PodcastFrom Dynasty Points
Updated Dynasty TE Rankings: Tiers & Upside Targets
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 6 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 12, 2026
Published
Wed, August 12, 2026
22
Player insights
18
Players mentioned
Topics
Sam LaPortaKenyon SadiqTucker KraftBrock BowersColston LovelandDallas GoedertDalton KincaidEli StowersGeorge KittleHarold FanninJahmyr GibbsKyle PittsMark AndrewsMichael Mayer
Player analysis
Player insights
Brock Bowers
PositiveProjection3:55
Bowers has reclaimed the consensus TE1 spot in dynasty formats. Despite a difficult 2025 season hampered by a week-one PCL injury and ineffective play while wearing a knee brace, he averaged 16 fantasy points per game when healthy. Analysts now view him as a superior talent in a vacuum compared to Trey McBride, especially as the Raiders' offense trends upward and lacks significant wide receiver competition.
Insight pageColston Loveland
PositiveBreakout8:44
Loveland is widely viewed as a rising star with a strong chance to finish the year as the TE2. While he has a smaller sample size of elite production compared to McBride, his ability to win one-on-one against defensive backs and his role as a downfield engine make him a high-upside asset. Some analysts believe he could surpass McBride in production this season.
Insight pageDallas Goedert
PositiveProjection64:04
Goedert is a favorite cheap point-scorer who projects as a mid-range TE1. He is highly productive when A.J. Brown is off the field, and the Eagles' lack of pass-catching depth ensures he remains a reliable option.
Insight pageDalton Kincaid
PositiveProjection35:32
Dynasty Points ranks Kincaid in a higher tier than his peers, citing his potential for both immediate fantasy production and long-term dynasty value. They expect his route share to increase significantly from last year's workload-managed levels.
Insight pageEli Stowers
NegativeUsage47:01
Stowers is not expected to be active in Week 1 or have a significant role as long as Dallas Goedert is healthy. He should be viewed as a long-term lottery ticket rather than a major part of 2024 fantasy plans.
Insight pageGeorge Kittle
NegativeValue34:04
Dynasty Points suggests Kittle is a solid veteran option for contenders, but warns against paying a premium for him if the manager already has a reliable starter like Trey McBride.
Insight pageHarold Fannin
PositiveSleeper25:54
Fannin is viewed as a high-upside TE7 with the potential to be the primary target on his team. While he faces structural concerns regarding his blocking and potential snap competition if the Browns bring in additional personnel, his raw talent and ability to command a high route share make him a significant dynasty riser.
Insight pageJahmyr Gibbs
NegativeUsage23:26
Dynasty Points suggests that all Lions pass catchers, including tight ends, should be concerned about Jahmyr Gibbs' increased involvement in the passing offense this year.
Insight pageKenyon Sadiq
NegativeUsage24:27
Dynasty Points advises patience with Sadiq, noting that rookie tight ends often have a long learning curve and that missing summer activities due to injury will likely lead to a slow start in the Jets' offense.
Insight pagePositiveBreakout25:57
Dynasty Points views Sadiq as a high-upside prospect with elite athleticism, though he remains raw as a route runner and blocker. He is considered a top dynasty bet for long-term production.
Insight pageKyle Pitts
NegativeProjection27:21
Dynasty Points is skeptical of Pitts' elite upside, noting his production spike last year was largely tied to Drake London's absence. They project a mid-to-low-end TE1 finish rather than elite production.
Insight pageMark Andrews
PositiveValue62:51
Andrews is a favorite cheap point-scorer who remains Lamar Jackson's primary red-zone target. Despite injury concerns, he has 10-touchdown upside if healthy and is a better value than Travis Kelsey at this stage.
Insight pageMichael Mayer
PositiveValue57:42
Mayer is a strong dynasty target because he is a talented all-around prospect who could see his value skyrocket if he leaves the Raiders. He is a better candidate for a second-contract breakout than Isaiah Likely, and he could even see fantasy-relevant spikes this year if the Raiders utilize 12 personnel to compensate for their thin wide receiver depth.
Insight pageOronde Gadsden
NegativeDepth Chart41:21
Dynasty Points notes that Gadsden is currently rotating with David Njoku and Charlie Kohler in Chargers camp, with reports suggesting Kohler is the clear TE1, creating a murky outlook for Gadsden's immediate usage.
Insight pageSam LaPorta
NegativeInjury22:30
Dynasty Points expresses concern regarding LaPorta's significant injury history, specifically citing back, neck, and knee issues, which complicates his dynasty outlook.
Insight pagePositiveProjection23:13
Despite injury concerns, Dynasty Points identifies LaPorta as the tight end in his tier with the highest touchdown upside, projecting a potential 10-13 touchdown season based on the Lions' offensive scheme.
Insight pageNegativeProjection25:44
LaPorta is ranked as the TE5, but faces concerns regarding injury history (back, neck, knee) and target competition from Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams. While his path to moving up tiers is limited by the Lions' crowded receiving corps, he remains a high-upside play with the potential to score 10-13 touchdowns in that offense.
Insight pageTerrance Ferguson
PositiveBreakout48:20
Ferguson fits the profile of a year-two breakout candidate, as tight ends often transition to full-time roles in their second season. He is a target in redraft and dynasty, especially given his high ADOT (18.6) and potential to step into a larger role in the Rams' offense if a receiver misses time.
Insight pageTrey McBride
NegativeValue5:00
McBride is the consensus TE2, though some analysts debate his long-term ceiling compared to Colston Loveland. While McBride offers a high floor and a track record of elite production, concerns exist regarding the sustainability of the Cardinals' high drop-back volume from the second half of last season and potential target competition from Marvin Harrison Jr.
Insight pageTucker Kraft
PositiveValue22:26
Dynasty Points expresses a strong preference for Kraft over other tight ends in his tier, noting he is a player they are currently enamored with.
Insight pageNegativeUsage25:49
Kraft is a polarizing asset who has led all tight ends in yards after the catch (YAC) for three consecutive seasons. While his YAC ability is an elite 'trump card,' his fantasy production is heavily dependent on volume and efficiency that may be difficult to replicate coming off an ACL tear. Analysts are split on whether his breakout was sustainable or a product of teammate injuries.
Insight pageTyler Warren
PositiveUsage15:20
Warren is considered a top-tier tight end prospect whose rookie production was masked by the Colts' late-season offensive collapse. He earned a near 20% target share and ran routes on 80% of snaps. While he may lack the explosive '30-point game' upside of elite peers, his role as a primary target in a creative offense makes him a strong dynasty asset, especially with Michael Pittman Jr. no longer on the team.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00The end is here for the ranking and tier series that we've been doing here with Dynasty Points and it ends with Tight End.
0:08And though this might start out as being maybe a little bit too aligned between the three of us, things kind of
0:15change rapidly, very quickly as we get out of those top eight and top nine.
0:20We're excited to dive into it. We've got some of our sleeper favorites.
0:24We've got a few disagreements and some players. A lot of fun.
0:28Sit back. Enjoy. This is Dynasty Points and it starts right now.
0:32Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Dynasty Points, our small corner of the fantasy football landscape.
0:37I'm glad to have you back with us. If you're new here, take a seat and enjoy this Dynasty video.
0:44We're talking about Dynasty Tight Ends. We're tiering them.
0:47We are ranking them. We have all given our rankings.
0:50We have combined them. We have come to a consensus.
0:53And though we have a few disagreements, not many, it really is going to highlight the somewhat randomness that is Dynasty Tight
1:00Ends because it does kind of feel that way, Jacob.
1:04We were talking before we hit the live button.
1:07It feels like you could basically put a bunch of dice in a cup and roll it right after Tight End 9.
1:14So it'll be interesting to dive into some of those.
1:17We're not going to spend a ton of time on the bottom end tiers.
1:22But again, we do have some favorites, some sleepers, etc.
1:25that we are definitely going to hit on because Tight End is one of those positions that you can flip for a big return with very little production.
