Fantasy Football Sleepers 2025: 10 Underrated Tight Ends to Draft

This is a continuation of RotoWire's summer series on fantasy football sleepers and busts, now doing a position-by-position analysis of NFL fantasy sleepers for 2025. We covered quarterbacks first, then running backs, and then wide receivers, so now it's time to move on to the tight ends.

The ADP numbers you see below (after each tight end's name) are from high-stakes and best-ball leagues (12 teams only), not the traditional redraft leagues on ESPN, Sleeper and Yahoo. If you have the latter in mind, you may be able to get away with drafting some of these players a round or two after the ADP that's shown below. 

We'll look at a fairly wide range of players in terms of value and breakout probability, starting in the middle rounds before working back to players that will be available on waivers in a lot of leagues. Some of the players are guys that I wrote about in previous breakout-themed articles, like this one on second-year pros, or this one for third-year pros, or this one for players with new teams/coaches. 

TE Sleepers (Listed by ADP)

• TE Tyler Warren (Rounds 8-9)

Justified concern about the Indianapolis passing game has kept Warren's ADP reasonable, despite his highly encouraging preseason usage and Daniel Jones being named as the Colts' Week 1 starter. I still favor Coltston Loveland over Warren as a prospect or dynasty asset, but the former has to deal with Cole Kmet, at least initially, whereas the latter is being prepped for a three-down role out of the gate. Warren may have the kind of featured role that's rare among tight ends, allowing him to become an every-week fantasy starter even if poor QB play limits his per-target efficiency. Michael Pittman and Josh Downs certainly offer solid competition for short and intermediate targets, but neither is infallible, nor a superstar, which is what the Colts drafted Warren to be at No. 14 overall.

• TE David Njoku (Rounds 9-10)

Njoku may eventually lose some single-TE snaps and routes to rookie third-round pick Harold Fannin, but it seems the bigger concern is that the Browns eventually replace Joe Flacco with Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders or Deshaun Watson (Achilles). I share those concerns, entirely, but they seem to be fully baked into ADP, and then some. Comparing ADP to Week 1 projections, Njoku stands out as one of the top values on the board. He's somewhere between the 8th and 11th tight end taken in most fantasy drafts, yet often lands as high as fourth or fifth in Week 1 PPR rankings at the position (it's not just our projections that have him up there).

Part of the reason is Flacco, who is a subpar starting QB but has a strong recent track record of supporting decent fantasy production from his pass catchers, including a late-2023 stint with the Browns in which Njoku averaged 6.0 catches for 78.0 yards and 0.8 TDs on 9.0 targets in Flacco's five starts. While he wasn't nearly as productive with Jameis Winston last year, in part due to injuries, Njoku averaged a whopping 10.7 targets over his final eight games and scored five TDs during that stretch. He and Jerry Jeudy thus project for a huge portion of Cleveland's targets early this season, under a playcaller who has shown a tendency to abandon the run when it isn't working or his team falls behind.

Njoku is cheap enough that he can be a great pick even if his production falls off some later this season, especially because we can plan for that ahead of time by pairing him with one of the other tight ends mentioned in this article (or just staying sharp on waivers). Colston Loveland, in particular, makes sense on the same team as Njokuu, with potential for the rookie's role to grow before Njoku's declines. In my home league, I paired Njoku with Warren.

• TE Dallas Goedert (Rounds 12-14)

Goedert has reliably been a mid-to-low TE1 for fantasy when healthy, averaging between 9.7 and 11.9 PPR points (and 5.1 to 5.9 targets) in six consecutive seasons. The problem is that he's missed multiple games each season, including seven last year, which has dropped him down the fantasy-TE ranks even after a solid showing in the playoffs (17-215-1 on 20 targets in four games). Even though he's now drafted as a backup, typically after 12-15 other tight ends, Goedert is someone we can start without hesitation in Week 1. Just keep the added injury risk in mind and try to pair him with another tight end on this list.

• TE Chig Okonkwo (Rounds 14-15)

Okonkwo, like Warren, built up some late ADP momentum this August after encouraging preseason usage, taking nearly every snap with Tennessee's offense when Cameron Ward was on the field. Fellow tight end Josh Whyle, a 2023 fifth-round pick, was relegated to backup units and then ultimately released, leaving rookie fourth-round pick Gunnar Helm as the No. 2 TE and 2024 UDFA David Martin-Robinson as the No. 3. 

Helm could eventually push for passing-down snaps if Okonkwo struggles, but it appears Okonkwo will at least start off in a three-down role, potentially pushing his snap shares up to the 80s or 90s (he was at 60.8 percent last season). That alone boosts his projection considerably, not to mention the potential for Tennessee's passing game to improve thanks to No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward.

While not elite in terms of receiving skills, Okonkwo's speed (4.52 40) and ability to gain yardage after the catch make him a useful player -- the sort who could get 6-7 targets per game, mostly on short passes, in the right situation. With minimal target competition and a potential incoming franchise QB, the 2025 Titans just might be that situation, setting Okonkwo up for a spike year after three seasons in the range of 450-to-528 yards.

Other TE Sleepers / Breakout Candidates

• TE Colston Loveland (Rounds 10-11)
• TE Mason Taylor (Rounds 15-16)
• TE Ja'Tavion Sanders (Rounds 17-18)
• TE Theo Johnson (Rounds 17-18)
• TE Elijah Arroyo (Rounds 17-18)
• TE Cade Stover (Round 20+)

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