Who is the TE1 in 2025? Fantasy Football Outlooks for Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, George Kittle

May 22, 2025

Dave's fantasy football outlooks and draft advice for Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, and George Kittle. Who is the top ranked tight end in 2025 fantasy football drafts?

Tight end is one of the most polarizing positions in fantasy football. Some love the challenge of finding a suitable weekly tight end, while others outright want the position eliminated. There are two sides to the argument. One thing is for sure. Having an elite tight end on your roster is a great way to gain a competitive advantage over the rest of your league mates.

There are several viable tight ends available to gamers who want to attack the position early in their drafts this year. Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, and George Kittle are some of the best tight ends currently in the NFL. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they are the first three tight ends coming off draft boards in NFFC (National Fantasy Football Championship) drafts. Each player is talented enough to finish 2025 as the overall TE1. But which player has the best chance to do so? And which one should gamers target in their 2025 fantasy football drafts?

Make sure you’re following RotoBaller on X and check out RotoBaller.com for all your fantasy football needs. Let’s discuss Bowers, McBride, and Kittle to determine which player has the best chance to finish the 2025 season as the overall TE1 and which player fantasy football managers should prioritize drafting this year.

Brock Bowers 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

Wow. That’s all you can say about Bowers’ rookie year. He posted a 112-1194-5 line on 153 targets. Bowers also broke several rookie records, including Mike Ditka’s 63-year record for most receiving yards by a rookie tight end.

Bowers' advanced metrics were also impressive. Per Fantasy Points Data Suite, Bowers posted a 27% targets per route run, and a 2.11 yards per route run on a 23.6% Target Share. These are all great scores, and a strong showing in these metrics bodes well for sustained fantasy football success. As a result, Bowers is being drafted as the clear TE1 in 2025.

BROCK BOWERS IS HIM.

First NFL TD for @brockbowers17 #LVvsDEN on FOX#GoDawgs | #DawgsInTheNFL pic.twitter.com/Ij9IV9Lljj

— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) October 6, 2024

That is certainly understandable when you consider the rookie season he just had. Bowers' situation has changed quite a bit since the end of 2024. Pete Carroll has taken over as the Raiders' head coach. He hired Chip Kelly to be his offensive coordinator and play-caller. Carroll and Kelly figure to deploy a run-first offense that will heavily feature rookie running back Ashton Jeanty.

While that doesn’t sound great for Bowers, he did get a pretty significant quarterback upgrade when the team acquired Geno Smith in a trade with the Seattle Seahawks. Smith has played exceptionally well the last few years as Seattle’s QB1 and has become one of the more underrated quarterbacks in the league. Among 47 quarterbacks with 100+ dropbacks in 2024, Smith finished eighth in PFF’s adjusted completion percentage. This stat strips away all drops and throwaways, etc, and shows that Smith was one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the league.

Considering Bowers caught passes from Gardner Minshew II, Aidan O'Connell, and Desmond Ridder in 2024, Smith’s presence should only mean more good things for Las Vegas’ young tight end.

Trey McBride 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

McBride continued to improve as a player in 2024 and built upon his solid 2023 season. He posted a 111-1146-2 line across 16 games and finished 2024 as the PPR TE2.

IT'S A BIRD. IT'S A PLANE. IT'S TREY MCBRIDE HURDLING FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SEASON!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/bBevRNvSnu

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 10, 2024

He also fared well in several advanced metrics. Here are some of McBride’s metrics courtesy of Fantasy Points Data Suite:

27% targets per route run
2.24 yards per route run
26.7% target share
33.7% first read percentage

These excellent marks prove that McBride is a clear focal point of Arizona’s passing game. He even fared better than Bowers in the majority of the above metrics. The addition of receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. did not slow down McBride in 2024. Harrison’s continued development could cut into McBride’s targets in 2025. Even if that comes to fruition, it seems clear that McBride will remain heavily involved in Arizona’s offense.

Despite scoring only two touchdowns last year, McBride scored more PPR points per game than Bowers. However, there is quite a gap between the two in early drafts. McBride’s current NFFC ADP is 25.44 overall, while Bowers' NFFC ADP is 14.86 overall. Outside of McBride’s ridiculously poor touchdown luck, there is no reason that there should be nearly a full round difference between these two players.

With Kyler Murray as his quarterback, McBride’s touchdown totals will likely remain low. However, two touchdowns on 111 receptions is a bit extreme. McBride is due for some positive touchdown regression. If that happens, McBride is likely to finish 2025 as the overall TE1.

George Kittle 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

Kittle enjoyed another fine season in 2024. He eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the second consecutive year and fourth time in his career. Eight touchdown receptions helped him finish the season as the half PPR TE2 and non-PPR TE1.

OH MY GEORGE. @gkittle46

📺: #NEvsSF on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/uHeyTzJqF2

— NFL (@NFL) September 29, 2024

As a result, the 49ers TE1 was recently awarded a contract extension for his efforts.

George Kittle, 49ers agree to to terms on a 4-year, $76.4M contract extension with $40M guaranteed, making him the NFL’s highest-paid TE. (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/2YgilPaIMY

— NFL (@NFL) April 29, 2025

Kittle will turn 32 years old during the 2025 season. However, he still averaged 14.2 yards per reception last year and shows no signs of slowing down. Kittle may have lost a step in terms of raw speed, but he’s still playing at a high level. With San Francisco trading away Deebo Samuel Sr. and Brandon Aiyuk’s Week 1 status seemingly up in the air, Kittle could be in for a bigger role to begin the 2025 season.

However, the team still has veteran Jauan Jennings at receiver, and second-year player Ricky Pearsall could be primed for a larger role. Running back Christian McCaffrey is reportedly fully healthy entering the season and will also remain heavily involved in the pass game. Kittle will still have to fight for targets in this offense. For this reason, the road to him finishing as the TE1 in PPR formats is a bit more difficult than those of McBride and Bowers.

Kittle is currently going behind both Bowers and McBride in early drafts. This is understandable. However, if you want to lock up a tight end early in your draft and miss out on Bowers/McBride, Kittle is a fine consolation prize. He’s a bit older and is more of a boom/bust player than you’d ideally prefer, but he still offers fantasy gamers a very safe floor.

Which Tight End Should I Draft in 2025?

At first glance, this might seem like a silly question. However, after digging into the data, I realized that the answer is not as straightforward as I initially thought. Yes, Bowers had an all-world rookie season. However, he still didn’t finish as the TE1 across all formats. Kittle bested him in non-PPR leagues. Additionally, Kittle and McBride were better than Bowers on a point-per-game basis in full PPR leagues last year.

So while Bowers is undeniably talented, the above leads us to believe that Bowers may be overpriced at his current NFFC ADP of 14.85 overall. Yes, factors are working against both Kittle and McBride this year. However, it may be a better strategic play to pass on Bowers early and take McBride or Kittle a few rounds later.

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