1:34Somebody like Gadsden, who had, you know, a couple of really good games in 2025, ends up getting flipped for first round picks.
1:42Plus, during the season last year, you don't need a lot for these guys to gain value or to get pushed up ranks.
1:49So we're going to dive in to some of those.
1:53So, Jacob, please hit us with the first list of players.
1:56All right. So same process as last time for the Tight End tiers today.
2:01We each submitted our list. I went and averaged them, put in tiers where they presented themselves.
2:06And this was a bizarre one in terms of just how much unanimity there was between us at the top tiers.
2:13We're pretty much in lockstep for most of these.
2:16And then once we get into the bottom tiers, it is dealer's choice.
2:20I know I experienced this ranking mine. I felt like I could have gone 100 different directions.
2:26And then seeing your guys list, you guys went, each of you in very different directions.
2:31So it was very interesting to see how that all worked out.
2:35But we'll start at the top today. And Brock Bowers is the clear top tight end.
2:40We each had him in a tier of his own.
2:44Interesting process to me this offseason where, you know, Bowers last offseason was drafted as the clear tight end one.
2:50And then goes, you know, through a pretty difficult season, has the injury to his PCL in week one.
2:57McBride has a huge season. And, you know, we start the offseason.
3:00McBride is getting drafted ahead of him in all formats, in seasonal formats, dynasty formats.
3:05And over the course of the offseason, that is reversed back to Bowers reclaiming his tight end one role.
3:12McBride being the tight end two in most spots.
3:15Yeah, I mean, you obviously agree that that is the correct approach based on your rankings.
3:20But what are the thoughts on Brock Bowers this year other than, you know, general positivity, of course?
3:26My kind of experience with Brock Bowers last year going in and being a little bit lower on him across most formats
3:33was I felt like I kind of got to get out of jail free card or like a free roll based on
3:40how his season went, where he got injured early and lost a few games early in the year to that playing with
3:47a knee brace ineffectively for the most part. But outside of those games where he was wearing the brace, he was at
3:55right around 16 fantasy points per game outside of tight end premium.
3:59He was an elite elite option in tight end premium scoring.
4:02So to me, I was like, yeah, he didn't hurt me that much to not be super in on him just with how the Raiders season turned out.
4:11But the more I kind of dig into the history of Clint Kubiak and his offenses, and I think in reverse, the
4:19more that I and the industry have kind of picked apart the Trey McBride season just in terms of the amount of
4:26totally unsustainable drop back volume that the Cardinals were experiencing in the second half of their season with Jacoby Brissett largely in garbage time.
4:34I think it's just become more and more consensus that Brock Bowers is probably better of like a better player in a vacuum than Trey McBride.
4:42We kind of see their offenses going in opposite directions.
4:45So it's not really surprising to me that just the more analysis that we've done, the further away we've gotten from McBride
4:53putting up those like absolutely insane numbers in that situation.
4:56The more people have just kind of coalesced around, yeah, Bowers is the clear tight end one in every format.
5:03So that's certainly been my journey this offseason, and I imagine it's been similar for you guys.
5:08Yeah, not anything to disagree with here at all.
5:11The situation, it seems to be going in the right direction.
5:15There is no wide receiver competition with Vegas. That definitely helps a little bit.
5:19Yeah, it's pretty clear. So the next tier we have is a tier two names.
5:24It's Trey McBride and it is Colston Loveland. We all had it in that order.
5:29I think like if there's any disagreement at the top of the tight end ranks this offseason, this has been the spot.
5:36It's been a little bit of a sexy pick for some people to put Loveland at the tight end two ahead of Trey McBride in this spot.
5:45That's a little far for me, even. I'm a huge Colston Loveland fan.
5:49I think it's a pretty big testament to what we saw at the end of the year, even to have these guys
5:57in the same tier, you know, considering that Colston Loveland, we basically have less than a half of a season of him
6:04performing at this level compared to three really strong years for McBride and one of the most productive tight end seasons of all time last year.
6:12So I could certainly see a scenario where Loveland outscores McBride this year.
6:17That would not surprise me that much, given the difference in quality of their offense.
6:22But McBride, I think you get a lot of safety and it's an interesting spot where, you know, dynasty, we always talk about the youth, right?
6:30Where it's important to have, of course, more years to be able to get the payoff for.
6:36But if I was going to rank Loveland ahead of McBride, I almost would be more inclined to do so in redraft
6:43because if you're wrong, it doesn't hurt you for more than one season.
6:47Whereas in dynasty, even though Trey McBride is slightly older, still a super young player, and there's just such a high, high, high floor that he's established.
6:56I think you can be locked in to a top three tight end for the foreseeable future.
7:02If you have Trey McBride on your dynasty roster, I expect that to be the case for Colston Loveland too.
7:08But I want to see how it goes this season.
7:12And, you know, it's an easy spot where if we get a month into the year and Loveland is producing at the
7:19exact same level as McBride or even better, I probably would make the swap at that point.
7:24But I need to see it a little bit first.
7:28Both these guys, though, total studs. Yeah, Loveland is definitely, I think Loveland is going to be the tight end too by the end of the year.
7:36Like, I think that's going to be a consensus take.
7:40I don't think that's going to be a hot take.
7:43I just feel like the steam is already kind of getting there.
7:47Their ADPs are getting closer and closer, it feels like, by the week.
7:51If Burden has any sort of injury or slow start, it's just going to pick that up.
7:57I thought about it. I initially actually had Loveland ahead of McBride.
8:01And then a cooler head prevailed a short while later after I took a long walk here in the sunshine of Winnipeg
8:08today and came back and went, No, I'm being a little extreme here.
8:12And I flipped it back. But I truly believe by the end of the year, that's what we're going to see.
8:19Yeah, to me, there's just a limit to how willing I am to rank a player against just the totality of the
8:26fantasy points per game that they've scored. For McBride, we're already kind of testing that limit.
8:32I think we're putting a lot of stock into, well, the Cardinals offense and their total number of dropbacks is going to have to regress.
8:40And it probably will. We don't know exactly how much McBride could just continue to be a target magnet.
8:46We could see Marvin Harrison Jr. not really take the step forward that some of us are expecting.
8:52I could just see Trey McBride having another really strong fantasy season.
8:56And to rank him below Loveland, who has done it for like six weeks, basically, as convincing as it's been to me
9:03and as exciting as it was to me. Yeah, there's just a limit there to how willing I am to kind of
9:10take the sexy guy over the guy that's actually scored like real fantasy points for an extended period of time.
9:17All right, that gets us to our next tier.
9:20And it's a very short tier. It's a tier of one dude, which is Tyler Warren.
9:25Maybe I'll pitch it to Tom here because Tom had him in the same spot that Ryan and I did, which was tight end four.
9:33He had him, however, up in that next tier in behind McBride and Loveland.
9:38Ryan and I each had him in his own tier as the tight end four.
9:43So, I mean, pretty much consensus across the board here.
9:46But, Tom, what made you put him up in that tier?
9:50And I guess really the actionable question I'd ask you is if he's in that tier for you, what would it take
9:57to trade a McBride or a Loveland to go and get a Warren?
10:01Like Warren plus what would be worth that for you?
10:04So right out of the gate, I would still obviously want a one just because the production, if you have a McBride,
10:12you're using him as an anchor with his production to go and get the kind of the extreme ad.
10:18That is a very hard to get 27-1. That's kind of what I would be looking for.
10:23And for me, it's really just through the first 12, 13 weeks of the season, he was like tight end five in fantasy points per game.
10:32His early runout before injuries and everything else kind of took over in Indianapolis and even got Phillip Rivers, which is not
10:39something anyone in Indianapolis could have wanted. Jacob, you can definitely attest to that.
10:44But the start of his rookie year was as good as we've seen.
10:48Right? 20 points, a 15 point. He had a 10.
10:51He's still a tight end. 22, 17, 22, 20.
10:54Right? We had 12.5, an 11, a 24 point.
10:57Then the bye week hit. Then he had a, you know, a 13, a 13 weeks that didn't kill you.
11:04Then, of course, the Daniel Jones injury. Then the Phillip Rivers and everything kind of fell apart.
11:09As a rookie, I think that kind of season is insane.
11:13And I think if the season didn't fizzle out for the Colts the way that we all saw happen on national TV, we had the Seahawks game.
11:22Everything went wrong for them down the stretch. It even stunted Jonathan Taylor a little bit, who was on a near record pace himself.
11:30That entire offense got hit pretty hard. Had that rookie season kind of gotten to play out the way we were seeing
11:37it, we're also talking about one of the better rookie tight end seasons we might have seen in a really long time.
11:44And I don't think Tyler Warren's getting the credit for that.
11:48Not a lot has changed aside from Michael Pittman Jr.
11:51no longer being on the offense. The core is still the same.
11:55I expect his usage to remain very similar. Now, I think the thing that separates somebody like him and McBride and Loveland
12:02about is the 30 point game upside may not be there as readily.
12:07But we're talking about a player who earns targets, runs really legitimate routes, and is a red zone threat and a really
12:14creative offense designed in part around him. And we're also talking about a tight end who could be the number one target
12:21on his offense, which is, as we've talked about a lot, so important for hitting any sort of ceiling.
12:27I think Tyler Warren's rookie year got cut short, though he played it, just simply because of the circumstance of the offense.
12:34And I don't think he's getting the credit. I know he may not be as explosive as a player, which is something
12:42a lot of people care about deeply. But a near 20% target share, ran 80% of the routes.
12:48He's on the field a lot at 83%. There's a lot to like here.
12:52And Tyler Warren's start, I think, is being really underlooked because it happened so early in the year.
12:58With everything else. So he may not be as sexy as, say, Loveland is getting steamed up.
13:04Because Loveland did his in the playoffs. He did his in week 17, 18.
13:08I talk about a lot what happens at the end of the year carries a lot more weight.
13:14I think if Warren got to finish the year out at his pace before the offense crumbled, we would be talking about
13:21Tyler Warren in a very different light. I think he definitely deserves to be in that next set.
13:27I think my issue with Warren is just, it's similar to why I felt he was a good, but a slightly weaker prospect in Loveland coming out.
13:36It's just, I love what Warren can provide to an offense.
13:40And he's able to do a lot on early downs.
13:43He's able to do a lot built off the run game.
13:47And a lot of that is a credit to him as a blocking force.
13:51Incredible after the catch player. I think that there is still a limitation with Warren with respect to just, can this guy
13:58go and win a route as like a primary option in a drop back passing game?
14:04That I think limits him a little bit compared to the three guys above him.
14:09And specifically compared to Colston Loveland, where if you look into the data last year, like a lot of Warren's production comes on, on early downs.
14:17He has a way higher targets per route run on early down, specifically on play action passes on early downs.
14:24It's over a 30% targets per route run. That's a bit of a similar profile in terms of usage to like Tucker craft.
14:31Now, Warren already had more impressive usage overall than, than crafted.
14:35I think he's a higher level as an all around receiving tight end, but it's a comparison.
14:40Whereas Loveland to me, he's a guy that as he continues to improve as a blocker, I think you can see growth in that area.
14:49But already he's a guy that you can isolate one-on-one versus DBs.
14:53That is more of that downfield, like engine of a passing game versus I think Warren right now is a little bit more of a matchup piece.
15:01He's going to have a huge opportunity this year.
15:04I mean, no Michael Pittman anymore. God knows what's happening with Alec Pierce.
15:09His health is completely up in the air. So I'm definitely interested to see, can Warren step up and be more of
15:16that all around engine compared to somewhat of the matchup piece that he was last year?
15:21It's definitely going to be something that's going to be huge for the Colts to find out.
15:27And certainly for dynasty managers to find out. That brings us to our next tier, which is a three-person tier.
15:33And we all had the same three names in this tier.
15:37We had a very slight difference of how we ranked it out.
15:41But Sam Laporta comes in at tight end five.
15:44We just mentioned Tucker Craft. He comes in right behind him at tight end six.
15:49And then Harold Fannin comes in for all of us as our tight end seven.
15:54So I think the biggest thing that sticks to me here is just kind of we have Kraft and Laporta in a slightly different order.
16:02So maybe that's worth interrogating a little bit. I have Laporta and then Kraft.
16:06Tom is the same. And Jacob has Kraft ahead of Laporta.
16:10I guess my kind of take here would be while I was impressed by Tucker Craft last year in the run of
16:17production that he had before the ACL tear, we have still never really seen him be like a especially like fantasy friendly
16:24tight end or a fantasy friendly like receiving profile.
16:27Kyle at any point with Christian Watson and with Jaden Reed healthy in the offense, because it's very easy to forget that
16:35at the beginning of last year, Jaden Reed was banged up.
16:38Christian Watson was yet to return from his injury, suffered the season before.
16:42And that kind of big Tucker Craft breakout stretch is exciting as it was and as amazing as he looked to me.
16:50I it that came in the absence of, in my mind, like the two most talented pass catchers on the team, or
16:57at least the best kind of target earners on the team.
17:01So I just worry a little bit in ranking Kraft ahead of Laporta that we're focusing like too much on what we
17:08just most recently saw, which is Sam Laporta being injured for most of 2025 and then being out for like the second half of the year.
17:16I kind of just looking at the totality of their careers, I feel better about a Laporta in Dynasty and like what I'm getting.
17:24I still think there's like a I don't know, like a 10 to 20 percent chance that the kind of breakout we
17:31saw from Kraft last year was fake and that he just goes back to kind of like the low end tight end
17:39one range that he had lived in before that, just because of pure like passing volume and target volume like not being there.
17:46So Kraft's pretty interesting profile, you know, comes in as a round three pick for his rookie season.
17:52He was even behind Luke Musgrave and it really took for that injury for him to start to elevate, become a full
17:59time player, and he never gave that up. He has led all NFL tight ends in yards after the catch per reception for three straight seasons.
18:08In other words, he's led all tight ends in yards after the catch for every season that he's played in the NFL, which is a pretty crazy stat.
18:17And I think that that can be interpreted bullishly or bearishly depending on your perspective.
18:22I mean, I've been a little bit lower on Kraft like in seasonal markets, and so I've made more of the bear case on Kraft.
18:30And I definitely get it. Like his usage last year, even in his best season or best partial season, had a 4.88-0, 19% targets per route run.
18:39That in and of itself is like kind of Brenton Strange, Jake Ferguson-esque usage.
18:44You know, what Kraft does to turn that sort of borderline tight end one, tight end two usage into top five tight
18:51end usage is he trucks dudes constantly. And he averaged over 10 yards per reception after the catch just last season, which is remarkable.
18:59I'm a little skeptical if he can do that off of the ACL, but the reason why I pushed him above Laporta
19:06is just from like a dynasty upside perspective to me.
19:09With Kraft, I don't think he has the all-around receiving skills to be like an engine of a pass game offense.
19:16I mean, I would raise the same concerns I just said about Warren, but with larger concerns.
19:22But at least it's theoretically possible where he has this absolute trump card trait already with the Yak skills.
19:28I think as soon as he's back healthy, whether that's this year or next year, that's going to come back.
19:34And if there's any room for growth, he has like a plausible route to being, you know, a top one or two target on his team.
19:43Sam Laporta, I like a lot. I haven't ranked above Kraft this year in seasonal leagues actually just through the injury concerns.
19:50But I do think that there are systemic limitations.
19:53Like he's locked in on the Lions for a long time.
19:57He's never going to be ahead of Aminra St.
20:00Brown. And I'm not 100% sure if he's ahead or behind of Jamison Williams.
20:04So he's like kind of at best the 2A and like maybe the 2B and maybe even the 3 if we see
20:12some of what Jamison Williams is able to do without him carry over forward to next year.
20:17And that does matter to me for the upside case.
20:20I think it's very difficult to envision a scenario where Laporta is moving up a tier at this point as long as he is behind Aminra St.
20:29Brown and Jamison Williams continues to impress. Because Fannin is the guy I almost put at 5 because I think he is
20:36the guy that has a plausible case to being number one on his team.
20:41I just think that there's always structural concerns with him related to the blocking.
20:46I don't think it's going to matter this year if they don't have any meaningful tight end on the roster.
20:52I think he's clearly their 11 personnel tight end this year.
20:56But it is always like a nagging thing in the back of my mind of, you know, what if when this Browns
21:03team tries to contend for the playoffs, could we see them bring in a, you know, kind of what's happening to Rondé
21:10Gadsden right now potentially where they bring in another guy to come in and eat some snaps.
21:16And Fannin starts to look a little bit more 65% route, 70% routes instead of 80, 90% routes.
21:22And that would be a meaningful hit to his upside.
21:25But yeah, I definitely danged Fannin a little bit just due to the situation, the uncertainty.
21:30We've got multiple rookie wide receivers coming in. We don't know if the role is going to stay the same, but he's a hell of a player.
21:39And if you're talking about really upper tier upside, he definitely has it.
21:43And again, talk about trying to tackle him. He's an absolute monster.
21:47So I definitely, I've gone back and forth ranking Fannin ahead of Kraft just multiple times.
21:53But there's something about Kraft's game that just, I want to see it this year to see how he bounces back and
22:00how he's used with the two wide receivers that Ryan mentioned.
22:03Are they going to shift away from the super run heavy approach from Josh Jacobs?
22:08Is Josh Jacobs going to play? Are they going to, are they going to choose to move off of that run heavy
22:16approach that drives Jacobs so insane on Twitter every single Packers primetime game?
22:20Or are they going to be forced to move away from it and really see what this offense can do?
22:26I'm definitely a little bit more enamored with somebody like Kraft.
22:30The Laporta stuff, I also thought about moving him because his injuries aren't like small.
22:35Like they're pretty significant injuries. We're talking about back and neck and knee.
22:39Like it's, it's really tough. I'm also interested to see if it goes right back to Laporta ahead of Williams in the pecking order.
22:47Was it the play caller? Was it the Laporta injury?
22:50We don't know. I'd like to figure it out.
22:53But also on this list between Warren, Laporta, Kraft, and Fannin, if there's a guy that could score 10 to 13 touchdowns, I think it is Laporta.
23:02So I think that's his upside case with how that offense runs.
23:06So we'll see. I think all the pass catchers should be a little bit more afraid of Jameer Gibbs in that passing offense this year as well.
23:15So there is a lot. So I think live, I would probably swap Fannin and Kraft.
23:20And I would be really tempted to swap Fannin and Laporta and join you at Fannin at five.
23:26All right. So we got our next tier here.
23:29And this is like, this is the last tier really where everybody was on the same page.
23:35And after that, and it's also, I'd say the last tier where there's like, I think a combination of you can probably
23:42start this guy at least at some point this year.
23:45And you could envision this guy being a top five dynasty tight end for the long haul.
23:51After this tier, you get into a mix of like taxi squad stashes that you're hoping bear fruit in a couple of years.
23:58Very speculative, kind of fragile, but upside young tight ends.
24:02And then like veterans who you can get some points from this year, but who have zero meaningful value upside.
24:08So this tier is Kyle Pitts and it's Kenyon Sadiq.
24:11Kyle Pitts, of course, coming in from his bit of a breakout second half.
24:16And then Sadiq, the rookie, most athletic tight end prospect of all time coming into the New York Jets this season.
24:23Yeah. Anyone want to go ahead and speak on these two guys?
24:27I think maybe the most actionable thing we can say here is that when it's week six and Kenyon Sadiq has either
24:34barely seen the future, or just has not like really popped or like been a big factor in the Jets offense.
24:41Do not move them down your dynasty rankings like that.
24:44We should have that baked in or go in with an understanding that Sadiq has missed basically the entirety of the summer.
24:51He's going to continue missing time in training camp.
24:54Colston Loveland had a similar thing last year. As good as we think Loveland is, as bullishly as we just talked about
25:02him, comparing him to McBride, putting him in that tier.
25:05The same thing happened to Loveland last year where he missed a lot of the summer.
25:10And he just was not that involved in the offense until like late November.
25:15Right. So we just need to understand, I think, that the tight end position has a longer learning curve, particularly if you
25:22are missing team activities in your rookie season, mini camp and all of everything that goes on in the summer.
25:28Just like be patient on Sadiq. Not that I think Sadiq is like the caliber of prospect that Colston Loveland is or anything like that.
25:37But whatever you think of him right now, you should just write like a sticky note on your monitor, time capsule, freeze that in time.
25:45There's not really a reason to change that, even if he is not that involved or doesn't play that much for the first like half of the season.
25:54Yeah, you got to know what you drafted, right?
25:57I mean, you made the choice to select Kenyon Sadiq.
26:00He's a very wide range of outcomes play. This is a guy who has all the athletic upside in the world, but
26:08is still very raw from both a blocking perspective and still very raw, especially as a route runner.
26:13I'm interested to see how he gets used this year.
26:17I do expect him to have flash plays on short area yak targets.
26:21Can he actually win as a route runner in the intermediate and deeper areas of the field?
26:27I don't know. Can he hold up to blocking in line and be that every down guy?
26:32I don't know. We're going to find out a lot this year, but I definitely agree.
26:37It's probably going to be a bumpy ride out of the gate, especially after the injury.
26:43Definitely want to stay patient. But he is a guy that, you know, if you don't have any of these top seven
26:50names where you can easily envision, okay, this is my tight end for the next five years, seven years.
26:56I don't have to worry about this position. My guy in dynasty.
27:00While Sadiq is probably the next best bet, I think, to be that guy, you just have to understand the risk you're taking.
27:08So probably, ideally, you pair him with one of the older, boring veterans that we have down the list to man down
27:15your tight end one spot for the first month of the season if you have him on a contender.
27:21And you ride it out. Pitts is fascinating. He's been more valued this year than he was, I think, since maybe going into year three of his year.
27:30Coming off a year where they let him run a ton of routes and coming off a year where he had this massive production spike last year.
27:39Primarily, of course, after Drake London was out. I'm not buying it a ton.
27:44I mean, Kyle Pitts is going depending on what format you play.
27:48He's going interchangeably with Laporta, Kraft, and Fannin in seasonal leagues this year.
27:52He's similar age to Laporta and Kraft. I'm a little skeptical.
27:55I think that the blocking limitations are real. That's probably more of a long-term concern than it might be this year because their receivers are so poor.
28:04But I just haven't seen the level of twitchiness from Kyle Pitts really since that first PCL injury.
28:10Maybe that's gone. But even last year, I thought he was used more but used a lot closer to the line of scrimmage.
28:18He was used a lot more in yak stuff.
28:21They were kind of funneling their passing offense through him at the end of the year when they didn't have any other options.
28:28And it was kind of cooked. Darnell Mooney was their assumed wide receiver one.
28:33I would guess that Kyle Pitts has more of a mid-to-low-end tight end one season this year than he does flash that elite upside this year.
28:41But I'm interested to hear your guys' takes on Pitts and whether we can still recapture the promise that we had once upon a time.
28:50I think it looks a lot better for him.
28:53But I don't think the quarterback that was hyper-feeding him is still in Atlanta at this point.
28:58And that could be a really big difference. And yeah, healthy weapons, Bichon in London.
29:03And it's really tough to expect this kind of production again from Pitts.
29:07But you don't really have a lot to lose.
29:10And the upside is of the guys, he has increased his touchdown total every year.
29:15We could see six next year. He's gone literally one, two, three, four, five over his career.
29:21So the red zone stuff would be nice. I'm not expecting a whole lot.
29:25I struggled to rank him here. Sadiq is more interesting to me where I think we had this expectation on rookie tight ends now.
