It’s crunch time in fantasy football, and the tight end position keeps managers guessing weekly. Across the NFL, shifting roles and unpredictable usage have created some tricky decisions for anyone looking to gain an edge.
With plenty of streamers available and committee situations popping up, the landscape offers upside — but also risk. If you’re navigating this wild position, now’s the time to look deeper and find the players who could set your fantasy football lineup apart down the stretch.
AJ Barner | SEA
AJ Barner has touched the ball 21 times this season, and six have come in the red zone. He’s failed to catch more than three passes in six of seven games, an alarming trend given that Sam Darnold is playing at about as high a level as we can reasonably expect.
In theory, this offense needs someone to draw defensive attention away from Jaxon Smith-Njigba. That leaves Barner on the streamer radar, though it seems likely that Seattle will fill that role by committee.
Barner is a prototypical streamer. If you’re holding, you’re probably leaving food on the table to target a Week 17 date with the Panthers.
Brock Bowers | LV
We haven’t seen Brock Bowers since September, and while the knee was obviously bothering him for three of his four games played, he was still just one of four TEs with at least four grabs in each week during the first month of the season.
Forget about the draft capital you spent on him. You’re not going to get a good return on that. But do you have a starter at the ugliest position in the sport? You do.
This offense is limited in various ways. While the Michael Mayer usage is likely here to stay, if we get anything close to a healthy version of Bowers, he’ll earn enough in the way of opportunities to make playing him far better than spinning the wheel of randomness on the waiver wire.
Chig Okonkwo | TEN
Chig Okonkwo is an efficient player by nature (a short route running athlete), and we’ve seen that with Ward this season (80% catch rate or better in three of his past four games).
Even with that in hand, there’s just not enough meat on this bone, even at the tight end position. He has six career touchdowns, and this offense largely isn’t in the same zip code as the end zone. Okonkwo has been unable to find much of a ceiling with Ridley sidelined, and that puts him at the very back end of TE streamers moving forward.
He plays and he sees targets. That alone is worthy of keeping eyes on him, but until we see Ward take a meaningful step forward, there’s not much to chase.
Cole Kmet | CHI
A back injury kept Cole Kmet out of practice last week and resulted in the first DNP of his career.
All Iron Man streaks must come to an end at some point, and while it was a good run for the former Golden Domer, his time as a fantasy asset ended back in September.
Colston Loveland’s work was trending in the right direction before either TE got banged up, and this injury simply opens the door for Ben Johnson to play with his new toy. If you held onto Kmet during Loveland’s missed time, you can safely move on.
As for the Loveland owners, this is the opportunity you were hoping for when you drafted him. The end-of-season schedule is tough (though I read less into that for tight ends than any other position), but this week and next (vs. NYG) are certainly spots for him to make a grand impression.
Colston Loveland | CHI
With Cole Kmet (back) sidelined and a vulnerable Ravens defense lining up across from him, the stage was set for a Colston Loveland breakout game that elevated him to league-winner chatter down the stretch of this fantasy season.
38 yards on 32 routes later, and we are left with more questions than answers.
The rookie was the target of Caleb Williams’ first pass (18-yard gain), but that was about it. He finished the 30-16 loss with a 14.3% target share, a role that isn’t rosterable given the trajectory of this passing game.
I won’t be surprised if he develops over time: it feels inevitable given his pedigree and coaching. Just because I could see it happening doesn’t mean I’m actively betting on it.
Loveland is to be viewed as a reasonable streamer and nothing more — a major loss from this past weekend — but we can’t cry over spilled milk — or unrealized opportunities. We can only aim to stream in better production as crunch time in the fantasy postseason nears.
Dalton Kincaid | BUF
We can blame game script all we want when it comes to Dalton Kincaid’s underwhelming Week 8 performance (one catch for 23 yards), but the game played to that script without the tight end doing much, and that’s largely the problem.
