Hunter Henry is a wily veteran who has been around for a long time. He’s a reliable option and someone coaches trust. That keeps him on the fantasy football radar each year. But is he someone fantasy managers want to target as their potential TE1?
Should You Draft Hunter Henry in Fantasy Football?
Henry is entering his 11th NFL season (technically his 10th since he missed the entire 2018 season with a torn ACL). The only year in which he was completely irrelevant in fantasy football was 2022. Otherwise, he’s been a guy who matters.
At the same time, Henry has never once been a difference maker at the position. His best season came in 2019 when he averaged 12.3 fantasy points per game. Otherwise, he’s consistently been mostly between 9.5 and 10.5 PPG. Henry has been roughly in that range six times, including last year’s 10.5 PPG.
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Henry’s 768 receiving yards last season represented a career high. On a Patriots offense that lacked a true alpha in the passing game, Drake Maye had no choice but to spread the ball around. Henry finished second on the team in targets and yards behind Stefon Diggs. After Diggs and Henry, no other receiver surpassed 551 yards.
The bulk of Henry’s production came from touchdowns, which is the case for most non-elite tight ends. Every year, there are a handful of TEs who are no doubt every-week starters. The rest are TD or bust options. Henry was the latter and has been most of his career.
Henry scored seven times on 60 receptions. 23.8% of his fantasy points came purely from touchdowns, which is really not a crazy amount for a tight end.
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It was clear Maye trusted Henry, as he averaged 0.095 first downs per route run, eighth at the position. The combination of Henry’s role as a chain mover and a touchdown scorer underlies his importance in the offense. The flip side of that is that, otherwise, Henry was mostly an afterthought.
Despite playing 79.3% of the snaps and running a route on 80.7% of pass plays, Henry only earned an 18.1% target share and was targeted on just 19.6% of his routes run. The latter ranked 27th at the position. The Patriots used Henry when they needed to and likely made him a bit more of a priority in high-leverage situations than they wanted to due to the lack of alternatives. That is going to change in 2026.
The best tight ends in fantasy are at least the second option in their team’s passing game. Last year, that was the role Henry played, which is why he was such a value despite being an afterthought in fantasy drafts. This year, there’s simply no way we can project Henry to be any higher than third.
Last year’s leading receiver, Diggs, is no longer there. Filling the void will be Romeo Doubs, who already provides Maye with the best receiver he’s had in his young career. But the bigger move is the team’s trade for A.J. Brown.
Even though Brown showed serious signs of decline last season, it’s doubtful that he’s truly cooked. Brown should rebound considerably in 2026 and will undoubtedly serve as the alpha in this passing attack. He should command a target share greater than anyone on the Patriots last season. In fact, the same might be said for Doubs.
So, where does that leave Henry? He’s still a red-zone target, but likely far less of a priority, as Brown’s size makes him the ideal primary option in the end zone. Doubs is also no slouch, having scored six times on just 55 receptions. He also had eight touchdowns in 2023 on 59 catches.
Even though the 2022 season is the only time in Henry’s career that he’s finished lower than TE15, his ADP is stable around TE18. That is right on the border of being drafted in standard-sized 12-team leagues, as we can project roughly half the teams in a league to draft a second tight end.
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I have Henry ranked as TE20, and he’s TE19 in our consensus rankings. He will very likely outperform this ADP, but that doesn’t matter. We know he’s not going to move the needle. You never need to draft a player like Henry. Either he will be there to pick up during the season to stream when needed or someone else just like him will be.
If you wait on a tight end, there’s still no reason to take Henry. You are better off swinging at a tight end with a lower floor, but a much higher ceiling. If it misses, who cares? Drop him and pick up Henry or a Henry-adjacent player.
Preseason Fantasy TE Rankings
- Brock Bowers | LV
- Trey McBride | ARI
- Colston Loveland | CHI
- Tyler Warren | IND
- Tucker Kraft | GB
- Sam LaPorta | DET
- George Kittle | SF
- Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
- Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
- Travis Kelce | KC
- Dallas Goedert | PHI
- Jake Ferguson | DAL
- Mark Andrews | BAL
- Juwan Johnson | NO
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Chig Okonkwo | WAS
- Brenton Strange | JAX
- Hunter Henry | NE
- Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
- Dalton Schultz | HOU
- Greg Dulcich | MIA
- AJ Barner | SEA
- T.J. Hockenson | MIN
- Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
