Cincinnati Bengals tight end Hayden Hurst is looking for a fresh start to his career with a new team. What is Hurst’s current ADP in fantasy drafts, and should fantasy football managers draft him at that price?
Hayden Hurst ADP | Is he worth his current price in fantasy drafts?
Hurst’s ADP is around 190th overall. He’s going as about the 24th tight end off the board. At his price, he’s essentially free. If you want him, you can take him in the very last round of your fantasy draft without fear of missing out. That said, there’s really no reason anyone should be drafting Hurst.
Even if you wait until the very last round to take your starting tight end, there will be better ones available. Standard-sized leagues are not going to see 20+ tight ends come off the board.
You’re obviously not being asked to spend any premium draft capital on Hurst. Roster spots in fantasy football are valuable. You’re better off using them on wide receivers and running backs than a player like Hurst, who will almost certainly be your second tight end.
Hayden Hurst’s projected fantasy value in 2022
Over the first two years of his career, Hurst was buried behind Mark Andrews (who, ironically, was drafted after him). Hurst had a mini-breakout in 2020 after the Ravens traded him to the Falcons. He caught 56 passes for 571 yards and six touchdowns. Those numbers were good for 9.3 PPR fantasy points per game and nine TE1 finishes.
Sadly, 2020 is looking like the outlier here. Although Hurst was serviceable, he wasn’t a difference-maker. That’s clearly what the Falcons are looking for at the position and why they drafted Kyle Pitts in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Pitts relegated Hurst to a pure backup role, resulting in just a 7.3% target share last season. He averaged 4.9 ppg and was wholly irrelevant in fantasy football.
Impact of the Bengals’ depth chart on Hayden Hurst’s fantasy value
Hurst certainly has a better shot at fantasy relevance in Cincinnati than if he remained in Atlanta backing up Pitts. On the Bengals, Hurst will replace C.J. Uzomah as the starting tight end in 2022. As a result, Hurst is a lock to see more volume than he did last year. Unfortunately, it still may not result in a meaningful role.
In 2021, the Bengals targeted the tight end position just 15.4% of the time. It was the second-lowest rate in the NFL. Uzomah ran 26 routes per game, which is a solid amount. However, he only saw targets on 15.2% of them.
Fantasy managers can expect Hurst to at least be as good as Uzomah. In fact, he should be better. Even so, the Bengals really don’t feature their tight end much, and Hurst isn’t the sort of talent that demands usage.
Burrow is quite capable of supporting several fantasy-relevant pass catchers. Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd are very clearly the top three. They accounted for 60% of the team’s targets last season.
Uzomah did have two huge weeks where he scored 24 and 26 fantasy points last season. He was nice enough to toss in another couple of passable performances.
Hurst is likely destined for a similar story this season. He will make sporadic appearances on the streaming radar. I may even recommend him as a pickup in my weekly waiver column this season. He’s just unlikely to have consistent weekly value or be someone fantasy managers can confidently insert into lineups. Consider Hurst a low-end TE2 for the 2022 season. He is our consensus ranked TE24.
