Frankly Fantasy Football
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Frankly Fantasy Football
Fantasy Finish: Top 12 TEs of 2024 - A Year in Review
The fantasy football tight end hierarchy experienced a seismic shift in 2024, with a rookie capturing the throne while established veterans tumbled down the rankings. This comprehensive breakdown examines what truly matters for fantasy managers heading into 2025 drafts.
Rookie sensation Brock Bowers claimed the top spot with a remarkable 197 fantasy points despite playing with subpar quarterback play in Las Vegas. His 12.1 points per game performance showcased why he was considered a generational talent coming out of Georgia. However, fantasy managers should approach with caution as the Raiders' acquisition of Geno Smith and hiring of run-first coach Pete Carroll could alter his usage pattern next season.
Traditional powerhouse Travis Kelce fell to TE6, managing just three touchdowns all year – a devastating outcome for managers who invested a second-round pick on him. Meanwhile, George Kittle (TE2) and Trey McBride (TE3) established themselves as the new elite tier, with McBride particularly impressive gathering 147 targets but scoring only two touchdowns all season.
Perhaps most intriguing was David Njoku, who despite missing six games still finished as TE10, averaging 10.6 points when healthy. His monster target games (including contests with 14, 17, and 13 targets) suggest he could be a top-3 option with a full healthy season. Mark Andrews delivered another rollercoaster campaign, starting with back-to-back zero-point games before becoming a touchdown machine down the stretch.
The podcast hosts also delve into the changing developmental timeline for tight ends, noting that rookies and second-year players now dominate where veterans once reigned supreme. They suggest league scoring adjustments that can make the tight end position more exciting and strategic, like additional points for receptions or first downs.
Looking to dominate your fantasy draft? Understanding these tight end trends could be the difference between championship glory and mid-season disappointment. Subscribe for more fantasy insights as we approach the 2025 season!
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All right guys. Today we are wrapping up our year in review with tight ends. We're going to break down the top 12. Let's go.
Speaker 2:All right, all right. All right, welcome to the show. This is the Frankly Fantasy Football Podcast. We are your hosts, Frankie and Johnny. How you doing, frank, good to be back.
Speaker 1:It's good to be back, man. I'll tell you what the offseason's here. There's a lot of shit kind of going on. It's really exciting, man. We're already seeing some crazy moves Geno Smith to the Raiders, dk's on the trade block, evan Ingram being cut.
Speaker 2:It's crazy right now John Christian Kirk being cut as well and traded now, Before Traded.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. Yes, Traded to the Texans.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little replacement there. Yeah, I love it, man. A little replacement for Tank Dell. Yeah, that's exactly it. It's a good move. It's a good move, I like it. I like it. Hey, man, this is some bonus episodes we got going on here Year in review. Everybody is what we're doing. We're wrapping up our year in review 2024 with the top 12 tight ends. We're just going to break down the top number one tight ends here. We're going to go from 12 all the way up and finish at number one. I think you all know who. Number one is Not going to be a long episode. I mean, how many people in March are sitting here going God, I wonder who the best tight ends were in 2024. And I'm not exact.
Speaker 1:It's really going to change my strategy for next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, exactly. Not the sexiest list of top 12s that you could put out there, but you know what. We're doing it because tight ends are a position. Tight ends are important. At least three or four of them at least are pretty important. But we're going to break it down and we're going to do it here. All right, frankie, let's hit it man, let's get after it. All right, we're going to do the top 12, but I do want to honorable mention the last three here to round out a top 15, 15, 14, 13. We've got Mike Kosicki, kyle Pitts at 14, and Cade Otten at 13. Wanted to bring that up because Kyle Pitts wanted to point out the fact that he is not a number one tight end. He is not finishing consistently as a top starting tight end. Frankie, anything you want to bring up or mention with those three guys here on the honorable mentions?
Speaker 1:Yeah, really quickly, guys. Mike Isiki really stay in touch with what's going on with him. Again, he's probably not going to be a Bengal moving forward. We're going to see where he lands, so you're going to want to know what's happening from his perspective. Kyle Pitts guys, again, we're going to have a couple more conversations as we get closer and closer to your draft. Is this the year with Michael Pinnock's junior and with a new offensive scheme and things like that? So we'll dive into that during this off season. So really stay in tune there.
Speaker 2:And then, frankie, I feel like real quick before you get to K dot, and I can't give up on Kyle Pitts Like we can't. He's not even in the top 12 and we still have to talk about him for a good minute and a half, you know we got to pit out.
Speaker 2:We got to. I'm like I'm putting out right now. Actually we got to look at kyle. Here's the thing that's frustrating with kyle pitts, because here we're going to have an off season, we're going to go into 2026 uh, going to 2025 season here and it's going to be all right. Hey, renewed interest in kyle pitts because now there's a new factor, a new feature. Are we going to fall for it again? Are we going to still list him in the top 12 and still be staring at him and, you know, drafting him way earlier than we need to, just because there's a slight change in the offense with a new quarterback? Is that what's going to happen? It feels true to me.
Speaker 1:It could. It could, John, but what's going to be interesting, though, is this rookie class of tight ends coming up and what we saw from the rookie class last year, which we're going to hit on, especially one guy who finished very well, and even the rookie class before that, um with Trey McBride, so on and so forth. These guys are really talented man. So, with that being said, we're going to have to see where some of these rookie tight ends from this particular class end up in their prospective teams. So that is going to change a lot of the landscape, not only from right, where the you know, the George Kittles are currently, Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, Mark Andrews, et cetera, but now some of these other guys Kyle Pitts still might be on the outside looking in in terms of a tight end one. So we're going to see how all this unfolds, and then we'll get back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we talked about the changing of the guard and a generational change at quarterback. I think we're seeing the same thing at tight end. You're seeing Travis Kelsey slip down the ranks. You're seeing Mark Andrews have a hard time staying on the field and he's slipping down the ranks. So we're seeing some of these young guys Dre McBrides, brock Bauer, sam Laporta, a couple of rookies coming up that we're going to talk about in our first episode next year Coming into the draft here. That should have some impact. Very Sam Laporta, brock Bauer-esque type guys that are being drafted.
