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Yours truly has ranked tight ends here at Fake Teams for a few years now, and I show up in the FantasyPros draft accuracy competition on occasion. Here’s the last three years:
2016: 59th overall, 99th in TEs (of 145 experts)
2017: 62nd overall, 25th in TEs (of 130 experts)
2018: 122nd overall, 8th in TEs (of 154 experts)
Soooooo, at least my laser-focus on tight ends is showing up...right? On a serious note, splitting time between baseball and football sometimes feels futile. There are reams of information that I feel like I never unearth due to dividing myself. But I’m too degenerate to let either sport go, so here we are.
Here’s the first pass at the big safety blankets. I reserve the right to tweak these by the week’s end, when our cumulative tight end rankings will drop.
2019 TE Ranks
| RANK | PLAYER NAME | TEAM | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| RANK | PLAYER NAME | TEAM | NOTES |
| 1 | Travis Kelce | KC | 150 targets, 103 receptions, 10 TDs a year ago. Tied to Mahomes. Don't overthink it. |
| 2 | George Kittle | SF | Logged a startling 873 YAC last year. Only scored 5 TDs, but that total could improve with Jimmy G back. |
| 3 | Zach Ertz | PHI | Taking the under on last year's 156 targets. So many weapons in Philly. |
| 4 | O.J. Howard | TB | An aDOT of 12.4 smashes all others. Only needs to stay healthy for a top five season. |
| 5 | Evan Engram | NYG | An aDOT of only 5.3 is pedestrian, but his Y/R went up to 12.8. More of a volume play. |
| 6 | Hunter Henry | LAC | Like Ebron, he's a member of a talented offense--Henry just doesn't have a Jack Doyle lingering around. |
| 7 | Eric Ebron | IND | Even with Doyle healthy, Ebron will remain a fixture due to his scoring upside. |
| 8 | Vance McDonald | PIT | Antonio Brown's 168 targets are up for grabs (pun intended). |
| 9 | Jared Cook | NO | There's some concern with his level of opportunity, but Saints camp is raving and I'm buying. |
| 10 | Austin Hooper | ATL | Same deal as Cook--I like the player but he's not a primary option in Atlanta. |
| 11 | David Njoku | CLE | Feel like a record on repeat? Lot of mouths to feed in Cleveland. |
| 12 | Darren Waller | OAK | As the week goes on, it will be tough to keep Waller all the way down as my TE12... |
| 13 | Delanie Walker | TEN | Strictly a volume play, but if he can stay healthy he's due for some TDs. |
| 14 | Trey Burton | CHI | What a "meh" year last year, and now A |
| 15 | Jordan Reed | WAS | The issue isn't skill, it's health. It's worth a shot within the top-15, and I couldn't fault anyone for picking him earlier. |
| 16 | Mark Andrews | BAL | The drumbeats are pretty significant, but Hayden Hurst still lurks and Lamar Jackson is still a work in progress. |
| 17 | Jimmy Graham | GB | More chemistry (and TDs) in his second year with A-Rod seems like a given. |
| 18 | Jack Doyle | IND | He'll eat into Ebron's load, but I'm skeptical of expecting too much here. |
| 19 | Kyle Rudolph | MIN | He's the fourth option at best, after that pair of wideouts and Dalvin. Yikes. |
| 20 | Greg Olsen | CAR | Will he retire, won't he? Same as Rudolph, Olsen is a tertiary option in Carolina. |
| 21 | Dallas Goedert | PHI | There's not much left at the position, but a talented second-year guy in a high-powered offense makes sense. |
| 22 | T.J. Hockenson | DET | He's the top option in Detroit (at TE) for what it is worth. |
| 23 | Chris Herndon IV | NYJ | The Jets added Le'Veon Bell and Jamison Crowder, plus Herndon is suspended for four games. |
| 24 | Noah Fant | DEN | Flacco has a history of targeting his tight ends, but the rookie stigma still applies. |