Top 10 Tight Ends for the 2019–20 NFL Season
Criteria
This list isn’t about the past and comparing people’s legacies, it’s solely about how we project these players to perform this upcoming season.
And these are not fantasy rankings. This list has very little to do with who will have the better raw counting stats by year’s end.
It’s about how effective these players will be compared to their peers after factoring the talent (or lack thereof) and coaching staff (or lack thereof) that they have surrounding them.
1. Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs)
Travis Kelce is one of the best route runners in all football regardless of position. He’s known for his freakish athleticism and being one of the best receivers in the league after the catch, but his route running is the trait that makes him an elite player in the league above all else. There’s no player in football who can cover him one on one.
He’s in by far the best situation a tight end could ask for. He plays with one of the league’s greatest offensive minds in Andy Reid, the league’s best quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, and a trio of the league’s fastest wide receivers in Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins and Mecole Hardman Jr. who allow him to get easier looks in the middle of the field.
Kelce has put together a 3 year run only challenged by Rob Gronkowski. And as he turns just 30 years old in October, there’s no reason to believe he’ll slow down anytime soon.
2. George Kittle (San Francisco)
As great as Kelce is, there is a legitimate debate to be had about whether or not Kittle is the better tight end at this moment. Kittle was so phenomenal last season that it only took one year of elite play to catapult him into that conversation.
He led the league with 870 yards after the catch. For context, James White was 4th in the league in yards after the catch and he only had 665. Kittle was in a league of his own.
Kittle also broke the single season yards record for tight ends with the likes of C.J. Beathard throwing him the rock and a litter of no name receivers surrounding him on the field.
This year is going to be a little trickier for Kittle. Jimmy Garoppolo is returning, but in his limited sample size he wasn’t even a better quarterback than his backup Nick Mullens last season. And while the 49ers drafted Deebo Samuel and expect big things from Dante Pettis, Kittle will be the sole focus of opposing defenses until another weapon emerges.
He’ll undoubtedly produce at an elite level, but it’ll be interesting to see how he responds to the added pressure of having a target on his back.
3. O.J. Howard (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
O.J. Howard was the most explosive player at his position last season, leading all qualifying tight ends in yards per target with 11.77.
Sadly injuries shortened his season to only 10 games. But over the course of those 10 games he was on a full-season pace of 904 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns at a ridiculous rate of 16.6 yards per catch.
His health has been an issue early in his career as he’s missed 8 games in his first two seasons, but if he can stay on the field this year he’s in the perfect situation to breakout.
The Buccaneers traded DeSean Jackson and let Adam Humphries walk, but they still have Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. So they kept enough weapons for O.J. Howard to mostly play against single coverage, but lost enough weapons for him to see a significant increase in passing targets.
Couple that with Jameis Winston likely improving his play under Bruce Arians and O.J. Howard is primed for an All-Pro caliber season if he can beat the injury bug.
4. Zach Ertz (Philadelphia Eagles)
Ertz had a career year last season after reaching the 1,000 yard mark for the first time and tacking on 8 touchdowns to boot.
He’s kind’ve the Jason Witten of this generation. Not really that explosive of a receiver, but uses his elite route running to consistently get open looks in the middle of the field.
This year getting open looks will be even easier as the Eagles traded for DeSean Jackson who will take the top off the defense and give Ertz more space to operate underneath.
Ertz will also be catching passes from what should be a much more confident Carson Wentz. His quarterback will have gotten over those first year post-ACL tear jitters, won’t be dealing with a fractured vertebrae and he also won’t have Nick Foles’ shadow looming over his head.
Ertz is Wentz’s favorite target so it’d be no surprise if he improves upon last year’s production.
5. Jared Cook (New Orleans Saints)
Jared Cook put up elite numbers on a struggling Raiders team last season and now he’ll have the luxury of playing in one of the league’s most tight end-friendly offenses.
Not only did Jimmy Graham put up historical numbers during his time in New Orleans, but a 35-year-old Ben Watson managed to go for 825 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns just 2 seasons ago. Those numbers are almost identical to what Jared Cook did with Derek Carr this past season.
It’s also likely that Cook will be relied upon more than tight ends have in the Saints offense in recent years simply as a result of Drew Brees aging and throwing the ball short of the sticks more frequently.
I’d be surprised if Jared Cook doesn’t finish the season with at least 1,000 yards.
6. Evan Engram (New York Giants)
The Giants have been in utter chaos for the entirety of Evan Engram’s time in New York and this season it doesn’t get any better. Golden Tate is likely to be suspended for the first four games of the season and Sterling Shephard’s status is up in the air for week 1 after breaking his thumb.
Engram will again find himself being Eli Manning’s primary receiving option with very few weapons around him to take off the pressure.
The good news is Engram has produced exceptionally in these situations before. Putting up 886 yards and 6 touchdowns in the 16 games he’s played without Odell Beckham Jr. over the past 2 seasons.
If Engram can stay healthy, he’ll continue to produce at a fairly high level and should only get better with experience.
7. Delanie Walker (Tennessee Titans)
There are all sorts of young tight ends who football pundits believe will break into the top 10 at their position this season. But of all the names I see floating around, none of them are as appealing as a soon-to-be 35-year old Delanie Walker. He’s too reliable to put unproven players ahead of him before you are absolutely sure that he has nothing left in the tank.
Before suffering a season-ending ankle injury on opening day last year, Delanie Walker had four straight seasons of at least 800 yards receiving.
