Offenses That Hurt Tight Ends (2025 Fantasy Football)

Beyond the obvious of Las Vegas, Arizona and Kansas City — teams that operate with tight ends as the focal point of their offense — which offenses stand out in production for tight ends? Who helps their tight ends and who crushes their fantasy football value?

Fantasy Football Outlook

Teams That Hurt Tight Ends

Denver Broncos

I hate to write this because I truly want to believe in a bounce-back season for Evan Engram. I want to give Sean Payton the benefit of the doubt. We’ve seen it in the past, and Engram has the athleticism Payton seeks in tight ends. However, we’d be foolish to ignore the reality of the Broncos’ offense. Under Payton, the Broncos have essentially banished tight ends from the offense in a receiving role.

I’m not exaggerating. In 2023, the Broncos had the second-fewest targets to tight ends, and they had the third-fewest in 2024. Engram is more of a true receiving tight end, so it’s possible he could be the piece Payton was looking for, similar to Miami with Jonnu Smith. However, it’s simply not a favorable environment for the position.

Chicago Bears

Chicago’s 2024 target share to tight ends was abysmal, but with new head coach Ben Johnson, we need to look at Detroit’s stats with Johnson as a coordinator to understand the tight end opportunity in Chicago. Johnson served as offensive coordinator from 2022 to 2024. In 2022 and 2024, the Lions had the sixth- and 11th-lowest target share for tight ends. Sam LaPorta‘s rookie 2023 season is the outlier. While it’s possible we could see a repeat of 2023 for Colston Loveland, we must consider the factors that led to a dip in target share from 2023 to 2024 for LaPorta.

The clear and likely cause is the emergence of Jameson Williams. The takeaway here is that Johnson’s offense leans heavily on the receivers when there are multiple top-tier options. Now in Chicago, with DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, we could see a similar scenario where Moore and Odunze garner a heavier workload while the tight ends (don’t forget about Cole Kmet) fall back in volume and become touchdown-dependent.