The tight end position is one in fantasy football that can really go one of two ways. You either pay up to get Rob Gronkowski, or you wait it out and roll a guy like Cameron Brate or Jack Doyle out there every week. In recent years, there have been two young stud TEs emerge, and their names are Travis Kelce and Zach Ertz. Kelce and Ertz both were worth spending an earlier draft pick on this year, and they both did exactly what we hoped they would do. They outperformed their ADP, continued to solidify their trending in the right direction, but they weren’t exactly surprises.

Gronkowski finishing as the number one tight end in fantasy in standard scoring? Not too surprising. Although, he has been down the last couple seasons, this isn’t something anyone is shocked by. It’s still all about Gronk. Kelce and Ertz were definitely nice this year, but surprises? Not exactly. They are both big, talented tight ends, who have very solidified roles on their perspective offenses. With recent news of Alex Smith heading out of Kansas City, it will be interesting to see how Patrick Mahomes utilizes Kelce. I’d imagine he continues to be a key factor in that offense.

Enough swooning over the stud tight ends - let’s get to some of the guys that surprised us this year. Between the highly talented rookie TE class of 2017, and the large number of veteran tight ends still playing, there was definitely an opportunity for some surprises at the TE position.

Surprise Tight Ends of 2017

Evan Engram, New York Giants

Number one on this list goes to the big-bodied, play-making rookie, Evan Engram. There was a lot of debate this past season over whether the number one rookie tight end would be Tampa Bay’s OJ Howard, or the Giants’ Engram. David Njoku was also very intriguing as a young, raw prospect, but it’s safe to say Engram took us all by surprise. Historically, it takes several years for rookie tight ends to break out (see Hunter Henry, Kelce, and Ertz).

Engram finished the season with 173.6 points in PPR leagues. This puts him at the number five TE in fantasy, less than a half a point behind the number four TE, Delanie Walker. You can go ahead and give some of the credit to Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard for missing time with their injuries, but let’s not get confused. Engram is very talented, and is going to be a big part of this offense going forward. Despite sitting out one game and being on arguably the worst offense in the league, he still put up excellent numbers as a rookie. You can bank on Engram being inside the top ten of dynasty TEs for the foreseeable future.

Jack Doyle, Indianapolis Colts

With QB Andrew Luck spending a great deal of time this past off-season dealing with his shoulder issues, the Indianapolis Colts offense was one that had fantasy owners concerned about, and rightfully so. Heading into the season with recently-acquired QB Jacoby Brissett as their starter, the upside definitely was limited for their offensive weapons. TY Hilton was very streaky this year, Frank Gore was down, and rookie RB Marlon Mack actually started turning some heads towards the end of the year. The one bright spot on this offense was the TE, Jack Doyle. He was a very nice surprise for fantasy owners who either grabbed him late or picked him up off the waivers. Despite having just four touchdowns on the year, Doyle had the second most targets at the TE position with 80, which was good for the second most, behind Kelce. Doyle was a very nice surprise who offered owners a safe and consistent number of fantasy points each week, averaging 11.3 PPR points per game.

Cameron Brate, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

As mentioned previously, there was a great deal of hype this year and debate around the rookie TEs Engram and Howard. With all of the offensive weapons that the Buccaneers offense had, Cameron Brate was a name that definitely went under the radar to an extent. There is a good chance that he was drafted last year, but the expectations were tempered. Howard did actually put up a very nice rookie season with 101.2 PPR points on just 26 catches this year, but it was Brate who surprised us the most. Brate finished as the number 10 TE in PPR scoring, with 591 yards and six TD. Brate was good for an average of just under 10 PPR fantasy points per game, who similar to Doyle, was a nice consistent surprise this year.

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