2020 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Tight End Tiers 2.0 and strategies for using them on Draft Day

It's a stone lock that the first four tight ends that will get drafted in your league, in some order, are Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Zach Ertz and Mark Andrews. But after those guys there's actually a bunch of tight ends who offer some pretty serious upside. Like, more than 10. 

It might be enough to de-emphasize the urgency to draft a tight end. 

The Tier 1 and 2 guys, each with No. 2 wide receiver-like expectations, are worth taking between 15th and 45th overall. If the value is right and there's no other running back or wide receiver you'd rather have, taking one of them is wonderful. You'll save yourself the headache of trying to figure out which tight end to start every week.

No one else should go until Round 6, and even then might be too soon. That means you should expect a tight end run in Round 7 through Round 9, and you should plan to be a part of it unless you like chasing tight ends off the waiver wire during the season. It actually creates a perfect vacuum: Running backs will be prioritized and wide receivers and quarterbacks are plentiful. So grabbing a good tight end before pick No. 100 is a lot easier to do than ever before. It only helps that there are a lot of tight ends with potential to see six-plus targets per week, pick up around 70 yards more often than not and score every other week.

And even if you pass on tight ends until Round 10-plus, there's a plethora to choose from as early-season starters. Find one or two who have favorable matchups in Weeks 1 and 2, draft them, start them, and keep them if they work out for you. Dump them for someone with touchdown potential off the waiver wire if they let you down. 

Now then, if there are a lot of good tight ends, and the position has historically never been deep, wouldn't it be a good idea to take one before Round 10 and another after Round 10? You're darn right it is! There are a couple of tight ends who come out of nowhere every year to help Fantasy managers, and they are not only must-start players but also pretty useful trade bait. Investing in a second tight end is never a bad idea so long as it's someone who profiles more as a wide receiver than as an offensive lineman. Mike Gesicki and Jonnu Smith stand out as possibilities this year.  

What about taking two tight ends early? It rarely happens, but when a tight end slips in your draft, you shouldn't feel like you have to pass on him just because you already drafted a tight end, or want to take a tight end later. You wouldn't do that if you saw a running back slip, right? Same thing for a tight end, and for the same reasons why you'd take a second tight end late, but with the added bonus of knowing you could start him right away as a flex.

The Fantasy Football Today podcast crew went deep with the tight ends this week. Follow all our podcasts and subscribe here,     

Here are the tiers: