TE Rankings

Bowers is the consensus No. 1 fantasy tight end heading into 2025 on the heels of a record-setting rookie season in which the 2024 first-round pick had the most receptions by a rookie at any position in NFL history (112) and set a rookie tight end record with 1,194 receiving yards. Both of those totals led all NFL tight ends in 2025, as did Bowers’ 153 targets. That production came despite the 4-13 Raiders having some of the worst QB play in the NFL from a combination of Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell and Desmond Ridder. Vegas is expected to get better QB play after trading for Geno Smith, which could lead to more scoring opportunities for the 6-foot-4 Bowers, who merely tied for ninth among TEs with five TDs and tied for eighth at the position with 16 red-zone targets despite being the clear No. 1 option in the team’s passing game overall. The upgrade under center could help Bowers become the exception to the trend of sophomore slumps among exceptionally performing rookies at his position – the previous six TEs to post at least 800 yards as rookies all saw their yardage total decline by at least 158 the following season, and Kyle Pitts (one TD in 2021 to two in 2022) was the only member of that group to increase his touchdown total.

Kittle has aged like fine wine, as the 31-year-old TE’s 2,126 receiving yards over the last two seasons are easily the most at the position, with Trey McBride a distant second at 1,971. Kittle’s 14 TDs over that span are third-most, trailing only the 17 apiece of Sam LaPorta and Mark Andrews. Despite a reputation for being injury-prone due to frequently playing through nagging issues, Kittle has actually been quite durable, suiting up for at least 14 regular-season games in all but one of his eight NFL seasons. He has exceeded 1,000 yards in four of those campaigns, including each of the last two. There is one less mouth to feed in San Francisco after WR Deebo Samuel was traded to Washington in the offseason, while RB Christian McCaffrey and WR Brandon Aiyuk are both coming back from season-ending injuries, so Kittle has the fewest question marks surrounding him among San Francisco’s big-name skill position players heading into 2025. Kittle’s more reliant on quality than quantity of targets relative to other top TEs, as his 94 targets ranked seventh at the position in 2024, but he was second among TEs with 50-plus receptions in both yards before the catch (7.5) and yards after the catch (6.7).

After taking about 1.5 seasons to acclimate to the NFL, McBride has now delivered 1.5 seasons of elite production. His 111 catches and 1,146 receiving yards in 2024 were both second-most in the NFL behind Brock Bowers, and McBride was on a nearly identical pace with 66 catches for 655 yards over the final 10 games of 2023. The lone drawback about McBride’s 2024 output was that he caught only two TDs, but he’s poised for some positive regression in that regard considering McBride’s dearth of touchdowns came despite him ranking second in the NFL with 22 red-zone targets. His overall total of 147 targets was six behind Bowers’ league lead, and that number dwarfs the typical TE usage rate, as only four players at the position reached 100 targets in 2024. McBride could take a slight step back from last season’s average of 9.2 targets per game if WR Marvin Harrison makes a second-year leap to stardom, but any reduction in volume will likely be overshadowed by an uptick in TDs for the 6-foot-4 TE in an Arizona offense that’s expected to look a lot like last year’s in terms of personnel.

LaPorta took a step back after his outstanding rookie season, dipping from 86 catches for 889 yards and 10 touchdowns on 120 targets in 2023 to 60 catches for 726 yards and seven touchdowns on 83 targets in 2024. There’s plenty of success to go around on a Lions offense that led the NFL with 33.2 points per game last season, but RBs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery eat first in this run-first attack, and Amon-Ra St. Brown is the team’s clear No. 1 receiver, leaving LaPorta to battle for secondary targets with speedster Jameson Williams, who had only eight more targets but 275 more yards than the tight end in 2024. LaPorta’s 17 TDs since he came into the league are tied for the most among TEs over that span, and his 20 red-zone targets in 2024 were fifth-most at the position, so his scoring potential should continue to buoy his value, but his situation likely won’t allow him to match the target volume of other top fantasy TEs. Case in point, LaPorta’s 83 targets in 2024 were tied for 12th among TEs with Mike Gesicki, which isn’t exactly elite company.

Andrews had a confounding 2024 season, bouncing back just as fantasy managers were ready to cut bait but then disappointing again as soon as he regained trust. After opening the season on a five-game TD drought and posting 14 or fewer yards in three of those games, Andrews scored 11 TDs over the next 12 games, though he still had two scoreless outings with fewer than 30 yards over that span. He then went back to struggling in the playoffs, notching just 27 yards against the Steelers in the wild-card round before ending the Ravens’ season by dropping the game-tying two-point conversion attempt against the Bills in the AFC Divisional Round. All told, Andrews finished the regular season 20th among TEs with 69 targets, but 16 of those came in the red zone (tied for eighth-most) and he led the position in TDs. Andrews’ average of 8.9 yards before the catch in 2024 was the highest among TEs with 25-plus receptions, but he dipped to just 4.1 targets per game after averaging 7.8 targets over the preceding three campaigns. He’ll continue to face competition for playing time and targets from Isaiah Likely, who had 477 yards and six TDs on 58 targets in 2024, and the possibility of the 25-year-old Likely supplanting the 29-year-old Andrews as the team’s top pass catching TE lowers the veteran’s floor.