Tight End ADP Risers and Fallers For 2025 Fantasy Football

May 8, 2025

Kevin's fantasy football post-free agency tight end ADP risers and fallers for 2025. His biggest ADP shifts for tight ends (TEs) after 2025 NFL Free Agency.

We may be past the NFL’s free agency period and the 2025 NFL Draft, but a lot has happened in the past couple of months to shape the average draft position in early drafts. As we head further into spring and summer, it’s a great idea to take a look at the tight end landscape and what we can take away from the early consensus that makes up the current ADP.

With tight end being one of the more pivotal and important fantasy positions to get right, getting the later value that rises is incredibly important. The best players at the position very rarely move up in ADP to a substantial degree. Still, it’s usually the big movers at the position, especially with risers, that end up outperforming their fantasy draft capital.

Let’s take a look at a couple of risers and fallers from the tight end position over the last couple of months.

Tight End ADP Risers

Mike Gesicki, Cincinnati Bengals

This Cincinnati Bengals team could have been MUCH different heading into 2025 if a couple of actions had gone the other way. Luckily, the Bengals’ front office listened to its franchise quarterback, Joe Burrow, and all three of Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Mike Gesicki signed new long-term contracts to stay with the Bengals.

Gesicki found a new lease on his NFL and fantasy life with the Bengals last season, as he was used as an almost 70% slot player and mismatch “F” tight end. With twice as many receptions in 2024 (65) as the last two seasons combined in New England and Miami (61), he was the de facto third target in the high-flying Bengals offense that led the league in pass rate over expected last season.

His value was none more evident than when Higgins went down with an injury in Weeks 8-10. Gesicki averaged 8.6 targets, 5.3 receptions, 68 receiving yards, and scored two touchdowns in Week 9 against the Las Vegas Raiders. At worst, he’s plenty involved. At best, he’s targeted heavily in a pass-first offense. You can’t go wrong with either scenario.

Mike Gesicki in 5 games without Tee Higgins last season

36 targets, 26 rec, 312 yards (8.7 Y/T), 2TD
13.8 fantasy PPG (TE4 in PPG behind Bowers)pic.twitter.com/OjqyMkKtsn

— kev mahserejian (@RotoSurgeon) March 8, 2025

Gesicki has risen from the doldrums of TE27 before free agency to TE23 since re-signing with the Bengals and honestly, he could probably stand to come up a bit more. That still makes Gesicki a great value even if he comes up further in ADP.

Brenton Strange, Jacksonville Jaguars

The constant injuries to Evan Engram last season gave Brenton Strange a ton of opportunities in an extended role to see what he could do. He apparently showed more than enough, considering the Jaguars cut Engram before free agency, and not only did the Jaguars sign two blocking tight ends in Johnny Mundt and Hunter Long to replace him, but they didn’t draft a tight end to add to the room either. The runway for Strange is clear to be a massive value for fantasy this season.

What made Strange so attractive to the Jaguars? Well, he’s on his rookie contract for starters. When Strange did get that opportunity, he delivered. With almost 20 percent targets per route run and 1.49 yards per route run last season, Strange was decently efficient on the field and earned targets at an excellent clip for a tight end. He was also in the slot at 43 percent of his snaps, so his alignment versatility should bode very well for the future.

Brenton Strange is an awesome value in best ball drafts on UD, at TE19 and an ADP of 163.6:

+ Avoided competition in the draft, target availability is wide open behind BTJ and Travis Hunter
+ Liam Coen scheme (Cade Otton had best year of his career in 2024)
+ Solid 1.56 YPRR in… https://t.co/ji4QAD2H2n

— Dataroma (@ffdataroma) April 30, 2025

With the stars aligning in terms of the Jaguars’ personnel decisions and his burgeoning efficient skill set rendering Engram expendable, Strange has a solid path to targets in 2025. While Brian Thomas Jr. is the unquestioned alpha in the passing game, Travis Hunter’s time on the field as a receiver remains to be seen. Given that the rest of the wide receivers are part-time players or haven’t earned targets consistently to warrant more consideration, Strange’s rise to a TE19 price tag in post-NFL Draft best ball is still cheap enough to warrant drafting as a sleeper.

Tight End ADP Fallers

Cade Otton, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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

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 in that season. 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. But the rub is that the Buccaneers signed Godwin to another contract and drafted Emeka Egbuka in the first round. Otton’s path to relevant targets is extremely thin heading into 2025.

While Otton’s role is secure from a routes perspective, Otton could be as low as the seventh target when factoring in the wide receivers, plus both Bucky Irving and Rachaad White being solid pass-catching options. Before free agency, Otton’s early best ball ADP hovered around TE19. Now, at TE22, he’s falling to where he’s a pick, and you can guarantee being on the field, but he is solely a touchdown-or-bust option despite his success last season.

Dallas Goedert, Philadelphia Eagles

The subject of trade rumors since the 2024 NFL season ended, Dallas Goedert’s immediate future as a Philadelphia Eagle has been put into question. Goedert has been an Eagle for seven seasons, and while he’s been fine with flashes of efficiency, he’s a distant fifth option on this Eagles’ juggernaut of an offense that prioritizes A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Saquon Barkley, and Jalen Hurts’ arm and legs.

His main problem has been health, as he hasn’t played a full campaign since his rookie season in 2018. That said, he’s been good but not great as a fantasy asset. He’s been a top-10 fantasy tight end just twice in his seven seasons, including a TE10 season in 2019 and a TE9 season in 2021. He’s never earned more than 85 targets in a season, 60 receptions, or 850 receiving yards. Again, good, not great.

Goedert was the subject of trade rumors heading into the 2025 NFL Draft, but was not dealt. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t be from now until Week 1, but the main window into getting dealt has already shut. With the Eagles devoting most of their resources to the run game as the only team in the NFL last season that ran the ball more than they passed, the passing volume is already thin without cutting that pie into a thin slice for Goedert.

It's no secret that the court of public opinion isn’t exactly keen on Goedert as a fantasy asset, and one of the only things propping him up is his name value and the fact that he plays for the Eagles. If he gets dealt, he could spike in volume and available opportunity, so Goedert’s situation could be fluid from now until Week 1. But as it stands now with Philadelphia, Goedert is a low-end fantasy starter that is fine, but ultimately replaceable.

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