Top 3 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups: Tight Ends (Week 1)

We will have you covered throughout the fantasy football season with our bevy of tools, including our Waiver Wire Assistant. Find the top available players and get detailed analysis on how potential fantasy football waiver wire adds will impact your team. Of course, our team of analysts will also have written advice each week. Check out some of our top fantasy football waiver wire tight ends to target for the week below. And here are all of our fantasy football waiver wire targets for Week 1.

Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets: Tight Ends

Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups: Tight Ends

Written by Pat Fitzmaurice

Brenton Strange: 21% rostered

With Evan Engram leaving Jacksonville for Denver via free agency, former second-round draft pick Brenton Strange becomes the Jaguars’ starting tight end. Strange had 40 catches for 411 yards and two touchdowns last season. Over the eight games Engram missed, Strange averaged 3.6 receptions and 34.4 receiving yards. In Week 1, Strange gets a matchup against the Panthers, who gave up a league-high 11 TD catches to tight ends last year. In Week 2, Strange faces the Bengals, who gave up 1,114 receiving yards and a league-high 111 receptions to TEs in 2024.

Mason Taylor: 12% rostered

With Sam LaPorta and Brock Bowers finishing TE1 in fantasy scoring as rookies the last two seasons, perhaps we should lean into the whole rookie TE thing. Second-round draft pick Mason Taylor is going to start for the Jets, who have few viable pass catchers on the roster aside from WR Garrett Wilson. Taylor begins his NFL career against the Steelers, who gave up the eighth-most fantasy points to tight ends last year.

Chig Okonkwo: 27% rostered

We’ve been waiting impatiently for an Okonkwo breakout, and maybe we’ll finally get it in his fourth NFL season. The key to an Okonkwo surge might be rookie QB Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL Draft. Ward is an aggressive thrower, and the only accomplished pass catcher on the Tennessee roster at the moment is WR Calvin Ridley. There’s room for Okonkwo to step up and become a fantasy-relevant tight end. You might not want to use Okonkwo against the Broncos in Week 1, but he has a favorable Week 2 matchup against the Rams, who gave up the sixth-most fantasy points to TEs in 2024.