Sam 

LaPorta

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His 81.0 grade was the fifth-best for a rookie tight end of the PFF era, behind Hunter Henry, Kyle Pitts, Zach Ertz and Rob Gronkowski. Henry, Ertz and Gronkowski accomplished that with less than half the receptions, so LaPorta’s season is a better indication of his future success.

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LaPorta will have Ben Johnson as offensive coordinator and Jared Goff for one more season. Goff’s big limiting factor is he doesn’t throw deep often, but that isn’t a problem for tight ends. Only 22 of his 33 intermediate targets were catchable, but ideally, that rate can still improve as Goff and LaPorta gain more chemistry.

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The main question is if you should draft LaPorta or Kelce first. There are a few limiting factors for LaPorta like the other elite weapons in the Lions offense and their tendency to run first, but that was also true last season. LaPorta and Kelce had similar numbers last season, although Kelce missed two games and LaPorta missed half of one. If anything Kelce’s playing time and/or quality of play will decline as he turns 35 years old this season while LaPorta’s should improve. This leads LaPorta to being the first tight end that should be picked in fantasy drafts.