Happy summer, readers! The start of summer means a lot of things, including that the opening kickoff of the NFL season is only about 11 weeks away. That sounds like a long time, but you’ll be screaming at the TV on Sundays before you know it.
I recently posted three columns with facts and stats you need to know at the quarterback, running back, and wide receiver positions. I’m finishing this series today with what might be fantasy’s trickiest position: Tight end.
You can find all my offseason and preseason
fantasy content, including the articles noted above and the biggest burning fantasy questions for each team, here.
Tight end is perplexing because in most seasons, there’s a very small number of elite options, a handful of somewhat reliable players, and after that you’re usually just looking to get lucky with an unlikely breakout, an occasional big game, or a touchdown here and there. Most leagues require you to start a tight end every week, so the position matters. But demand (for quality fantasy points) exceeds supply. The typical drafting strategy is either to take one of the best ones early or wait and roll the dice.
As more leagues institute tight end premium (TEP) scoring, where tight ends get more bonus points than backs and receivers for catches and perhaps other stats, the big fellas on the end of the line take on greater prominence. TEP can push the best tight ends into the first round, if the bonuses are big enough. But as you’ll see below, tight ends don’t spin the scoreboard like other positions.
The highest-scoring fantasy tight ends of the 2020s (Travis Kelce, George Kittle, and Mark Andrews as a distant third) are all 30 or older. The good news – maybe even great news — is that the NFL has seen a very big influx of young pass-catching talent at the position in the past few seasons. My first fact for today is this: Nine of the 15 highest season-long receiving yard totals for a rookie tight end have happened in the last five seasons.
Here are 26 more facts you need to know about tight ends for fantasy football. All fantasy scoring stats are Half-point PPR, with Week 18 excluded for season totals and ranks.
- Here are the number of players who averaged at least 13 fantasy points per game (FPPG) last season, at running back, wide receiver, and tight end. RB – 17; WR – 9; TE – 1.
2. Trey McBride averaged 15.1 FPPG in 2025. He’s the first tight end to average more than 15 FPPG since Travis Kelce averaged 15.5 FPPG in 2022.
3. After scoring six TDs across his first three seasons, McBride erupted for 11 last season.
4. In the first five games of the 2025 season, with Kyler Murray at quarterback, McBride averaged 5.8 catches for 55 yards per game, and scored one touchdown. In 12 games with Jacoby Brissett under center for the rest of the season, McBride averaged approximately 8 catches and 80 yards per game, with 10 touchdowns.
5. McBride set an NFL record for tight ends with 126 catches last season, a year after catching 111 balls. He saw 316 targets across the past two seasons, by far the most at the position.
6. After catching 24 TD passes across the first seven seasons of his career, Dallas Goedert caught 11 TD passes in 2025, tied with McBride for most at the position.
7. Goedert set a career high with 60 catches in 2025, at a career low of 9.9 yards per catch.
8. Through his first two seasons, Brock Bowers is averaging 8.24 targets per game. For his career, Kelce, who is third all-time among tight ends with 1,080 receptions, is averaging 7.85 targets per game.
9. Four NFL teams had tight ends targeted on more than 30% of their pass attempts in 2025: Arizona (35.3%), Cleveland, Las Vegas, and Baltimore.
10. Three NFL teams had tight ends targeted on fewer than 19% of their pass attempts in 2025: Tampa (16%), Detroit, and the L.A. Chargers.
11. The Top-5 tight ends in team target share for 2025 (for games they played): McBride (27.4%), Bowers (23.4%), Kyle Pitts (22.7%), Harold Fannin, Jr. (21.4%), and George Kittle (21.4%).
12. Only 12 tight ends in NFL history have surpassed 700 receiving yards as rookies. Three did it last season (Tyler Warren, Fannin, and Colston Loveland).
13. Mark Andrews has scored at least five TDs in seven straight seasons.
14. Across the last two seasons, Tucker Kraft scored 13 TDs on 82 catches. That’s a 16% TD catch rate. He was the TE1 in FPPG heading into Week 9 last season (he then suffered a season-ending knee injury).
15. Jake Ferguson’s TD catch totals the last three seasons: 5, 0, 8. A healthy Dak Prescott matters…
16. In his amazing rookie season, Sam LaPorta totaled 120 targets, 86 receptions, and 10 TDs. In the two seasons since, LaPorta has a combined 132 targets, 100 catches, and 10 TDs (he only played nine games last season).
17. From Weeks 12-17 last season, the top three scorers at the tight end position were McBride, Pitts, and Fannin.
18. Colts’ rookie Tyler Warren averaged 12.1 FPPG for the first seven weeks of the 2025 season (TE3 for that stretch), and 6.7 FPPG from weeks 8-17 (TE16 for that stretch).
19. Another hot rookie (for a stretch) was Oronde Gadsden II. From Weeks 6-9, he had four straight games with at least five catches and 65 receiving yards. However, he didn’t hit either of those totals in any other games all season.
20. And perhaps the hottest rookie, for a stretch: Colston Loveland did this across the Bears’ final four games of the 2025-2026 season (Weeks 17 and 18 plus two playoff games): 28 catches for 378 yards. That pace translates to 115 catches for 1,550 yards over 17 games. Loveland won’t be cheap in 2026 drafts.
21. In his third season (2025), Dalton Kincaid had his lowest number of games played, targets, and receptions, but set new career highs (by a wide margin) in yards per reception (14.6) and TDs (5).
22. T.J. Hockenson averaged just 29 receiving yards per game in 2025, the lowest of his seven-year career. His 3.4 receptions per game was the lowest since his rookie season.
23. A.J. Barner has 82 receptions in his first two NFL seasons, with 10 of them going for TDs (12% TD catch rate). He also scored in the Super Bowl.
24. Across the last five seasons, the leaders in TD catches among tight ends: (1) Kittle – 38, (2) Andrews – 36, (3) Kelce – 34.
25. After seven straight seasons with at least 90 catches and 120 targets, Kelce fell to 76 catches and 108 targets last season, good for 851 yards.
26. Even though his overall output in 2025 was his lowest in almost a decade, Kelce still managed these rankings among tight ends: Routes run – second, receptions – tied for sixth, receiving yards – fourth.
That’s it for today. Keep it here for more fantasy content as the summer rolls along.
