Updated Best Ball Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings (2025): Trey McBride, Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Jonnu Smith, Tucker Kraft, Darren Waller

July 1, 2025

RotoBaller's updated 2025 fantasy football best ball tight end rankings and tiers. These TE best ball rankings are for Underdog, DraftKings, NFFC, and more.

Tight ends remain a frustrating position for fantasy football, but at least in best ball leagues, you don't always have to eat a low score in your TE spot. Our 2025 fantasy football best ball tight end rankings will help you make the right draft picks for Underdog, DraftKings, NFFC, FanDuel, and more. For a look at the tight end pecking order in best ball leagues, check the rankings below to see where key TEs like Trey McBride, Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Jonnu Smith, Tucker Kraft, and Darren Waller stand, among others.

Be sure to check out all of our fantasy football best ball articles. And if you're looking for even more of an edge, check out our Best Ball Draft Kit and Tools, including the best ball live draft assistant, best ball mock draft simulator, and best ball draft cheat sheets -- all part of the Best Ball Team Sync platform.

Two of RotoBaller's lead fantasy football analysts -- Phil Clark and Nick Mariano -- have put together their consensus staff rankings, which will be updated regularly through the start of the 2025 fantasy football offseason.

2025 Best Ball Tight End Rankings for Fantasy Football

For anyone who isn't very familiar with fantasy football best ball leagues, they are essentially draft-only leagues with no moves during the season. Once a best ball draft is completed, nothing else happens -- no setting weekly lineups, no trading, no waiver wire moves.

Every week of the season, the best combo of fantasy players on your team is automatically calculated and used to determine the highest possible scoring outcome. Best ball drafts always start earlier than regular drafts, and they are already in high gear!

Be sure also to check out our 2025 fantasy football rankings dashboard. It's already loaded up with tons of other great rankings. In case you missed it, you can also see our Dynasty League rankings, and 2025 NFL Rookie rankings. Bookmark that page, and prepare for all of your drafts.

Fantasy Football Tight End Player Outlooks

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

George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers playmaker George Kittle has been one of the most reliable fantasy tight ends over the last few years. He has finished top-5 at the position in six of the past seven seasons and is coming off one of his better fantasy campaigns in 2024. Kittle finished as the TE3 in PPR formats and averaged 15.8 PPR fantasy points per game. That 15.8 average ranked first among all tight ends last year. The 31-year-old caught 78 passes for 1,106 yards and eight touchdowns in 15 games for the 49ers.

As we head into the 2025-2026 season, Kittle should remain a strong TE1 option for managers. He scored at least 14 PPR fantasy points in 11 of 15 contests last year, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see him repeat those fantasy numbers this season. Deebo Samuel Sr. was traded this offseason, and Brandon Aiyuk (knee) is coming off a season-ending ACL injury. Therefore, we could see the veteran up his 22% target share from last year. That all makes him a perfect target early in 2025 fantasy football drafts.

- Joey Pollizze

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

LIKE ROTOBALLER?

CLICK HERE, ENTER ROTOBALLER.COM, THEN CHECK THE BOX

More Fantasy Football Analysis