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Sean Koerner — Fantasy Pros’ 4x Most Accurate Fantasy Football Ranker — breaks down his 2024 TE tiers and rankings for Best Ball drafts.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve broken down my initial 2024 fantasy football tiers for Best Ball, starting with quarterbacks and wide receivers. This week, it’s time to take a look at 2024 tight ends.

I like doing it this away, in the summer months after the draft, because I think it’s key to start position by position and identify value within a position before forming my overall draft strategy.

Again, I’ll be referencing Best Ball Points Added, a fantasy football metric that highlights high-variance fantasy football values specifically for Best Ball formats.

While much of the analysis below is catered to Best Ball, I also recommend using these tiers for your redraft leagues. You can stay on top of all my changes during the preseason by comparing these to my updated fantasy football rankings, which you can find here.

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Fantasy Football TE Tiers

Tier 1

• Sam LaPorta
• Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce has shown signs of slowing down as he turns 35 later this season, but still managed to lead the position with 6.3 BBPA/g a year ago. Sam LaPorta wasn’t too far behind at 6.2 BBPA/g and will only get better over the next couple of seasons as he hasn’t even hit his prime yet. 

I wouldn’t spend the summer trying to split hairs as to whether Kelce or LaPorta should be the first TE off the board, but as of now, I lean LaPorta. Ideally, someone else in your draft selects either Kelce or LaPorta as the first TE and you can simply take the other TE a couple of picks later. 

Tier 2

• Mark Andrews
• Kyle Pitts
• George Kittle
• Trey McBride

Mark Andrews missed seven games due to injury last season, but still managed to average 6.0 BBPA/g which ranked 4th at the position. He finished inside the top 12 at a 70% rate, which led the position. 

Kyle Pitts has been held back by poor QB play, injuries, and the scheme under former HC Arthur Smith over his first three seasons. None of those will be an issue heading into the 2024 season and he’s still only 23 years old. Now is the perfect time to invest in such a talented player, especially since he typically goes at the end of this tier.

George Kittle finished 3rd in BBPA/g and his 44% top-5 rate tied LaPorta for the highest rate at the position, but he only finished in the top 24 at a 63% rate which ranked 19th. His weekly high-ceiling/low-floor profile makes him a bit frustrating in season-long h2h formats but is ideal for Best Ball.

Trey McBride is typically the first TE off the board in this tier, which makes sense given his immense upside for a 24-year-old, entering only his third season in the NFL. I’ve complained numerous times on the Fantasy Flex that similar to Dallas Goedert, we were watching a young TE with a ton of fantasy potential get blocked by Zach Ertz (who will be in that position again this year…more on that later). Sure enough, after Zach Ertz suffered a season-ending injury in Week 7, McBride took over as the Cards starting TE and averaged 6.3 BBPA/g, which would have tied Travis Kelce for 1st place among the position if he maintained that pace all season. I’m projecting McBride to take a slight hit in target share with the addition of a generational rookie WR in Marvin Harrison Jr. which is why he’s at the bottom of this tier, but he does have the upside to “reach” for at times. 

Tier 3

• Dalton Kincaid
• Jake Ferguson
• Evan Engram
• David Njoku

Dalton Kincaid, Jake Ferguson, and Evan Engram all profile as lower-ceiling/high-floor options who are much more valuable in season-long h2h formats. Kincaid offers the most upside after the departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis. With those two options gone, Kincaid will likely be Josh Allen’s new #1 target and should also see a spike in touchdowns.

David Njoku offered the most Best Ball value from this tier last season as he averaged 5.0 BBPA/g (6th), but a lot of that production came with Joe Flacco under center. In five full games with Deshaun Watson, Njoku only averaged 1.6 BBPA/g, which would have ranked 25th.

Tier 4

• Brock Bowers
• T.J. Hockenson
• Dallas Goedert
• Dalton Schultz
• Pat Freiermuth

Brock Bowers is one of the best TE prospects we’ve seen in years, but I didn’t like his landing spot as the Raiders already had an up-and-coming TE prospect in Michael Mayer, a murky QB situation with Gardner Minshew/Aidan O’Connell, and a WR who commands a huge target share in Davante Adams. Bowers’ talent alone makes him worth betting on, but I don’t expect him to become a potential top-5 TE for another season or two.

