Elite tight ends are notoriously thin in the fantasy world, so it is no big surprise to see a high amount of volatile players from year to year. It is a position that really only offers about three or four players with any real difference making statistics.
See Also:
Top-10 Repeatability: Quarterbacks
Top-10 Repeatability: Running Backs
Top-10 Repeatability: Wide Receivers
Last season saw half of the Top-10 repeat from 2020. But notable is that those tight ends that ranked between No. 2 and No. 5 (Darren Waller, Robert Tonyan, Logan Thomas, T.J. Hockenson) all fell apart the next year, though for some it was more injury. But case in point, after Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews, the year-to-year results are just not great.
Rob Gronkowski retired (probably) and Zach Ertz is close to aging out and changed teams. The top drafted tight ends this year are Kelce, Andrews, Kyle Pitts, Darren Waller, and George Kittle. If they remain healthy, they should be a lock to provide an advantage to a fantasy team. But this is also a position that produces one-year wonders as well, typically because their team incurs wide receiver injuries and other dynamics that forces them to use their tight end more than usual.
It’s still rare that any tight end produces more than two consecutive Top-10 seasons. The only question for fantasy drafters is if the reward for drafting a top tight end outweighs what is lost by delaying other positions?