Throughout May, we will be layering in some additional context to go along with the player ranking tables.
After laying the groundwork this offseason with full dynasty player rankings, we are going to break that linear list down a bit into tiers with some added flavor.
You can also check out my full dynasty rookie rankings for those with rookie-only drafts on the horizon, and I have already published Dynasty tiers for quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers.
Dynasty Fantasy Football Tiers:
Some really quick methodology here if you are new to how I do fantasy tiers.
I make my dynasty tiers based on a blend of age, fantasy performance, career arc, team situation, and fantasy archetype.
There is some overlap to actual player rankings, but these tiers do not specifically follow the rankings, instead following those archetypes.
The purpose of tiers is not to be a carbon copy of player rankings.
The purpose is to spot a potential arbitrage situation and shop in different buckets based on how you are constructing your team in startups as well as looking for trade opportunities.
*Player Age = Age on 9/1/2024
Tier 1 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Sam LaPorta (Age: 23.6)
- Kyle Pitts (23.9)
- Trey McBride (24.8)
- Dalton Kincaid (24.9)
- Brock Bowers (21.7)
The tight end position has been desperate for an injection of young talent, and we got that last season.
During the NFL regular season a year ago, rookie tight ends combine to catch 341 passes on 469 targets. Those are the highest totals ever at the position for an incoming rookie class.
We had two rookies, Sam LaPorta (86) and Dalton Kincaid (73), elevate those totals nearly entirely themselves.
It was the first time we had two rookie tight ends go over the 70-reception mark in the same season.
LaPorta turned in one the best seasons for a rookie tight end in NFL history.
LaPorta caught 86 passes, the most ever by a rookie tight end.
His 889 yards were fourth all-time for a first-year tight end while his 10 touchdowns as a rookie were tied for second all-time.
From a 2023 season context, LaPorta was fourth among all tight ends in receptions, fifth in yards, and first in touchdowns.
LaPorta ran a route on 79.3% of the Detroit dropbacks, which was fourth among all tight ends in the league.
His 23.8% target rate per route run as a rookie was third in the league. No rookie tight end in the 2000s had a higher rate that ran as many first-year routes as LaPorta did.
We are now entering the fourth season for Kyle Pitts and are still waiting for him to completely tap into the upside that had him selected at No. 4 overall in the 2021 draft.
After posting 1,026 yards as a rookie, Pitts has totaled 1,023 receiving yards across 27 games over the past two seasons.
Before even making any excuses for Pitts based on playing 2023 after surgery we did not know the extent of or his attachment to Arthur Smith, Desmond Ridder, and this anemic offense overall, Pitts still comes with an upside skill set.
Let’s take a step back for a moment.
Pitts still will not even turn 24 years old until October of this upcoming season.
Travis Kelce caught his first pass in the NFL one month before turning 25 years old.
Kelce had his first 1,00-yard season at age 27. Pitts did that at age 21.
Pitts is only three months older than LaPorta.
He may never match the run that Kelce has gone afterward, but we have a lot of meat on the bone here for the career of Pitts, who I still would suggest has the largest individual upside as a player here at the position.
Since entering the league, 16.2% of the targets Pitts has had come his way have been inaccurate via the quarterback.
The only tight end with a higher rate over that period is Darren Waller (17.1%).
We still need to see Zac Robinson get Pitts access to more full-field targets as opposed to living as a vertical target alone, but the addition of Kirk Cousins paired with the removal of the offense that Atlanta ran under Smith gives Pitts arguably the best outlook of his career entering an offseason.
After a disappointing rookie season, Trey McBride once again started slowly in 2023, buried on the depth chart behind veteran Zach Ertz.
McBride played fewer snaps than Ertz in each of the opening five games of the season, catching only eight passes over that span and running 48 pass routes while Ertz had 22 receptions and had run 140 routes.
McBride then trickled up in playing time in Week 6 before Ertz suffered a season-ending knee injury that unlocked the full runway for McBride to capitalize and showcase the ability and production that got him selected in the second round the year prior.
Over the final 11 games of the season, McBride was second among all tight ends in receptions (69), and third in receiving yards (684) with three touchdowns.
He led the position in team target share (25.9%) over that period while ranking second in target rate per route run (27.2%).
