A changing of the guard seems to be underway at tight end. Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews have dominated this position for the last half decade, but they’re on the decline. Evan Engram might be in that group as well. There’s a new, younger group at the position that looks a lot more compelling now.
Certainly Sam LaPorta and Trey McBride. They’ve run a little behind expectations so far, but they’re big-time tight ends. And Brock Bowers has shown enough in his first three games that it’s looking like he’ll be one of those guys. In a dynasty league, those would be the three tight ends at the top of my board.
After that trifecta, there are three others I’d be mulling. Dalton Kincaid looks like an up-and-comer, but he hasn’t done quite enough for me to elevate him up with those initial three. And Jake Ferguson, I think, looks pretty similar in value to Kincaid.
T.J. Hockenson is the other possibility up there, I think. I believe he’s going to be back in a couple of weeks, and once he’s up and running, he should be better than those guys. He’s averaged 6.2 catches for 59 yards in his 25 games with the Vikings, with 8 touchdowns and a pair of 2-point conversions.
Kelce will be 35 in a week and doesn’t have a 40-yard game (or a touchdown) this year, but he’s been good enough for long enough that I would be leery of simply kicking him to the curb. It’s still a possibility, I think, that he’ll rebound and be one of the top few tight ends for the duration of this season. It can be debated whether that maybe-something-now is more valuable than hope of Cole Kmet or Kyle Pitts developing into more of a longer-term possibility.
The following lists shows my top 40 tight ends for dynasty purposes. For these rankings, I’m assuming a 12-team league that’s using PPR scoring, with each team holding about three tight ends and holding their rights indefinitely. (So when we get into the third tight ends on each roster, there’s some thought to future upside guys – Theo Johnson, Ben Sinnott – rather than veteran guys putting up better numbers now with no real potential to develop into anything out of the ordinary (Colby Parkinson, Hayden Hurst).
I turn my attention to dynasty leagues every Saturday during the season, rotating between the four notable positions. Rookies are tagged with black dots.
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Last week: Running backs.
Next week: Wide receivers
| DYNASTY TIGHT ENDS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Tm | Player | Age |
| 1. | DET | Sam LaPorta | 23.7 |
| 2. | LV | • Brock Bowers | 21.8 |
| 3. | ARI | Trey McBride | 24.9 |
| 4. | MIN | T.J. Hockenson | 27.2 |
| 5. | BUF | Dalton Kincaid | 24.9 |
| 6. | DAL | Jake Ferguson | 25.7 |
| 7. | CHI | Cole Kmet | 25.6 |
| 8. | ATL | Kyle Pitts | 24.0 |
| 9. | SF | George Kittle | 31.0 |
| 10. | PHI | Dallas Goedert | 29.7 |
| 11. | KC | Travis Kelce | 35.0 |
| 12. | JAC | Evan Engram | 30.1 |
| 13. | BAL | Isaiah Likely | 24.4 |
| 14. | PIT | Pat Freiermuth | 25.9 |
| 15. | CLE | David Njoku | 28.2 |
| 16. | NE | Hunter Henry | 29.8 |
| 17. | HOU | Dalton Schultz | 28.2 |
| 18. | CIN | Mike Gesicki | 29.0 |
| 19. | GB | Tucker Kraft | 23.9 |
| 20. | BAL | Mark Andrews | 29.1 |
| 21. | CIN | • Erick All | 24.0 |
| 22. | NO | Taysom Hill | 34.1 |
| 23. | SEA | Noah Fant | 26.9 |
| 24. | TB | Cade Otton | 25.5 |
| 25. | NYJ | Tyler Conklin | 29.2 |
| 26. | NYG | • Theo Johnson | 23.6 |
| 27. | WAS | • Ben Sinnott | 22.3 |
| 28. | IND | Kylen Granson | 26.5 |
| 29. | WAS | Zach Ertz | 33.9 |
| 30. | GB | Luke Musgrave | 24.1 |
| 31. | MIA | Jonnu Smith | 29.1 |
| 32. | CAR | • Ja'Tavion Sanders | 21.5 |
| 33. | KC | • Jared Wiley | 23.9 |
| 34. | TEN | Chig Okonkwo | 25.1 |
| 35. | LAR | Colby Parkinson | 25.7 |
| 36. | LV | Michael Mayer | 23.2 |
| 37. | DEN | Greg Dulcich | 24.5 |
| 38. | BAL | Charlie Kolar | 25.6 |
| 39. | BUF | Dawson Knox | 27.9 |
| 40. | LAC | Hayden Hurst | 31.1 |
—Ian Allan