2025 Tight End Draft Risks & Player Outlooks

Last season’s biggest tight end busts, their player outlooks, and which players pose the biggest draft risks. TE busts: Jake Ferguson, Dalton Kincaid, and Evan Ingram.

2024 was not a bad year for tight ends in the NFL and fantasy football. Three tight ends (San Francisco’s George Kittle, Las Vegas’ Brock Bowers, and Arizona’s Trey McBride) all had over 1,100 receiving yards. That had not happened since 2018. There was not even one 1,100-yard tight end in 2023, let alone three. Others like Miami’s Jonnu Smith and Green Bay’s Tucker Kraft put together surprising seasons and ended up as top-8 tight ends by season’s end.

But not all was rosy red at the tight-end position for fantasy footballers, though. All-time fantasy tight end demigod Travis Kelce had the worst year of his professional career (blame Taylor and Father Time), while Detroit’s Sam LaPorta took a step back when fantasy experts thought he would be the top tight end in fantasy football in 2024 (blame nagging injuries).

While Kelce and LaPorta did not provide fantasy managers what they probably expected, they still put up solid stats that protect them from being labeled as busts. There was a trio of tight ends who deserved the bust moniker, though. Here they are.

• 2025 fantasy football rankings
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• Wide receiver (WR) fantasy football rankings
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• Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
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• Dynasty fantasy football rankings

Fantasy Football TE Busts From 2024

Dalton Kincaid, TE, Buffalo Bills

The skies were open wide for Kincaid to soar into the fantasy stratosphere this past year. Buffalo traded top target Stefon Diggs and replaced him with rookies and castoffs from other organizations.  There was no true WR1 for franchise quarterback Josh Allen to throw to, so all signs pointed toward Kincaid becoming the Kelce to Allen’s Mahomes in 2024.

But after a superb rookie campaign where Kincaid racked up 73 receptions for 673 yards, he suffered a sophomore slump that not many fantasy managers or experts saw coming. He finished with an uninspiring 44-448-2 line that did not help any fantasy footballers win any titles or prize money. Kincaid did not even have one 55-yard game on the season and missed four contests due to injury.

Maybe Buffalo’s spread-the-targets-to-100-pass-catchers philosophy did Kincaid in. It certainly did not help Amari Cooper or Keon Coleman, either. Or maybe Kincaid regressed due to defenses keying on him more often due to Diggs no longer being around.

Whatever the case, Kincaid is a tight end to watch in 2025 because he still has tremendous upside if everything pans out for him. Sadly, the end of this past season will be remembered for this.

DALTON KINCAID WITH THE BIGGEST DROP OF HIS LIFE...pic.twitter.com/hmBkRMxKXM

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 27, 2025

Jake Ferguson, TE, Dallas Cowboys

Jake Ferguson shined as Dalton Schultz’s replacement in 2023, his first year as Dallas’ top tight end. He quickly became one of the breakout performers at the position, catching 71 passes (on 102 targets) for 761 yards and five touchdowns. Ferguson was Dak Prescott’s second-best option in Dallas’ passing attack behind all-world receiver CeeDee Lamb and looked like a lock to be a top-10 fantasy tight end in 2024.

But for whatever reason, Ferguson went from surging stud to fantasy dud last year. His numbers dropped across the board in all the major fantasy categories as he caught a paltry 59 passes for a meager 494 yards. Worst of all, though, was that Ferguson pulled a Cole Kmet from a couple years ago and failed to score a single touchdown.

Blame Prescott’s season-ending injury. Blame an offense that lacked firepower, a rushing attack that scared no defenses, a mediocre receiving corps, and a unimaginative offense for some of Ferguson’s shortcomings, too. But Ferguson played poorly on many occasions and did make Cowboys fans and fantasy managers think he was the second coming of Jason Witten, that’s for sure. 

Evan Engram, TE, Jacksonville Jaguars

Evan Engram had the best year of his career in 2022 during his first season with Jacksonville, but then he outdid himself and broke all his previous career-highs in 2023 when he torched secondaries for 114 receptions for 963 yards and four scores. That cemented him as a top-7 tight end heading into the 2024 campaign and had fantasy pundits thinking the longtime underachiever had finally found a home with the Jaguars.

What Engram did for an encore in 2024 was torpedo the hopes and dreams of the fantasy managers who made him their TE1. He missed eight games due to hamstring and shoulder injuries, but even in the nine games he suited up for, he was far from special. His 47 catches for 365 yards and one lone touchdown did nobody any fantasy favors.

Now, Engram’s fantasy outlook for 2025 is murkier than a pond filled with seaweed and sewage. He has a cap number over $10 million, and the Jags have former second-round pick Brenton Strange waiting in the wings. Strange posted a 40-411-2 line while filling in for Engram last year and is a younger, cheaper option as the Jaguars rebuild under a new coaching staff. For Engram to be a fantasy force again, he needs to stay healthy and be the TE1 on whatever team he plays for.

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