Beyond our fantasy football content, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you prepare for your draft this season. From our free mock Draft Simulator – which allows you to mock draft against realistic opponents – to our Draft Assistant – which optimizes your picks with expert advice – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football draft season.
The most difficult position to account for in fantasy football has easily been tight end. Due to the overall density, or lack thereof, at the position, people too often fall victim trying to chase unrealistic touchdown totals. For most of the past decade, you could count on a few fingers each season the tight ends that provided actual value for owners. To better assess the position going forward, let’s start by looking at the offenses that favor and conversely hurt the big-bodied pass catchers.
Disclaimer – We already know that Travis Kelce, George Kittle, and Zach Ertz will be featured in their respective beneficial situations, therefore we won’t need to address them in this piece.
Sync your draft to our Draft Assistant for pick by pick advice 
Offenses that Favor Tight Ends
Atlanta Falcons
Dirk Koetter is returning to Atlanta as the offensive coordinator after spending the past four seasons in Tampa Bay. Koetter’s offenses have historically been pass-happy, ranking in the top eight in both pass attempts and yards throughout the NFL in five of the past seven seasons.
With that being said, Falcons’ tight end Austin Hooper will be looking to build on his breakout 2018 while playing in Koetter’s system. Hooper finished his third professional season as the TE6 after compiling 71 receptions, 660 yards, and four touchdowns on 88 targets. At just 25 years old, Hooper has a realistic shot at approaching triple-digit targets courtesy of Matt Ryan with Koetter calling the offense in 2019. When you consider his current price tag of ADP 103/TE11, you’d be hard-pressed to find better value at the position for this coming season.
New Orleans Saints
Another NFC South offensive juggernaut, it wasn’t too long ago when Drew Brees and Sean Payton were at the forefront of the tight end position with their string of success using Jimmy Graham. Over a four-year stretch from 2011-2014, Graham averaged 88.8 receptions, 1,099 yards, and 11.5 touchdowns balling out while the Saints went marching in. Unfortunately for fantasy owners, Graham was traded to Seattle in 2015 and has never been the same, which can largely be attributed to no longer playing in this offense that is dripping in fantasy gold.
While Jared Cook is far from prime Graham, there is still plenty of meat left on the bone for Cook to feast in 2019. With the Saints reinventing themselves as a run-heavy offense as Brees continues to age, there will be ample red zone opportunities and chances to attack the middle of the field. Cook finished as the TE5 last season for the Oakland Raiders, putting up 68 receptions, 896 yards, and six scores on 101 targets. Early reports out of Saints training camp have warranted similarly high expectations for the journeyman tight end in 2019.
Baltimore Ravens
With the Ravens handing the keys of the franchise over to Lamar Jackson midway through the 2018 season, the front office decided to bring in an offensive coordinator that was better suited for the mobile quarterback’s skill set. Exit Marty Mornhinweg and enter Greg Roman. Roman was pivotal, alongside Jim Harbaugh, in the development of Colin Kaepernick while serving as the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers from 2012-2014. With Kaepernick as the full-time starter in 2013, then-49ers tight end, Vernon Davis, amassed 52 receptions, 850 yards, and 13 touchdowns on 84 targets.
While some would argue that the Ravens wasted a 2018 first-round draft pick on tight end Hayden Hurst, it was Mark Andrews who surprisingly established himself as one of the best rookie tight ends in NFL history. After recording 34 receptions, 552 yards, and three scores as a rookie last season, Roman and the Ravens will cater their passing game around Jackson’s zone-read and RPO strengths, similar to Kaepernick in San Francisco. With opposing defenses stacking the box loading up on Jackson and Mark Ingram, Andrews will have the freedom to roam free in the middle of the field the same way that Roman schemed for Davis in 2013.
Offenses that Hurt Tight Ends
Seattle Seahawks
Pete Carroll’s decision to bring in Brian Schottenheimer as the offensive coordinator last season did more harm than good for Seattle’s passing game. Before he even called a single play for the Seahawks in 2018, Schottenheimer’s offense finished in the top half of the NFL in pass attempts and/or yards just one time, which was in 2008 while calling plays for a silver foxed Brett Favre.
…And then Seattle Schottenheimer showed up. Despite having a Super Bowl-winning quarterback running the show, Schottenheimer’s offense attempted 427 passes last year, the fewest for a team in a single NFL season since 2013. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anything to do with the pass catchers that are stuck playing in this snooze of a system. Truth be told, I couldn’t even tell you who the Seahawks’ primary tight end is. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere for your receivers and tight ends in 2019.
Arizona Cardinals
Contrarily, sometimes playing for the assumptive right system isn’t always for the best. Despite having an offense that will likely be among the most pass friendly in the entire NFL, air raid aficionado Kliff Kingsbury has never used tight ends in his aerial attack — and I mean never. Go back and look at Kingsbury’s offenses at Texas Tech, the tight end is essentially nonexistent.
I’ve seen folks mention Ricky Seals-Jones as a potential breakout candidate as a product of playing in this offense. However, Kingsbury’s initial depth chart has Charles Clay and Maxx Williams as the top tight ends in Arizona, largely for their blocking prowess. Don’t fool yourself, the ball will be in the air early and often this season in the desert. It just won’t be headed in the direction of any tight end to warrant any sort of fantasy value.
New England Patriots
Like the “running backs don’t matter” mentality (newsflash: they, in fact, do not), people just assume that the Patriots can insert another tight end to replace the recently retired Rob Gronkowski and statistical output will follow. Unfortunately for those ill-informed fantasy owners, that simply won’t be the case for the Patriots in 2019. Different from Andy Reid’s ability to plug-and-play top-performing running backs for his offense, Josh McDaniels and the Patriots have yet to find a consistent producer at tight end while Gronk was forced to sit with his myriad of injuries over the years.
Let’s bring it back to a Thursday night in early October of 2017. Fantasy owners, like much of society, are susceptible to being prisoners of the moment. When faced with difficult lineup decisions, fantasy owners are often too weak to resist getting their Thursday night guys into their lineup(s). With Gronkowski being a late scratch against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, fantasy owners everywhere were scrambling to insert Dwayne Allen into their lineups, regardless of format, with hopes of bringing in a prime time touchdown to kick off their Week 5. Despite having Tom Brady attempt 40 passes on that night, not a single target went to a tight end.
With Matt LaCosse being the new flavor of the week in Foxborough, don’t expect this fad to last past August. The tight end position will be a ghost town for the Patriots in 2019.
Nail your draft by prepping with the FantasyPros Draft Kit. Cheat Sheets, sleepers & more
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | TuneIn | RSS
