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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
David Dorey

Better than average: Tight Ends

As always, there are so few difference-making tight ends that after the top five of the position, there’s only moderate to mediocre fantasy value in all the rest. But as with the other positions, here are how tight ends fared considering how they stacked up against all other tight ends that faced the same defense.

See Also: Better than average  QB | RB | WR | TE 

TM Tight End BTA Score Top-1 Top-4 Top-8
KC Travis Kelce 35 6 12 17
SF George Kittle 18 2 6 10
JAC Evan Engram 17 2 6 9
BAL Mark Andrews 16 3 6 7
PHI Dallas Goedert 15 1 4 10
LAR Tyler Higbee 14 2 4 8
CLE David Njoku 13 1 5 7
DAL Dalton Schultz 13 0 6 7
MIN T.J. Hockenson 13 1 5 7
BUF Dawson Knox 11 0 3 8
CHI Cole Kmet 11 1 4 6
PIT Pat Freiermuth 11 0 2 9
ARI Zach Ertz 10 0 2 8
LAC Gerald Everett 10 0 3 7
NO Juwan Johnson 10 1 3 6
HOU Jordan Akins 9 1 3 5
NO Taysom Hill 9 0 4 5
NYJ Tyler Conklin 9 0 2 7
DEN Greg Dulcich 8 0 3 5
LVR Darren Waller 8 0 3 5
NE Hunter Henry 8 1 3 4
BAL Isaiah Likely 7 0 3 4
CIN Hayden Hurst 7 1 1 5
DET Brock Wright 7 1 2 4
GB Robert Tonyan 7 1 2 4
SEA Noah Fant 7 0 2 5
TB Cade Otton 7 2 2 3
TEN Chigoziem Okonkwo 7 0 2 5
DET T.J. Hockenson 6 1 1 4
MIA Mike Gesicki 6 1 1 4
NYG Daniel Bellinger 6 0 1 5
SEA Will Dissly 6 0 2 4
ATL Kyle Pitts 5 0 1 4
IND Jelani Woods 5 0 2 3
LVR Foster Moreau 5 0 2 3
WAS Logan Thomas 5 0 1 4

Top-8 performances by a tight end isn’t nearly as important as other positions because they score so much less. There is minimal fantasy advantage, if any, to logging a Top-8 performance. Travis Kelce was just a dominating in this metric, and George Kittle, Evan Engram, Dallas Goedert, and Pat Freiermuth were the only others with more than half of their games reaching a Top-8 level.

Top-4 games were much more important for tight ends to matter in a fantasy lineup. Only Kelce, Kittle, Engram, Mark Andrews, and Dalton Schultz managed at least six such performances. There isn’t anything new here really, the top five or six tight ends are the only  ones that offer any advantage.

Top Performances scored Top-1
Travis Kelce 6
Mark Andrews 3
George Kittle 2
Evan Engram 2
Tyler Higbee 2
Cade Otton 2

Mark Andrews was better than all other tight ends other than Kelce with a Top-1 performance but only managed three. And he faces a season with far more viable pass targets for Lamar Jackson than ever before.

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