggest that that would not come at the expense of Andrews, but with a hybrid TE/WR role for Likely in 12 personnel, that could push Andrews inline. And there is always the chance they rotate, which would be a nightmare.

The Advice

This is why it’s so important to know your league and your format. In a typically 10-12 team league, Mark Andrews is a priority pick for me at his ADP. Why? Because Isaiah Likely, as TE20 in ADP, will go undrafted. I know Mark Andrews is going to be a top two target on this team and get the prerequisite 90+ targets we so desperately crave. And he has one of the best odds of hitting 10+ TDs as well. 

So, I’ll just be ready to drop a big ole bag of FAAB on Likely if need be. And, if my benches are really deep, even better – I’ll just stick Likely there and wait. If literally any other tight end in this article gets hurt, it’s back to the drawing board. I mean, if Sam LaPorta goes down, are you really going to start Shane Zylstra or Brock Wright? No, you’re back to square one. And one more thing - the Ravens play on Thursday in Week One so, you could even hold Likely with the last bench spot (or even a kicker) then drop him that Friday morning. Free insurance!

Now, if you are playing in really deep leagues, tight end premium, best ball or something like the Scott Fish Bowl, that may change your thoughts on Andrews. Because, in those formats, Likely DOES get drafted. And you might not want to use the draft capital and roster space on both. So, that changes the equation. For this article, we are focusing on normal leagues for normal people. So, we love Andrews. But I figured I would mention that tidbit for the folks in weird leagues. Ya weirdos*.

*I am also a weirdo in a lot of weird leagues

Right now, based on our Composite ADP Tool capturing data from multiple different sites, Mark Andrews goes off the board at pick 46, which is late in the fourth round. But Trey McBride goes at ~46 as well and Dalton Kincaid at ~52, and I’ve seen the order all over the place. Quite frankly, I’m cool with any of them but, if I had to pick one with all three available, give me Andrews.

Best Fantasy Tight Ends: Travis Kelce

The Good

This section is going to be short for the sake of everyone as there’s a lot to read on these seven players. I’m a Patriots fan and I hold Rob Gronkowski close to my heart. Even then, Travis Kelce is the best fantasy tight end of all time. Sure, Gronk was a better blocker, and he does have the best single TE season of all time. But you cannot match the consistency and longevity that Kelce has provided at the position. He’s not only “one of them ones”, he’s the one. That was more painful for me to type than it should have been.

He’s the top pass-catching option for the best passing quarterback in the league. And none of that has changed. They just won the Super Bowl. He takes care of himself sleeping in that hyperbaric chamber and has been shockingly healthy throughout his career. Like Mark Andrews, he checks literally every box above and smashes most of them. Except for age apex. 

The Bad

There are only two NFL TEs that have ever had a 1,000+-yard receiving season over the age of 33. One is Travis Kelce. And the other is OBVIOUSLY Pete Retzlaff. Here is the annual picture of Pete Retzlaff that we include in the article:

Stud. I don’t know how old Pete Retzlaff is in that picture, but he was probably like 17 because back then everyone just looked old. When he had his first and only 1,000-yard season, he was 34. And he is the only tight end to have a 1,000-yard season at 34 years old because last year, at 34, Travis Kelce failed to have 1,000+ yards.

I mean, he missed two games and had 984 yards, so we’re splitting hairs here. And only one of the games was due to injury (Week 1) as they all skipped the final game because the Chiefs are so good and so cool (those jerks). But we have to mention that Kelce turns 35 this year because Father Time is undefeated. 

We naturally have to also mention the Chiefs are shuffling through some wide receivers. Rashee Rice is looking at a suspension of some kind – possibly up to eight games. Hollywood Brown is pulling a JuJu Smith-Schuster with a one year, $4 million “prove it” deal. And they drafted a speedster in Xavier Worthy to help stretch the field. They have Kelce, so they once again took a budget approach to wide receiver, but it could be the best WR group they have had in years.

The Advice

Father Time may be undefeated, but you know who else is undefeated based on the movies I’ve seen? Father Christmas. And the fact that you don’t need to take Travis Kelce as the TE1 overall for the first time in over a decade is one of the best gifts you could ever get in fantasy football. His ADP actually suggests that you could get him in the third round of drafts. Which has been unheard of until now.

