The key to any fantasy football championship is finding players that outperform their draft slot. In the case of tight ends, drafting one as your backup only for them to finish top-five at the position is one such route. Below are a few candidates to start the season on your fantasy football bench, only to outperform their average draft position (ADP) and lead your team to glory. Here are tight end fantasy football draft sleepers who could return great value in 2025.
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TE2s With Top-5 Fantasy Football Potential
Colston Loveland (TE – CHI)
See if you’ve heard this one before — a rookie tight end from the Big 10 breaking out in a Ben Johnson offense. The previous example — Sam LaPorta — was drafted in the second round by the Lions in 2023 and ended up as fantasy’s top-scoring tight end that year, under the stewardship of Johnson. That’s the situation Bears rookie Colston Loveland could be in as his rookie season kicks off in September.
On the surface, it appears Loveland will have competition on his own team for targets, but the same could have been said about LaPorta two seasons ago. On that Lions offense, led by the current Bears coach/ former Lions offensive coordinator, Detroit boasted an All-Pro receiver in Amon-Ra St. Brown, who totaled 119 receptions and over 1,500 receiving yards. And it wasn’t on a team that was leading the league in pass attempts, as the Lions ranked ninth in the league in 2023. By comparison, the 2024 Bears ranked 10th, which makes it completely plausible that Chicago can at least make a passing (pun intended) resemblance to those Lions teams.
This leaves current Bears tight end Cole Kmet as the biggest hurdle to a top-five fantasy season for Loveland. Kmet caught 47 passes for 474 yards and four touchdowns last year and was a top-20 fantasy tight end himself. But even if Kmet replicated his 2024 season, there are still over 700 yards unaccounted for from the departure of receiver Keenan Allen. It also doesn’t factor in any progress for quarterback Caleb Williams, who threw for just 3,500 yards last year.
Looking at the tight ends currently ranked ahead of Loveland in FantasyPros’ rankings, there’s a combination of players who have either never finished in the top five before or are due for a big decline in productivity, with several veteran tight ends pushing the envelope with Father Time. Loveland has the draft pedigree and is in a good position to break out.
Isaiah Likely (TE – BAL)
Few players had a better start to the 2024 season than Isaiah Likely. The then-third-year tight end out of the powerhouse of Coastal Carolina caught nine balls for 111 yards and one touchdown in Week 1 and, subsequently, a ton of waiver wire FAAB money ended up being spent on him. But it didn’t pay off as Likely never came close to duplicating those numbers again all season. The nine receptions represented 21% of his season total, while the 111 yards represented 23%.
Despite the lopsided stats, Likely still finished as the 13th-highest-scoring fantasy tight end, which is even more impressive when you remember he only started nine games. Likely was still behind veteran Mark Andrews on the depth chart and in fantasy scoring, as Andrews did finish as a top-five fantasy tight end.
But anyone who watched Andrews drop a crucial pass late in the Ravens’ season-ending playoff game against the Bills saw signs of a decline. That led to teams reaching out to the Ravens in the offseason about Andrews’ availability. Andrews is still a Raven, but the signs are mounting that a change may be in order. If it does, Likely stands to gain the most.
The gains are obvious — if Andrews isn’t on the team, Likely immediately slots in as the starter and should see most of Andrews’ targets, of which there were 69 last year. Likely already saw 42 targets last year, so another 27 wouldn’t be difficult. He could even do it if Andrews is still around. Quarterback Lamar Jackson had his best throwing season last year — 4,172 passing yards and 41 touchdowns (both career highs). He is still in his prime. It’s possible his passing keeps ascending and, coupled with Andrews’ decline, could lead to Likely breaking out all season long.
Dalton Kincaid (TE – BUF)
The phrase ‘a rising tide lifts all boats‘ couldn’t be more apt than in Buffalo. With quarterback Josh Allen taking his game to an MVP level last season, he’s creating fantasy hype for players like Khalil Shakir and Joshua Palmer. Included in that group has to be tight end Dalton Kincaid. The former first-round pick is technically sharing the tight ends room with Dawson Knox, but with Kincaid entering his third season, it’s time for his ascension.
Kincaid’s career was off to a good start in 2022. He ranked 11th among all tight ends in targets and caught 73 balls for 673 yards, finishing second on the team in both. Kincaid’s stats took a dip in his sophomore season, but he was also banged up, missing several games with a leg injury and playing at less than 100% in several more.
With a whole offseason to recover, Kincaid appears to be ready to hit the ground running. Knox is already starting behind Kincaid, playing in 16 games last year but finishing with half the receptions, despite Kincaid missing time.
The Bills also haven’t done much to add to the wide receiver room. Coming back are Shakir and 2024 second-round pick Keon Coleman to go along with the recently signed Palmer. Unless you count Elijah Moore as a threat for targets, the Bills’ offense is going to look a lot like last year’s. If Kincaid can stay healthy and continue to ascend, it’s not a huge leap to finish as a top-five tight end.
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