Fantasy Football Week 3 tight end rankings: Reasons for optimism with Kyle Pitts, Rob Gronkowski’s new outlook

When you look at the state of the tight end position through the first two weeks of the NFL season, things look pretty bleak. Only seven tight ends have scored 20 PPR points through the first two games, and one of them — Juwan Johnson — has just 44 yards. By comparison, 12 averaged double digits in Fantasy points last season, and that was not a particularly good season for tight ends.

But I find myself feeling somewhat optimistic about the position heading into Week 3 — by which I mean there might be 10 players I feel pretty confident in starting right now. In addition to the obvious — Travis Kelce, Darren Waller, George Kittle (yes, he’s an obvious one) — T.J. Hockenson has certainly joined that group. And I’m still feeling great about the potential for Kyle Pitts to make a big impact; I’m also not worried about Mark Andrews yet. 

So, that’s the top six for Week 3, and it was the top six coming into the season in ADP. I’ll also add Noah Fant, who might just be the No. 2 option in a much-improved Broncos passing game; Tyler Higbee, who has played every snap for the Rams this season; Rob Gronkowski, who looks rejuvenated and is playing a big role early; and Logan Thomas, who hasn’t missed a snap and is still the No. 2 option in the passing game behind Terry McLaurin. 

After that … yeah, it gets pretty ugly. But hey, if those 10 live up to my expectations for them in the near term, it would probably make this the best the tight end position has been in years. Now those guys just have to do it. Which is the hardest part. 

Here are my rankings for tight end in PPR leagues in Week 2, with my notes on some of the more interesting players from the rankings process:

Week 2 TE Rankings

1. Travis Kelce
2. Darren Waller
3. George Kittle — It’s been weird to see Kittle reduced to a bit role in this offense, and he’s been asked to block on pass plays about twice as often as he was last season, which explains some of it. But he’s been the focal point here for so long that I have to think he’s going to break out sooner or later. I’m putting out buy-low offers for him.
4. T.J. Hockenson — 20 targets through two games? That’s exactly what the most optimistic expectations for Hockenson looked like. With that kind of volume, he’s a top-four tight end by default — though I’m not quite ready to say he’s better than Kittle — yet.
5. Mark Andrews — I just cannot bring myself to be worried about Andrews. He’s tied for fifth in the NFL in routes run at the position, having gone out on 92.5% of the Ravens pass plays so far — he was around 75% last season. He’s going to be just fine, and this is an excellent set up for him to break out. 
6. Noah Fant — The production hasn’t quite been there, but Fant looks like the No. 2 option in the Broncos offense, and his ability to make plays with the ball in his hands makes me pretty confident we’ll see better than 9.5 yards per catch moving forward. He’s one of the rare tight ends you should have confidence in at this point.
7. Kyle Pitts — Pitts’ second game was better than his first, but we definitely haven’t seen his full upside yet. He’s a must-start player at a position with very few of them.
8. Tyler Higbee — Week 2 was a real disappointment for Higbee, going from six to just one target. However, he still played every single snap for the second straight week and with that kind of usage, you’ve gotta like his chances every week, but especially in a potential shootout.
9. Rob Gronkowski — He sure looks like the old Gronk, doesn’t he? Gronkowski has played 81% of the snaps or more in each of the first two games and has been a fixture in the red zone. I don’t think he’s going to score two touchdowns every week, but he has a bigger role right now than I expected, and he’s back in the circle of trust at tight end.
10. Logan Thomas — Thomas hasn’t been great so far, but he’s still running a ton of routes, so I have very few concerns about whether he’s going to be worth starting moving forward. He’s on the very short list of tight ends worth trusting.
11. Jonnu Smith
12. Dallas Goedert — Goedert and Zach Ertz have just 11 targets between them through two games — a roughly 18% target share overall. That’s surprising, and the emergence of DeVonta Smith as a legitimate No. 1 target could be bad news. If Ertz has to miss Week 3 after going on the COVID-19 list, Goedert would move up a spot, at least. 
13. Austin Hooper
14. Jared Cook
15. David Njoku
16. Hunter Henry
17. Robert Tonyan
18. Juwan Johnson
19. Blake Jarwin
20. Dalton Schultz
21. Kyle Rudolph
22. Adam Trautman
23. Tyler Conklin
24. Zach Ertz
25. Jack Doyle
26. Mike Gesicki — In a game where the Dolphins were forced into throwing more often, Gesicki played a larger role in Week 2. That’s how things are going to go for him, as he is pretty strictly used as the Dolphins either third or fourth wide receiver — he plays almost exclusively out of the slot. He could be useful for Fantasy in this one, but you can’t be confident in it. 
27. Dan Arnold — Arnold got involved early in Week 2, but ultimately ended up playing just 29% of the snaps. He remains just a fringe option.
28. Cole Kmet — Kmet had such a promising role in Week 1, and he still played a ton of snaps in Week 2 — but earned just one target. I remain intrigued by him if you need a tight end flier, but you can’t be confident in him right now.
29. Tyler Kroft
30. Eric Ebron