TE Tiers

Top Tier (Legitimate chance to finish as the TE1)

1.Sam LaPorta – The new potential TE god looked like a young Kelce streaking down the field for TDs, which was previously unheard of for rookie TEs. LaPorta struggled with staying healthy all season (while still playing 17 games) and had five games where he failed to score more than four fantasy points.  It’s clear though he’s the real deal and if it wasn’t the 10 TDs that solidified his case, then sometimes the eye test tells you everything you need to know.  10 TDs with only 15 red zone targets means that LaPorta isn’t just efficient, he’s a monster who is a threat to score every time he touches the ball.  The only thing that can stop LaPorta is his health, but if he follows up his rookie campaign by playing 17 games again, the TE debate will probably be over for the next handful of seasons.

2. Travis Kelce – Kelce proved he still has the TE belt with the way he dominated the post-season on the way towards winning the Super Bowl, but it’s clear that he’s now using the regular season as a ramp-up period and can’t be trusted to dominate the regular season like he has for the previous decade. Last season was the first time since 2014 he finished with under 1000 yards receiving (984) and while he’s still the top target for the best QB in the world, the explosiveness isn’t what it used to be.  His yards-per-reception fell from 12.2 to 10.6 and his TDs fell from 12 to 5 despite finishing second in red zone targets for TE.  Kelce is still elite, but the juice is no longer worth the squeeze for what he costs on draft day.

3. Mark Andrews – All Mark Andrews does is finish as a top-five TE, until last season where an injury limited him to only 10 games and he finished as the TE12.  Andrews was thriving in the new pass-heavy offense and the Ravens’ perpetually unreliable WR core means Andrews will continue to remain a top target for Lamar Jackson. Andrews still finished sixth in red zone targets (14) despite missing seven games.   The only real issue with Andrews is health and while he had played in at least 14 games in five straight seasons, he does seem to be constantly banged up and playing at less than 100%.  Andrews is still a bankable TE brand, but it’s never cheap to draft him and thus the potential value isn’t that great.  He’s still a near-lock to finish in the top-five, but he’s probably much closer to finishing as five than he is one.

4. Evan Engram – Engram had a delayed breakout last season with 963 receiving yards and 114 receptions. The lack of TDs hurt his floor, as he only had four TDs on nine red zone targets.  As a result he had four games where he scored under three points and eight games with under five.  The Jags were a mess last season and even though Calvin Ridley is gone, Trevor Lawrence should have a massive bounce back season and it’s clear that Engram is his most trustworthy target.  The two yards drop in his yards-per-reception (8.4) was probably more a result of a flawed offense than anything else and if he can get it closer to 10.5 two seasons ago, all his numbers should get a nice bump as well.

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