Draft Strategy: TE Premium Leagues

Even though it feels like the tight end position in the NFL is being utilized a lot differently these days, from a fantasy standpoint, it's becoming more and more obsolete. Fantasy owners are choosing to either A) use a super early draft pick on their tight end or B) just wait until later in the draft and take a shot at somebody they feel like could end up taking a step forward that season.

To combat this and make the tight end position a little bit more valuable and more useful in fantasy football, a lot of people have started to play in a premium tight end league. Now, really all this means is that tight ends typically get .5 more points per reception than every other position. So if you play in a standard league where nobody gets a point per reception, tight ends would still get half a point. If you play in a half PPR league where everybody gets 0.5 points per reception, a tight end would get one fantasy point. And if you play in a full PPR league where everybody gets one point per reception, tight ends would typically get 1.5 points per reception.

A lot of leagues have also just decided that they're not going to use a tight end position, and instead, they've taken the tight end position out and added another flex. But we've even seen a lot of leagues start to make tight ends premium in those types of setups as well. Because of this, in tight end premium leagues, the top tight ends see their draft stock rise significantly. Travis Kelce and Sam LaPorta are still gonna end up going very early in drafts, probably in the second round. And depending on what type of psychopaths you have in your league, Sam LaPorta could find himself in the late first as well for tight end premium this year. But since people were burned by Travis Kelce so much last season, I don't know if they're going to risk it this year.

Now, obviously, the top-tier guys are going to see an explosion in their ceiling. But when we take a look at some of the middle guys that have a really nice floor, it gives them way more of a ceiling to help you compete on a weekly basis with tight ends. So when you take a look at guys like Evan Ingram and Jake Ferguson, guys that might see a decent amount of volume but could end up skipping on the touchdowns a little bit more than we would like, it gives them way more of a ceiling this year and helps you to more victories in your fantasy league.

Typically, even with the premium set on tight ends, I don't find myself drafting them super early in a tight end premium league. I would much rather try and find some guys like Evan Ingram and Jake Ferguson a few rounds later after I have really established the rest of my position. Because in a tight end premium league, after you see Sam LaPorta and Travis Kelce go off the board pretty early, people are going to start overdrafting some of the other tight ends. Mark Andrews, Dalton Kincaid, Trey McBride, Kyle Pitts—some of those second-tier tight ends are going to see their draft stock jump dramatically if you play in a league where owners might freak out a little bit when they see those other tight ends go so early.

If you don't stick to your draft strategy and you start taking shots at those tight ends early, it could end up putting you in a little bit of a bind later. So for a tight end premium league, try to target those guys with the best return on investment—some of those guys that may go a little bit later in your draft but would still compete with the B-tier tight ends when it comes to points scored.