Early Week 1 Fantasy Football TE Rankings (2025) - Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland, Jonnu Smith, Darren Waller, Tucker Kraft

RotoBaller's tight end fantasy football rankings for Week 1 (2025). Set winning fantasy lineups with our Week 1 TE rankings for fantasy football leagues.

Fantasy football drafts are happening earlier than ever, so many fantasy managers are already looking ahead to setting their Week 1 lineups. We have you covered with our fantasy football tight end rankings for Week 1. It's never fun to start the season with a loss, so use these rankings to aid your key start-or-sit decisions.

In our Week 1 tight end rankings for fantasy football below, you'll see where key pass-catchers such as Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland, Jonnu Smith, Darren Waller, and Tucker Kraft stand for the first slate of the 2025 NFL season.

Our TE fantasy football rankings for Week 1 are assembled by Nick Mariano. In addition to our rankings, below you will find a summary of this week's important fantasy football injury news. There are always critical injuries to track, so check back until kickoff.

Editor's Note: Stay on top of your draft prep with RotoBaller’s fantasy football rankings, featuring expert analysis, ADPs, and draft insights for both PPR and non-PPR leagues.

Fantasy Football TE News and Injuries

• Dalton Kincaid Dealing With Knee Soreness
• Dolphins Hosting Noah Fant on a Visit
• Cade Otton Dealing With Mild Hamstring Issue
• Tyler Warren Looking the Part Thus Far in Training Camp
• Dawson Knox Activated off Active/NFI List
• Taysom Hill Working Off to the Side
• Kyle Pitts "As Healthy As He's Been"
• Cowboys, Jake Ferguson Agree on Four-Year Extension
• Elijah Arroyo Impressing Early in Camp
• Evan Engram Feeling "at Home" in Broncos Offense
• Jonnu Smith Doing Individual Work at Training Camp

Week 1 Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings

Rankings are updated until kick-off. Be sure to bookmark our weekly PPR rankings, Half-PPR rankings, and Standard rankings.

Fantasy Football Tight End Draft Outlooks

Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders

Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers crushed NFL rookie records thanks to 112 receptions, 1,194 yards, and five touchdowns. The catches were the most by any rookie ever, regardless of position, which speaks to how well the Raiders were able to scheme him right out of the gate. And now the offense will have a stable quarterback situation under Geno Smith after hoping that Gardner Minshew II, Aidan O'Connell, or Desmond Ridder could excel.

The team drafted three receivers in the hopes that someone could break out alongside Jakobi Meyers. And top 2025 pick Ashton Jeanty is a massive threat out of the backfield, so we shouldn't rely on record-breaking target attention moving forward. However, the overall potency of the offense should easily exceed that of last year and give the 6-foot-3 TE a good chance at topping five TDs. The excitement of a sophomore surge makes Bowers the first TE off the board, usually within the first 20 picks, which aligns with our RotoBaller rank.

- Nick Mariano

Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride is a top-two fantasy option heading into 2025. McBride is clearly quarterback Kyler Murray's favorite target, and there are zero reasons to suspect any dip in production. In fact, McBride should blow his 2024 fantasy numbers out of the water given that he only scored two touchdowns in 16 games despite finishing with 38.2% of the Cardinals' red zone targets (21). Assuming health, McBride could easily replicate 100 catches and 1,000+ yards again, but if he is able to find the end zone a handful of times this year, he will be a steal no matter where he is drafted.

Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing should look to get Marvin Harrison, Jr., more involved in the vertical game, but McBride's production should not be impacted much, as he mainly operates between the sticks and is the heart and soul of the Arizona passing game. He led all tight ends in target share (29.3%), route participation (85.5%), air yards share (25.3%), juke rate (8.9%), and, most importantly, expected fantasy points per game (19.2). He also finished second in targets (147), snap share (90.7%), red zone targets (21), air yards (902), receptions (111), receiving yards (1146), and actual fantasy points per game (15.6).

Put more simply, he is a bona fide stud in fantasy football and arguably the safest player on the board. In recognition of his stellar performance on the field and his equal importance to the offense and the development of Kyler Murray, the Cardinals made him the highest-paid tight end in the league with a 4-year, $76M contract, including $43M guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $19M. His reign as one of fantasy's elite tight ends is just beginning, and managers should not shy away from his very high ADP of TE2 at the end of the second round or the beginning of the third.

He is an incredibly valuable asset that gives managers a distinct advantage at a historically unpredictable and low-scoring position, and more importantly, he provides a rare consistency that provides his managers with peace of mind that some do not believe possible in fantasy football.

- Frank Dyevoich, Esq.

Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears rookie tight end Colston Loveland (shoulder) was drafted with the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, giving him elite draft capital. Despite his lack of college production, he had suspect QB play last season, so his statistics were misleading. He's an elite route-runner for a tight end and is 6-foot-6, so he has an elite catch radius. The 21-year-old is still recovering from a shoulder injury he played through in 2024 that he had surgery to address in the offseason.

Loveland being thought of so highly by new Bears head coach Ben Johnson says a lot. While the team already has wide receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, and drafted wideout Luther Burden III in the second round of the 2025 draft, Loveland can immediately become the team's TE1 and take over a solid share of the passing game. Tight end Cole Kmet figures to be Loveland's backup. Still, it's a crowded pass-catcher room, making it hard to project Loveland's volume.

His ADP in redraft leagues is very low, so it shouldn't be hard to draft him in the later rounds. He's immensely talented and will be in the hands of an immensely talented offensive mind in Johnson. So, Loveland has a ton of upside for not being very expensive. He's absolutely worth drafting and should finish as a top-8 TE this season.

- John Johnson

Tucker Kraft, Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft enjoyed a nice sophomore season. He posted a 50-707-7 line and set new career highs across the board. Kraft would finish 2024 as the PPR TE10. In the immediate aftermath of Green Bay's season, head coach Matt LaFleur lamented the fact that the team did not further utilize Kraft and expressed his desire to further incorporate him into Green Bay's offense moving forward. LaFleur has echoed those sentiments several times throughout the offseason as well.

However, the team used a first-round pick to select wide receiver Matthew Golden in the 2025 NFL Draft. The addition of Golden further complicates an already crowded receiving core and marks a potential roadblock toward Kraft earning a larger role. Be that as it may, we should not entirely dismiss LaFleur's comments on Kraft.

He runs an offensive system very similar to the one run by Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers. Perhaps the team sees Kraft as their version of George Kittle and plans to utilize him as such. With Kraft's average NFFC ADP of 122.86 overall, it won't cost gamers much to find out. If you plan to wait on tight end in your draft, Kraft's name should be at the top of your list.

- Dave Ventresca

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