Fantasy football is always evolving, and the managers who adapt the fastest are the ones playing late into the winter. A handful of years ago, the TE position was lacking in the middle tiers: you either paid up in a big way, or you played a game of chicken with your league mates as to who would be the final to pull the trigger.
That’s not the case anymore, and your league might well be decided by how you approach the middle few tiers at this one-time top-heavy position. Looking to practice? Our FREE Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator gets you through an entire draft, in any format, as you look to hone your skills for draft day!
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TE Fantasy Football Rankings, PPR
1) Trey McBride | ARI
2) Brock Bowers | LV
The Bowers profile is beautiful in its simplicity (19 games with 5+ catches, a number topped by only Christian McCaffrey, Ja’Marr Chase, and Puka Nacua when looking at active players through 29 career games). He missed five games last season and still led this team in catches (64) and touchdown receptions (seven). The team is building around him, but not in much of a threatening way.
Jalen Nailor was brought over from Minnesota, and Mike Washington Jr. was drafted out of Arkansas, but neither poses a real threat to take food off the plate of one of the most involved young players we’ve seen in recent memory.
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Nailor is a fine player, but his next 30-catch season as a pro will be his first. Washington is an interesting prospect with an NFL-ready body, but the profile is underwhelming, he’s older than Ashton Jeanty, and the draft capital spent (pick #122) hardly demands the Raiders force him into more than a get-Jeanty-a-blow option.
With Fernando Mendoza in town and those minor tweaks around the outskirts of this roster, there’s a glimmer of hope that an offense that scored 13.6% fewer points than anyone else in 2025 can put their All World tight end in position to return value, even at an ADP that reflects just how special he is.
Try this one for size.
Through two seasons, Bowers’ 17-game AVERAGE is 103 receptions for 1,099 yards and seven scores. That’s what he has taught us to expect from him should he go through a season from start to finish without injury.
That stat line has only been achieved seven times by a tight end during the 2000’s.
Seven.
3) Colston Loveland | CHI
4) Tucker Kraft | GB
Among tight ends who appeared in at least eight games last season, Kraft was TE4 at 14.7 PPR points per game, joining Brock Bowers and George Kittle in the second tier behind the one-man wrecking crew that was Trey McBride (18.6 PPG). His path to fantasy production wasn’t identical to peak Deebo Samuel, but it wasn’t much different.
10.8 yards per catch after the reception.
The next best TE in that regard who averaged at least five targets a game last season was his NFC North brethren in Sam LaPorta … at 6.8. The gap between Kraft, admittedly in a shorter sample due to the injury, and TE2 in playmaking prowess with the ball in his hands was nearly the same as the difference between LaPorta and 35-year-old Zach Ertz.
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Kraft is a unique player, and this situation is unique in that the Packers have a quarterback they feel good about, but not a single receiver who has distanced himself from the group. It’s not hard to see a scenario where a fully healthy version of the tight end leads this team in most receiving categories, and that is what makes him a clear Tier 2 option.
The two tight ends occupying the top tier have an elite combination of floor and ceiling. They can’t be touched and it’s not as if Kraft is risk free. There is the injury to navigate and the hope that Matthew Golden can make a leap in Year 2. That said, the limited target competition combined with the physical tools make Kraft an easy click in the middle third of drafts and one that I’m personally excited to make.
5) Tyler Warren | IND
6) Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
7) Sam LaPorta | DET
8) George Kittle | SF
9) Isaiah Likely | NYG
This game we love can be complicated, but talent and opportunity are at the core of most success stories. We think we have the former with Likely, and we are now hoping to get the latter.
This is a player who has yet to reach 45 receptions in a season, and while I’m not blaming him for being stuck in a run-centric offense that also wanted to feature Mark Andrews, there is natural risk that comes from betting on someone who we’ve yet to see sustain a viable role at this level.
That said, 11.6 yards per catch for his career has my interest, and with over half of his career receptions moving the sticks, the upside case is pretty easy to make should the opportunity be what we are projecting.
No one is suggesting that he’ll be TE6 this season (that’s where his 12.0 PPG when running 20+ routes would have finished last season), but the general angle is understood: if some is good, more must be better.
Of course, there’s risk. Less so on the role side of things and more so at the quarterback position. As fun as Jason Dart was for fantasy, he carries significant injury risk, and there are fair questions to be asked about his ability to get the ball where it needs to be when under pressure (27th of 33 qualifiers in CMP% when pressured in 2025, ranking just behind Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix).
The hope is that natural development helps correct things in that respect and that spending the 10th overall pick on Francis Mauigoa, the offensive tackle out of Miami, makes pressure harder to create in 2026.
10) Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
11) Jake Ferguson | DAL
12) Mark Andrews | BAL
13) Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
14) Dalton Kincaid | BUF
15) Dallas Goedert | PHI
16) Dalton Schultz | HOU
17) Travis Kelce | KC
18) Hunter Henry | NE
19) Chig Okonkwo | WAS
20) Brenton Strange | JAX
21) Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
22) Juwan Johnson | NO
23) Evan Engram | DEN
24) Terrance Ferguson | LAR
25) AJ Barner | SEA
