Better than average: Tight Ends

Which tight ends were truly the best against specific defenses?

As always, there are so few difference-making tight ends that after the top five of the position, there’s only moderate to mediocre fantasy value in all the rest. But as with the other positions, here are how tight ends fared considering how they stacked up against all other tight ends that faced the same defense.

Better than average: QB | RB | WR

TM Tight End BTA score Top 1 Top 3 Top 8
BAL Mark Andrews 29 4 10 15
KC Travis Kelce 27 4 10 13
DAL Dalton Schultz 25 4 8 13
TB Rob Gronkowski 18 3 7 8
BUF Dawson Knox 16 3 5 8
ATL Kyle Pitts 15 2 4 9
SF George Kittle 15 3 5 7
DET T.J. Hockenson 13 1 4 8
LVR Darren Waller 13 1 4 8
MIA Mike Gesicki 12 0 2 10
NE Hunter Henry 12 0 3 9
PHI Dallas Goedert 12 1 4 7
LAR Tyler Higbee 11 0 3 8
ARI Zach Ertz 9 0 2 7
DEN Noah Fant 9 1 2 6
PIT Pat Freiermuth 9 1 1 7
SEA Gerald Everett 7 0 1 6
ARI Maxx Williams 6 2 2 2
CHI Cole Kmet 6 0 2 4
CIN C.J. Uzomah 6 1 2 3
CLE David Njoku 6 0 2 4
LAC Jared Cook 6 0 1 5

The biggest surprise from last year was Dalton Schultz, who fared nearly as well as any NFL tight end when he faced any opponent. Schultz also gets the benefit of Amari Cooper’s departure and having Michael Gallup returning from injury.

Maxx Williams owning the top performance against two defenses was a true surprise, but it was also the only thing that he did. That also reflected the injury problems that the Arizona Cardinals had last season. It was encouraging to see that Kyle Pitts landed a top-8 performance against an opposing defense on nine occasions. He’ll likely improve on that for 2021.

As usual, there are three top tight ends that stand apart from the rest, and the other tight ends decline rapidly in value.

TM Tight Ends Top 1
BAL Mark Andrews 4
KC Travis Kelce 4
DAL Dalton Schultz 4
TB Rob Gronkowski 3
BUF Dawson Knox 3
SF George Kittle 3
ATL Kyle Pitts 2
ARI Maxx Williams 2

Once again, Schultz was the surprise of 2021 tied with Mark Andrews and Travis Kelce by lodging the best fantasy performance against a defense with four different opponents.