My policy has often been to not take the first tight end off the board. A tight end has NEVER finished as the top flex player in PPR. It’s always been an RB or a WR. So, I always focus on those guys first. There’s also no worse feeling than taking the first TE, QB, K or D/ST and then watching rounds and rounds go by before someone takes the next one. That actually happened to our own Jon Impemba at QB in our first Expert Mock Draft this year. 

So, I haven’t drafted Kelce in over five years – until the FSGA Expert Draft I did last month. That was a 14-team league where I got him in the late third. And I can confirm that it feels good to get a discount on the best tight end in the league.

Best Fantasy Tight Ends: Dalton Kincaid

The Good

If it weren’t for the breakout season of Sam LaPorta, there would be a lot more chatter about Dalton Kincaid. He came out in 2023 and earned a starting role in the slot as a rookie. He not only finished as a top two target on the team behind only Stefon Diggs, but he had the most receptions a Bills tight end has ever had. Not just for rookie NFL tight ends – any tight end.

He did so running ~78% of his snaps at wide receiver and blocking on only 1.2% of pass plays.  In terms of lining up at wide receiver, that's top five among TEs that got 25+ targets. He also got 26 targets against man-to-man coverage which is top five for NFL tight ends and a huge vote of confidence for the young player. We would have liked to see a slightly higher route participation and target share, but it’s hard to ask more from a rookie tight end.

The big kicker here of course is that Stefon Diggs is gone. Diggs not only was getting ~150 targets a year during his time in Buffalo but was also leading this team in first downs with nearly 70 a year. They are going to need a new “go-to” guy to step up when they need a big play on a third down. Dalton Kincaid flashed trusty hands with only a 4.7% drop rate, which is even more impressive with Josh Allen lasering you the ball at 700 MPH from 6 yards away. 

The Bad

There is still some uncertainty here, no doubt. And we do have to make some assumptions to propel Kincaid to a truly elite tier. Despite being a top two target on an elite offense, Kincaid only finished as the TE11 in PPR and TE14 in points per game. And a big reason for that is that, when Dawson Knox was healthy, Kincaid was not a full-time player.

Last year, Kincaid and Knox BOTH played 80% of the snaps in Week 1. Kincaid also played games with 84% and 90% of the snaps when Knox was out in Weeks 8 and 9. In the other weeks when Knox played? He only played more than 62% of the snaps in ONE game. If they want to use that rotation again this year, that is going to cap the upside for Kincaid. There is no guarantee he will play more.

They also put together a strange grouping of players if Kincaid is going to be an every-down slot guy. They already had Khalil Shakir. They then added career slot player Curtis Samuel. Unless you are going five wide, there’s only so many spots in the slot. On top of that, there is a world where early second round pick Keon Coleman picks up a lot of those targets that Stefon Diggs was getting. So, it might not all be sunshine and rainbows for Kincaid.

The Advice

To me, the upside is too tantalizing. Dalton Kincaid had already established himself as a top option in one of the league’s best offenses. And then they jettisoned their top weapon? We have to remember that, even if the targets are spread out evenly, only one of these guys is TE eligible. That’s part of the process that led us back to Evan Engram with the Jaguars, and last year, Engram had the second-most receptions of all time for a tight end. There is a world where Kincaid gets 100+ receptions this year.

Kincaid was already a TE1 in PPR last year as a rookie despite an injury and the presence of Stefon Diggs. The floor to me feels pretty solid. The ceiling is that he establishes himself as the top target for Josh Allen and an offensive focal point in the same way that Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews have been focal points for their teams. 

If Kincaid can catch 73 passes under the conditions last year, how many passes could he catch this season? We already mentioned that he currently goes TE5 on average, but realistically, he goes somewhere between TE3-5. I absolutely have no problem with folks taking him as the TE3 off the board if they want and, if you can get him later than that, even better.

Best Fantasy Tight Ends: Sam LaPorta

The Good

Sam LaPorta just finished as the TE1 in fantasy football. As a rookie. Despite folks constantly telling me that rookie NFL tight ends can’t succeed in fantasy. Even after Kyle Pitts just had 1,000+ yards as a rookie two years ago. Even after we explained the concepts for when a rookie tight end could breakout and Sam LaPorta met all of those criteria. 

We are actually in the process of selling the rights to our story The Little Tight End Whisperer Who Tried To Tell Everyone About The Upside Of The 2024 Rookie Tight Ends But No One Cared And Some People Were Even Pretty Mean About It (it’s a working title).