Speaker 2:I think that the NFL has found an archetype for the tight ends that are currently being used. These receiving tight ends, the Brock Bowers, the Dalton Kincaids, the Trey McBride, these kind of guys. I think they found an archetype and a body type and a player type that they like and these guys are performing. It used to take tight ends at least three, four, five years to develop. Definitely Still might be happening for Kyle Pitts Maybe he's part of that old regime that needs that time, but a lot of these guys now they're producing right away. Very interesting, real quick. On Kate Otten.
Speaker 1:Yep John real quick before we hit Kate Otten. Just one thing, one comparison that we might want to really link as we head into this offseason, as we head into the draft strategies. My Kyle Pitts comparison is to Anthony Richardson at quarterback. My Kyle Pitts comparison is to Anthony Richardson at quarterback, are we?
Speaker 1:going to see that level of caliber of player who is dynamic, who is as athletic as we've ever seen at that position, and we've never seen it from the combine for the quarterback side of what Anthony Richardson did and we've never seen it from Kyle Pitts from the tight end perspective and now they're kind of in that same bucket. So I'm really excited to see what kind of shakes out with those guys.
Speaker 2:But now, frank, I want you to clip that. I want you to clip that. I want to see that all over TikTok and Instagram. I want people on TikTok going apeshit on you for saying that. That's one of those hot takes. You just compared Kyle Pitts to Anthony Richardson. I think you're going to have people in Atlanta pissed off at you, and I know you're going to have people in Indianapolis pissed off at you. So, yeah, let's make sure we target those areas when we send that clip out. How about that?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'll definitely do that, especially since Anthony Richardson did so well last year. Yeah, I know, I know Really good. But Cade Otten, man, before we get into the top 12, cade Otten here, john, this is a guy I think could sneak into the top 12. I think without Chris Godwin going on, the Bucs again right, they didn't franchise take him he would have been owed about $29 million. They said, hey, we're not going to do it this time. Now they certainly could re-sign him. That's absolutely a possibility. But as of right now assume Chris Godwin is not on the team I see Cade Otten getting even more work than what he did last year. Sure, we saw McMillan, sure, we saw Mike Evans, but yeah, mike Evans is getting up there again. Man, he's getting up there in age, and so for me, man, to have that safety net for Baker Mayfield and Cade Otten, we could see him slip into the top 12.
Speaker 2:All right, let's start with the top 12 here, man, let's get to it here. All right, coming in Hunter Henry, the Hunter of Henry's 113 fantasy points. He was projected to start the year at the tight end. 14 came in at 12, right about where we thought he was going to be. Talk to me a little bit about Hunter Henry, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was super solid for the Patriots man. He was a really good outlet for Drake May, especially when Drake May came in into the fold to relieve Jacoby Brissett. So, guys, it's going to be interesting to see how the Patriots really handle Hunter Henry moving forward if he'll even be on the team moving forward and really see what they do in the draft class. They have number four overall draft pick this year. Do they do something crazy? Do they trade back? Do they go Travis Hunter? Do they go Tett McMillan from that of Arizona, from the receiver perspective. So all of that's going to change, everything to do with hunter henry. So we're going to really want to see what happens from that perspective. But I actually see john hot take. I see hunter henry falling out of the top 12 next year yeah, I do too.
Speaker 2:I mean it doesn't take much to do that. He only had two touchdowns, you know, and he's, and he's the number 12, right tight end. Yeah, so I, touchdowns are a factor there, and you could see in his game logs where Drake may started coming on. I mean it was really really pretty late in the season around, you know, week seven, week nine, something like that where Hunter Henry started getting a lot of looks from from, uh, drake may, nine targets, eight targets, nine targets, eight targets, nine targets. So he had a really good stretch there and I think that that made his entire season really was that stretch of a handful of games. Hunter Henry you're seeing him fall out of the top 12 for next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I would probably bank on him being out of the top 12.
Speaker 2:Not a guy probably you're going after in the drafts. He's kind of one of those guys where you waited until the last couple of rounds and you're like, ah, is that Hunter Henry, is it?
Speaker 1:Mike the Sickie. What are we doing? Streaming easy baby. You're streaming these dudes at the end.
Speaker 2:All right, makes sense. All right, let's get to number 11. Here We've got Pat Friermuth of the Pittsburgh Steelers, firemouth, I believe that's what that stands for 114 points, one above Hunter Henry, projected to be the tight end 16. Came in at 11. So you had a nice little season there, a little better than we expected. Talk to me a little bit about Pat Firemouth, honestly.
Speaker 1:John, he did well Like this was an over right, he overachieved. Right, when you're talking tight end, 16, come in as a top, a startable tight end. It was great. Here's the call out. Though Be very, very careful with Pat Fryerer Muth next year. We still don't know what the quarterback situation looks like for the Steelers. We still don't know what the receiver situation is going to look like. Right, because that certainly affected Pat Fryer Muth in a very positive way. Right, so they only had right that of George Pickens. Right, roman Wilson was hurt. Right, calvin Austin kind of came in a little bit, hayward kind of came in a little bit, but really nothing. And and they have Darnell Washington, big tight end out of Georgia that they drafted. So do they see getting him into more work as well? So for me, man really level set expectation on Pat Friermuth. He's going to be right there with Hunter Henry in terms of streaming options until we kind of see how everything unfolds with the Steelers offense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a quarterback situation that really scares me. I just don't know what they're doing there. And if you throw in a Justin Fields and you try to ride with him all year, that's going to really push Pat Fryer move down in my mind. I also think they have to get another receiver. I think they're putting a lot. I mean, right now they're in Tyrov, they're losing Najee Harris. So you've got Jalen Warren in the backfield. Can he carry a load full-time? I don't know. He's done it.
Speaker 1:you know game per game but can he do it over the?
Speaker 2:stretch, assuming Jalen Warren comes back. Yeah, he's, he's going to be on the block as well. Right?
Speaker 1:Yep Free agent Yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we're not sure what they're going to do there at running back, but every receiver they have to get somebody else. George Pickens. There seems to be some instability. I feel like the organization is a little nervous about George Pickens. I think they're going to want to get somebody there to solidify that. What is it about Pittsburgh that just creates crazy and wide receivers? I mean just mental, who's the receiver coach? Like what's in the receiver room, like what's going on here? Yeah, I mean it's just yeah, I don't know what it is, man, it's something getting into their brains here. But all right, let's move on here. Number 10 number 10 our boy, the chief, david and joku of the cleveland browns 117 points. Pat Fryer-Muth projected to be the tight end eight, did not quite get there. He is the tight end 10, averaging about 10.6 points a game. Now, 10 points a game out of a tight end. I'm loving that Huge. Yeah, I mean he missed some games here, so his total fantasy points weren't great, but his average points per game. That puts him at number four. Frank.
Speaker 1:Number four, john. And David Njoku was the guy when he was playing, he was dominant. So for me, moving forward, I am on the chief train. I am huge in Njoku this year because, no matter who's at quarterback, we've seen Njoku kind of be, and I don't want to compare him to Justin Jefferson, but what I'm saying is Justin Jefferson performs no matter who's at quarterback that's what I mean within Njoku.
Speaker 1:And Njoku performs well, um, depending on whoever, or it doesn't matter who's at quarterback, right? So, really, man, I could see David Njoku having a huge year again, really getting into the top seven next year, um, and and to perform Again, 10.6 fantasy points a game and half PPR is nutty, is nutty Again, that puts him in the top four. And when we talk about, right, janu Smith, for example, who was number four, which we'll get to here in a second, he had an incredible year, everybody raved about him and Njoku would have been above that. And so for me, man, I am all about Chief moving into next year level, set expectation around him. And again, you look at the Browns offense. Sure, the quarterback position is completely messed up at this point in time, but with the receivers that they have in Jerry Judy and that of Cedric Tillman. There really isn't anybody else, and so that is also why I love Njoku. So fire him up, draft him next year with confidence, and let's ride.
Speaker 2:This is insane. I mean David Njoku missed six games this year. He's the number 10 tight end missing six goddamn games. It's crazy, yeah, really weird. Now look at some of his targets he's had here, frank. I mean this is pretty outrageous for a tight end and I think this is exactly what you're talking about. Week seven, he had 14 targets. Week 13, he had 17 targets, frank. Week 14 comes back and follows it up with a 13 target game and then finish the year with a 10 target game. I mean that's insane. You start getting double digit targets. That consistent. He had four or five games with double digit targets.
Speaker 2:That's a tight end you want on your team. It's volume when you got a guy like that, who's an absolute super freak athlete, and you add volume to that. Where talent meets volume is fantasy football gold man. If that son of a bitch had played four more of those games instead of missing six exactly, he would have been probably number two, number three, on the tight end list. So yeah, I think next year his prospects are very, very good. If you can get him middle rounds of your draft, I think you'll feel really good about that. All right, let's move on here. Number nine second year guy Sam Laporta of the Detroit Lions, 121 fantasy points, projected to be the tight end five slipped a little bit. He is the tight end nine, averaging nine points per game. All right, so we have a little hangover with Sam Laporta. You know he obviously had an insane, record-breaking rookie year. Uh, didn't last long, lasted a year, right? Uh, what? What exactly happened with Sam Laporta this year?
Speaker 1:It was the evolution of Jameson Williams.
Speaker 2:That's what it came down to, guys. This is what I was hoping for, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I mean you look at what, uh, amin Ra I mean Amin Ra is in the class of, in my opinion, is in the class of the Jamar chases, the Justin Jefferson they're going to get theirs is what I'm referring to With Jamison Williams truly coming on and being not only viable but truly being the second. Look on that offense. It changed everything. Then you add Jameer Gibbs to this offense, right, and then this changes even more so when Jameer Gibbs is now getting even more receptions out of the backfield. That's taking away things from that of Sam Laporta to where now Sam Laporta is being a blocking tight end and not so much a bad of a receiving tight end. So all of these things played a part in this.
Speaker 1:Now, with that being said, I think Sam Laporta is certainly going to get better than what he did this past year. I see him also being probably in the top seven next year. I would willing to kind of you know, kind of plant my flag in that. But right now, man, to have Sam Laporta as a second over or second year tight end at ending at number nine, I mean I think that's pretty damn good. I think that you're going to be able to get really solid value for Sam Laporta in your drafts, because people are going to look at him like, well shit, I drafted him in the fifth, sixth, seventh round this year because of how well he performed. I thought I was going to get gold. And now, with that drop off, now this is the year you can get some value there, and so for me, man, I really do think Sam Laporte is going to be an easy. Set it and forget it. Get him past round nine, 10, around that range, and you're going to be good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Jamison Williams thing. I'm glad you said that, because that is what it is. Sam Laporta played every game this year. He didn't miss a single game, so there wasn't any of that going on.
Speaker 2:It was Jamison Williams and you see that when there's a stud number two receiver on a team, it always is going to take away from the tight end, always will take away from the tight end. I mean, you see the reason why Travis Kelsey's dominated so long. They've never had a number two receiver. Really. They just have guys running cardio while you've got your one receiver, one, and then you've got your tight end and they've got their clear cutout roles on the team. Sam Laporta didn't really have that. You know this offense likes to confuse people. It's got, you know, sonic and Knuckles in the backfield. That's going to take away as well. You've got Jameer Gibbs very, very good out of the backfield in the passing game. That's just going to take away volume from Sam Laporta. I mean, that's all that is. But now you're right, this is the year where you can actually get some decent value. He will drop in the drafts because people don't want to have that happen again. But yeah, he should be a top five tight end. I would imagine he very well could be a top five tight end.
Speaker 2:He was slow. Sam Laporte had a very slow start too. He didn't really have any more than four or five targets up until their week 11 buy. Now, after the buy, they clearly made some adjustments here because they were getting Sam Laporte of the ball, adjustments here because they were getting Sam Laporte of the ball. He had at least six targets in all of the last seven games with seven, 10, eight targets, ended up scoring four of his seven touchdowns after the bye as well. So he came on for you at the end of the year. But, man, those first 10 games it was definitely scary as hell and people had some remorse for drafting him where they did.
Speaker 1:Well, and John, to that point when you made it was a brilliant point Like after the bye week, what else happened? That was when Montgomery got hurt, right, that's when Monty didn't. And so now they had to go Jameer Gibbs full time. And so then they can't fully run Jameer Gibbs a hundred percent, because they knew they were going to make a playoff push. So then they had to spread the wealth a little bit more. In addition, here's the other call out Pay attention to what happens from the offensive standpoint. There is no Ben Johnson anymore. We could see a completely different offensive field. We could see them now actually want to target Laporta quite a bit more, especially in the earlier-esque of the season, to get Jared Goff going in addition to that and Amin Ra and Jameson Williams. So everything's going to be a little bit of touch and go with the Lions until we kind of see how this offense plays out.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get to number eight here. Zach Ertz of the Arizona Cardinals 131 points, 10 more points than Sam Laporta, by the way projected to be the tight end 27, came in at number eight. He's one of those guys you grabbed on the waiver wire, you drafted really, really late and worked out for you 8.2 points per game. Talk to me about Zach.
Speaker 1:Zach Ertz had an awesome year. I mean, he really dialed back that clock. I had visions of him in Philadelphia. Man, that was the old Zach Ertz that we saw this year.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. I said the Arizona Cardinals. Zach Ertz was absolutely with the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my bad, to your point. He has been bouncing around quite a bit so, but here's the deal. He ended up at tight end eight Guys, hot take. He will not finish as a tight end one this year. Here's why it's because Deebo Samuel is now a commander. You also have Terry McLaurin who is a commander.
Speaker 1:We're going to see what happens with the running back situation. Will they end up bringing back Austin Eckler, who really did well out of the backfield when he was healthy from a reception standpoint? And who else did they draft? Last year it was Ben Sinat, right, and I believe they traded up to get him in the second round. So for me, man, they put a lot of stock in this younger tight end to learn from that of Zach Ertz. Zach Ertz certainly had one of those memorable seasons for him and really, as I mentioned, kind of turning back the time and looking like he did in Philadelphia. It was an awesome year for Zach Ertz. I don't foresee him replicating to that level of what it was, due to all the things I just mentioned. So hell of a year. Zach Ertz, temper expectations moving forward in your drafts and in 2025.
Speaker 2:I love all of those points, man. I think they're spot on. All right, let's get to number seven here. Tucker Kraft it's good to see him in here, man. He's had a rough start to his career. Tucker Kraft of the Green Bay Packers 133 points to above. Zach Ertz, projected to be the tight end 21, came in at number seven. Another beauty here 8.3 points per game. Talk to me about Tucker Kraft.
Speaker 1:Tucker Kraft was really solid for the Green Bay Packers, but part of the reason that he was John was because of the injuries that was happening. Luke Musgrave got injured early. He was the guy. Luke Musgrave was that starting tight end and then when he went down, tucker Kraft came in and really showed out and really played well. In addition, we kind of saw Jaden Reed get banged up, romeo Dubs in and out right, and then now you have to have Christian Watson banged up multiple Dubs in and out right, and then now you have to have or Christian Watson banged up multiple weeks in a row and so, and then Dontavian Wicks coming in, and so there was always this constant changing of who is healthy, who wasn't healthy, and it really benefited Tucker Kraft guys.
Speaker 1:This could change. We could see a Luke Musve Tucker Kraft kind of one-two punch from tight end which will kind of deplete both. I could see as crazy as it sounds, man we might see Devontae Adams going back to the Packers. We might see DK Metcalf going to the Packers and if this happens and they get a true bonafide number one to pair with Jaden Reed and to pair with some of these younger cats right, like that of Romeo Dubs and Dontavian Wicks will probably be gone because they would need to trade for him. But you know, christian Watson, etc. That's going to absolutely deplete, right, that of that tight end position.
Speaker 1:So for me, man, really again, level set expectation for that of Tucker Kraft. If you're looking in a dynasty league or if you're looking in a keeper league and you're like, man, I got him for great value, don't fall for it, right, don't fall for that Right. Look at elsewhere, look at a better kind of position. Maybe it's a receiver, maybe it's a running back that you can go a little bit, take a little bit more less value on, but maybe a little bit higher reward at the end. Because, again, man, I just think Tucker Kraft, I think we really saw kind of the peak for him and depending on what happens for the Packers, you know he might not be in the top 12.
Speaker 2:I like that call out, because the Packers do need an alpha receiver.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They really. We talked about it when we went over Jaden Reed, but they need an alpha. And if they don't get an alpha, I like Tucker craft a lot more, but if they do, you know, if they get just a guy running cardio like an MBS or a Skymore type player that's just taking the top off uh, rashad Bateman to just running those deep posts while you know the guy underneath with Jaden Reed eats. If they do get an alpha, though, jaden Reed's targets are going to take away from the tight end.
Speaker 2:I don't care who the tight end is. It's just going to happen. So good call, man. All right, let's go to number six here. Hey, travis Kelsey, how you doing, brother? You haven't seen a number six ranking in many, many years, have you All right? Travis Kelsey of the chiefs 146 fantasy points. There's a big jump here. That's a 13-point jump from Tucker Kraft. So from seven to six is a nice little leap there. Projected to be the tight end, two came in at six. Slipped a little bit here, man. 9.2 points per game, again less than David Njoku. I just want to point that out. David Njoku averaged more points per game than Travis Kelsey. All right, talk to me about our favorite Swifty here, man. What happened with Travis Kelsey and what are we looking at moving forward? Miserable.
Speaker 1:It was miserable if you drafted Travis Kelsey this year. I was one of them. I actually drafted him in two leagues because I was thinking I was smarter than everybody else and I was fucking wrong. Okay, guys, this was terrible because, especially earlier in the season, I mean they couldn't figure it out with Travis Kelsey. They just couldn't. I don't know what the block was. Patrick Mahomes had a down year, the offense as a whole looked goofy and of course, they still go to the Super Bowl, primarily due to their defense. And again, not taking anything away from Andy Reid, but really I think we're starting to see the cliff and, john, I really do. I think you know he has. I think he's playing out this year. He said he's coming back, which is awesome, going to play through the contract.
Speaker 1:According to some sources, they're saying that, yeah, he's still got a lot left in the tank. That's all fine and dandy, but the reality is we saw Travis Kelsey this year without Rasheed Rice. We saw him with a rookie in Xavier Worthy. We saw him with Hollywood Brown, who wasn't even healthy. Earlier on, we saw him with a very old D-hop and what I'm getting at is man is he should have been balling. He should have been balling and they weren't, and it was terrible. And so for me, man, what do you do with Travis Kelsey next year? He certainly I would bet everything I own, barring an injury, that he's still going to be a top 10 tight end, but where would you look to take him?
Speaker 1:Guys, sit and wait. Look at some of the other names that we have mentioned. Yes, travis Kelsey was number six, with 146 points and half PPR. Yes, he was averaging 9.2 points a game, but Sam Laporta averaged nine points a game. David Njoku 10.6 points a game.
Speaker 1:We're going to be talking about a few of these other guys that you can get much better value on. That changes the course of your draft strategy. So what I'm saying is, guys, is, sit and wait as long as possible. Maybe you can get Travis Kelsey in a round four this year. Maybe he actually drops to three or four and you can get him maybe around that point in time. Or maybe you decide, hey, screw it all together and I'm going to try to hit on a Kate Otten and therefore I'm going to stack up some of those running backs and receivers or a top tier quarterback, instead of having to get Travis Kelsey in the second round, like most people had to do this past year. And so for me, man, I'm still looking at Travis Kelsey as a tight end one for this year, knowing that the tight end landscape has been pretty down as of recent but overall temper expectation on where you're looking to reach for him.
Speaker 2:Do you know how many touchdowns Travis Kelsey had this year, frank, hmm.
Speaker 1:Talk to me Three Terrible.
Speaker 2:Three touchdowns for Travis Kelsey. Looking at Travis Kelsey's game log, I mean he really he made his entire year in three games, pretty much Week eight, nine and 10, he had a beautiful stretch there that helped you out, but the rest of the year did not help you out. He had 20 points, 12, 10 catches for 90 and a touchdown. 15 points, 14 catches for 100, and then 16 points with eight catches for 64 and a touchdown. Outside of those three games he had three other games in double digits and that's it.
Speaker 2:Terrible other games in double digits and that's it. Terrible, that's it. So, yeah, I mean, it's just not a guy that I'm going to take seriously. In my draft there are plenty of tight ends, especially when you look at the guys ahead of him that were not projected ahead of him that I'm going to be looking at. There's a couple of guys we just named that I'm going to go after instead of Travis Kelsey Sam Laporta, david and Joku. Whoever the starting tight end for the commanders is, I'm going to go after that guy. I'm going to go after that guy instead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, let's move on from Travis Kelsey. I'm sick of goddamn Taylor Swift anyway. Only thing I hope for is that they break up in a fiery, fiery crash or something you know like. It's just crash and burn, breakup. She writes a fucking killer album about it. He's tweeting, you know all this stuff. Everybody starts feeling bad for him because he just got dominated by a billionaire, badass woman. That's what I'm hoping for. Those are Johnny's predictions in the off season. All right, that'll make me happy. I'll do a whole episode on it. All right, let's get to number five. Get into the top five here, guys. This guy was quietly in the top five this year. Surprise. I had to double check the stats and make sure it was accurate. Number five Mark Andrews Mandrews of the Baltimore Ravens 148 points, two points ahead of Travis Kelsey. Projected to be the tight end 15, came in at number five 9.2 points a game average, same as Travis Kelsey. Talk to me about Mark Mandrews.
Speaker 1:Crazy year for Mandrews Guys. The first five weeks of this past year he didn't have over seven and a half fantasy points. In the first five weeks, john, it was to the point to where we were like he's droppable, isaiah Likely's the guy Well.
Speaker 2:Frank. He went week three and four with goose eggs, Played the whole game. Played the whole game in goose eggs.
Speaker 1:I mean it was crazy. And then all of a sudden explosion. We started seeing 14, 18, 12. In week 10, he had 15.8. In week 10. And then in week 12 and 13, he had 13, 15, and then finish the season with 13.8 and 13.4. That's all in half PPR, that's not even full PPR. And so for me, man, he's really interesting this year because of what Isaiah likely did and because of what this offense could or could not look like.
Speaker 1:Again, when we saw Zay Flowers go down, that's when we started seeing Mark Andrews go up. And then we started also seeing the emergence of Rashad Bateman that was able to kind of open up the middle of the field a bit more when they were throwing the ball down the field to Bateman. And so now what happens? We have Derrick Henry coming back. There's rumors and again it was kind of quote unquote, squashed, but there were rumors of Tyreek Hill wanting to be traded to the Baltimore Ravens. Again, I don't think that that's going to happen now, because he had to like really walk that back, say he really wants Miami and he's happy here, all the things. But what if certain things change? What if they add a few more receivers? What if they add, you know, an additional player. That kind of changes the mold of this offense.
Speaker 1:But, man, for me I still really like Mark Andrews. I think he's definitely a shoo-in for a top 10 tight end, barring an injury, I think. After what happened in that playoff game with that drop, I think this motherfucker is going to come back with vengeance. I think he has everything to prove and I think, based on, you know, lamar coming to his aid, even though there was a little bit of shade thrown like he's sick of it. But you know, people need to kind of step up that kind of thing. Um, I, but he really still backed Mark Andrews. Dude, I think this is only going to light a fire under his ass. So here is the guy that I'm really circling. Take a note. I'm really circling Mark Andrews because if you can get him for really good value, pull the trigger. Don't wait, because this is a guy that could be the number one tight end next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean looking at Mark Andrews, his game log here. The first five weeks no touchdowns, nothing more than seven points out of Mark Andrews. The next 12 games he scored a touchdown. In 10 out of those last 12 games he was a touchdown machine. He had 11 touchdowns on the season and they all came after week five. So it was absolutely bananas. And they all came after week five, so it was absolutely bananas.
Speaker 2:Um, it makes me a little nervous with him. I agree with everything you just said. He played all year, did not Zay Flowers tearing up the middle of the field. That could be trouble for Mark Andrews. He's never been a target monster. He's just super, super efficient. If you look at his targets, he rarely gets over four or five targets. I think three times he got over four or five targets. So that he's got to be efficient. He's got to score touchdowns. If you've got another weapon out there, a big stud receiver, a DK Metcalf, god forbid he goes to the Ravens. But you know what I'm saying somebody like that, who can also be a red zone threat, it will take away from Mark Andrews. It's going to All right.
Speaker 2:Let's look at number four here. Another surprise in the top five. How about this guy? Big surprise. We had a lot of issues when Tua went down. A lot of issues with a lot of people dropped him out. The only guy that seemed to really help is Jonu Smith. Jonu Smith, 166 points. He was projected to start the year at tight end, 26. Came in at number four Holy smokes, 10.3 points per game. Talk to me about Johnny Smith. I mean John, he's gold.
Speaker 1:He was gold. He's the golden goose. When you're looking at what his projection was supposed to be, he was 72 fantasy points. Was his projection? Again, tight end, 26. We're not even talking. He's a tight end. Two Comes into a team that's completely convoluted, and what I mean by that is Cedric Wilson, tyreek Hill right Jalen Waddle, you had Devon Achan, you had Raheem Moster right, all these guys so many mouths to feed and he was the one who came to the surface.
Speaker 1:He even superseded, technically, that of a lot of what Tyreek Hill did. They couldn't get the ball to Tyreek Hill, for, whatever the reason is, they couldn't figure it out. And Janu Smith was the guy that they could figure out. And actually, john, what was really interesting to see is the worse the quarterback play was, the better Janu Smith played, because they couldn't get the ball down the field to Tyreek or to Waddle, and then Waddle got hurt. And so what are they doing? It's check down season to Janu Smith.
Speaker 1:So for me, man, I actually really like Janu Smith, but here is where the caution applies, guys. Because of how he performed this year, he is going to be up there on the draft board and people are. His projection is going to be up there on the draft board. His projection is going to be a much higher projection than what I would probably feel like is reasonable. So for me, if he continues to drop and we'll start reviewing where we kind of see these guys in terms of draft rounds and things like that, after kind of the NFL draft, after we see how the free agency works out right, things like that but I want to see Janu Smith drop a bit before I'm willing to invest a quality draft pick in him. 166 fantasy points, man, no chance he replicates it, in my personal opinion, as long as Tua stays healthy. If Tua stays healthy, they're throwing the ball down the field. And so for me, man, I think he'll still be a very quality tight end piece. But to be a top four tight end, I just don't see it this year.
Speaker 1:Now one call out John is in total sidebar. Breaking news, we got breaking news right now. You ready, I am, I'm ready. Mike Kosicki signs a three-year extension with that of the Cincinnati Bengals. So we just talked about Mike Kosicki right as an honorable mention. 15th ended up 15 tight end. This is interesting. This means they're putting a little bit of stock in him. So drew samples probably off the board for the tight end. For the Cincinnati Bengals, again they franchise tag that of T Higgins. They got to roll out the Brinks trucks for that of Jamar Chase. Maybe we start seeing Gesicki get a bit more involved now that they're signing his extension. But breaking news three-year deal. Going back to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2:All right, I like it. Yeah, I'm with you on Johnny Smith, man. I mean, without Tua's injury, johnny Smith doesn't even come. He's not even on this list and we're not talking about him. There's just no way. He had 111 targets. I mean that's absurd, crazy. Johnnie Smith had 111, you know, I mean it's just not. He just had one of those freakish years where you had quarterbacks like Skylar Thompson trying to throw the ball. You know they couldn't get the ball to receivers. Or Tyler Huntley, yeah, yeah, I mean, come on, man. Yeah, so great job, johnnie Smith. He was a wonderful waiver wire pickup for you guys this year, but I don't think we're going to be talking about him next year.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get to number three Now, this guy we will be talking about next year. We got three heavy hitters here, man, to take it. To round us out Trey McBride, this guy's of the Arizona Cardinals 181 points. All right, let's look at, we got a big teardrop here, man, with these three guys down to the other guys. We'll skip Johnnie Smith, but you've, you got Mark Andrews, travis Kelsey 148, 146 points. Trey McBride's 181. So we've got a big, big drop here. When it comes to the tier system, talk to me a little bit about Trey McBride. I'm sorry he was projected to be the tight end three. Did come in at the tight end three 11.9 points per game. Almost 12 points per game out of a tight end. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, amazing. John entered his third year and balled out. That's what happened with trey mcbride, as I talked about earlier. Man. There are younger tight ends coming into the fold that are truly doing great things. You mentioned dalton kincaid, right? I still think he's going to be doing some awesome stuff with with the buffalo bills. He stays healthy. They figure it out.
Speaker 1:You have Trey McBride, you have Brock Bowers, you have Sam Laporta, you have K-Dot and you have these younger cats that are starting to come up right anywhere from fourth round to the sixth round. And if you got him in the fourth, people were a lot of analysts and things like that we're talking about. It's pretty, that's a lot, that's a lot of stake in a guy like this. But if you did and you drafted him in the fourth, fifth or sixth round, it paid off in dividends. He only missed one game this year. He only missed one game, and that was week four against that of the Washington Commanders. And then then, on top of it, man to average 11.9 points a game. I mean that's amazing, I mean that's a set and forget it. And on top of that, that's a guy that you can rely on to where you're circling the calendar and you're like it doesn't matter. I know I'm going to get roughly about 12 points from this guy.
Speaker 2:So moving forward, man, I think it's safe to say this is a guy that you can draft early on and you'd be really happy with the outcome. All right, let's break down some of these stats though. I mean we talked about how crazy it was that John O'Smith had 111 targets. Travis Kelsey had 133 targets. Trey McBride had 147 targets. That's crazy, just a monster amount of volume. Now here's what's interesting. Trey McBride should have dominated at the tight end position. He should have been the tight end one, without question. He only had two touchdowns, frankie, and they came in week 17 and 18. Isn't that insane. He was the third tight end, finished number three and only scored a touchdown in the last two games. Absolutely bananas, man. Trey McBride's a star. There were some games in here where he had 16 targets I mean he finished and a touchdown 24 points for you in your Super Bowl if you were in it with Trey McBride. So yeah, man, I mean he's just one of those guys that he's everything that Sam Laporta and Brock Bowers are hoping to be.
Speaker 1:That consistency and John, real quick Dude. And to that point, after he missed week four, he had only two weeks, two weeks the rest of the year to where he was under 50 receiving yards and he only had two or three weeks, excuse me, to where he had under six targets. Think about what I just said. That's absurd, that's crazy. And weeks 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. He had 15 targets, 12 targets, 14 targets, 10 targets, four and then 16. Dude is a bonafide superstar.
Speaker 2:Over 1,100 yards receiving Crazy, yeah, yeah, he gets those touchdowns up, man, and I mean he's solidified as a top three tight end year over year, no question about it. All right, let's keep moving here. Get to number two. We got down to the top two here. Now, in our half PPR scoring, this guy got one more point than Trey McBride, just one. He was projected to be the tight end one, came in at the tight end two. I'm talking about George Kittle, our boy from I don't know. I always say he's from Huntington Indiana. I know that's not true, but he looks like he's from Huntington Indiana. Those of you who know what that is. Yeah, he, uh. How many carburetors is this guy stolen in?
Speaker 1:his life.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. He's absolutely been kicked out of a Denny's. You know I mean he's just that kind of guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, he's just that kind of guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, talk to me about our buddy, george Kittle.
Speaker 1:Guys he's, I mean set it and forget it. You draft him with confidence every year. He's still a young cat, even though he's technically age 31. He plays way younger guys. Of course, the 49ers too. Here's what we need to be thinking about 49ers landscape. Brandon Ayuk might not be there. Word is that they're trying to shop him and get that off the payroll. They already let go of Debo Samuel. They traded him right Christian McCaffrey. We really don't know what's going to happen with him. I'm assuming he's going to be okay, but we all know what happens when you assume, especially with CMC. And now they got to pay right Brock Purdy, and they're right're targeting $45, $46 million a year. So who is Brock Purdy's number one guy? Well, it's going to be George Kittle, and I just think that George Kittle is a guy that you can continue to draft with pure confidence and enjoy the output, especially now, especially now that they no longer have Debo Samuel and Brandon Ayuk is coming off an ACL injury, if he is even on the team.
Speaker 2:I mean, he was a nightmare last year when he was on the team, so I could see them not wanting to deal with that bullshit. You know I really do. Well, it's funny because situationally it's putting George Kittle in the situation that Kelsey's enjoyed for the past five years plus Since they got rid of Tyreek. You know just, he's going to be the guy, he's going to be the target monster. I could see him split out a lot more as well, since they did get rid of Debo, and playing much more of that slot kind of even an H back situation. I could see them doing that with Kittle this year. Uh, but yeah, it should be really interesting man, but yeah, he's one of those guys set and forget it. He's going to be a stud, especially now that there's less mouths to feed. I think that's going to be so much better for George Kittle.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get to our number one guy here. Frank, love this guy. We went apeshit about him in our rookie review. I drafted his ass. He's going to be my keeper in one of my leagues. I love this guy, man Number one. Tight end on the year. Looking at your show notes here, frankie, it just says brock, fucking bowers. Okay, 197 points. Another big drop off here again george kittle, number 282 points. Brock bowers 197 fantasy points projected to be the tight end four, which everybody thought was a little crazy, you know, nobody would have said that had sam laporte and not had the year he had right rookie tight end.
Speaker 2:A tight end four. That's crazy. Dude was number one with a bullet baby. 12.1 points per game for brock bauer. Slobber all over him, baby, take the floor I mean just like just that's how I just just, oh shit, that's how I feel at brock.
Speaker 1:I mean, he was just gold, and especially john.
Speaker 1:It feels so good we're gonna talk about it, he goes that's how I just oh shit, that's how I feel about Brock. I mean, he was just gold and especially John. It feels so good. We're going to talk about it. Guy's a little playing the seed. We talked about it on the Rookie Review. When we do our Rookie Review review, you're going to get hit in the face with some good shit, and that's what happened.
Speaker 1:Man, brock Bowers, coming out of Georgia, was a solidified, bona fide star. You give him the opportunity on a team that was constantly down right, they needed to throw the ball. They didn't have a very good quarterback situation. Right, it was Gardner Minshew, it was Aiden O'Connell, I think they even brought in Desmond Ritter here and there and things of that nature. So for me, man, he played with dog shit and still performed. In addition, yeah, they had Jacoby Myers, yeah, they had Trey Tucker. They didn't really have a running back that they could really lean on. So they had to figure this out. And with Brock Bowers, man, he is that guy.
Speaker 1:Now, word of caution, I want to be very careful here. What happens now that Geno Smith is a Raider? What happens now that Geno Smith is a Raider? What happens now that Pete Carroll, who has been known for a run-first approach is now the head coach. What happens with some of these changes? Do we see Brock Bowers kind of retract, a bit like that of Sam Laporta did, and is it to the level of extent of what Sam Laporta did?
Speaker 1:And so for me, man, there's kind of a little bit of question mark out there. So when you guys are looking to draft Brock Bowers, he's a safe draft pick. But if you're targeting him in round two, right, be careful, because we might see, or targeting him early round three, we might actually see him just retract just a smidge, because we don't know what the synergy looks like with Geno Smith. We don't know what Pete Carroll and that offense is going to look like. Shit dude. The Raiders, now that they have Geno Smith and have the sixth overall pick in the NFL draft, they could say, hey, we're going to say screw it and draft Ashton Gianti and be a run first type of team, and now you have Brock Bowers blocking more often than not. So there's a lot of different moving pieces now with this Raiders team. But again, he is a safe choice as long as you're getting good quality value.
Speaker 2:I agree with you a hundred percent, and let's also learn from the Sam Laporta situation.
Speaker 2:Let's learn from that. Teams change, offensive coordinators change, head coaches change. The entire philosophy of a team can change, and this raiders team is absolutely one thing I can tell you for sure this team's changing next year, no question about it. It's completely going to be different. There they are. They could look at jonti, at at uh running back there. They could also look at an aaron jones. They will get a running back. It will happen, uh, and it's likely to be a running back who's going to be a workhorse and get work out of the backfield as well. So it's going to change. They need an alpha also. I mean rumors of potential Devontae Adams could be coming back. I mean, anything could happen here. It could be a DK situation, you know. I mean it's very interesting.
Speaker 1:Did you hear about the trade offer they offered? So, dude, it was Gino Smith and DK Metcalf for Max Crosby. And they basically came out and said Max Crosby's off the board, there's not a chance. And so that's then when they backed into.
Speaker 1:Gino Smith and there were pictures of Pete Carroll talking with Mike McDaniel, who's the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, on a plane and they're like random, like civilian, normal, human people like all of us are sitting there taking videos and pictures of them chatting on a plane, and so, yeah, just super crazy. But they tried to do it and they were like no, no, no, we're keeping Max Crosby. So it's going to be really interesting, man, to your point, to see how this all shakes out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll be watching it. Like I said in ateam keeper league, I'm keeping Brock Bowers in the eighth round. It's just too good have to, but you have to be careful where you're drafting him. Next year Hopefully everybody doing mock drafts, hopefully all the analysts out there let's push Brock Bowers down the board a little bit, let's not get too crazy, just a smidge.
Speaker 2:Okay, give me a fourth round. That would be beautiful. I know it's gonna. I know it's gonna be sooner than that. The guy scored almost 200 fantasy points, but we've seen that before. There are going to be changes and we have to just be careful. But man, this guy's fun, he's so good.
Speaker 1:And john oh dude, he's so good and guys. Here's an interesting thing john and I are actually going to do this in a few of the leagues that johnny has been commissioner of and commissioner of Guys, with how down the tight end landscape has been, not only this year but also last year. We actually did a league and it was shout out, battle of the Brands. It was really cool. I know we talked about it a few times, but it was multiple podcasters that take the shit really serious and you know you basically do a massive league together. It was really intense.
Speaker 1:But what they did is they put a premium on tight end and it was only a slight premium, so it was like one and a half points or two points per reception instead of one or instead of a half point per reception, and then it was anytime they get a first down catch, it's an additional point and, guys, that's super, super cool shit. So if you're thinking about how to kind of make the tight end room a little bit sexier and make it so that there's a little bit more trading going on in your leagues, think about changing that just a tad and see what happens. We're going to try it this year again with a few of our leagues and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:I agree, man, you got to do something to keep it fun, you know otherwise you don't want to put tight ends in like a kicker category. You know to where it's like ah God.
Speaker 2:I have to deal with this bullshit again. Yeah, you got to do some stuff to make it fun, guys. All right, that is the final episode of the year in review. We hit quarterbacks, we hit running backs, we hit receivers. Now we just brought you the tight ends, guys. We've got one episode left of the season.
Speaker 2:We're taking our time and stretching it out here, guys. We want to enjoy it. We don't want it to be over. Frankie and I, you know, you take a six-month break. You come back out June and July and you get going again. We just want to stretch it out. We want to keep going. We like doing it, you know. But review, review coming up, guys. Yeah, this is where we do. Our first episode every single year is our rookie review. Let's take a look at the new guys coming in. The last episode every year, let's review what we reviewed. How did those rookies we talked up, who we knew very little about and hadn't taken a snap in the nfl yet? How did we do on calling and telling you what you should be doing with these guys, who their comps were? We're gonna see to see all that stuff. And I got spoiler alert we did pretty fucking good this year. So stay tuned for that episode coming up soon.
Speaker 1:Frankie, you got anything else for everybody here, man Guys don't forget to like, share, subscribe across all the social media platforms. Tiktok is going crazy, instagram is looking real nice and, of course, I'm going to keep you updated. As things come in free agency, I will be posting them on the stories of Instagram, on Facebook, et cetera. That way, you guys have an idea. Of course you're probably following Adam Schefter. Of course you're probably following Ian Rappaport. I'm going to pepper in a couple comedic flares to this in addition to that. So, guys, and a couple comedic flares to this in addition to that. So, guys, we love you. Get ready, we are heading for one hell of an off season.
Speaker 1:We'll see you soon.
Speaker 2:May the fantasy gods smile upon you. Bye, we'll see you next time.