When Kyler Murray returned in Week 10, McBride led the team with 538 yards receiving while the next closest player on the team had only 278 yards.
Buffalo used a first-round pick on Dalton Kincaid last spring, who caught 73-of-91 targets for 673 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie.
The Bills did not find a great role for him until the close of the season, using him solely near the line of scrimmage for the crux of his rookie season.
Through week 16, Kincaid averaged only 4.6 air yards per target with three total targets on throws 20 or more yards downfield. That was the same amount as Dawson Knox.
Over the final four games of the season, Kincaid averaged 12.5 air yards per target with four downfield targets, one more than he had through 16 weeks.
Kincaid had games of 87, 84, 59, and 45 yards receiving over that span.
Through 16 weeks, he had cleared 51 yards in just three games.
Given the losses that Buffalo has had at wide receiver this offseason, Kincaid should be tasked with a larger role in the passing game entering his second season.
I am including Brock Bowers here in this opening tier.
Even if you are down on his landing spot in the NFL, he is going to retain year-over-year value for fantasy to open his career based on his age and production entering the NFL.
As the only two-time John Mackey Award winner since the title was awarded in 2000, Bowers led this draft class in career receptions (4.4) and receiving yards (63.5) per game while catching a class-high 26 touchdown passes over three seasons at Georgia.
For good measure, Bowers also rushed 19 times for 193 yards and another five touchdowns.
He is also the second-youngest tight end that was invited to the combine. Bowers will not turn 22 years old until December of his rookie season.
From an age-adjusted production stance, only Pitts has a higher career production score than Bowers has in my prospect model for all tight ends going back to 2000.
Tier 2 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Travis Kelce (Age: 34.9)
Travis Kelce gets his own tier based on being at the tail-end of his career but still possessing front-end upside at the position for fantasy.
Gamers have been asking when Kelce would finally start to show signs of slowing down.
Last season may have been the early signs.
After a superb run of staying healthy, Kelce started the 2023 season dealing with a knee injury and then suffered a low-ankle sprain in Week 5.
He battled through 15 regular season games but had career lows in yards per catch (10.6) and yards per target (8.1).
He had never averaged fewer than 12.0 yards per catch in any season of his career.
His 65.6 receiving yards per game were his fewest in a season since 2015.
He was only on the field for 71.7% of the team dropbacks, his lowest rate since his first season on the field in 2014.
Kelce played 77% of the team snaps in total. His overall snap rate has now dropped from the season prior in five consecutive seasons.
That said, Kelce still was the TE1 in points per game in PPR formats (14.6) and matched LaPorta’s 11.5 points per game in 0.5-PPR formats.
Once we got into the postseason, Kelce turned up the dial and showed the upside he still has.
In four playoff games, he caught 32 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns, posting games of 7-71-0, 5-75-2, 11-116-1, and 9-93-0.
He will turn 35 years old in October. You are not selecting him for many start-up scenarios, but Kelce still can contribute to fantasy titles as long as he is on the field.
Tier 3 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Mark Andrews (Age: 29.0)
- T.J. Hockenson (27.2)
- David Njoku (28.1)
- George Kittle (30.9)
- Evan Engram (30.0)
- Dallas Goedert (29.7)
This is our tier of established veterans in the position.
All of these tight ends have multiple TE1 scoring seasons on their resumes. All are on at least their second contract in the NFL and some their third deal in the league.
Mark Andrews is still one of the league’s best tight ends, but he has now missed multiple games in each of the past two seasons and in three of the past four.
Andrews only appeared in 10 games in 2023.
He missed the season opener with a quad injury and then was knocked out for the rest of the regular season with a fractured ankle in November.
Andrews did return for the AFC Championship but was only able to play 31% of the snaps.
When on the field last season, Andrews was third among all tight ends in yards per route run (1.96) and ranked ninth in target rate per route (22.0%).
Andrews has been a top-5 tight end in points per game in each of his past five seasons.
T.J. Hockenson racked up another solid season of counting stats in 2023, catching 95-of-127 targets for 960 yards and five touchdowns over his 15 games played.
Hockenson signed a long-term extension with Minnesota last offseason.
