Underdog Fantasy Football Rankings 2023: Drafting Tight Ends for Best Ball
In some seasons, you can count the number of viable weekly starting TEs on less than two full hands. In full PPR formats, just 6 tight ends totaled at least 150 fantasy points in 2022. To compare, there were 32 such running backs and 47 wide receivers that topped the same mark.
The incredible scarcity at the position means many fantasy players prioritize taking a premium TE early in drafts. Best Ball drafts are no exception, of course. The 2023 season is right around the corner, which means we’re in the thick of #DraftSZN over at Underdog Fantasy.
Below, you’ll find the latest Underdog Best Ball tight end rankings, courtesy of Spike Week. New users should take advantage of our special Underdog Fantasy promo code “GRINDERS” for a 100% match deposit bonus of up to $100.
Underdog Fantasy Tight End Rankings
2023 Best Ball Tight End rankings are courtesy of Spike Week
| Player | Team | Rank | ADPrk | ADP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis Kelce |  KCC | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Mark Andrews |  BAL | 2 | 2 | 27 |
| T.J. Hockenson |  MIN | 3 | 4 | 49 |
| George Kittle |  SFO | 4 | 5 | 63 |
| Kyle Pitts |  ATL | 5 | 10 | 88 |
| Darren Waller |  NYG | 6 | 8 | 84 |
| Dallas Goedert |  PHI | 7 | 6 | 69 |
| Pat Freiermuth |  PIT | 8 | 12 | 99 |
| Evan Engram |  JAC | 9 | 13 | 101 |
| David Njoku |  CLE | 10 | 11 | 92 |
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Best Ball Tips & Strategy: Drafting Tight Ends
Stacking is a popular way to construct a roster in Best Ball formats. While we can certainly debate the necessity of going overboard with stacking, a little correlation can help to give your roster some added upside over the course of a season.
Tight ends score fantasy points the same way wide receivers do, so you can obviously make a priority of stacking your TE1 with your QB1. The big question is when you should plunge for your first tight end. As of now, Kansas City’s Travis Kelce is the only player at the position with an ADP in the first two rounds of Best Ball drafts. The Chiefs’ all-everything TE is typically coming off the board between picks 5 and 6.
If you’re not taking Kelce, you can afford to wait a bit. Mark Andrews is the consensus No. 2 tight end entering the ’23 season, but he has a third-round ADP in 12-team formats. T.J. Hockenson, meanwhile, is likely to be available in the fourth round. If you’re lucky enough to nab an elite one, you won’t have to worry about taking a second tight end until the very end of your draft.
While you can wait, it’s generally wise to not wait too long. The quality of the position drops off considerably once you get past the first 4-5 tight ends. Beyond them, you’re forced to roll the dice on riskier options like Pat Freiermuth, Evan Engram, or David Njoku.
Those lesser tight ends will have big games on occasion, but none of them have historically offered nearly as much consistency as the truly elite TEs. As a result, you’re likely going to have to use another mid-round selection on another tight end in order to account for your shaky starter’s down weeks in Best Ball formats.
Can Kelce Keep It Up?
To say Travis Kelce has been on a legendary run would be quite an understatement. While he still has a long way to go if he’s going to challenge any of Tony Gonzalez’s tight end records, Kelce has already put together a Hall-of-Fame résumé.
Kelce has attracted at least 100 targets in every season since 2015. He’s topped 100 receptions 3 times, including a career-best 110 just last season. The 33-year-old has accrued at least 1,000 receiving yards in 7 straight seasons, and he’s only missed 2 games in his entire career. Kelce’s 12 receiving TDs were also a career-high.
Kelce was the highest-scoring tight end last season by nearly 100 points in PPR formats. The only pass-catchers that racked up more fantasy points were Justin Jefferson, Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs, and old friend Tyreek Hill.
He’ll turn 34 in October, but he’s shown absolutely zero signs of slowing down to this point. Kelce is coming off of what was probably the best all-around season of his career, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise considering Hill was no longer around to siphon some targets away. As long as he’s healthy and has Patrick Mahomes throwing him the football, Kelce will continue to produce at elite levels. Father Time will catch up with him eventually, but I see no reason to believe he’ll suddenly hit a wall in 2023.
Kyle Pitts Breakout Incoming?
Kyle Pitts has only been a pro for 2 seasons, but we’re still waiting for him to live up to the hype. The Falcons took the Florida product with the 4th overall pick back in 2021, but the results have been underwhelming thus far. Pitts did top 1,000 receiving yards with 110 targets as a rookie, but he also scored just 1 touchdown. Last season, Pitts hauled in just 28 passes across just 10 games in an injury-shortened campaign.
Pitts is again one of the highest-ranked TEs entering this season. He’s coming in as the TE5 at Spike Week, though it’s hard to have much faith in the Falcons to turn things around. This was the second-most run-heavy offense in the NFL last season, and they just brought Bijan Robinson into the mix. Having either Desmond Ridder or Taylor Heinicke under center won’t inspire much confidence in Atlanta’s passing game, either.
His usage was also spotty. He ran routes on about 73% of the Falcons’ pass plays last season, which was down from the 80% mark he posted as a rookie. His average depth of target skyrocketed to about 14, but a high aDOT can lead to more volatility. Bad QBs also tend to struggle to complete longer passes, of course.
If you’re drafting Pitts, you’re hoping against hope that an even slightly-improved Atlanta offense can help Pitts come closer to reaching his potential from a fantasy perspective. We’ve seen glimpses of that ceiling over his first couple of years, but the decision to draft Robinson sure seems to indicate the Falcons’ desire to continue to lean on the ground game.
Pitts may be the most athletic TE in football, but he may well be in the worst possible situation as a developing player. A Bijan-heavy offense combined with sketchy QB play makes Pitts a low-floor/high-ceiling draft choice again in ’23.
Rookie Fliers
Rookies are typically wild cards when it comes to fantasy football. This is particularly true of tight ends, many of whom face a steep learning curve upon entering the NFL.
Off the top of your head, can you remember which first-year TEs did much of anything last season? Chig Okonkwo, Cade Otton, Greg Dulcich, Isaiah Likely, and Jelani Woods all had respectable rookie seasons, but none of them came particularly close to finishing among the top 20 scorers at the position in PPR formats. The allure of the unknown is often enough to make rookies go over-drafted in Best Ball.
3 rookies – Dalton Kincaid (11), Sam LaPorta (15), and Michael Mayer (20) – are ranked in the top 20 of Spike Week’s Underdog Best Ball tight end rankings heading into 2023. Kincaid is likely to be involved in the Bills’ high-octane passing attack, which gives him arguably the highest ceiling of any rookie TE we’ve seen in quite a while. I don’t mind taking a shot on Kincaid as a low-end TE1, though rookie tight ends don’t often find success right away.
LaPorta and Mayer are riskier commodities, though there’s potential. LaPorta has a pretty clear path to playing time in Detroit where Brock Wright is his only real competition, while Mayer figures to slide into the starting spot vacated by the departed Darren Waller in Las Vegas.
LaPorta and Mayer are useful targets if you miss out on drafting a high-end TE and have to use a couple of mid-round selections to fill out the position. Just don’t expect too much from them, especially early in the season.