29:33Like we've been so spoiled for so long. It is kind of easy to ignore red flags even in hyper-athlete type tight ends.
29:41We have been spoiled like year over year. There's always a guy it feels like.
29:46And so I think you guys were right to say kind of level your expectation for someone like Sadiq.
29:52I'm kind of out on Pitts this year. I'm happy he got, you know, what he got and happy that he kind of had a second breakout.
30:01But I think a lot of things went his way.
30:04And with how awful the quarterback situation is kind of looking, I'm going to be out until maybe they kind of fix that.
30:12I think he's clearly a third option type player in this offense.
30:16I'm going to be out. I think I would just rather take some of the veterans.
30:21I have ranked Pitts in redraft such that anyone following my rankings isn't going to get him.
30:26Really the biggest thing for me is just that he was not a productive fantasy tight end whatsoever whenever Drake London was healthy and in the lineup.
30:35And that's just a really big thing at tight end for me, which is we kind of, I think Andrew Cooper is
30:43the one that posts this meme like every week one and then every week four.
30:47We go through this tight end cycle where in the offseason, everyone is like, wow, tight end is so deep.
30:54I don't think it even is that deep this year, but that's often the thought.
30:59It hits week one and none of them perform very well.
31:03We're like, oh my God, there's no good tight ends.
31:06This is terrible. And then wide receivers get hurt and the tight ends start playing better.
31:11And we get back to the beginning of the cycle and we're in the next offseason and we just expect tight ends
31:18to continue to score as they did. When they're the wide receivers in their offenses were banged up or yeah, they were
31:26otherwise kind of forced to be relied upon. I think that's like Kyle Pitts to a T this year.
31:32I think the ADP is very much baking in that the like second half and I say second half, but it was
31:39really like four or five games that that was real.
31:42And when it was like pretty clearly explainable by the Drake London injury by Pitts, his first read target share in the
31:49intermediate areas doubling with London out or limited. I I don't even mind the quarterback situation so much.
31:55I think to a tongue of a low is potentially like a great quarterback for kind of a PPR scam tight end.
32:03As we have seen in Miami, I think like the there's like enough reasons to talk yourself into him in environmental wise for me.
32:10I was just on a show with Evan Silva where he made a pretty good upside case for him.
32:17I thought based on to based on just the coaching staff like I can see like all of that.
32:23But yeah, in dynasty is just kind of not a player I believe in a ton ultimately and that has only really
32:30shown like the high end tight end one upside when every literally everybody else around him has gotten injured.
32:36So yeah, he's he's like a shrug of the shoulders to me.
32:40Mostly I prefer a Sadiq and just taking that shot.
32:44And if I'm looking for points this year, there are other like cheaper tight ends that I prefer.
32:50All right. So that kind of concludes the everyone is on the same page portion of the proceedings.
32:55Now we get into a group of tiers that like these tiers are they make sense in the sense that like this
33:03is the order that we rank them. But almost all of these tiers have an interesting and kind of incoherent mix of
33:10players from like guys that are going to have no starting value this year to older plug and play guys to somewhere in between.
33:18And we start that with this next year. So Dalton Kincaid leads off this next group, followed by George Kittle, followed by Rondé Gadsden, followed by Eli Stowers.
33:27And so, I mean, this is the point where I think it's fun to talk through all of these players.
33:33Of all of the rankings episodes we've done, this is where the specific order in which we rank players, I think, is
33:41like least actionable here and through the rest of the way.
33:44Because I don't really know how to answer the question if someone was like, well, would you prefer George Kittle or Eli Stowers in Dynasty?
33:53I mean, like I haven't ranked it a certain way, but functionally, what does your team look like?
33:58And this isn't even just like a rebuild versus contend thing.
34:02It's like, well, do you have Trey McBride on your team?
34:06Because if you do, then like, yeah, I probably wouldn't want to pay the premium that George Kittle costs on a tight end too.
34:14You know, you can get a like worthwhile start them for two weeks if Jerry McBride turns an ankle tight end a lot cheaper than George Kittle is.
34:23I'm much more interested in rostering a lottery ticket that might not have any starting value this year.
34:29But, you know, if you don't have anyone in tiers S through D, then yeah, you probably can't get much better than
34:36George Kittle in terms of someone who's going to provide legitimate value to your lineup this year.
34:41Ideally, you can structure tight end room by pairing someone like Kittle with someone like Stowers or Gadsden or someone from a little bit lower down our list.
34:51And you hope that that guy is the heir apparent to being your tight end one.
34:56And I'll sort of make that my opening salvo.
34:59And then if you guys want to talk about one of these players that interests you, feel free to go for it.
35:06Jacob just kind of stated everything else that I was going to say for the rest of the show.
35:12It really all of these guys to me do just depend.
35:16What is your team look like? What are you trying to accomplish in terms of how I'm going to rank and tier and order them for you?
35:25But I will I guess I'll make one case here that I had Dalton Kincaid a tier ahead of these guys.
35:32I had him up in the tier with Kenyon Sadiq and with Kyle Pitts.
35:36And to me, the reason for that is I do see both the kind of longer term value upside for Dalton Kincaid
35:43and also the he could be a really productive fantasy tight end for you this year with him.
35:49I feel like every other guy is kind of one or the other.
35:54I think Kincaid does hit on both of those for me.
35:57I I feel a little bit like gaslit or ashamed just in terms of my Dalton Kincaid coverage up to a few
36:04weeks ago because I just kind of came to the realization.
36:08Like, yes, there is absolutely a chance, just like with a Kyle Pitts, just like with a Harold Fan and just like
36:15even with a Kenyon Sadiq that maybe Kincaid just will never be a full time player in the NFL and or with any particular team that he's on.
36:24It could always be such that he just doesn't run enough routes to be fantasy viable.
36:30That's always a concern that will follow Kincaid around kind of wherever he goes.
36:34I'm just not sure that that's actually the case for the bills this year, as has kind of been taken for granted,
36:42I think, in coming off of the season he had last year.
36:45I think we've done a poor job, like separating out the exact reasons why Dalton Kincaid was below a 50 percent route
36:53share for a lot of his games last season.
36:56He was being workload managed and he had a serious lower body injury for most of it.
37:01Right. We've gotten the bills coaches kind of talking about that and confirming that over the offseason that it was very much a workload management thing.
37:10They want him playing more. They really like him being on the field.
37:14They think he's a great player and a big part of their their offense.
37:19And even kind of with all that hanging over him, even when he was just running over half the routes, Kincaid averaged
37:26over 14 fantasy points per game last year, which is pretty crazy.
37:30And that was largely like the first few weeks of the season, plus the last couple of weeks in the playoffs when they were clearly saving him for.
37:39But this is an offense that Kincaid can step in even on like a 60 to 66 percent route share, even if
37:46he's not like a true full time player. He can score like one just because of how productive this bill's passing offense
37:53can be because of how I'll say like ambiguous or uninspiring.
37:57The wide receiver core is ahead of him. I'm on record as a DJ more doubter.
38:02I think Khalil Shakir is a fine player, but not somebody that has to have a passing game like built around him or demands as such.
38:11Right. So in terms of like which tight end could be a top two target on their team in any given season,
38:18Dalton Kincaid's definitely in that conversation to me. So he just kind of fits a lot of the things I'm looking for for upside in a tight end.
38:27And I also think that if he comes out in week one and runs anything approximating a normal route share, 65, 70
38:34percent, that opinions on him will shift very quickly in the community, just in terms of his dynasty value and how people are viewing him going forward.
38:43He is still a pretty young player. He's attached to Josh Allen.
38:47Like there are a lot of things to like from a dynasty profile here.
38:52It really is just to me, I think like the last thing we saw, the taste everyone has in their mouths is
38:59just the limited snap share when he was injured.
39:02So I'm willing to bet that that turns around this year and people flip quickly.
39:07Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Kincaid because he was going to be mine as well.
