I’ve gotten quite a few questions the past couple of months about what I will be writing on during the NFL season. My co-host on The FantasyPros Football Podcast, Mike Tagliere, obviously has The Primer and it’s an incredibly valuable asset during the season.

Well, this year, I will be writing an article every week that will give you a breakdown of every fantasy relevant player on every team and my projected stats for them in the upcoming matchup. I’ll be utilizing several resources at my disposal to make these as accurate as possible in hopes of helping you construct the best possible fantasy lineup.

With that being said, I wanted to spend the next couple of weeks giving you a preview into my season-long projections and how I construct my rankings. Each day, you’ll find a different category highlighting ten players and a brief summary on my thoughts for them in 2020. If you’ve missed the previous two articles in this series, you can the links for those below.

Notable Quarterbacks
Notable Running Backs
Notable Wide Receivers

Let’s get right to it!

George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers

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Kittle dominated the news cycle this week for about an hour before Travis Kelce took over. Kittle is now tied to the San Francisco 49ers for the next several years after signing a lucrative contract extension, which is great news particularly for his Dynasty stock. Kittle’s one of the leagues top tight ends and – outside of injury – he’s a lock to finish within the top-5 at the end of the season. With Deebo Samuel potentially out for the start of the season, Kittle should be even more involved in the passing game, which is what fantasy managers want to hear. As he’s currently TE1 in my rankings, draft Kittle with confidence this season.

Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagles

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Ertz has been a fantasy superstar the past several seasons with how much work he sees in the receiving game. He’s one of the league’s best route-runners at the tight end position and he always knows how to get open. Carson Wentz trusts him completely, but there were question marks surrounding him this offseason with how many receiving options the Eagles brought in during the draft. However, Alshon Jeffery‘s likely to start the season on the PUP, which should vault Ertz back into a huge target share. While you have to pay up for him in drafts this year, it’s hard to go wrong with drafting the veteran TE. Ertz slides in at TE3 in my rankings.

Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens

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Andrews was fantastic last season and he helped lead several rosters to a fantasy championship. Andrews figures to remain heavily involved in this offense, if not even more with the departure of Hayden Hurst, and should easily return value on where he’s being drafted at right now. This offense figures to see some regression in terms of passing touchdowns, but they should see some more passing volume. They were historically efficient last season and should see an uptick in their pass attempts, which should offset the touchdown regression. Andrews is a fantastic TE1 for your fantasy rosters this season and slides in at TE4 in my season-long rankings.

Hunter Henry, Los Angeles Chargers

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Henry has shown us how consistent he can be at the TE position before, but he’s had problems staying on the field the past few seasons. As we all know, you can’t produce if you’re not on the field and Henry absolutely comes with the risk that he may miss time again in 2020. However, if he’s on the field, he should be heavily targeted by Tyrod Taylor. While this whole passing attack is going to take a step back in 2020, there should be enough volume for Henry to produce. These projections amount to Henry finishing as the TE9 in my rankings.

Jonnu Smith, Tennessee Titans

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Anyone who has listened to the FantasyPros Football Podcast knows that I love Smith as a breakout candidate this season. He’s always had the athleticism and talent to be a factor, but the presence of Delanie Walker has held him back previously. Now, Walker’s out of town and Smith should see a significant amount of targets in this passing attack. Smith going as the TE16 in current ADP is ridiculous and I have him as TE7 in my rankings. There’s a strong possibility that we see Smith finish even higher than that at the season’s end.

Tyler Higbee, Los Angeles Rams

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Higbee was a star over the last half of 2019 and he helped a ton of teams that picked him up off of waivers. This season, the Rams appear to be moving forward with utilizing heavy 12-personnel, which means that Higbee is going to be on the field at all times. In an offense that should be very pass-happy again this season, Higbee should be a solid low-end TE1. While Gerald Everett is healthy though, he’ll take away some of the overall workload that Higbee could see and that hurts his overall ceiling. With these projections, Higbee lands at TE8 in my rankings.

Rob Gronkowski, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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Gronk is back after a year away from football! If he’s fully healthy, Gronk should pick back up right where he left off with Tom Brady and should be heavily involved in this Buccaneers passing attack. While I’m not comfortable projecting Gronkowski with a high reception or yardage total, he should be heavily targeted in the red zone. With all that being said, it’s risky to select Gronk at his current ADP and you may be better off looking elsewhere to someone with more guaranteed volume. With these stats, Gronkowski slides in at TE17 in my rankings.

Jace Sternberger, Green Bay Packers

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Sternberger was someone that I liked coming out of Texas A&M and he showed flashes of that same talent when he finally got onto the field last year. Now, he’s the unquestioned starting TE in Green Bay and he’s going to be needed with these unproven receiving options. However, Sternberger is still fairly raw and he’s a part of a team that has never featured the tight end position. It’s probable that Sternberger is someone that we are able to stream in certain matchups this season, but he’s unlikely to be an every week starter. With these stats, Sternberger lands at TE23 in my rankings.

Evan Engram, New York Giants

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Engram has been hyped up every single season as someone that you can draft confidently within the top-10, but he hasn’t lived up to those expectations since his rookie campaign. He’s struggled with injuries every season and he’s now a part of a very loaded receiving corps in New York. Even if Engram plays a full season, there’s no way that he sees the amount of targets that he needs to to finish at his current ADP. Several of the other receiving options would need to miss time as well and those are too many factors going against Engram for me to feel confident drafting him as the TE6. He lands at TE11 in my rankings here.

Austin Hooper, Cleveland Browns

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Hooper was a fantasy football superstar throughout the first half of last season. If he had played a full season, it was very possible that he would’ve finished as the TE1. Now, he moves from an extremely pass-happy offense in Atlanta to the Cleveland Browns. It’s unlikely that we see Hooper receive anywhere near the target totals that he was hitting with the Falcons, which means that he needs to be heavily involved in the red zone to be productive for fantasy football. With David Njoku also involved in this offense, it’s going to be hard to trust Hooper week in and week out. Based on these projections, Hooper actually falls outside the top-12 at the TE position this season.

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Kyle Yates is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Kyle, check out his archive and follow him @KyleYNFL.