Must-Have Tight Ends: Travis Kelce, Darren Waller, Sam LaPorta (2023 Fantasy Football)

The 2023 fantasy football season is almost here. Regardless of your draft strategy, fantasy players want to leave the draft with the guys on their must-have list.

Here are early-round, mid-round, and late-round tight ends that fantasy players shouldn’t leave the draft without having on their roster.

More Fantasy Football Advice
Snake Draft Pick Strategy: Early | Middle | Late
Draft Targets for Every Round: Early | Middle | Late
Fitz’s Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE

Must-Have Tight Ends (2023 Fantasy Football)

ADP via FantasyPros

Early-Round Targets

Travis Kelce (KC): ADP 5.7 | TE1

There has been debate over whether or not Kelce is worthy of the 1.01 pick and while fantasy players shouldn’t use the first overall pick on the tight end, the superstar is worthy of a top-six selection. The veteran tight end scores like a top-10 wide receiver or running back every year, usually finishing closer to the top five. More importantly, the future Hall of Famer gives fantasy players such an advantage every week at the tight end position. He has been the TE1 for four of the past five years, with the lone exception coming two years ago as the TE2.

Kelce averaged 15.4 half-point PPR fantasy points per game last season, which was an average of four more fantasy points per game than any other tight end. Furthermore, the veteran led all tight ends and wide receivers in yards after the catch last season. More importantly, Kelce led all tight ends in red zone targets (30) and finished second in yards per route run (2.44). The future Hall of Famer is the only tight end fantasy players should draft in the first three rounds.

Mid-Round Targets

Darren Waller (NYG): ADP 63.7 | TE6

I’ve gone back and forth with my opinion of Waller this off-season. The veteran was a fantasy superstar in 2020. He was the TE2 that year, averaging 9.1 targets and 14.1 half-point PPR fantasy points per game. Unfortunately, Waller has missed over 40% of his contests the past two seasons because of injuries. Furthermore, his targets per game dropped by 25.3% from 2020 over the past two years. He comes with injury risk, but it’s baked into his ADP.

Fantasy players can land Waller and his overall TE1 upside in the sixth round. Last year, the former superstar led all tight ends in deep targets (13) despite missing nearly half the season. Furthermore, he finished second in yards per reception (13.9), fifth in yards per target (nine), and 11th in yards per route run (1.69) among tight ends. Waller does come with some risk, but he will be the top target guy for Daniel Jones and the duo had a strong connection during the Week 2 preseason matchup. Waller has league-winning upside as the sixth tight end off the board.

Late-Round Targets

Sam LaPorta (DET): ADP 163.3 | TE17

The rookie tight end’s ADP is on the rise after he has mostly played with the first-team offense during training camp. However, LaPorta is still criminally underrated as the 17th tight end off the board. Amon-Ra St. Brown was the only Lion with over 70 targets last year, raking in 146. Behind the star wide receiver was D’Andre Swift, with 76 targets, and Kalif Raymond, who finished third with 64 targets . More importantly, the Lions did little to improve their wide receiver core this offseason despite Jameson Williams receiving a six-game suspension.

Instead, Detroit used a top-35 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft on LaPorta. The former Iowa tight end had a productive college career despite playing with awful quarterbacks, totaling 153 receptions for 1,786 receiving yards and five touchdowns. The Lions got 12 receiving touchdowns from their tight ends last season, with nine coming from someone other than T.J. Hockenson, and Jared Goff was impressive in the red zone last year. He finished seventh in red zone attempts (88) and 10th in red zone completion percentage (59.1%). LaPorta could quickly become Goff’s go-to target in the red zone.