Analyzing 2021 fantasy football average draft positions (ADPs) and highlighting three sleeper tight ends to target in your fantasy football draft.
Tight end has been a notoriously shallow fantasy football position, and don’t look now, but it’s shaping up the same way in 2021.
You have your three elite top-tier guys in Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs), Darren Waller (Las Vegas Raiders) and George Kittle (San Francisco 49ers). Then there’s another tier a definite step below, consisting of Mark Andrews (Baltimore Ravens), T.J. Hockenson (Detroit Lions), Logan Thomas (Washington Football Team) and coveted rookie Kyle Pitts (Atlanta Falcons).
After that, though, it’s a scramble, and if you don’t have your tight end slot filled after the top seven are off the board, you’re better off waiting until the double-digit rounds to try to snare a sleeper or two with TE1 potential.
With that draft strategy in mind, here are three sleeper tight ends to consider. The only condition is they fall outside the top 10 tight ends in terms of average draft position (ADP).
Fantasy draft TE sleepers
(ADP data courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com)
Irv Smith, Minnesota Vikings
Current TE ADP: 13 (120.73)
2020 stats (13 games, 7 starts): 43 targets-30 receptions-365 yards-5 TDs
Sleeper résumé: In his two seasons since joining the Vikings as a second-round pick in 2019, Smith has had to share TE1 duties with veteran Kyle Rudolph.
That’s no longer the case as Rudolph has departed for the New York Giants in free agency after totaling 85 targets, 67 receptions, 701 yards and 7 TDs over the last two seasons in Minnesota.
In steps Smith to a more prominent role in a tight end-friendly offense where he figures to get ample opportunity with opposing defenses more worried about containing the likes of RB Dalvin Cook and wideouts Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen.
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Current TE ADP: 14 (129.24)
2020 stats (15 games, 14 starts): 65-41-448-8 TDs
Sleeper résumé: This Smith actually is coming off a top-10 fantasy finish at his position (No. 9 in standard scoring in 2020) after a career year with the Tennessee Titans in which he tied for third among tight ends with nine total TDs.
He was only 18th, in targets among tight ends but that figures to change in a hurry as he was a prize offseason signing for the league’s tight end-neediest team in the Pats.
Proven vet Hunter Henry also signed as a free agent, but Smith is every bit as talented if not more so, is more reliable from a health standpoint and should emerge as a top target in an offense still lacking top-end wide receiver talent.
Current TE ADP: 16 (132.69)
2020 stats (16 games, 14 starts): 109 targets-63 receptions-654 yards-1 TD
Sleeper résumé: Engram finished fourth among league tight ends in 2020 with 109 targets but only 18th in fantasy points thanks primarily to a 57.8 catch percentage and only 1 TD reception.
Engram can improve on the first metric and is due some positive regression in the second. To wit, he has caught only 7 TD passes over the last three seasons after hauling in 6 as a rookie in 2017.
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