And it wasn’t just fantasy points where LaPorta shined. The underlying data showed that he was top five in route participation, end zone targets and target share, even with Amon-Ra St. Brown there. He also led all NFL tight ends in targets vs. man to man and contested catches. This guy knows how to get open. 

The Bad

For such a young player where we only expect them to get better, there’s not a ton of flaws. One that we can point out is that his alignment and deployment was not 100% ideal for fantasy football. We want our guys playing as much WR as possible, getting free releases and taking other WRs off the field. A lot of these guys are playing 70-90% of their snaps out wide, but LaPorta was more like 50/50 inline and wide. 

That’s also part of why he blocked on over 9% of pass plays, which was the highest among any top five tight end. Higher than George Kittle even, who often blocks more than we’d like. There were actually another 50 routes LaPorta could have run but was blocking instead. In Week 16 against Minnesota, for instance, LaPorta was asked to block on NINE pass plays. In that game, he had 3 catches on 3 targets for 18 yards.

We also do need to point out that, even though LaPorta was the TE1 overall in fantasy, it was one of the weaker TE1 seasons. In terms of PPR points per game over the last decade, LaPorta’s season actually would have only ranked 29th among tight ends in fantasy football. And just last year (if you exclude the game where Mark Andrews only played 7 snaps), LaPorta’s PPR points per game would have been behind Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews and T.J. Hockenson.

We’ve seen in the past with guys like Peyton Manning and Patrick Mahomes that, when your defense and run game get better, you don’t need to throw as much. The Lions do have a killer run game and their offseason focus was improving the defense. With Amon-Ra St. Brown, two good pass-catching RBs and Jameson Williams gaining some steam, the ceiling for LaPorta might not be at that “difference-making” level in 2024.

The Advice

Sam LaPorta is about as “safe” as it gets. Folks that typically say “I’m just drafting Travis Kelce at the TE1 so I don’t need to think about the position” will find drafting Sam LaPorta fairly appealing. I have Sam LaPorta in virtually every dynasty league, so I’m rooting for the guy. And I’m planning to have him in my lineup every week. He absolutely hits the 90-target floor and he has big upside via touchdowns.

But, as I said at the top of the article, I don’t typically find myself being the first person to draft a tight end. So, I’m not pulling the trigger on LaPorta much myself where he goes in the late second, early third. If someone takes Travis Kelce or another TE first, I’ll consider it. But, in years past, I wouldn’t often draft Travis Kelce as the TE1 when we KNEW he was going to be the top TE. Because he’s never been the top FLEX player. And I’m looking for that kind of upside in most cases before I draft a TE or QB. 

So, you go right ahead if you want – I think it’s a fine pick. But Sam LaPorta isn’t necessarily the “locked in, guaranteed TE1 overall” that Kelce has been for years as the first TE picked.

Best Fantasy Tight Ends: Trey McBride

The Good

After Zach Ertz went down with an injury in Week 7 last year, Trey McBride went into absolute hulk mode. From Week 8 on, McBride got the second most targets of any tight end behind only Evan Engram – who had the second most receptions of any tight end ever behind only 2017 Zach Ertz. It’s a small world, this world of elite tight ends.

The crazy thing about McBride is how many stats he still finished towards the top in despite essentially being a backup for SEVEN games. His 18.9% target share was STILL top five among all NFL tight ends. His 2.03 yards per route run was second only to George Kittle. Which perfectly illustrates why YPRR is a favored stat among analysts – he wasn’t running many routes early but, when he did, he crushed. You can extrapolate that ability out, to some degree. 

McBride also got 16 targets on screens, which was third among all TEs. Those are free receptions in your PPR leagues. And that might not even be the ceiling for McBride. At least, according to offensive coordinator Drew Petzking. Here’s Petzing talking about how he thinks McBride can take his game to another level, and that they are going to push him to get there:

The Bad

We always need to take a step back and recognize how we arrived where we did. Yes, from Week 8 on Trey McBride got DOUBLE the targets of the next highest teammate. But that next highest teammate was also Hollywood Brown, who suffered an injury and did not catch another pass after Week 12. Obviously, Zach Ertz was out, and Michael Wilson also missed Weeks 9, 11, 12 and 13. This was one of the least healthy teams in the NFL, rolling out McBride alongside Rondale Moore, Greg Dortch and Zach Pascal at times.

