Fantasy Football Rankings: The Top 25 Tight Ends
Tight Ends 1-6
| Rank | Player (Team, Bye) | Recs | Yds | TDs | FP | FireFactor™ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rob Gronkowski (NE, 9) | 85.86 | 1112.63 | 11.43 | 179.72 | 87.35 |
| 2 | Greg Olsen (CAR, 7) | 79.7 | 966.06 | 7.59 | 141.59 | 49.22 |
| 3 | Jordan Reed (WSH, 9) | 79.76 | 873.76 | 5.55 | 120.02 | 27.65 |
| 4 | Gary Barnidge (CLE, 13) | 60.54 | 747.68 | 7.58 | 120.01 | 27.64 |
| 5 | Delanie Walker (TEN, 13) | 76.06 | 866.89 | 5.33 | 119.64 | 27.27 |
| 6 | Antonio Gates (SD, 11) | 72.38 | 831.75 | 5.99 | 118.04 | 25.67 |
1. Rob Gronkowski - The unquestionable alpha of the tight end group, Gronk led the position in both Reception Net Expected Points (NEP) and Target NEP (points added on all targets) a year ago. When healthy, Gronk is one of the league's best offensive weapons. The closest comparison our player projections have for him is Jimmy Graham's 2013 season (95.78% match), where he caught 86 passes for 1,215 yards and 16 touchdowns. Despite the quarterback controversy, Gronk is a "set and forget" tight end, no matter who is under center in Belichick's offense.
2. Greg Olsen - Olsen saw career highs in receptions (77) and receiving yards (1,104) last season en route to finishing as the TE5. He saw 26.5% of the team's red zone targets, and while Kelvin Benjamin will return to the offense, his presence shouldn't concern Olsen's consistency or ceiling. Olsen saw nearly the same amount of targets in 2014 and had more top-6 and top-12 weekly fantasy performances with Benjamin in the fold compared to 2015, too.
3. Jordan Reed - Reed emerged as a fantasy football stud in his third season, finishing second in Target NEP on the year. He led all tight ends in top-six fantasy weeks and was the highest scoring tight end during the fantasy playoffs (Weeks 14-16). We expect things to continue in 2016.
4. Gary Barnidge - Cleveland found themselves a steal last season in the emergence of Barnidge, who ended up leading all tight ends in routes run. He also saw a hefty 26.4% of the team's red zone targets, corresponding to him finishing with the second-highest Reception NEP at the position.
5. Delanie Walker - No tight end saw more games with eight or more targets last season than Delanie Walker (10). Walker's 133 targets led the position in 2015, as he became a reliable target for Marcus Mariota during his rookie campaign.
6. Antonio Gates - A top-12 tight end each year following his rookie debut, Antonio Gates is a perennial fantasy stalwart at his position. Only five tight ends saw more targets per game than Gates last season (7.73), and despite only playing 11 games, he finished six of them as a top-12 weekly performer, a top-10 number.