Hockenson has been the TE2 in PPR scoring per game in his one-and-a-half seasons with the Vikings.
The only question with Hockenson this season is when he is fully able to be 100%.
Hockenson suffered an ACL and MCL injury on Christmas Eve in Week 16.
Forced to wait for the MCL injury to heal first, Hockenson did not have his surgery until January 29th.
That puts the start of the 2024 season right around the eighth-month mark from that surgery.
David Njoku finished fifth among all tight ends last season in receptions (81), sixth in receiving yards (882), and tied for second with six touchdowns.
Njoku will turn 28 this summer with two years remaining on his current contract.
While Njoku has found stable ground the past two seasons after a slow start to his career, he does have wonky splits on his sample playing with Deshaun Watson compared to other Cleveland quarterbacks the past two seasons.
On 311 routes run with Watson the past two seasons, Njoku is averaging 1.09 yards per route run with a target on 17.4% of his routes.
On 649 routes run with Watson off the field, Njoku is averaging 1.95 yards per route run with a target on 24.7% of his routes.
George Kittle remains one of the best at his position.
Kittle set career highs with 15.7 yards per reception and 11.3 yards per target in 2023.
He went over 1,000 yards receiving for the first time since 2019 while tacking on six touchdowns.
He led all NFL tight ends in yards per route run (2.26) despite ranking 13th in target rate per route run (20.0%).
Since he entered the league in 2017, Kittle has averaged the most yards per route run (2.33) among all NFL tight ends.
Kittle will be over 30 this season, but he is also signed in San Francisco through 2025.
For fantasy, Kittle still comes with more volatility than the elite options, but the closing numbers have made him the TE6 or better in six consecutive seasons.
Evan Engram led all tight ends with 114 receptions last season.
He set career highs in catches, targets (143), and receiving yards (963) to go along with four touchdowns.
His 8.4 yards per catch ranked 58th while his 5.0 air yards per attempt ranked 54th.
His target volume and heavy usage near the line of scrimmage share some signals with the amount of injuries that the Jaguars had at wide receiver and the issues that they had on the offensive line.
Engram is more reception-based than the other players in this tier.
He has not had more than four touchdowns in a season since his rookie season in 2017.
That said, Engram has turned his career around in Jacksonville.
Dallas Goedert is the one member of this tier that is established but is more of a floor-based TE1 than offering week-tilting production as a front-end TE1.
Goedert has been the TE12 or better in points per game in each of the past seasons but has been higher than TE10 in just one of those years.
He has only five weeks as a top-six weekly scorer over the past two seasons.
Goedert was impacted the most by the dip in passing production for Philadelphia last season.
He averaged 42.3 receiving yards per game, his fewest in a season since 2019.
His 10.0 yards per reception was the lowest of his career.
Part of his lull in output could have come from playing through several injuries again.
Goedert once again had trouble staying on the field, missing three games.
He now has not played a full season since his rookie year in 2018.
Goedert just turned 29 this January, with two years left on his current contract with the Eagles.
Tier 4 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Jake Ferguson (Age: 25.6)
- Pat Freiermuth (25.9)
- Cole Kmet (25.5)
Here is a small tier of tight ends that are in limbo at the position.
They are younger than tier above but not as young as the players in Tier 1.
They have shown back-end TE1 ability over the start of their careers but have not quite yet shown an upside as high as the players we have hit on to this point.
They may only top out as viable commodities at the position but have the runway to still produce multiple years of usable production.
After catching 19 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie in 2022, Jake Ferguson took a significant step forward in year two, catching 71 passes for 761 yards and five touchdowns.
Ferguson was second on the team with 102 targets.
He then caught 10 passes for 93 yards and three touchdowns in the team’s playoff loss.
Dallas does not have a true WR2 on their roster to threaten Ferguson being the second-best target in this passing game.
He also showed a strong red zone presence, accounting for 23.5% of the Dallas red zone targets, which was good for TE4 in 2023.
2023 was all but a complete loss for Pat Freiermuth.
Freiermuth battled multiple injuries over the course of the season, catching only 32 passes for 308 yards and two touchdowns.
After he was the TE11 in points per game in 2022, Freiermuth was the TE28 in points per game last season.
He missed five games outright and only ran a pass route on 48.6% of the team dropbacks last season after a 68.1% rate in 2022.
