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Tight ends are the necessary evil of fantasy football. They don’t score a lot. Their weekly consistency is hard to predict. Every year, late-round surprises pop up, and early-round picks bust. Aside from running backs, tight ends are the most frustrating position to forecast, year-over-year or weekly.

More and more leagues are incorporating a WR/TE flex spot. Others have added "Tight-End Premium" scoring (giving 1.5 or 2 points per reception to tight ends) to increase their importance. But that inflates the value of elite tight ends and does little for the rest. The reality is that just a select few tight ends matter every year. Last year, for instance, we had ten tight ends who averaged ten-plus points in PPR leagues. For comparison, 47 wide receivers hit that mark. To continue the comparison, while many fantasy players were elated to stumble upon Jake Ferguson last year, he put up less weekly production than Brandin Cooks.

Having a true difference-maker at the position makes wins easy to come by. Travis Kelce’s historic run appears to be coming to an end. And his success has caused fantasy managers to invest heavily in "the next Kelce." But the reality is that we probably won’t have one. However, a few guys in dynasty tight-end rankings currently separate themselves from the rest.

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Dynasty Tight End Rankings

Crème de la Crème

• Sam LaPorta
• Kyle Pitts
• Trey McBride
• Dalton Kincaid

All of these tight ends are under 25 and have extremely promising profiles. Ranking these players is extremely difficult, and preference comes down to personal conviction.

Sam LaPorta just had the most productive fantasy season from a rookie tight end in NFL history. His production was heavily skewed by hauling in ten touchdowns, but he ranked in the top ten in nearly every usage and efficiency metric. Given his rookie-year production, it’s hard to argue against him as the current dynasty TE1, but others can also make strong claims. Three years ago, Kyle Pitts recorded 1,026 receiving yards, second-most by a rookie tight end in NFL history to only Mike Ditka. Since then, he has displayed an elite profile. His ability to run every route and pull valuable targets deep downfield gives us hope, but the production hasn’t been there. Kirk Cousins could finally unlock him in 2024. Once Zach Ertz went down with a midseason injury, Trey McBride was arguably the best tight end in the league. There are concerns about how he will produce with Marvin Harrison Jr. and how it took until midway through Year 2 to break out finally. But he looked all the part of an elite tight end to close out 2024. Dalton Kincaid is in the best situation of the bunch, tied to Josh Allen and an elite passing offense for the foreseeable future.

These tight ends all have youth, production, and athleticism on their side. Even disappointing 2024 seasons should insulate their value going forward. You should have no qualms about paying for these tight ends.

Still TE1

• Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce falls into the same bucket that Tyreek Hill and Christian McCaffrey did in the articles that prequel this one. In redraft rankings, he is atop or near his position. However, age concerns in dynasty formats are impossible to ignore. Last year, in his age-34 season, he posted his fewest receiving yards since 2015. However, he was still the per-game TE1 in scoring. And he did that while battling a slew of injuries. A healthy Kelce would have presumably fared better over the year, and that’s what we’re hoping for in 2024. But like Hill and McCaffrey, there’s fear that an injury or a down season could cause his value to tailspin. Because of Kelce’s age and shelf life, he should be reserved only for dynasty teams that are contending and in need of a tight end. If you are not contending and have Kelce on your roster, hope he starts the season off hot so you can flip him for future production.

Potential Heirs To The Kelce Throne

• T.J. Hockenson
• Mark Andrews

The only things these tight ends don’t have that the Crème de la Crème tier doesn’t are youth and health. T.J. Hockenson is about to be 27 and coming off a late-season ACL tear. Mark Andrews will be 29 when the season kicks off and had his 2023 season cut short by a broken fibula. Because of these concerns, both tight ends can be had at a discount this year. Both have displayed abilities to be elite fantasy scorers. Andrews is the only tight end dating back to 2016 to log as the season's top per-game scorer at the position, besides Travis Kelce. Hockenson showed some flashes in Detroit but exploded after a surprising trade to Minnesota in 2022. And while these tight ends aren’t relatively as young as the top tier, they are still on the proper side of the age curve for tight ends, and it’s not ridiculous to think that their best years are ahead of them. Kelce finished the year with 14.6 points per game. Hockenson finished the season with 14.6 points per game. And before Andrews’ season-ending injury, he averaged 14.6 points per game. While most fantasy managers are trading away the farm for the sub-25-year-old tight ends with potential, savvy managers will pick up these boring veterans and ride them to championships.