39:12I almost put him in this tier and a lot of it did come down to injury issues specifically where he's been
39:19hurt every year, but he's also been one of the more efficient players at his position over the last couple of years.
39:27We're talking about a 99th percentile yards per target, a 96th percentile yards per reception at the position.
39:32He actually in my, in my model here, I did, he had three boom games compared to two bus games.
39:39That's more boom games and Kyle Pitts had himself and Sam Laporta had himself last year.
39:44So the upside is definitely there. Should he get the opportunity to be a full-time player?
39:50I think we can expect a massive jump. I only struggled again just simply because of the injury and the, uh, the
39:57snap share, the routes run, et cetera. So that's the only thing holding him back for me.
40:02And of course, like if not for the serious injury, I think Kittle would have been one up for me as well.
40:10But I still think there's something to, something to wait and see about with Kittle, but I'm with you with Kincaid.
40:16He was the one for me that I think could really boost up here this season.
40:22I'll, uh, jump in on the other two guys here.
40:25The two youngsters who have probably similar route consideration issues, uh, near and long-term in Gadsden and Sowers, just because it's August 11th.
40:33And maybe some of you guys haven't been listening to us all the way back from April, uh, when we were doing
40:40rookie content for Eli Sowers or, um, following the news quite as closely as maybe we are.
40:45So Ronday Gadsden last year, people are wondering how is he buried so far down this list?
40:51I mean, he had a fantastically productive rookie season, had that stretch toward the middle of the season where it felt like
40:58he was putting up a hundred yards, dang near every single game.
41:02Um, they signed Charlie Collar or I was told yesterday by Trey, it's Charlie Kohler, Charlie Kohler, uh, in the off season
41:09to come in and do some help with some blocking.
41:13They signed David Njoku shortly after that reports out of Chargers camp is that Charlie Kohler is the, I quote, very clear tight end one.
41:21And that Gadsden and Njoku are rotating in as the tight end too, and we'll have distinct roles depending on the package,
41:28but that Njoku has played more with the first team thus far.
41:32Um, I kind of want to know what that means and how people should interpret this stuff for tight ends.
41:38And I'm a lot of it applies to Kincaid as well, of course.
41:43So I'm assuming that when they say Kohler is the clear tight end one, that that means if it's first and 10
41:50and the Chargers are an 11 personnel, so three wide receivers and one tight end and one running back on the field,
41:57that means Charlie Kohler is the most likely tight end to be out there.
42:02Now that obviously does not comprise all tight end routes.
42:05Um, in addition to that, you get 12 personnel, 13 personnel packages.
42:09That's, you know, in theory, what Gadsden is potentially splitting with Njoku right now is those 12 personnel snaps.
42:15What you also get are what I would consider more passing focused 11 personnel situations.
42:20So third downs, two minute drill, sometimes entireties of second halves if you're trailing by a touchdown or more and you're constantly in passing situations.
42:28At that point, you know, the run blocking is not really a consideration.
42:33I am personally very skeptical that Charlie Kohler is going to be the tight end one for this team in all of those different situations.
42:41It's possible he is, but I would be surprised if in the two minute drill, we see him do that.
42:47You know, if you're a top tight end, obviously, if you're Trey McBride, you know, he's the inline tight end in all of those situations.
42:56He's, he's the guy on first and 10 in the first quarter.
43:00He's the guy in the two minute drill. If you bring in extra tight ends, he can move out and play in the slot.
43:07They could also play in the slot. He could play in line.
43:11He's an all around superstar with a guy like Gadsden.
43:15In most cases, you know, Harold fan, and I throw in the same category.
43:19I think Fann is going to be an exception to the rule because the Browns one, I don't think are very serious about winning games this year.
43:28Let's just be honest. And two, they don't really have any other tight ends on the roster.
43:34So I think Fann is going to get a lot of usage that a player of this archetype typically would not.
43:41With Gadsden, what you're really hoping for is can this guy play enough in 12 personnel combined with all of these passing
43:48situation 11 personnel snaps to get like 65, 70, 75% of the routes.
43:52That's the kind of role that we've seen for like a Jared Cook for a long stretch of his career.
43:59That's the role we saw for like Kobe Fleener for a long stretch of his career.
44:04That's the role that we've seen for Kyle Pitts at times in his career and sometimes more than that.
44:10That's the role that frankly, I think we would be thrilled about Dalton Kincaid having.
44:15Last year, he had considerably less than that. Where I've gotten really concerned with Gadsden is not as much Kohler.
44:22It's now you throw in Joku into the mix who is apparently splitting reps in 12.
44:27Is Gadsden going to be the guy who's in passing situation 11 personnel or is it going to be in Joku?
44:34I don't know. They seem to really like their receivers.
44:37Does that mean they're going to run less multiple tight end sets?
44:41I don't know. Right now, it's really sketchy. So I think if a Rondae Gadsden is on your dynasty roster, it's a
44:48spot where I'm still pretty bullish about what the talent is capable of.
44:52I think he's a really talented player. We have also seen players like this at this position have huge rookie seasons and
45:00then virtually never get heard from again for multiple years when the coaching staff changes because different coaches have very different views
45:07on what they want out of the tight end position.
45:10Greg Dulcich is a guy that comes to mind naturally for this.
45:14He played 10 games as a rookie. He had almost 50 yards per game, was exactly in this kind of receiving role that I'm talking about.
45:23New coaching staff comes in. They said, yeah, we're good here with Greg Dulcich.
45:27They had no interest in that. They wanted to emphasize blocking more at the tight end position.
45:33He might actually be viable again this year, but it has taken like four years in the wilderness before he's even back on the fantasy radar.
45:41Anyways, I say all this because if you have Gadsden and you can find someone in your league who is not paying
45:49attention to the news and who is still remembering what he was capable of last year, maybe this is a decent time to go and sell.
45:57If you can't, you know, I would probably hold him.
46:00I think he's a talented player who I'd be willing to keep on my roster even if this year doesn't go very
46:08well for him off of the start. But you do probably need to have some contingency plans about who you're going to
46:15be able to start at tight end this year if Gadsden's role is quite fragile out of the gates.
46:21And anyways, I've been monologuing for a long time, so I'm not going to say all the same stuff I just said
46:28for Eli Stowers, but a lot of the same concerns for him, except I would say even magnified.
46:34I mean, from what I'm reading out of Eagles camp, I wouldn't expect him to be active in week one.
46:41I wouldn't expect him to have a significant role for as long as Dallas Goddard is healthy this year.
46:47I think this is a guy that you're betting on as a long-term lottery ticket.
46:52I would not make him a major part of your plans for this season.
46:56That's fine. Just know what you have there. Yeah, I just drafted Stowers in the 12th round.
47:02He's the second tight end I drafted in a startup, and I was very happy with that.
47:08That is definitely the strategy. Jacob, you almost hit a little bit of a short view there, which people can go and
47:15find over at The Long View on YouTube every week now.
47:18All right. So after we get through that tier, now we get a group of, again, a little bit of a mix.
47:26I think we get a couple of boring guys where if you are trying to find upside at tight end and you
47:33have an Eli Stowers or an Aronday Gadsden, it would make sense for you to pair one of them with, for instance,
47:40Jake Ferguson or Bretton Strange, who lead off this next tier.
47:44And rounding out that tier is the other Ferguson.
47:47That is Terrence Ferguson and Isaiah Likely. So kind of a mix of guys here.
47:52Nobody particularly old. I think that there's a mix of two guys that kind of are what they are, you know, in Jake Ferguson and Bretton Strange.
48:00Stull works right around that tight end one, tight end two borderline.
48:04And then two interesting players who I think have, you know, reasonable questions about role, but have gotten a lot of hype this offseason.
48:12Is it possible that they could ascend into that upper tier?
48:16Who do you want to touch on? I'll go to Ryan first.
48:20Yeah, let's talk about Terrence Ferguson. He's one that I guess I came to realize he just fits the description of a breakout tight end.