Freiermuth now enters the final season of his rookie contract and will be playing in a system under Arthur Smith that has limited fantasy output.
A fresh start in a new offense could be a good thing, but Freiermuth may have to leave Pittsburgh to tap into the upside that gamers were hopeful to see develop a year ago.
Cole Kmet has increased his fantasy points per game every year of his career, closing last season as the TE9.
Kmet is coming off career-highs in receptions (73) and receiving yards (719) to go along with six touchdowns.
Kmet just turned 25 years old and is under contract through 2027.
The only questions with him entering this season are the changes in this offense overall paired with the acquisition of a major target earner in Keenan Allen and the addition of Rome Odunze.
Kmet was the TE7 last season with 18.9% of the Chicago targets.
Tier 5 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Luke Musgrave (Age: 24.0)
- Ben Sinnott (22.2)
- Chigoziem Okonkwo (25.0)
- Michael Mayer (23.2)
- Isaiah Likely (24.4)
- Greg Dulcich (24.4)
- Tucker Kraft (23.8)
- Jelani Woods (25.9)
- Theo Johnson (23.5)
- Ja’Tavion Sanders (21.4)
We are now into the upside portion of the position.
While none of these tight ends have served as a full-season TE1 to this point from a fantasy stance, they each either have already flashed on a small sample in the NFL or have the pre-requisite athleticism and draft capital in the NFL for us to keep the candle burning for them having upside to breakout.
Ben Sinnott, Theo Johnson (pending the status of Darren Waller), and Ja’Tavion Sanders are the best-looking 2024 rookies south of Brock Bowers. You can find pre-draft write-ups on those prospects here.
The Packers used two draft picks on tight ends a year ago with Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft.
Kraft ran 336 pass routes, averaging 1.13 yards per route run.
Musgrave ran 295 pass routes, averaging 1.42 yards per route run.
Musgrave was targeted on 18.0% of his routes compared to a 14.6% rate for Kraft.
Chigoziem Okonkwo did not make the jump in his second season as many had hoped. Especially paired with the lack of surrounding pass catchers on the Titans.
Okonkwo caught 54 passes (15th among tight ends) for 528 yards (18th) and one touchdown.
He was 12th at the position in team target share (16.1%) but ranked 22nd at the position in target rate per route run (19.1%).
Both of those rates dipped a touch with Will Levis on the field.
With Levis on the field, he was second on the team with a 15.0% target share while drawing a target on 18.9% of his routes.
After averaging 14.1 yards per catch as a rookie, Okonkwo dropped down to 9.8 yards per catch last season.
That drop-off was largely explained by unsustainable production after the catch as a rookie.
Okonkwo averaged 4.8 yards after the catch per reception last season (33rd at the position) after 7.9 yards after the catch per reception as a rookie (second).
Okonkwo is likely in between his hyper-efficient 2022 season and his 2023 output, but the Titans have added a plethora of pass-catching talent this offseason to keep his target share from taking the next step forward.
Isaiah Likely has been solid in relief of Mark Andrews over his first two NFL seasons, but we need him freed from the large shadow that Andrews casts.
Over his two years in the league, Likely is averaging 1.72 yards per route run with a target on 17.8% of his routes with Andrews on the sideline. He also has seven touchdowns on those snaps.
Both Greg Dulcich and Jelani Woods had throwaway seasons in their second years in the league after showing some upside as rookies in 2022.
Dulcich started the season off with a hamstring issue that was an ongoing ailment all season.
He only appeared in two games, playing 32 total offensive snaps.
Woods missed the entire season due to separate hamstring issues on each leg.
It is hard to remain bullish on Michael Mayer after his rookie season and the addition of Brock Bowers, but he still was a decorated prospect with tangible draft capital.
Mayer only ran a pass route on 44.9% of the Raider dropbacks, which was fourth among rookie tight ends.
His 1.12 yards per route run ranked sixth among rookies while his 14.8% target rate per route run was fifth.
Tier 6 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Darren Waller (32.0)
- Taysom Hill (34.0)
We have a small pair of tight ends here that just do not have a true home in any of the other buckets based on their age and some unique dynamics surrounding each player.
