Fantasy Football 2019 Tier Tight End Rankings
By Bill Pivetz
This group of tight ends features some players we’ll be seeing for the next few years.
After four decent years in Detroit, Ebron had his breakout season with the Colts. He caught 66 passes for 750 yards and 13 touchdowns. It stinks that most of that came without Doyle on the field because he’s expected to be healthy this year.
There’s no way Ebron posts those numbers again. The Colts brought in Devin Funchess to compliment T.Y. Hilton. There aren’t enough targets to go around. Ebron is a good option to draft but temper expectations.
Njoku caught 56 passes for 639 yards and four touchdowns in his second year. The trade of Josh Gordon was supposed to open up a lot of targets for Njoku but it led to a TE9 finish.
Now, with the addition of Odell Beckham, those targets seem to be dried up. However, trading pass-catching running back Duke Johnson may help him. He needs to make the most of his targets to be valuable.
With Antonio Brown, Jesse James and Le’Veon Bell on other teams, there are a lot of targets available for McDonald. The Steelers brought in Donte Moncrief to support JuJu Smith-Schuster but there will still be targets.
The Steelers may not throw the ball as much but McDonald saw 72 targets last season. That’s not a fluke and could improve on his 2018 performance.
Cook goes from the Raiders to the Saints. While the quarterback improvement will help, Cook hasn’t been effective in his career. Last year was the first time he scored more than five touchdowns, caught more than 55 passes and had more than 760 receiving yards.
With Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara the top two options in the Saints offense, he’ll be competing with Ted Ginn and Tre’Quan Smith for targets. Don’t draft him too early based on the team change.
Henry had a decent two-year run before tearing his ACL last season. In those two years, he caught 81 passes on 115 targets for 1,057 yards and 12 touchdowns. Though, he had to compete with veteran Antonio Gates.
Philip Rivers will be targeting Keenan Allen early and often. After that, Henry will be competing with Mike Williams and Travis Benjamin for targets. That’s not tough competition. Henry could finish as a top-five tight end on the Chargers.
Despite playing in just 10 games, Howard caught 34 passes for 565 yards and five touchdowns. As I mentioned with Brate, the Bucs have a lot of targets available. As long as Howard can stay healthy, he will be a favorite of Jameis Winston’s this season.
Engram has had everything go his way, so let’s hope he can put it together this season. Odell Beckham was traded, Golden Tate may be suspended four games, Sterling Shepard is a bit banged up and Corey Coleman is out for the year.
Who else will Eli Manning throw it to?
He will finish with over 100 targets, which is rare among tight ends. He dealt with some injuries last year but is expected to be fully healthy this season. Engram is going a round too early for me but could finish in the top five.