Now he’ll be returning to a Titans receiving corps that added Adam Humphries in free agency, drafted AJ Brown in the 2nd round, and expects improvement from their 2017 draft picks: Corey Davis and Taylor Tawan.
So the pieces surrounding Walker will be better and allow him to get more open looks than he has in recent years, but as things currently stand he’ll still be the best receiver on the roster and will command the most targets. It’s the perfect balance.
8. Mark Andrews (Baltimore Ravens)
The Baltimore Ravens spent a first round pick on Hayden Hurst last year, but it was their third round pick Mark Andrews who ultimately emerged as the team’s best tight end.
He put up 552 yards while averaging 16.2 yards per catch and 11.04 yards per target. And what’s most promising about his production is that a lot of his best work came after Lamar Jackson took over the offense.
With Joe Flacco, Mark Andrews averaged just 27.1 yards per game. But with Lamar Jackson, Andrews averaged 44 yards per game despite Flacco throwing the ball a whopping 18 more times per game than Jackson did.
Lamar will be passing the ball quite a bit more in 2019 and Andrews is his favorite target. Their rapport should continue to improve with time and Andrews could find himself becoming a household name if the Ravens continue to win football games like they did last year with Jackson under center.
9. Chris Herndon (New York Jets)
Chris Herndon quickly established himself as one of the better blocking tight-ends in the NFL. Despite the Jets fielding a fairy subpar offensive line, the Isaiah Crowell and Bilal Powell managed to gain 4.8 and 4.3 yards per carry respectively in-part due to Herndon bulldozing defenders whenever he was on the field.
On top of his blocking abilities he showed himself to be a more than serviceable receiver, registering 502 receiving yards on 9 yards per target and leading the Jets with 3 red zone touchdowns.
He also got better as the season progressed, gaining 68% of his receiving yards in the last 8 weeks of the season.
He’ll be suspended the first four games of the year, but when he returns he should pick up where he left off and establish himself as one of the league’s best tight ends.
10. Jimmy Graham (Green Bay Packers)
Just like I’m holding out hope on Aaron Rodgers putting up an elite season, I’m holding out hope on Jimmy Graham putting up a…pretty good one.
He’s been very defiant this offseason about proving everyone wrong who thinks he’s washed. He also believes that Matt LaFleur’s system will allow him to produce much better than Mike McCarthy’s did.
The Titans amassed 802 tight end receiving yards last season despite Delanie Walker missing 15 games and the team ranking 31st in the league in passing attempts.
Graham showed at different points last season that he still had something left in the tank. And if he and Aaron Rodgers can get on the same page he should be in the perfect situation to revitalize his career.
Honorable Mentions
Trey Burton (Chicago Bears)
People were expecting Burton to have a bigger season in Matt Nagy’s offense, but considering the infrequency with which they threw the ball, his line of 569 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns was fairly productive.
The good news for Burton is that all of the pieces surrounding him should be on the upswing. His young quarterback Mitchell Trubisky should take some steps forward with another year in Nagy’s offense. As should his trio of deep threat receivers in Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel and Anthony Miller.
Nagy likes to keep tight ends involved in the offense so the progression of the wide receivers around him should only open up more opportunities for him rather than interfere with his success.
Eric Ebron (Indianapolis Colts)
Last season Eric Ebron showed glimpses of what people had been waiting to see from him since 2014 and led all tight ends with 13 touchdowns.
The problem is touchdowns can be a fluky stat and Ebron’s previous career high in touchdowns was only 5. And his 750 yards per game are fairly modest when you consider he was thrown the ball 110 times, coming out to a lowly 6.8 yards per target.
Regression is pretty inevitable he’ll end up losing targets to Jack Doyle returning from injury along with Devin Funchess and Parris Campbell being added to the wide receiving corps.
But at the same time he was too productive last season to ignore entirely and he’s still only 26 years old. He’ll find a role in the Colts offense.
Hunter Henry (Los Angeles Chargers)
The Chargers have lost the right amount of weapons for Henry to carve out a consistent role in the offense. It’s something I talked about previously with O.J. Howard.
They let Tyrell Williams and Antonio Gates walk and chances are they’ll be spending a lot of the season without Melvin Gordon. But they’ll still have Keenan Allen and Mike Williams.
This puts Hunter in a situation where he can gain a noticeable increase in targets while still having weapons on the outside that will make life easier for him while working the middle of the field.
Maybe this will end up being the breakout season everyone thought was coming in 2017.
On The Rise
Dallas Goedert (Philadelphia Eagles)
Goedert recently called himself the 4th best tight end in football behind Ertz, Kelce and Kittle. I like that kind’ve confidence. He was even forthright about the fact that he wanted to be the number one tight end on the team, but he’d have to beat out Zach Ertz to do so.
Targets won’t be easy to come by this year for Goedert as the Eagles have a very deep receiving corps. But one way he’ll be able to contribute where Zach Ertz can’t is in those designed YAC plays that Doug Pederson loves to run. Goedert is more athletic than Ertz and far more elusive after the catch, so tight end screens could end up being his bread and butter.
And with all of the weapons the Eagles will have flying around the field he’ll be able to stack up some cheap yards finding the open spot in the defenses while they are preoccupied with the likes of Alshon Jeffery, Zach Ertz and DeSean Jackson.
His star turn is going to come eventually, but he’ll just have to wait a little longer than he’d like to.
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