He’s scored three times this season, and that’s great, but the volatility in his yardage totals (37-66-28-108-23) puts a lot of weight on a skill that we haven’t seen him flash with consistency.
He’s attached to a strong offense that lacks an elite target-earner. That profile earns him top priority on the streaming radar (or maybe the low-end of the weekly options), but he’s not the type of tight end that makes me feel like I have the position figured out.
I’m fine if you want to hold him. He can be your safety school. That is, if something better comes along, you take it, but you’re not forcing the issue.
Dalton Schultz | HOU
Dalton Schultz battled through an apparent shoulder injury during the second half, but one week after he recorded season bests in yards per route, fantasy points, targets, and fantasy points relative to expectations, he had his worst week in each of those categories against the 49ers.
Fun times.
The disappointment came not in us expecting the Week 7 success to be sustained, but in the fact that he’d be a safe option in a game where both Collins and Kirk were inactive.
He had a window of opportunity to elevate to a different tier at the position, but he failed miserably. Schultz is an average target earner in an offense with upside, a sentence I’ve penned this season about Loveland, Kincaid, and Hunter Henry, among others.
I’m giving him one more week where I can, but by no means should you feel obligated to do so.
Evan Engram | DEN
Evan Engram caught four balls on 15 routes last week against the Cowboys, but this offense was successful in everything it tried against the team in Texas that doesn’t play defense — an unlikely outcome this week.
On the whole, I’m still a touch more optimistic on this profile than the industry seems to be. He’s caught 4+ passes in five straight games, and if he cashed in a catch that ended at the two-yard line last week, we are looking at him differently.
I’m not here to sell you on Engram as a difference-maker. He’s not. I don’t think any Bronco besides Sutton has access to that label. But at this position and given the lack of established target earners in Denver, I have Engram as part of the locked-in weekly starter tier, and that’s an important distinction.
George Kittle | SF
George Kittle was held without a catch on 24 routes in his Week 7 return to action, but National Tight End Day brought out the version of the former All-Pro that we are more accustomed to:
- 33 routes
- 4 catches
- 14.3 PPR points
He hauled in Mac Jones’ first completed pass of last week’s loss in Houston and was clearly scripted into the plan. I think you can expect more of the same moving forward, no matter who is under center and which pass catchers are active.
Kittle is a Tier 2 player at the position and has more room to move up than down due to the underwhelming nature of the others in this range.
Hunter Henry | NE
Henry was schemed up a touchdown in the third quarter. Following a jet sweep, the Pats faked a similar action, rolled out Drake Maye from the seven-yard line, and put Henry three yards in front of him on a half of the field that was close to vacated.
It was great to see, but it was also all we saw of the tight end.
Like, literally.
He ran 25 routes in the win over the Browns, and that was his only target. I want to believe in him because I don’t trust the secondary receivers on this offense and am buying any Maye stock I can, but with 15 targets during this five-game win streak, the floor is just so low every week.
Henry is a priority streamer for me. That is, he’s in the streamer class, but the type that I’ll hold onto until I’m really sold on another option as opposed to committing to the weekly matchup-driven add/drop.
It may sound like a distinction without a difference, but there’s a level of feel in the TE game for those of us without a top-tier option at the position, and I’ll take my chances with 25+ routes attached to an upward-trending offense.
For now.
Ja’Tavion Sanders | CAR
The playing time ticked up in his second game back from injury, but Ja’Tavion Sanders was under 20 routes run again on Sunday against the Bills. While game script factored into him not exactly being extended late, that’s a common risk for the 2025 Panthers.
I think he’s a part of the long-term outlook of this offense, but he’s just that: the future. The future is not now for Carolina, and that means you can do better with a handful of TEs that are in your waiver wire pool every week.
Jake Ferguson | DAL
The Cowboys were boat-raced by the Broncos in Denver last weekend, and that sent this offense into a spiral rather quickly.
