Welcome to the Fantasy Points Brain Trust — your weekly destination for expert takes from some of the sharpest minds in fantasy football. Each week, our team of writers and content creators will tackle some of the biggest questions in the game, giving you actionable insights to dominate your 2025 drafts and win your fantasy leagues.
This Week’s Topic: Who is the 2025 season’s Sleeper TE? Identifying The Best TE Value being selected as TE13 or lower in ADP.
Last season, the talk of fantasy football at the tight end position centered around Brock Bowers and Trey McBride. They finished as the top two scorers at the position, followed by longtime standout George Kittle. All three were ADP wins, but each was drafted as a TE1.
The TE4 overall, however, was a different story. Jonnu Smith, a low-end TE2/TE3 in drafts, smashed his ADP to finish as the TE4 in PPR formats. Smith was a fantasy football success story — and precisely the type of ADP win we’re looking to identify in this article.
Tight end sleepers emerge every year. In 2023, Sam LaPorta finished as the TE1 overall, despite being selected as a TE2 in most drafts. Not far behind him on a PPG basis was McBride - largely undrafted and a waiver wire pick up or a late round dart throw.
Here are our picks to CRUSH ADP this season:
ADP Data from FFPC Big Gorilla $350 entry redraft leagues. All ADP Data courtesy of FantasyMojo.com, supporting every FFPC Format including Dynasty, Redraft, and Best Ball.
Isaiah Likely, TE, Baltimore Ravens
ADP: TE18, Round 11 on FFPC
Tight End is a simple position to analyze in fantasy football. No, really—it comes down to one rule: target TEs who can finish as the No. 1 or No. 2 target in their offense. Some obvious players fit this mold, but most (Bowers, McBride, etc.) are being selected in the early rounds of drafts.
When we look further down into the depths of TE2 land and beyond, there are several intriguing players. But no one combines more upside with more downside risk than Isaiah Likely. Yes, Mark Andrews returns to Baltimore, but there are multiple outs for Likely to return value. If Andrews misses time, Likely becomes an instant Top-6 TE. If Andrews regresses and Likely takes over — a possibility that grows more realistic with Andrews approaching 30 — Likely is again a Top-6 option, or better.
I’ll take it one step further: if Likely fully takes over as the team’s TE1, he could become Baltimore’s No. 1 target over Zay Flowers. The current “boxed out” situation behind Andrews isn’t a reason to avoid Likely; it’s a chance to draft a high-upside player at a significant discount. The downside? You’ll need to draft a second tight end. But the ceiling Likely offers is worth it, and that is to find league-winning TE value in the double-digit rounds of drafts.
- Theo Gremminger
Jake Ferguson, TE, Dallas Cowboys
ADP: TE15, Round 10
Dallas’ TE1 has ranked top-10 at the position in total targets in 9 of the last 10 seasons. Over Ferguson’s last 14 games with an active Dak Prescott, he averages 7.4 targets per game, 54.8 YPG, 12.4 XFP/G, and 12.8 FPG (PPR) or 10.0 FPG (half-PPR). Among all TEs last season, those numbers would have ranked 5th-, 4th-, 5th-, 7th-, and 7th-best.
So, why is he priced like a “sleeper”, as just the TE17 on Underdog? I have no idea.
– Scott Barrett
Hunter Henry, TE, New England Patriots
ADP: TE21, Round 13
Across Drake Maye’s 10 full games, Hunter Henry led Patriots receivers in all of the following stats: targets per game (5.9), receiving YPG (44.9), first-read target share (21.1%), catchable targets (50), end zone targets (4), and expected fantasy points per game (10.5). He also ranked as the TE12 by Underdog FPG over this span.
And the last time Henry played under returning OC Josh McDaniels in 2021, he tied for the 6th-most end zone targets among all players (12), scored 9 TDs, and finished as the TE13 by Underdog FPG (8.2). He’s an incredibly attractive late-round value on the platform, going as just the TE22 by ADP with only a Round 3 rookie and a 31-year-old Stefon Diggs coming off an ACL tear as new target competition.