For Darren Waller, we do not have confirmation whether or not he is going to play in 2024. And even if he does, if Waller is already talking about a potential retirement, then his time on the field could be fleeting even if he does come back to the Giants for this season.
Waller led the team with a target on 20.8% of his routes in 2023 (TE12 on the season), but he once again missed a ton of time.
Waller started the season with a hamstring issue from the preseason. He then picked up a groin injury on top of that in the season, missing five games in total.
He averaged just 10.6 yards per catch, his fewest yards per catch since 2016 before he was even a regular player on the field.
He also only caught one touchdown, his fewest in a season since 2018, which was the same.
Waller has not played a full season since 2020, missing 18 games over the past three seasons.
Waller will turn 32 in September, lacking the early-career upside he carried paired with the risk of calling it quits.
For leagues that can use Taysom Hill at tight end, he has forced his way into the conversation, especially in leagues that are touchdown-driven.
Hill has been the TE12 and TE15 in points per game in full-PPR formats in each of the past two seasons while he has been the TE7 and TE12 in per-game output in 0.5-PPR leagues.
Hill will turn 34 this August, which makes him even more of a puzzle as having much upside overall.
Hill played 115 snaps at quarterback (largely as a runner), 29 snaps in the backfield, 80 snaps inline at tight end, 130 snaps in the slot, and 71 snaps out wide in 2023.
He ended the season by setting career-highs with 114 touches and 692 total yards, tacking on six touchdowns. He also had 83 yards passing with another score through the air as a passer.
Tier 7 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Dalton Schultz (Age: 28.1)
- Noah Fant (26.8)
- Cade Otton (25.4)
- Juwan Johnson (28.0)
- Jonnu Smith (29.0)
- Hunter Henry (29.7)
- Tyler Conklin (29.1)
- Mike Gesicki (28.9)
- Gerald Everett (30.2)
- Tyler Higbee (31.7)
- Dawson Knox (27.8)
We have reached the part of the position where we have our veteran tier of pass catchers.
These players have largely served as band-aid TE2 options on fantasy rosters, lacking a true runout of upside.
The one player you can push back on being more is Dalton Schultz, who has been a TE1 in points per game in each of the past three seasons.
I am pushing him down here based on his production being more volume-driven than dynamic on his own accord, and his projected volume in 2024 appears to be compromised.
Schultz ranked 13th among tight ends in target rate per route (20.4%) in 2023, which dipped to 18.8% when both Nico Collins and Tank Dell were on the field.
He could see his targets dip further with the addition of Stefon Diggs, which would make him more touchdown-dependent for fantasy.
If you are a team looking to add one of these veterans, Jonnu Smith and Tyler Conklin are my favorite low-leverage adds to rosters trying to add to their TE2 platoon or patch together something at TE1.
Over the past three seasons, Conklin is tied for eighth among all tight ends in receptions and is 11th in receiving yards.
Smith is coming off career-highs of 50 receptions and 582 yards with Atlanta last season.
Smith has never been a high-target earner in the NFL, but he does fit what the Dolphins want to do in the passing game, which is create yards after the catch.
Smith has only been targeted on 19.6% of his routes run since entering the NFL in 2017, 26th among tight ends over that span.
But he has averaged 7.0 yards after the catch per reception for his career, trailing only George Kittle (7.2 yards) over that span among active tight ends.
64.3% of Smith’s career receiving yards have come after the catch. No tight end with as many receiving yards as Smith has a higher rate.
Tier 8 Tight Ends, Dynasty Fantasy Football:
- Erick All (Age: 24.0)
- Noah Gray (25.3)
- Davis Allen (24.6)
- Jaheim Bell (23.2)
- Daniel Bellinger (23.9)
- Brevin Jordan (24.1)
- Kylen Granson (26.4)
- Darnell Washington (23.0)
- Tip Reiman (23.0)
- Jared Wiley (23.8)
- Cade Stover (24.2)
Wrapping things up, these are the dart throws at the position.
I have a bunch of notes on the 2024 rookie class that you can find here.
Noah Gray does become an unrestricted free agent after this offseason while Jared Wiley is set up to take his place as the next potential starter whenever Travis Kelce does retire, opening the door to access targets from Patrick Mahomes.