2025 Fantasy Football Tight End Sleepers For Best Ball Drafts

Tight end is one of the most important positions in fantasy football, and heading into 2025, the position seems even deeper than it has been in past seasons. Sure, there’s the new cream rising to the top with Brock Bowers and Trey McBride, but a lot of veterans are seen much lower in best ball drafts.

To get a quality starting tight end in best ball, you don't have to spend a ton of draft capital in the early rounds. The top tight ends in best ball surely come at a steep cost, but if you use your early picks on other positions, finding worthwhile tight ends later illustrates the strength of the position as a whole.

Who are the fantasy football tight ends later on in drafts who you’ll be able to get high-end production from for 2025 best ball drafts? Let's dive in.

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Cole Kmet, Chicago Bears

Underdog ADP – 166.3 (TE21)

2024 started pretty weird for the Chicago Bears tight-end room and Cole Kmet, as he took a backseat to Gerald Everett. The same Everett who had been on a Seattle team with then-offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Perhaps it was a microcosm of the season Kmet would have as he posted the worst real-life and fantasy campaign in almost every aspect since his rookie season.

After a career-high 20.7 percent TPRR in 2023, Kmet almost chopped that percentage in half with just a 10.5 percent TPRR last season as 71 percent of the Bears’ targets were directed toward the wide receivers – the third-highest percentage in the league. The tight-end position saw just 13 percent of the team’s targets – the second-lowest percentage in the NFL last season with the vast majority (55 of 68 total tight-end targets) going to Kmet.

Unsurprisingly, Shane Waldron was shown the door midway through the season, as was head coach Matt Eberflus, so rookie quarterback and No. 1 pick Caleb Williams will get his second regime in as many seasons. Luckily, the head coach coming in is Ben Johnson, the much-hyped offensive mind who has been the architect of the Detroit Lions’ potent offensive attack for the past three seasons.

Surely, there should be some offensive improvement from the Bears and Caleb Williams under the tutelage of Johnson. Seeing the success Sam LaPorta has had the last two seasons under Johnson should give some hope to Kmet going forward. Kmet is signed for the next three seasons after signing a four-year extension in the summer of 2023.

I said it on the pod today w/ @MarcasG & @MichaelFFlorio

With Ben Johnson in Chicago we might get the Cole Kmet breakout szn we deserve 🫡

I’m ready to start this hype train in January. 📈

— LaQuan Jones (@RealDealFantasy) January 21, 2025

Kmet turned in his best season in 2023 with career highs in fantasy points (181.1 -- TE8), yards per target (8.2), TPRR (20.7 percent), YPRR (1.69), and first downs per route run. He fell off dramatically as Kmet just didn’t feel like part of the offense with his first-read target rate plummeting to 9.2 percent after three seasons of 17 percent or higher. Kmet ran more route volume than he ever has in his career, yet he was targeted much less than he had been in previous seasons.

2025 represents a reset for Kmet under Johnson and new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, the 28-year-old former tight ends coach from the Denver Broncos who has been heralded as another “wunderkind” in NFL coaching circles.

At TE21 in early best ball drafts, Kmet feels criminally mispriced right now, but a lot of that has to do with the Bears needing to add to the position following the release of Everett and 40-year-old Marcedes Lewis being a free agent.

Kmet is locked into the Bears’ plans for the next couple of seasons and could find his footing with Johnson’s offense. With such a reasonable price in Big Board drafts, I’m drafting Kmet where I can.

Cade Otton, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

ADP – 159.6 (TE19)

Entering his third season as a pro in 2024, Cade Otton had been a good-not-great tight end who earned a ton of routes in 2023 but never earned targets on a consistent basis. 2024 changed the perception of Otton just a little bit as he was leaned on to carry quite a bit of the receiving workload thanks to injuries to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.

Cade Otton in two games without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin:

- 21 targets
- 27% target share
- 50.8 PPR points pic.twitter.com/D4KULyCKVl

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) November 5, 2024

Otton’s routes-based upside has been a thing since 2023, and he saw at least 80 percent or more routes per dropback in each game save for one. With career highs in almost every receiving metric in 2024, his stock may have added some upside after seeing a three-game stretch in Weeks 7-9 where Otton earned double-digit targets in each game, caught no less than eight balls, and was no worse than a weekly TE5 in each game.

The routes-based part of Otton’s game should not fluctuate too wildly with the three other tight ends on the Buccaneers roster all signed for 2025 as well. Unlikely to return to the Buccaneers is Godwin, who is a free agent but is coming off a dislocated ankle injury that ended his season.

With Otton’s role secure and being the third target as it stands right now in the high-flying Tampa Bay offense headed by Baker Mayfield, Otton’s TE19 price tag in early best ball drafts is very sensible.

Ja’Tavion Sanders, Carolina Panthers

ADP – 195.6 (TE27)

In a 2024 NFL Draft tight-end class that will undoubtedly be remembered for Brock Bowers, Ja’Tavion Sanders was the fourth tight end drafted. In a room that featured Tommy Tremble, Ian Thomas, Stephen Sullivan, and Feleipe Franks, Sanders stuck out as the best receiving threat from the position. That said, Sanders found it a bit difficult to show what he could do until Tremble got hurt in Weeks 5-7 and then again in Weeks 9-10.

In the five weeks when Tremble was out before the Panthers’ Week 11 bye, Sanders earned 60 percent of his targets and 64 percent of his receptions. Those receptions turned into 65 percent of his receiving yards for the entire season while Sanders ran 75 percent of routes per dropback. Outside of those weeks, Sanders got on the field but never really got to do much in the receiving game.

The stats for rookie Trey McBride and rookie Ja'Tavion Sanders were eerily similar in a lot of categories. Interested to see what JT can do if Tommy Tremble and/or Ian Thomas walk in FA.

(Stats per @PFF, @FantasyPtsData, and @pfref) pic.twitter.com/9GkjyEUNC1

— Andrew Cooper (@CoopAFiasco) January 23, 2025

That could change in 2025 as Sanders is the only tight end still under contract by the team, with all other tight ends like Tremble, Thomas, and Franks entering free agency.

The Panthers will add a tight end, but unless that tight end is selected on the first day of the NFL Draft, Sanders should be able to see the field a lot more and be able to build off a promising rookie season.

The trajectory of this offense is also going up with quarterback Bryce Young’s solid second half of 2024, so that helps in Sanders’ favor, too. At TE27 and an almost 200 ADP, Sanders is essentially free in drafts and worth selecting as a low-end TE2 or TE3 for best ball teams.

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