In managed redraft leagues, Henry is an ideal early-season streamer for managers who wish to punt the position, as he’ll play the single-softest TE schedule in the NFL over the first five weeks, drawing the Raiders (who ranked top-3 in schedule-adjusted FPG allowed to TEs in 2024) as a 3.5-point favorite in Week 1.
– Ryan Heath
Brenton Strange, TE, Jacksonville Jaguars
ADP: TE20, Round 12
With the departure of Evan Engram to the Broncos, the third-year pro Strange inherits the Jaguars’ receiving tight end role under new head coach Liam Coen.
Strange played in eight games without Engram last year — in those games, he caught 29 passes for 275 yards and a pair of scores, averaging 8.4 PPR FPG in those contests. Those numbers are not gaudy, but let’s also remember that the offense was treading water last year under Doug Pederson, and Trevor Lawrence missed a lot of time as well.
No, Strange will not be the primary target-earner here (that’s clearly Brian Thomas), but one can make a good argument that he’s set to be third on the food chain behind BTJ and rookie Travis Hunter. And just how much will Hunter play on offense, anyway?
It’s worth noting that Coen coaxed a career-high 59/600/4 line out of Cade Otton last year in Tampa, with Otton operating in the same short to intermediate areas Strange is likely to occupy (Otton, coincidentally, tied Engram as the PPR TE12 last season). Otton, of course, benefited from Mike Evans and Chris Godwin each missing some time, but Jacksonville is one injury — or Hunter playing part-time — away from a pretty thin receiving group.
Engram finished as a top-12 TE in all three of his seasons with Lawrence, including a top-4 finish in 2023. The offense is a new one, yes, but it might also be a better one. I like Strange’s chances to return value at ADP.
- Joe Dolan
It’s boring as hell, but I’m with Joe Dolan on Strange, who should be no worse than the third option in the passing game behind Brian Thomas Jr. this year. We don’t know exactly how much Travis Hunter can contribute as a rookie, but we do know that Evan Engram was a TE1 for three consecutive years with Trevor Lawrence, and that new HC Liam Coen got a solid year out of Cade Otton last year.
Strange will operate in the high-percentage short-to-intermediate area, and he has a shot at 100 targets on the receiver-poor Jags. Only four TEs got to triple-digit targets in 2024, but I think Strange’s volume this year could get him close.
- John Hansen
Mason Taylor, TE, New York Jets
ADP: TE23, 13th Round
I agree with Ryan that Hunter Henry is the optimal late round TE. So, I’ll dig a bit deeper and go with Jets rookie Mason Taylor. His college production doesn’t look overly impressive at first glance, but once you remember that he competed for targets with the likes of Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas in 2022-23, he starts to look a lot better. Taylor leaves LSU as their all-time leader in receptions (129) and yards (1,308) among tight ends. He just turned 21 years old this year.
The Jets have absolutely nothing at WR behind Garrett Wilson. It’s hilarious. Josh Reynolds and Allen Lazard are going to compete for #2 duties. Malachi Corley will compete to become the starting slot receiver, if he even makes the team. In fantasy football, we want our tight ends to be the #1 or #2 target on their team. Mason Taylor is walking into an opportunity to potentially be the Jets’ second target.
Over the last 10 years, there have been 18 tight ends drafted inside the top-50 picks of the NFL Draft. These TEs went on to average 32.7 yards per game with 3.8 TDs per season in their rookie year. That might not seem like much, but if Taylor were to manage similar production, he would easily pay off his TE23 ADP. (Only 14 tight ends averaged at least 30 yards per game and scored at least 3 TDs last season.)
- Graham Barfield
Theo Johnson, TE, New York Giants
ADP: TE30, 17th Round
Johnson had a higher route run per team dropback rate in his rookie season than Pat Freiermuth, Trey McBride, Cade Otton, and Michael Mayer did in their rookie seasons. Over the final five games of the season, he had a 17% target share, and the Giants made no significant additions to their receiving room.
Malik Nabers will continue to eat up a lot of the targets in the offense, but his only other competition in the short area of the field is Wan’dale Robinson, who had a YPRR of 1.3 last season. Johnson had a YPRR of 1.5 over the final five games of the season. With better QB play in 2025 and hopefully a continuation of his more involved role, Johnson could have the second-most targets in the offense.