T.J. Hockenson still doesn’t have a timeline for a return from his ACL/MCL tears, but the sharp money is probably on his first game being in Week 7. His ADP will likely fluctuate based as that projection changes. His fantasy production will also suffer from a downgrade at QB this season, making him a fairly risky pick. Drafting Hockenson means you will likely need to draft a third TE or at least pair him with a high-floor TE who doesn’t have their BYE week until Week 7 or later. Colby Parkinson might be the best TE flier for teams with Hockenson considering he will be offering the most value early in the season with Tyler Higbee likely missing the first handful of games.

Tier 5

• Cole Kmet
• Hunter Henry
• Tyler Conklin
• Luke Musgrave
• Chig Okonkwo

Tyler Conklin is being drafted toward the bottom of Tier 6, making him the most intriguing TE from this tier. He was a high-floor, low-ceiling option last year as he ranked 11th in top-24 rate and 34th in top-12 rate. The lack of spiked weeks was simply because he failed to reach paydirt all season. I’m chalking that up to having one of the worst QB situations in the league after Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury, which means he should be able to offer more spiked weeks, in addition to a high weekly floor this time around.

Tier 6

• Cade Otton
• Taysom Hill
• Noah Fant
• Juwan Johnson

Taysom Hill is listed as a QB on Underdog Fantasy, which makes it much tougher to draft him there, and is the TE17 on DraftKings which seems a bit high considering he will turn 34 this season and has an unclear role in new OC Klint Kubiak’s scheme. With Juwan Johnson’s Week 1 status now uncertain due to a foot injury, he could be asked to play more TE, which will hurt his production. Hill averaged 3.9 BBPA/g in games with Juwan Johnson in the lineup and just 3.1 BBPA/g in the four games Juwan Johnson was out of the lineup last season. 

Juwan Johnson’s foot injury puts doubt on his Week 1 availability which means I would be careful drafting him Hill here. If he were to slip into the lower half of Tier 7, he may be worth a flier, but his ADP will go up/down based on reports on how he’s progressing in his recovery. Unfortunately, there is only so much info we can go off of in early July; Johnson might in fact end up being 100% for Week 1, but we can only guess at this point.

Tier 7

• Zach Ertz
• Tyler Higbee
• Will Dissly
• Mike Gesicki
• Dawson Knox
• Isaiah Likely
• Greg Dulcich
• Jonnu Smith
• Tucker Kraft
• Ben Sinnott
• Michael Mayer

Zach Ertz appears set to start over yet another talented TE prospect in Ben Sinnott. Ertz has delayed the breakouts for both Dallas Goedert and Trey McBride. Ben Sinnott could have a similar start to his career. Sinnott has all of the tools to become a viable fantasy TE but will enter his rookie season as the backup. However, I don’t think the current version of Zach Ertz is a lock to start over Sinnott for the entire season and we could see Sinnott outkick his ADP of TE20. 

Like TJ Hockenson and Juwan Johnson, Tyler Higbee’s ADP could be fairly volatile over the next couple of months considering his Week 1 status is very much in doubt. Considering he tore his ACL/MCL in early January, it seems like he will miss a handful of games to start the season. I’d rather take a flier on a TE who has a chance to play all 17 games. 

Isaiah Likely finished with the 25th-most points at the position last season, but finished 16th in BBPA. That’s because he’s in a unique position where he offers almost no value when Mark Andrews is healthy (0.06 BBPA/g in the 10 games Andrews played) but since he’s arguably the best backup TE in the league, he offered 5.8 BBPA/g in the 6 games that Andrews missed, which would have ranked 5th amongst tight ends. Relying on Andrews to miss games in order to produce any value himself makes it less likely for Likely to repeat last years’ 16th rank in BBPA, but he does carry a high ceiling and is worth a flier in Best Ball.

Tier 8

• Kylen Granson
• Theo Johnson
• Noah Gray
• Hayden Hurst
• Daniel Bellinger
• Jeremy Ruckert
• Colby Parkinson
• Jelani Woods
• Ja’Tavion Sanders
• Tommy Tremble

The Giants, Chargers, Colts, and Panthers starting TE job is up for grabs. Theo Johnson, Hayden Hurst, Jelani Woods, and Ja’Tavion Sanders all offer the most upside if they eventually take over as their team’s starting TE, making them my desired fliers from this tier. 

Colby Parkinson will likely start for the Rams until Tyler Higbee is able to return from his ACL/MCL injuries. He would be a compelling third TE option if you draft TJ Hockenson, who might not be ready to start the season.