Three Tight Ends With Big Sleeper Potential
Tight Ends seem to be an all-or-nothing position in fantasy football, and you either have to grab a top Tight End early or wait till the end to grab a potential breakout player. If you miss on a late-round guy, be prepared to be bouncing around the waiver wire week to week, and believe me when I say from experience that it is not a fun game to play.
In this article, we will be going more in-depth into three Tight Ends that have big sleeper potential and have a chance to either crack the top five or at least vastly outperform their current ADP.
Here are the rankings for PPR leagues. I tried to find double-digit round Tight Ends that are cheap to draft but have the best potential to breakout in 2022.
ADPs come from our 12-team PPR ADP.
If you aren’t mocking yet, get on it now before it’s too late.
Cole Kmet – Chicago Bears (ADP: 11.03, TE12)
If you’ve been listening or reading any fantasy football stuff this offseason, you’ve probably already seen the love for Cole Kmet as a Tight End sleeper. And I am all on board that hype train.
Kmet was targeted 93 times in 2021, catching 60 passes for 612 yards. The biggest surprise? He caught 0 touchdowns. That’s a number that will have to change in 2022. Kmet finished as the TE21 last season in PPR but had he caught five touchdowns that would have brought him all the way to TE13. Kmet is the only real receiving option behind Wide Receiver Darnell Mooney and should see all his numbers go up.
The Bears are finally rid of Matt Nagy, which should benefit the passing game even more. Out of all the sleeper Tight Ends, Kmet really has the best chance of cracking the Top Five Tight Ends this season.
Gerald Everett – Los Angeles Chargers (ADP: 16.06, TE20)
I’ve been pretty high on Gerald Everett’s chances of being a deep sleeper this season, and he is pretty much going undrafted in mock drafts. Everett has been unfortunate in his career when it came to Quarterbacks. He first was with the Jared Goff-led Rams for four seasons, where he fought for targets with Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, and fellow Tight End Tyler Higbee.
Then he moved to Seattle but found himself without star Quarterback Russell Wilson for most of the season. Even when Wilson returned, he wasn’t really himself and was hindered by the thumb injury.
Now Everett gets an even better chance with the Chargers. The Chargers have produced decent enough Tight Ends for fantasy (at least in Hunter Henry’s case), although Jared Cook (who is like 50 years old it feels like) didn’t do too much in 2021. The Chargers are a pass-happy offense with a great young Quarterback in Justin Herbert, so Everett has a real chance to outperform his ADP.
Now I don’t think he has Top Five potential, but I do believe he can crack the Top 10 and could be a weekly starter for some fantasy teams. If you want to wait till the last round to grab a Tight End, Everett is a good bet.
Robert Tonyan Jr – Green Bay Packers (ADP: 13.03, TE14)
Robert Tonyan was just activated off the PUP list after sustaining a torn ACL in October of 2021. People have all but forgotten about Tonyan thanks to that injury, but before that he was being hyped as one of the top Tight Ends in fantasy.
That is thanks to a breakout third season with the Packers, where Tonyan caught 52 passes for 586 yards and 11 touchdowns. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see if he could repeat that big season.
Now there are a lot of questions when it comes to Tonyan. First off, we don’t know when he will be back on the field and at 100%. It may take a few weeks to really see Tonyan produce. Also, Rodgers has never been one to target his Tight End much, so we will have to see if that changes now that target-hog Davante Adams is gone.
What Tonyan does have going for him is what I mentioned above. Adams is gone, and Tonyan at least has shown that Rodgers can trust him, especially in the RedZone. The Packers have an unproven #1 in Allen Lazard, an old Randall Cobb, and a newcomer/injury-prone Sammy Watkins, so Tonyan could see his target share bump up.
Tonyan is a great player to target late in drafts in the hopes that he sees more targets and touchdowns, but you may need a contingency plan if he doesn’t get on the field in Week 1.
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