2021 Dynasty TE Rankings | 1-5
Getting a top-five TE on your dynasty team gives you a massive weekly advantage. Targeting any of these TEs in our 2021 dynasty rankings will have you well on your way to a championship.
TE5) T.J. Hockenson, Detroit Lions
If you didn’t pay attention — and in fairness, no one does to Detroit — you likely missed the season T.J. Hockenson produced in 2020. As a second-year player, he was a must-start, a rare occurrence for a tight end.
In 2020, Hockenson was the TE5 in PPR, scoring 175.3 points and 11.0 ppg. He reeled in 67 of his 101 targets for 723 yards and 6 touchdowns. Amongst other TEs, he was fifth in targets, fourth in receptions, and third in yards. To put that into perspective — including Hockenson — tight ends have only crossed this threshold 24 times since 2016.
The Lions are a team undergoing a massive change. They brought in new coaches in Dan Campbell and Anthony Lynn. They lost critical playmakers in Golladay, Matthew Stafford, and Marvin Jones but brought in Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown in the process.
Everything from the moves to the rhetoric suggests Hockenson will be a focal point of the offense. He may exceed the totals he generated from the year prior. Nevertheless, Hockenson has quickly asserted himself inside the top five of dynasty TE rankings for 2021.
TE4) Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons
We have not yet seen Kyle Pitts take a single snap in the NFL, and we simply do not care.
In truth, it came as no surprise to see Pitts break the record as the highest-drafted tight end in NFL history. With Julio Jones now in Tennessee, Pitts and Calvin Ridley will be the top-two options in the Falcons’ high-powered offense. At 36 years old, Matt Ryan is still playing at a high level, having thrown for over 4,000 yards in 10 straight seasons.
The ceiling for Pitts is the best tight end in the game. There is no one else who you can say that about. He is a unicorn in every sense of the word. Sure, you don’t expect rookie tight ends to do much in their first season, but Pitts is that exception. Even in redraft, he is a low-end TE1. While he may not yet be the TE1 in 2021 dynasty rankings, he likely carries the highest value given his enormous upside and age.
TE3) Darren Waller, Las Vegas Raiders
Pop quiz! Who led all tight ends in receptions and tied for the most targets in 2020? Instincts may incline you to say Travis Kelce, but the correct answer is Darren Waller.
Leading the NFL with 107 receptions on 145 targets, Waller turned those into 1,192 yards and 9 touchdowns. In fact, he and Kelce were the only tight ends able to surpass 1,000 yards in 2020.
Waller has quickly established himself as one of the elite fantasy options. More importantly, he’s reinvented his career as off-field issues threatened to end it before it ever started.
Waller led all tight ends with 27 red-zone targets and 21 red-zone receptions. In truth, he was the only consistent pass catcher on the Raiders last season. That should remain the same for 2021 as Waller proved his 2019 breakout season (TE3) was no fluke. Averaging 17.4 ppg in 2020, Waller is a locked-in top three TE in dynasty rankings for 2021.
TE2) George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
2020 was a disappointing season for George Kittle as he only played in eight games due to injuries. Still, when he was on the field, Kittle was a nightmare for defenders. He recorded 48 receptions for 634 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2020. He finished as the TE19, but that’s irrelevant since he only played in half a season. More importantly for fantasy, Kittle was third in points per game at 15.6 PPR, behind only Kelce and Waller.
Likewise, on a per-game basis, Kittle was third in targets (7.88) and second in receptions (6) and yards (79.25). That is the player you expect to have on your team when you selected him. After all, Kittle was coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and set a single-season yardage record (1,377) in 2018 — only to have Kelce break it in 2020.
The 49ers’ offense is even scarier now with Trey Lance at the helm. From Lance’s rushing ability to Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel, it’s difficult to project how defenses will account for all the options the 49ers have at their disposal.
If anyone can dethrone Kelce in 2021, it is Kittle. At 27 years old, compared to Kelce (31), there is a valid argument for Kittle as the TE1 in 2021 dynasty rankings.
TE1) Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
Kelce has already cemented himself as one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history. Moreover, he’s coming off his best season yet. Kelce set career-highs across the board with 105 receptions, 1,416 receiving yards, and 11 touchdowns. Additionally, Kelce has registered over 1,000 yards in every season since 2016 and established a new NFL record for the position last year.
He averaged 20.9 PPR points per game (TE1) and would have been the WR4 in scoring (312.8). Not only do you get the best tight end, but you are also getting a top-tier receiver on the NFL’s most potent offense. At a position that takes a beating week-in and week-out, Kelce rarely misses time. He has played in 15 or more games every season since he took over the starting role for the Chiefs in 2014.
In both dynasty and redraft, Kelce is the TE1 in 2021 rankings. He’s shown no signs of slowing down while further solidifying his eventual place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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