And yes, Hollywood Brown and Rondale Moore are gone. But, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are aware that the Cardinals drafted Marvin Harrison with the fourth overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. This group of Marvin Harrison Jr, Michael Wilson, Zay Jones and Greg Dortch are probably going to command more targets than the Island of Misfit Toys last year. And the injury-prone James Conner now has a real backup in Trey Benson as well.

The Advice

The truth? We love all of these top options. Yes, someone has to be “fifth”. But linear rankings are stupid. You need to stop thinking that way and embrace VALUE. My advice to you is to think about the format that YOU play in. Trey McBride got a zillion targets but scored 3 touchdowns. Sam LaPorta might be capped for targets, but he scored 10.

Do you play in standard, half PPR or full PPR? What player, at ADP, is the best value for YOUR format. Use your noggin. That is why I will absolutely draft Trey McBride if he falls to me at a decent price, especially in full PPR. Sure, I like Mark Andrews better in a format where Isaiah Likely should be on waivers. But sometimes, Andrews goes before McBride – they both essentially have the same ADP at pick ~46.

If you want to take Trey McBride at TE1, go ahead. If you want to take him anywhere from 1-5, that works. What I’m doing is waiting to see how things start shaking out with the TEs going off the board in my league. I then try to get decent value and, if we miss out on all of these guys, we have Yin & Yang TE for that!

Best Fantasy Tight Ends: Kyle Pitts

The Good

Picture a tight end playing with an elite quarterback as a rookie. And that tight end has one of the best rookie seasons we’ve ever seen. Naturally, there would be a lot of hype in the subsequent years. Then, picture that tight end playing with poor quarterback play for a couple of seasons and putting up underwhelming stats while struggling with some injuries. The hype dies down. Then he gets the chance to play with a good quarterback again. What happens next?

We’ve literally seen this exact story before – with Evan Engram, who had a top five TE season with Eli Manning, struggled with The QB Who Shall Not Be Named in New York and then went to play with Trevor Lawrence, where he has since had back-to-back top five seasons. Kyle Pitts had 1,000 yards with Matt Ryan, has dealt with poor QB play and injuries and now he gets to play with Kirk Cousins. History repeats itself.

Yet, despite having the only-ever 1,000-yard season at 21 years old, some folks believe that Kyle Pitts might somehow be done at the age of 23? That one of the most athletic NFL tight ends of all time is somehow now washed and can’t repeat what he did just two years ago? Seriously, take a look at his profile per Player Profiler. This guy is a monster.

He ran 85% of his routes from a wide receiver spot last year and those were the highest aDot routes of any qualifying tight end at 12 yards. He blocked on only 2% of pass plays and even got a 16.2% target share. He quietly got the same number of targets as George Kittle. That’s despite Arthur Smith calling 10 TE screens for his darling Jonnu Smith and only one for Kyle Pitts. The bad play calling and bad quarterback play are now gone, leaving us with an elite talent in a tremendous opportunity. They can’t hurt you anymore.

The Bad

If Kyle Pitts was such a slam dunk pick, he would obviously be going higher. So, there are clearly some issues. One cause for concern is that he suffered a knee injury in 2022, had surgery and didn’t look right all of 2023. Some guys make miraculous recoveries from knee issues, like Adrian Peterson. Others struggle with them for the rest of their career, like Marquise Lee. It’s hard to say for sure whether we will ever see the Kyle Pitts we saw in 2021 again.

Pitts also does have some flaws to his game. For all his athletic ability, he hasn’t broken off a 40+ yard play since 2021. He’s also struggled a bit vs. man to man and, as we talked about in What Makes An Elite Tight End, that is a huge part of redzone success. He really needs to develop his bag of tricks in those short areas where it is one-on-one coverage because six touchdowns over three years is not going to cut it.

We also need to consider the possibility that he is NOT a focal point of this offense. We talk about how rare it is to have three guys all get 100+ targets. The top two targets on this team could be Drake London and Bijan Robinson. Maybe Zac Robinson likes Rondale Moore in a “Cooper Kupp” slot role? Or maybe Darnell Mooney has a resurgence? It’s a new OC and a new QB, which leads to a world of uncertainty. 

The Advice

Sure, the floor might be a little scary. But who cares about floor at the tight end position? We are spending all this time diving into potential breakouts later on anyways, right? Might as well go BIG. And I don’t think folks understand the ceiling for Kyle Pitts. 

