Fantasy Football Dynasty Rankings Update: Plenty of youth and upside at tight end position

Heath Cummings says there's plenty of potential at tight end, but not everyone will fulfill it.

By Heath Cummings

Jan 15, 2020 at 1:48 pm ET • 2 min read

Heading in to 2020 it's not hard to find eight tight ends you feel good about. Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Zach Ertz should remain elite. Mark Andrews, Austin Hooper, Hunter Henry, Evan Engram and Darren Waller have all proven enough to be considered solid starters with upside well beyond that. You could maybe even throw Jared Cook into the mix if we were just talking about 2020. But after that it's all about upside.

The next tier of upside tight ends includes Dallas Goedert, Noah Fant, T.J. Hockenson and Tyler Higbee. O.J. Howard and Mike Gesicki aren't far behind, and neither is the 2020 tight end class. Higbee and Goedert were the most productive of this group in 2019, but both are projected to share tight end targets more in 2020 than Hockenson or Fant. As things stand right now, Fant could be the second best target moving forward for Drew Lock.

As Howard showed us last year, talent plus opportunity doesn't always turn into production. But he's still younger than Higbee and basically the same age as Goedert. He also figures to once again be on one of the most pass-happy offenses in football. I wouldn't want to go into 2020 with Howard as my starting tight end, but I would like to try to buy low on him this offseason.

Here are the biggest Dynasty risers and fallers from the 2019 season at tight end:

Dynasty TE Risers and Fallers

Player	PREV	RANK
Mark Andrews	11	4
Darren Waller	27	8
Tyler Higbee	NR	12
Mike Gesicki	29	14
O.J. Howard	5	13
David Njoku	10	20
Eric Ebron	13	21
Vance McDonald	16	36

Here are my complete Dynasty tight end rankings. Expect another update in February.

Prev	Rank	Player	Team	Age
2	1	George Kittle	SF	26
1	2	Travis Kelce	KC	30
4	3	Hunter Henry	LAC	25
11	4	Mark Andrews	BAL	25
3	5	Zach Ertz	PHI	29
9	6	Austin Hooper	ATL	25
6	7	Evan Engram	NYG	26
23	8	Darren Waller	OAK	27
12	9	Dallas Goedert	PHI	25
8	10	Noah Fant	DEN	22
7	11	T.J. Hockenson	DET	23
NR	12	Tyler Higbee	LAR	27
5	13	O.J. Howard	TB	25
29	14	Mike Gesicki	MIA	24
18	15	Irv Smith Jr.	MIN	22
22	16	Ian Thomas	CAR	24
17	17	Jared Cook	NO	33
28	18	Dawson Knox	BUF	23
35	19	Jonnu Smith	TEN	25
10	20	David Njoku	CLE	24
13	21	Eric Ebron	IND	27
24	22	Kyle Rudolph	MIN	30
14	23	Chris Herndon IV	NYJ	24
19	24	Jace Sternberger	GB	24
33	25	Gerald Everett	LAR	26
20	26	Trey Burton	CHI	28
21	27	Will Dissly	SEA	24
NR	28	Jacob Hollister	SEA	26
NR	29	Kaden Smith	NYG	23
25	30	Hayden Hurst	BAL	27
27	31	Jack Doyle	IND	30
34	32	Josh Oliver	JAC	23
36	33	Kahale Warring	HOU	23
37	34	Foster Moreau	OAK	23
26	35	Delanie Walker	TEN	36
16	36	Vance McDonald	PIT	30
30	37	Tyler Eifert	CIN	30
31	38	Jimmy Graham	GB	33
32	39	Greg Olsen	CAR	35
40	40	Adam Shaheen	CHI	25