Jake Ferguson, fantasy’s TE1 entering the week, saw nothing but a forced target at the end of the first half, a pass that Prescott pretty clearly predetermined, and you get what you deserve in the National Football League when you do that.
An interception that never really had a chance at being anything but that.
I’m willing to chalk this one up and move on. Ferguson still ran 30 routes, Dallas just happened to fall into the trap of trying to make a 20-point comeback on a single play, and they have a pair of receivers who are more capable of producing the massive play than their tight end.
The Cardinals were victimized by a high-level defense in their two games before the Week 8 bye (Tyler Vaughn and Tucker Kraft combined for 35.1 PPR points against them), and I’d expect a strong bounce-back effort from Ferguson.
He’s my TE5 this week, and even that is more a product of matchups for the four ahead of him. There’s not a decision to be made here, and there won’t be for the rest of the season.
Jake Tonges | SF
A week after I tell you that you can move on from Jake Tonges without concern, he scores.
That’s how this game works.
I stand by what I said. George Kittle is clearly healthy, as evidenced by his 33-4 route edge over San Francisco’s TE2, and while the touchdown was good to see, this isn’t the type of role that deserves to even be on your streaming radar.
Jonnu Smith | PIT
If you’re asking which Pittsburgh TE to stream, you’re asking the wrong question.
Jonnu Smith held the slight edge over his teammates in snaps and routes, but it was Pat Freiermuth who led in targets, and Darnell Washington who continues to be viewed as an asset in scoring situations.
Smith caught five passes in the season opener and hasn’t had a game like that since. The lack of volume is one thing, and the fact that he has failed to record a catch gaining more than 10 yards in six of seven games is disturbing, given what we saw in Miami last season.
There isn’t a member of the Steelers’ passing game that needs to be rostered in anything but the deepest leagues, aside from Metcalf.
Juwan Johnson | NO
The profile of Juwan Johnson is an easy sell, and that’s what makes him a streaming option every week, but the offensive environment is what makes him a safe play exactly 0% of the time.
He’s been on the field for 85.8% of New Orleans’ offensive snaps this season and ran 46 routes in Sunday’s loss to the Bucs. They clearly like what he can do out in space, and we know this team is going to be in a passing script more often than not, creating a path to double-digit PPR points, which he’s now done five times.
But where’s the ceiling?
Johnson hasn’t scored since Week 2 and has more games under 30 receiving yards this season than ones of 55+. The Saints’ offense is broken and concentrated on their top two receivers, a tough combination for a TE to survive in for fantasy purposes.
If you’re cycling through the position and want to hold out hope because the Rams have allowed a TE to clear 17 PPR points twice over the past five weeks, be my guest. You know the risks that are involved, and his median range of outcomes isn’t friendly: he’s my TE20 for Week 9.
Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
Cousins’ first three completions went to Pitts in the disturbing 24-point loss to the Dolphins last week, and he finished with a season-high nine grabs.
The 30% target share was great to see, but context is needed. The script got away from the Falcons against a bad defense, with a QB who is more adept at throwing than their weekly starter.
That’s a pretty strong set of circumstances, and not ones that I’d rely on sustaining. That said, they were unable to move the ball on the ground and again turned to Pitts as a supplemental option (4.6-yard aDOT).
That, my friends, could happen again as Atlanta stays within the AFC East to face the best run defense in the league.
The ceiling is low, and I’m not 100% sure that the floor is all that high. I just made the case that a stifled run game helped Pitts … it did, but we are talking about an offense with one of the five best running backs in the sport, so that’s not exactly a thread I want to pull on weekly.
He’s running 33.3 routes per game for a team that is an underdog. It’s sad, but that gets you into my top 15 at the position, and the high catch rate that comes with his role in this offense moves him into the top 10 conversation.
Noah Fant | CIN
The Bengals are a remarkably concentrated offense, and that’s great if the player you’re rostering is a part of it. If not, you’re drawing dead.
With Noah Fant, you’re drawing dead.