48:28He's going into year two, which is just kind of the most popular time that we see tight ends break out in.
48:35Largely because that's most often when tight ends move from not a full time role to something approximating a full time role.
48:42That could describe Terrence Ferguson this year. Of course, we've talked all offseason about the Rams using their three tight end sets and 13 personnel.
48:51But looking at this roster up and down, there is no clear third wide receiver here.
48:56Who's to say that if Puka Nakua or Devontae Adams were to suffer an injury or a suspension?
49:02Thank you, Adam Schefter. Who's to say that it wouldn't be Terrence Ferguson stepping into a larger role in this passing game?
49:09So there's clear opportunity there and one of the best offenses in the NFL.
49:14Ferguson was an intriguing prospect where it was, I would say, the nicer points of his prospect profile that people were very
49:21into was kind of the physical attributes, the athleticism.
49:24In hindsight, kind of after all of us have gone and evaluated Kenyon Sadiq, I think his production while competing with Sadiq
49:31and or even outproducing Sadiq in his final season looks more impressive in hindsight now that we have seen Sadiq go in round one.
49:39So there's just kind of a mix of factors here that get me pretty intrigued in his upside.
49:45He's a guy that I am targeting as like a tight end to stab in redraft.
49:50I think he makes sense in the exact same context in Dynasty.
49:54If you do have him paired with like one of the steadier options.
49:58Yeah, he's pretty fun. And someone that I don't know, I feel like outside of maybe our like hyper online bubble is
50:05not someone that is being talked about a ton in fantasy circles.
50:09And I'm kind of aiming to change that. Well, I think part of that really optimistic about Terrence Ferguson.
50:16I've been pumping him up. I think he's a great last round head and redraft.
50:21He's a very fun stab in Dynasty. I want to play a fun, fun mystery comp.
50:26Okay. Oh, so Terrence Ferguson last year. I mean, he had a pretty small role.
50:31He only ran 163 routes. He was a healthy and active at times.
50:35But when he did play, he got this really fun downfield usage.
50:39Had 18.6 ADOT, 466 air yards. Was used in a way that makes you pretty interested in what they could do with
50:46him if they used him as a full-time role.
50:49So here's another tight end in their rookie season who had just 199 routes run.
50:54That's a 36% route rate, slightly more than Terrence Ferguson.
50:57He had 497 air yards, right? Ferguson had 466.
51:00He did have more targets. He did have more receptions.
51:04Who do you think that that tight end is in their rookie season?
51:08Higher ADOT, not a lot of routes. Only 35% of routes.
51:11Very similar to Terrence Ferguson. Had a few more targets.
51:15Slightly lower ADOT, but still top 8 at the position in average depth of target.
51:20And had almost identical year 1 total air yards.
51:23So my initial, before you said it was year 1, my initial guess was going to be Darren Waller.
51:29Because if you just look at the ADOT for, like all the highest ADOT seasons for every tight end, it's Terrence Ferguson
51:36at the top and then like a ton of Darren Waller seasons and like some Kyle Pitts seasons.
51:42But I really don't have a guess. So you're going to have to tell me unless Tom knows.
51:48I think I want to guess, because the way he's framing it, I think it's very like specific.
51:54I want to say it's someone crazy like a George Kittle or something.
51:58Or Vernon Davis. Because it's Mark Andrews. Ah, yeah.
52:01It's Mark Andrews' rookie year. Who was also a very rotational piece as a rookie.
52:06But flashed a lot of upside. It showed more than Terrence Ferguson.
52:10I'll just be honest about that. But still, was a rotational piece.
52:14Not a guy you could start at. Under 7 points per game as a rookie.
52:19And then year 2 takes this huge step forward.
52:22Year 3 takes another huge step forward. I don't expect Terrence Ferguson to be Mark Andrews.
52:27But it is interesting when you get tight ends that come in and are used in a way that tight ends are just not used.
52:35Like he had an 18.7 ADOT as a tight end.
52:38That's crazy. This is a position that we always talk about all the time as being weird.
52:44You know, tight end is full of outliers. We want outliers.
52:48Why wouldn't you be interested in an outlier like a Terrence Ferguson?
52:52With a coach that I think we all agree is one of the most inventive play callers in the NFL.
52:58So it's not a clean cut bet. I don't know exactly how it happens or when it hits.
53:04But if you're looking at trying to find upside late at the tight end position, I don't know how you could be
53:11more intrigued by anything than this bizarre concoction inside of an offense that everybody wants to be a part of.
53:18I think you nailed it. We can go to the next one.
53:22All right. So Fat Tear is done. Then we go down to our last tier of everyone that we ranked.
53:28So that is Eli Raritan, Gunnar Helm, and Michael Mayer, which, you know, leaves a lot of like starting tight ends off.
53:35We'll get to those guys that made at least one of our lists later.
53:40But Raritan was a rookie favorite of ours. It's certainly a guy that I wrote up constantly.
53:46The fun thing to know about Eli Raritan is early in his career, he had two different ACL tears.
53:52So that's why the production is quite muted overall.
53:55He comes in and in his final season, he gets the chance to be the clear starting tight end.
54:01Had a pretty strong for a tight end production profile in that year, especially on a per route basis.
54:07Had a lot of snaps where he was stuck pass blocking and at Notre Dame.
54:12And that's something where it's negative, you know, of course, in the context of his production profile, because he's constantly out there
54:19passing or he's constantly out there blocking instead of getting the chance to run routes.
54:24But you get the chance of now, oh, I don't think he's going to be used that way in the NFL level.
54:32Almost no tight end has kept blocking on over 30% of pass plays in the NFL, unless they're like Mercedes Lewis.
54:38And I don't think he's that. And you look and see beneath that really interesting profile.
54:44Actually got a lot of downfield usage at the college level.
54:47The way he's been talked up in camp has been really impressive.
54:51He's been winning 50-50 balls. He's been a seam stretcher for them in New England.
54:56I know they just re-signed Hunter Henry. It was not a massive deal.
55:00I don't think that that is a deal that's prohibitive of Raritan, you know, getting on the field this year as the
55:08tight end to potentially taking over as the tight end one as soon as next year and being attached to Drake May.
55:15So I'm a huge fan of Eli Raritan, one of my favorite Dimes, the sleepers.
55:20Yeah, I am as well. I actually had him ranked the highest.
55:24He's my tight end 14 when we were tying this down.
55:27It is 100% just based on I think he's going to end up being the tight end one for Drake May in
55:35this offense and Drake May's third year. I'm not off-put by the Henry signing.
55:39In fact, I think it's a great signing. You want to have that veteran presence and 12 personnel being more and more evident in offenses.
55:47I think it's very good for you to have a player like him, maybe around the red zone, maybe shorter parts of
55:55the field, third down conversions, that trusted. I'll use an old NFL safety blanket, if you would, type tight end where I
56:02think Raritan really has that upside potential and I'm more than happy to roster him as often as I can.
56:08He has gotten steamed up quite a bit, so the idea that he is a real sleeper isn't exactly, I think, accurate.
56:16But I think he is one of my favorite more long shots to really and potentially significantly produce even in year one towards the end of the year.
56:25Again, with the 12 personnel, the wide receiver room in New England is even with A.J.
56:30Brown isn't exactly star-powered, if you would. I think there is opportunity for him to get touches early in year one.
56:37I think if he does, I think it's going to be a jumping up the ranks type scenario, if he produces at all.
56:44So he was sitting at my 14. I would take him over guys like Strange, who I think is upside is capped.
56:52Ferguson, upside capped. Andrews is a touchdown magnet. And I just prefer the situation maybe above some of the other guys like Claire and Helm and Delp, etc.
57:01So that's why he's at 14 for me. Just my favorite upside shot right now.
57:06Yeah. I wouldn't expect much this year. I mean, the reviews have been pretty good on him during the offseason.
57:12But I still don't really see that he fits in as like a pass-catching volume option whatsoever in his rookie season.
