Fantasy Football: Tight end sleepers, breakouts and league winners

• Mark Andrews will benefit from Todd Monken: The Baltimore Ravens will start throwing the ball more often, which means more targets for Andrews.
• Kyle Pitts is elite for his age: Pitts is one of the best 22-year-old tight ends in NFL history.
• Can Chigoziem Okonkwo stay efficient on more snaps? : The Tennessee Titans‘ tight end was the best tight end on a per-play basis last year and should see more playing time this season.

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

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These league winners, breakout candidates and sleepers are players I believe in relative to ADP. For help on draft strategy, rankings or for more details about other players, check out the rest of my summer content below. For rankings with better filtering along with auction values, check out our draft rankings page.

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Last updated: 7:15 a.m. Friday, August 25

League winners

Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens (ADP: 32.5, From ESPN)

Andrews has the best shot of overtaking Travis Kelce as the top overall tight end, which he’s already done once in 2021.

• Over the last two seasons, Andrews ranks second in targets (8.1), receptions (5.6), receiving yards (69.0) and receiving PPR points (15.15) per game among tight ends.
• He’s accomplished this while ranking first in most of those numbers per route run, including 2.09 yards per route run.
• Andrews at his best has graded close to as well as Kelce last season. Andrews earned a 91.0 in 2021 in receiving compared to 91.6 by Kelce last season.
• He didn’t grade as well last season at 79.4, but he was still in the top five. Andrews will need to bounce back in order to overtake Kelce as the overall TE1.
• Andrews is six years younger than Kelce, making it more likely that Kelce regresses this season than Andrews.
• The reason Andrews hasn’t been held in the same regard as Kelce in recent seasons is that he hasn’t been running nearly as many routes. The Kansas City Chiefs have been among the most pass-heavy teams while the Baltimore Ravens have been among the most run-heavy.
• That is about to change with Todd Monken as offensive coordinator. Matching Andrews’ efficiency with a pass-first offense gives him a chance of being the top-fantasy tight end again.
• Monken’s offenses didn’t target tight ends much during his time as an NFL offensive coordinator, but he’s yet to have a tight end in the NFL anywhere near as talented as Andrews.
• His Georgia Bulldog’s offense in recent seasons has greatly favored throwing to tight ends led by Brock Bowers.

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