Flacco is pretty clearly passing the logic test in Cincinnati: feed the difference makers, and feed them as often as humanly possible.
Fant ran a route on 15 of 27 offensive snaps, while Tanner Hudson did so on 10 of 11. The opportunity pie is small if you’re not one of the star receivers on this team, and the fact that it’s split two ways makes it of zero interest to me, even in situations where I’m looking to the wire weekly.
Oronde Gadsden | LAC
Every year, we see a handful of players go from nothing to an impactful role. Usually, it’s injury-related, but that’s not always the case, and it seems like the Chargers have just sort of stumbled upon a difference maker with Oronde Gadsden.
After not playing in either of the first two games, his role in this pass-heavy offense has taken off, and he’s now run 110 routes over the past three weeks, a role that ranks up there with any of the well-compensated TEs in the league.
On Thursday night, he became the first player at the position this season with 65+ receiving yards in three straight games and got there in an extremely efficient manner (19 catches on 22 targets).
Neither the volume nor the catch rate projects as the most sustainable stats on the board for a player in an offense with three very viable receivers, not to mention that there have been an average of 55 total points scored across those games, a scoring environment that is not likely to stick.
That said, he’s an athletic prospect who plays with a franchise QB in an offense that prefers to pass. That’s all it takes to lock him into the TE1 range and, given his success, I see no reason why Jim Harbaugh would tweak his role any time soon.
Pat Freiermuth | PIT
You’re not going to believe this, but Pat Freiermuth’s 5-11-2 stat line from Week 7 against the Bengals wasn’t sustainable.
Instead, he gave us under 35 receiving yards and zero scores for the sixth time in seven games as he continues to split a low-volume role three ways (Darnell Washington and Jonnu Smith).
Freiermuth is a name you know, and it’s popular to stream tight ends on underdogs with the thought being that the passing script gives them a bump over the others in that tier.
The strategy there is sound, but this Pittsburgh TE room isn’t one I’m ever going to land on. It’s a parlay when most situations, even at the streaming level, don’t require you to take on such risk. Not only do you need to nail the Steelers as the TE streaming team of the week, but you also have to tell me then which one does the heavy lifting.
Good luck with that. I’d rather go the AJ Pierzynski route. Or, if we are talking underdogs getting a game script bump, Okonkwo comes out ranked ahead of all of the Steelers, and I don’t even think he’s a great play.
Sam LaPorta | DET
Sam LaPorta has been the definition of boom/bust, and that’s irritating, but at tight end, those big weeks are more helpful than the down ones are hindering.
- Three top-5 finishes
- Four finishes outside of the top 20
In the final week of last season, these two teams faced off, and LaPorta led all players with seven receptions. The catch with Detroit is that they can kill you in any variety of ways, but with Jameson Williams being treated as the king of cardio, I like his target floor enough to start him with confidence across the board this week.
T.J. Hockenson | MIN
With each passing dud, the concerns grow.
T.J. Hockenson hasn’t reached 50 receiving yards in a game this season, hasn’t scored in over a month, and isn’t running downfield.
In essence, he’s checking zero boxes, and if his resume weren’t what it is, you probably would have cut bait weeks ago.
I’m holding for two more weeks. I don’t believe in rostering multiple tight ends, so by “holding,” I’m essentially saying you can get away with starting him, a concept that is uncomfortable at best.
Why? It’s simple. He’s on the field a ton (81.3% of snaps, more than six percentage points above his career rate), a change under center is coming, and the Vikings are going to have to be very aggressive to keep up with the Lions and Ravens.
If he were a receiver and struggling at this level, I would call you crazy for even considering keeping him rostered. But he’s not. The tight end position plays by different rules, and even if you view him as a streamer, wouldn’t you be interested in streaming a TE that is expected to be a part of a pass-centric script in the coming weeks?
Travis Kelce | KC
Kelce found his groove on Monday night, catching six of eight targets for a season-high 99 yards and a touchdown against the Commanders.