The ceiling is not “2024 TE1 overall”. The ceiling with Kirk Cousins and his athleticism and profile is “most receiving yards in a season by a tight end of all time”. The ceiling is one of those difference-making, all time great tight end fantasy football seasons. THAT is why we draft Kyle Pitts. Stop worrying about floor – the difference between TE8 and TE18 in any given year is like 15 points. 

The first top five fantasy TEs off the board don’t always go in the same order, but it’s usually the same five.It’s some combo of LaPorta, Kelce, McBride, Andrews and Kincaid and they usually go within the top 50 picks. Then the next three guys – Kyle Pitts (~63), Evan Engram (~66) and George (~67) also go – and not always in the same order. After those first five are off the board, I’m 100% willing to take the shot on Kyle Pitts. As Herm Edwards once famously said, you play to win the game.

Best Fantasy Tight Ends: Evan Engram

The Good

The good? Evan Engram just had the second most receptions of any tight end of all time. It was actually the fourth most of any player in the league in 2024. Is that good?

And we always knew he was capable of this with the right quarterback play. The thing folks might not understand is that he’s actually capable of even MORE. This guy ran the fastest 40-yard dash time of any tight end currently in the league – and it’s not that close. At 6’3”, 240 with a 4.42 forty yard dash, he’s closer physically to guys like Andre Johnson or Demaryius Thomas (RIP) than he is to most NFL tight ends. He’s capable of big things.

And Doug Pederson and the Jaguars realize this. That’s why they actually use him as a wide receiver, unlike Jason Garrett in New York, who tried to use him with his hand in the dirt like Jason Witten. Engram ran nearly 75% of his routes from a wide receiver spot, had an 86.8% route participation (which was second only to Cade Otton) and had a 22.6% target share, which led all tight ends. Doug Pederson also LOVES his tight end screens, so Engram got a league-leading 21 last year. Again, those are free receptions for your PPR formats. 

The Bad

I know we said we “don’t care about floor”. But Engram kind of has been a floor pick as of late. Because, even though he’s capable of it, he has NOT been breaking off big plays. Or really scoring touchdowns at all. At 6’3”, he doesn’t have the size advantage that guys like Gronk, Kelce or Kittle have. He IS more like a split end. But they don’t really use him out wide like that concisely enough. Playing 20% of your snaps out there is great for a tight end, but it doesn't make you a “split end”. 

They use him more as a “big slot”. And with that, and all the screens, his average depth of target is LOW. At 5 yards, that’s not even in the top 60 NFL TEs among guys that got at least 15 targets. And you’d think that with all the screens he’d be racking up the YAC, but that’s not really true either – David Njoku got the second most screens and his YAC per reception was 7.5 while Engram was at 4.6. Engram’s game as of late has been more “death by a thousand cuts” than it has been big plays. 

On 114 receptions, he didn’t even crack 1,000 yards receiving. We also have to consider that Christian Kirk, the other slot weapon, missed the last five games of the season. And Engram’s three games with the most targets (12, 13 and 15) all came in those last five games. Expecting him to get 143 targets again might be a tough ask.

The Advice

If you follow me on the Ole X Machine (formerly known as the Ole Twitter Machine), you would know that Evan Engram is one of my favorite players. We stood by him during the Daniel Jones days. We stood by him when the Giants fans were REALLY upset that he dropped that one pass against the Eagles on primetime television. And sticking with him paid off handsomely – especially in dynasty leagues where he was basically free for a bit.

And we’re absolutely willing to go there again at his current ADP, especially in full PPR. If you are a fairly conservative fantasy gamer, you might consider Engram over Kyle Pitts. I personally play for keeps, so I’m going with the upside of Pitts. But, after the top five go, I have no problem drafting either of these guys at ADP.

If you REALLY want to make sure that you lock down the tight end position and give yourself upside, you could even go Yin & Yang Tight End (our patented TE pairing system) with Evan Engram and an upside pick later. That’s what we did last year grabbing Engram then using a bench spot on guys like Dalton Kincaid, Sam LaPorta, Trey McBride, etc. And it worked beautifully. It may be too expensive to do this year, but we’ll have the full Yin & Yang Tight End game plan for you in the last article of this series – coming soon!

2024 Fantasy Football: Related Draft Guide Articles

Don't miss out on our other 2024 fantasy football draft guide articles for some bonus tips and guidance to dominate the upcoming season: