2025 Fantasy Football Rookie TE Rankings (July Updates): Elijah Arroyo, Colston Loveland, Tyler Warren, Gunnar Helm, Harold Fannin, Mason Taylor

July 7, 2025

2025 Fantasy football rookie tight end rankings with July updates. RotoBaller's top rookie tight ends and draft targets, including Elijah Arroyo, Colston Loveland, Tyler Warren, and more.

Whether you're in a dynasty, rookie, or season-long fantasy football draft, tight ends are always the toughest position to navigate. To help your rookie draft efforts, we're back with our 2025 fantasy football rookie tight end rankings. Below, check out where key Year 1 TEs, including Elijah Arroyo, Colston Loveland, Tyler Warren, Gunnar Helm, Harold Fannin Jr., and Mason Taylor stand, among others.

These rookie rankings will be continually updated all offseason long as depth chart developments, injuries, and more take place, so be sure to check back regularly for updates. In addition to this article, you should also be sure to check out our other dynasty rookie rankings and analysis articles, including in-depth coverage of various NFL rookie profiles. Identifying sleepers and busts among first-year players is key for dynasty and redraft leagues, so we have you covered.

Four of our lead fantasy football analysts -- Phil Clark, Jackson Sparks, Andrew Lalama, and Matt Donnelly -- have put together these fantasy football rookie rankings. In addition to these rookie rankings, in our 2025 fantasy football rankings dashboard, you will also find our team's Dynasty League rankings. Bookmark that page, and use it to prepare for all of your 2025 fantasy football dynasty league drafts.

NFL Rookie Tight End Rankings for Fantasy Football (July Updates)

Rookie rankings are from after the 2025 NFL Draft with July Updates

Fantasy Football Outlooks for Rookie Tight Ends

Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears rookie tight end Colston Loveland was drafted with the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, giving him elite draft capital. He has a lack of college production, which can be explained by subpar QB play last season. 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.

Right now, he's 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 has a chance to 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, though, 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 he has a ton of upside for not being very expensive. He's absolutely worth drafting in Round 1 of rookie drafts and could finish as a top-8 TE this season.

- John Johnson

Harold Fannin Jr., Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns drafted tight end Harold Fannin Jr. to join fellow TE David Njoku to create an interesting tight end tandem for the 2025 season. Fannin put up monster stats in college, catching 117 passes for 1,555 yards and 10 touchdowns at Bowling Green. Yes, it was Bowling Green, but that's still impressive for a TE. As of right now, Njoku will remain the team's top starting TE. And Fannin, standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing 241 pounds, is slightly undersized at his position in the NFL.

There are quite a few mediocre receivers he'll have to compete with for targets, of course, and if he's playing behind Njoku, he probably won't be on the field a lot outside of 2-TE formations on offense. With the team's quarterback situation in turmoil, it's hard to imagine Fannin having a big 2025.

He ran a 4.71-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, which wasn't great, but at his height and weight, that's not terrible. Perhaps in a subsequent season, when Cleveland can get some good quarterback play, Fannin could be serviceable in redraft leagues. For now, he's better as a dynasty stash for when the team moves on from Njoku, who consistently has injury issues. Those issues do give Fannin small contingent upside as well.

- John Johnson

Mason Taylor, New York Jets

Mason Taylor was presented with a golden opportunity as the Jets picked him in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. With Tyler Conklin heading to the Chargers in free agency, the starting TE job in New York is available.

Taylor seems like the front-runner to claim that spot. He was a three-year starter at LSU and competed with athletes like Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. early on. When they moved on to the NFL, Taylor put up some of the best numbers of his college career. He snagged 55 passes for 546 yards and two scores in his final season at LSU.

The 21-year-old enters a situation with limited competition at tight end. Jeremy Ruckert has mainly been utilized in run blocking since joining the league. Additionally, Stone Smartt was signed in the offseason and serves more as a depth piece than a genuine threat.

Taylor has the draft pedigree and skill set to handle the TE1 role for the team. It is also helpful that the new offensive coordinator, Tanner Engstrand, comes over from Detroit. Engstrand assisted with both T.J. Hockenson and LaPorta in his time with the Lions, a good sign for the Jets' young TE. Engstrand's presence and resume should help mold Taylor into an NFL-caliber tight end.

The Jets traded for Justin Fields as they were in dire need of a starting QB. His passing game needs refinement, but Fields has shown the willingness to throw the deep ball and produce big plays.

The rookie TE will need to build chemistry with Fields generally quickly to establish himself as a safety blanket. There is a clear path to playing time with a TE-friendly OC calling plays. Taylor's name is one to have on your radar if you're searching for a cheap TE1 option.

- Kasey Kasem

Terrance Ferguson, Los Angeles Rams

When the Los Angeles Rams selected Oregon TE Terrance Ferguson with the 46th pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, he became the team's earliest drafted TE since the first year of the Sean McVay era (Gerald Everett, 44th overall in 2017). Rumored to have pursued a trade-up for Michigan prospect Colston Loveland, adding an athletic TE was a clear priority for McVay and his Rams offense, precisely what they found in the 6'5", 247-pound Ferguson.

A Combine standout, he posted elite testing numbers, including a 39-inch vertical jump, a 4.63-second 40-yard dash, and a 2.67-second 20-yard split, confirming the explosiveness that made him a focal point on a Ducks team that entered the College Football Playoffs as the No. 1 seed. In 2024, his 9.0 yards after catch per reception led all collegiate tight ends with at least 30 targets. According to PFF, he could step into a contributing role early in Los Angeles.

With veteran TE Tyler Higbee sidelined for most of 2024 due to an ACL injury, neither Colby Parkinson nor Davis Allen was able to capitalize on the increased opportunity, resulting in the Rams failing to see a TE record at least 450 receiving yards for the first time since 2018. Higbee returns one more year, removed from his injury and in the final year of his contract. Still, he will be 32 years old entering the season and is now valued more for his versatility than the pass-catching prowess that helped him carve out his own role in the Rams' offense almost a decade ago.

Both Higbee and newly acquired WR Davante Adams were on the wrong side of 30, along with standout WR Puka Nacua, who was looking to prove that his injury-plagued 2024 season was nothing more than a fluke. Multiple paths exist for Ferguson to be thrust into a target-earning position, and he undoubtedly has the athletic capabilities to take advantage of such a situation.

- Patrick McGrath

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