That stat line by itself isn’t too newsworthy; we’ve seen Kelce do this for years. I was impressed by him leading the team in receiving yards during a game in which Rashee Rice (nine catches on nine targets) couldn’t be stopped.
Rice is soaking up the extra short targets while Kelce (7.3 aDOT in both games since Rice returned) is living in that perfect short-to-middle area where his non-verbal communication connection with Patrick Mahomes can truly shine.
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The running backs weren’t involved in the passing game last week, and that might change over time, but I think we can feel good about this system sustaining two pass catchers each week, and it’s trending in Kelce’s direction over Xavier Worthy.
The ceiling isn’t elite, but I’d argue that we are looking at one of the five highest floors at a position that is close to impossible to feel good about outside of the elite.
Trey McBride | ARI
Trey McBride is elite, and if you wanted to tell me that he was the only Tier 1 option at the position for the final two months, I wouldn’t put up much of an argument.
Arizona’s star has three straight games with an end zone target, five straight as a top-8 finisher at the position (PPR), and nine straight with at least seven looks.
At the tight end position, any one of those factors would have my interest. If two of them were true, we are talking about a lineup lock. All four? All four lands put you atop the ranks and give you week-winning potential.
I probably didn’t need to list any of those trends to convince you to start him against a Cowboys defense that has allowed 30+ points in five of their past seven games, but it always helps to know just how good your guy is.
McBride entered the bye in great form and waltzes into the perfect spot. I say he sets a season high in yardage, but with the volume and the newfound touchdown equity, he’s got multiple paths to fantasy stardom.
In a battle of fantasy stars at the toughest position to fill, I like McBride to shine the brightest.
Tucker Kraft | GB
The new PPR TE1 this season is coming off a monster Sunday night performance in which he turned 15.7 expected PPR points into 33.3 real-life points (7-143-2).
Jordan Love played as composed a game as I’ve seen from him this season, taking what he viewed as the safest option and letting his talented teammates do the work.
That’ll play!
Kraft averaged over nine yards post-catch for the fifth time in his past six games. While the pending return of Jayden Reed (timetable still TBD) could eat into some of those short targets (2.5 aDOT against the Steelers last week with five catches coming on balls thrown less than five yards downfield), he’s a fixture of this offense.
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Green Bay is going to rely on Josh Jacobs most weeks, but the presence of Kraft as a pseudo-running back with the ball in his hands makes them the rare conservative offense that can be explosive.
Combine that with Christian Watson looking awfully healthy, and it’s not hard to see this Packers offense being a top-5 unit for the next two months, a scoring atmosphere that would give Kraft a real shot at holding onto the TE crown.
Tyler Warren | IND
Tyler Warren’s production came in under expectations last week as he logged just his second single-digit PPR game of the season.
It means nothing moving forward.
This was (again) the Jonathan Taylor show, and with Pittman having a strong matchup against the Titans — what little volume there was to be had through the air — the impressive rookie simply wasn’t needed for Indy to beat the brakes off of Tennessee.
If we are going to preach the importance of being on a strong offense, we can’t then complain when the offense is too good and coast for the final quarter.
I entered this week with Warren and McBride as my Tier 1 options at the position for the remainder of the season, and I’m not pivoting from that. He’s caught 74% of his targets this season and is averaging nearly 10 yards per target.
You’re lucky to have Warren on your roster: don’t forget that.
Zach Ertz | WAS
Zach Ertz isn’t exciting, but three straight with 6+ targets is enough to put you on our radar at least.
I’m rarely going to rank him as a top-10 tight end (9.1 yards per catch this season and a spotty track record of scoring), but I don’t think the floor is as low as most in the streamer tier.
If you have a solid team and just want a warm body at tight end, I think this is the profile you’re looking for. If you need a difference-maker, I’d continue to throw darts elsewhere.
Evaluating player performance is one thing, but the ability to be honest about how your specific team is going to succeed is another — and, at times, the more important part of the process.