57:19But if there are kind of any flashes of it, I tend to agree that he will just rocket up the tiers like fairly quickly.
57:27So yeah, he's a name you need to be aware of.
57:31A guy you need to have your eye on.
57:34That wraps up all the names on our... Actually, I do think we actually need to hit Michael Mayer here a little bit.
57:42Somebody might get confused why he's here. It's 100% that I think another team is going to value what he was as
57:49a draft prospect, what he did in his rookie year, and realize that he kind of got the short end of the
57:56stick with how the Raiders decided to move forward.
57:59I think he's more than capable of being a tight end one on a very high-functioning offense.
58:05And I think a team is going to value that and not want to spend that top tier pick on a tight end in 2027.
58:13Do the Raiders let him walk? I don't know.
58:16They have cap space to spend. And good players don't often just get let go for free as much as we may want them to.
58:24We do that every year. Your favorite free agent, he's going to hit the market, and then all of a sudden they just don't.
58:32Good teams don't really let good players walk. But this is a case where having Brock Bowers might make that really, really possible.
58:39So if Mayer ends up being, I don't know, a Travis Kelsey replacement for the Kansas City Chiefs next year, I mean, that's obviously a perfect fit scenario.
58:49But I feel like a player like Mayer can see himself absolutely skyrocket.
58:53I think that's why he's included in every single trade where if I have him on a roster, I send a trade out.
59:00It's countered to have Mayer on it on the other end.
59:04So he's definitely going to be a must-watch player.
59:07You can get ahead of the market if you go after Mayer now in drafts and in trades before anything happens.
59:14And I'm really looking forward to next season with him.
59:17He's on the list. I felt like he was kind of the last guy we should mention.
59:23But there is hope and potential if the Raiders do let him go.
59:27I'm glad you brought him up. I didn't take it because I assumed Ryan was going to push him because he makes
59:34us draft him every single week in best ball.
59:37So I was just teeing that up for him.
59:40But I think Ryan had this exact take like a month ago or something that I'm going to just plagiarize.
59:47But, you know, you look at what happened with Isaiah Likely, who's up there in the tier above, a guy who was
59:54stuck behind Mark Andrews for years, now gets his chance to be the tight end one.
59:59I'm more intrigued, frankly, by Michael Mayer than I am by Isaiah Likely in a vacuum.
60:04This is a guy who is an all-around tight end who I don't think has routes limitations.
60:10When I was doing some work on tight end prospecting this offseason, I was struck just by, again, how remarkable Michael Mayer was of a tight end prospect.
60:19He would be a pretty big outlier to not hit at any point.
60:23And we've seen plenty of tight ends become a bigger presence on their second contract.
60:28You think of Evan Ingram was a top prospect who mostly disappointed in New York, but then had a run of sustained value in Jacksonville.
60:36Well, David Njoku didn't do much on his first contract.
60:40Cleveland extended him. He eventually became a multi-year tight end one on that second contract.
60:45I think Michael Mayer is the best candidate for that.
60:48And I hope that they let him go. We'll see.
60:51I mean, the Raiders do need to have an inline blocking tight end next to Bowers because Bowers is a pretty unique player.
60:59But I could easily see if a team wants to pay Michael Mayer to be their feature all around tight end, are the Raiders going to match that?
61:08Or are they going to say, you know what?
61:11We'll just opt for a cheaper route. We'll sign Johnny Munt to be our inline tight end.
61:17We're not going to pay a premium $11, $12 million or whatever it could be for Michael Mayer to be in a
61:24role that frankly is, I think, beneath him. So I echo your guys' enthusiasm for sure on the Mayer.
61:30I love it. Yeah, I probably should have brought him up.
61:34That's my bad. But yeah, I like with Mayer and Dynasty that you get kind of two chances for it to work out.
61:41I think there's an outside shot, certainly a better shot than Eli Raritan for him to have like fantasy relevant spikes this year.
61:49We look at this wide receiver depth chart. It's still topped by Trey Tucker and Jalen Naylor.
61:54This could just be a team that lives in 12 personnel.
61:58And it could be that Michael Mayer out targets somebody like a Jalen Naylor or like a Trey Tucker.
62:04That would not be shocking to me at all.
62:07And if that doesn't happen, then yeah, it's probably more likely they let him go next offseason.
62:13So yeah, I think you just kind of get so many like routes to value appreciation with him.
62:19So yeah, he's been someone I've been on a lot in all formats.
62:23All right, I'll run through the names of guys that made at least one of our lists here.
62:29If you're wondering where some of your potential guys are, that is Dallas Goddard, Jawan Johnson, TJ Hawkinson, Chagosia McConquo, Mark Andrews.
62:36So kind of all these guys that you can start if you need to this year, as well as Travis Kelsey.
62:43And then two more young guys in Oster Delp and Max Clare.
62:47If there's anyone there you want to make the stump speech for.
62:51I will just say Andrews is my favorite cheap point score.
62:54Like I just attached to Mark, attached to Mark Andrews, attached to Lamar Jackson contract extension that I'm still not thrilled about.
63:02But it did happen and a absolute red zone favorite and touchdown magnet.
63:06He's not going to be the look, the big year that Mark Andrews had.
63:10I talked about it then. I'll talk about it now.
63:14Had a lot to do with the Tyler Huntley spam games that he had.
63:18That never should have been the expectations. However, he's Lamar Jackson's favorite target in the red zone as much as we want it to be Zay Flowers.
63:27So, I mean, you're talking about a later round tight end who is bouncing back another year off of an injury who
63:34could easily see 10 touchdowns if healthy. So, he's my favorite point scorer even more than someone like Travis Kelsey is at this stage in his career.
63:43So, definitely a favorite for me. I do want to apologize to Jawan Johnson who I initially left off my list.
63:50Even though I've talked about him ad nauseum on this program for years, I did leave you off the list.
63:57So, just a formal apology to the man, Jawan Johnson.
64:00Yeah, I'll just add that Dallas Goddard is my favorite point scorer.
64:04I actually had him like in the second to last tier, a tier above.
64:08And that's really like a this year type of take.
64:12But Goddard has just been incredibly productive anytime AJ Brown has not been on the field for the Eagles.
64:18That's what, of course, we're going to see all of this year.
64:22I don't think that Eli Stowers affects Goddard's fantasy outlook at all this year, especially kind of given the dearth of pass
64:29catching depth that the Eagles are currently dealing with, where Makai Lemon has not been practicing.
64:34Dontavian Wicks is like the camp star, which is, of course, where we all knew we were going to end up.
64:41But I think like really the synthesis of this is Dallas Goddard is just going to be a mid-range tight end one
64:48this year on an offense that's probably going to be improved.
64:52So, he's kind of, yeah, my go-to cheap guy that can score points in my lineup in all formats.
64:58For sure. So, that's going to conclude it. That's it.
65:02I foolishly told these guys that we should be in and out of here in roughly 35 minutes before recording this.
65:09And I knew better. I absolutely knew better. You guys would have been disappointed had we done it.
65:14So, that's going to do it. That is our tight end tiers and ranks as we head in to the official week one of the preseason.
65:23I'm sure these are going to need a major updating as we head into the Dynasty Fantasy Football and NFL regular season.
65:30Happy drafting. Happy trading. And remember, the Fantasy Points front office is available right now.
65:35Massive updates being rolled out as we continue to get direct feedback.
65:39Use promo code FPFO. Get 15% off until the end of this month.
65:43I'm excited for it. The feedback has been phenomenal.
65:46I absolutely love seeing all the screenshots and hearing about how much it has helped you guys from the live draft helper to the trade database and beyond.
65:55With that being said, if you're watching this here, it must be Wednesday.
66:00Go back and watch the live that we did last night.
66:03I'm excited for it. These guys did not know what the 5 for 5 was heading in.
66:09Go see the results of 5 for 5 this week.
66:12You're not going to want to miss this one.
66:15Remember that clear eyes and full hearts can never lose.
66:18Your best days are always spent tilting. You're not going to miss this one.
