Fantasy Football ‘23: TE Tiers and Rankings

There is This Guy, and Everyone Else

(Published July 24, 2023, UPDATED August 20, 2023)

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Welcome back, readers! It’s late August, and for many in redraft leagues, that means drafts are this week or next. Here are the rest of my tiers and positional breakdowns. Overall-top-100 ;  QB-tiers-and-rankings; RB-tiers-and-rankings; WR-tiers-and-rankings . All rankings are being updated this week.

Previewing the TE position for redraft fantasy leagues might be my least favorite article to write, and it’s been this way for at least 5 years. Outside of Travis Kelce, the position is pretty weak, and filled with uncertainty. On the bright side, the 2023 TE draft class was a strong one, with 6 TEs coming off the board between Pick 25 and the end of Round 2. Rookie TEs rarely make a big impact (the last time a rookie TE finished in the top 5 at the position was Evan Engram in 2017), but maybe this year will be the exception. If nothing else, hopefully in a few years there will be some new stars at the position, and writing this article will be less of a bummer.

The TEs are organized into tiers, and I do this at every position. You should do the same. I’ve written about this before and to save space I won’t repeat it all here - here is a link to a discussion on the importance of using tiers for your draft board: 5-powerful-drafting-concepts.

Notes: these rankings are for redraft leagues only, and all position rankings and point totals noted in this article are in Half PPR.

Pigskin Papers TE Rankings, 2023

TIER I (The Super-Stud)

1. Travis Kelce

Commentary: More than any player in fantasy, Kelce deserves to stand alone in his own tier at the top of his position. Why? Because the gulf between him and the rest of the group is so vast. It’s more like an ocean. Kelce has finished as the TE1 in 5 of the last 7 seasons, and he was the TE2 in the other two. Think of it this way: The last time Kelce finished outside the top 2 at his position, Barack Obama was President. Over the past 7 seasons, nobody has dominated fantasy like Kelce has and it’s not close. Last season was especially impressive, in terms of his separation from the field. He was 90 points clear of the TE2 (T.J. Hockenson), and the difference between him and Hockenson was about the same as the difference between TE2 Hockenson and TE 23 Mike Gesicki. Think about that for a second. Anyway, not only is Kelce prolific, and not only does he have the best QB in the league throwing to him, but he has also been remarkably durable. Since becoming a full-time starter in his second campaign (2014), Kelce has never missed more than 1 game in a season. The only knock on Kelce is his age (he’ll turn 34 on October 5), but until we see him slowing down, he’s THE guy. Oh, and not that it matters for fantasy football, but he’s even better in the playoffs. Kelce should be a first round pick this year in redraft formats, period.

The Fantasy World Continues to Wait for the Kyle Pitts Breakout

TIER II (The Best of the Rest)

2. T.J. Hockenson

3. M. Andrews

4. D. Waller

5. G. Kittle

6. E. Engram

7. K. Pitts

8. D. Goedert

9. P. Freiermuth

Commentary: If you miss out on Kelce (and most of you will), these are the next best options at the position, and the ones with the best chance of giving you consistent production. But there are no sure things here, and every single player in this group comes with at least one big question mark. There’s a reason I didn’t put any of them with Kelce. Can Hockenson show more consistency? Can Kittle and Waller stay on the field? Will the addition of Calvin Ridley in Jacksonville and OBJ and Zay Flowers in Baltimore take a bite out of the production of Engram and Andrews? I can just say “Kyle Pitts” and that can be a question, all by itself. Atlanta throws the ball less than almost any other team, and has an unproven QB. Can Goedert and Freiermuth make a jump? There is plenty of talent and upside in this tier, and given the scarcity of proven quality at the position, you’ll have to pay up for most of these guys.

Schultz Moved Across Texas - Will his Production Suffer?

Tier III (TE 2s with Upside)

10. D. Njoku

11. T. Higbee

12. G. Dulcich

13. D. Schultz

14. C. Kmet

15. G. Everett

16. C. Okonkwo

17. J. Johnson

18. D. Kincaid (R)

19. S. Laporta (R)

20. T. Hill

Commentary: Several players in this group ended up as top 10 TEs last year (Hill, Kmet, Higbee, and Schultz), and I have no doubt that several of the TEs listed above will outperform their ADP and finish top 10 this year. But who is most likely to do that? This group is a mix of ascending younger players and veterans who are still fantasy-relevant. They’re all guys you could try to roll with each week as your TE1, but the danger there is it leading to frustration (I see you nodding your heads — 3 catches for 27 yards is hard to stomach week after week), and you benching them right before they have a blowup game. Most TEs in this group are best suited to a best ball format, but you’re playing redraft. So, what you’ll likely get from most of these players is inconsistency, as most if not all of them are unlikely to emerge as first or second options in their team’s passing offense.

As for Taysom Hill, he is without question one of the strangest phenomena in all of fantasy. He isn’t a TE (he caught 9 passes for 73 yards last season), but for some reason that’s his assigned position. He’s more or less a glorified RB who gets a lot of his carries on direct shotgun snaps. He can also play QB (but not particularly well) and occasionally lines up in the slot, or even out wide. Meanwhile, he finished last season as the TE5 (really, he did), but he’s the ultimate boom or bust player. Sure, he had a 34 point game, but he also scored fewer than 5 fantasy points 6 different times last season. Enough about Hill - if you draft him, you get to play the guessing game. From this group, my favorite TEs to target for value in the later rounds of drafts are Higbee and Everett, mostly because I trust their QBs, and you can get them later than the others in this group. Meanwhile, you read what I wrote above about TEs rarely producing as rookies, but all 4 of the rookies listed in this tier or in the tier below appear to have a pretty clear path to a meaningful role this season. Whether that translates to fantasy production is another matter.

Dalton Kincaid - The Real Deal, or Overhyped?

TIER IV (Late Round Fliers - and more rookies!)

21. I. Smith

22. M. Gesicki

23. D. Knox

24. J. Ferguson

25. H. Hurst

26. C. Otton

27. M. Mayer (R)

28. L. Musgrave (R)

29. N. Fant

30. J. Woods

31. T. McBride

32. H. Henry

33. Z. Ertz

34. L. Thomas

Commentary: Without question, there are players in this tier, and maybe a few others who I didn’t even list (I’m talking about you, I. Likely and L. Schoonmaker) who will emerge this season as viable TE considerations. But if one of the guys in this tier is your TE1 heading into the season, make sure you’ve got an air-sick bag in the seat pocket in front of you before takeoff. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

I already discussed the rookies, and a few of the names listed above (Smith and Conklin in particular) are getting a nice upgrade at QB, which could matter. If you didn’t grab 2 TEs from the first 3 tiers, you’re going to want to roster someone from this tier as your TE2. You should be able to do that near the end of your draft. Most of the players listed in this tier will last until near the end of drafts. It’s pretty much a crapshoot, but I do like the upside of Conklin and Gesicki in this group, in particular.

OK, I’m done. I made it through the column. Will TEs matter this season? Yes, because in most leagues you MUST start one, and your chances of having the one sure thing are very low. So, almost all of us will be rolling the dice at TE, once again. Come on, lucky 7!

DH

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