2024-10-30 The Great Tight End Debate

If you watched football yesterday for a disgusting amount of time like I do every Sunday, you may have been reminded it was national tight end day like 478 times (but who’s counting?). More importantly, it was statistically the greatest tight end statistical day in NFL history. On Sunday, there were a total of 177 tight end receptions going for 16 touchdowns. It was a nice statistical outlier after a terribly slow start to tight ends in fantasy football in 2024. While the festivities started off early Sunday morning with touchdowns from Kyle Pitts and Cade Otton, the trend continued and was capped off by a statement game from George Kittle, notorious hater of the Dallas Cowboys.

This got me to thinking about one of the more heated discussion topics in BFFL recent history: the feasibility of a TE slot in a 16-man fantasy football league. Is the tight end still a relevant position in 2024 and does it demand its own roster spot in fantasy? Let’s discuss:

Pros of Tight Ends

1.) It creates another position, albeit one of scarcity, to add another complexity and challenge to the draft and league. Our lone tight end draft year added a refreshing challenge to usual draft prep which was trying to figure out what tight ends would be drafted as well as devising your own tight end strategy. I can see both sides of the argument: should fantasy football be simplified or should it be more challenging? It really depends on the individual and their commitment level. Managing tight ends on bye weeks would be another level of complexity as it effectively removes a bench spot that would be allocated for another position to store your tight end and pick another up.

2.) Forcing every team to roster tight end(s) adds players to the free agency pool. One of the biggest complaints I get every year about our league’s format is how barren dry the free agency landscape is. Now this pro one comes with some assumptions: that adding the tight end position would eliminate one of the flex positions which would seemingly eliminate a starting wide receiver from every team. Some teams would roster two tight ends, others would have the minimum one and just look for bye week fill-ins. Both of these things would throw back some RB and WR players into the free agency pool alleviating this feeling of dumpster diving to a small degree. At some point all the good players will be rostered and you will be forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Cons of Tight Ends

1.) Tight ends are to wide receivers what full backs are to running backs. When I originally created the roster settings in 2009, I likened the tight end position to the fullback position: a soon to be relic of a forgotten era of physical smash mouth football. The transition of run first offenses to pass first offenses in the last decade shifted the importance of high draft-pedigree workhorse running backs into getting a dual threat quarterback with a big arm and surrounding him with elite pass catchers (including the running back). The devalued running back eventually led to the decline of the full back position. As of Sunday night football on October 27th, 2024, PFF recognizes only seven active full backs in the NFL. Conversely, the elevated significance of pass catchers have given us some of the greatest dual threat running back prospects we’ve seen in our lifetime (Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson, Alvin Kamara, etc.) and some of th best tight end prospects who are built like oversized wide receivers (Kyle Pitts, Brock Bowers, etc.). 

2.) Tight end roles are not consistent throughout the league. Most running backs do a mix of three things: run the ball, catch the ball or pass protect for the quarterback. Most wide receivers do a mix of three things: catch the ball, run the ball or block on running plays. Tight ends are heavily segregated into two groups: those who mostly catch the ball and those who mostly block. There are very few true hybrids who consistently do both at an elite level. Usually teams have a designated tight end on running plays and a tight end who only runs routes. Having an elite pass catcher tight end is a huge advantage and shouldn’t be forced to stay in and block when that’s not what got them drafted so high.

Can We Compromise?

1. Tight end premium point modifier: Applying a 1.5x bonus to tight end points. This was a hot button issue during the draft. It would undoubtedly create an imbalance for elite tight ends at the top. While it is a means to bring up the 20 or 30 yard games from the bottom tight ends, it would take the elite class to a whole new level and put a player like a prime Travis Kelce/Rob Gronkowski in #1 overall discussion again.

2. Creating a FB/TE position. Let’s get creative with this one. Let’s take those 5-7 active full backs and group them in with the top 10-12 tight ends. We would need fantasy football apps to get creative with scoring options: points for blocking, full back awarded partial points on running back yards rushed while full back was in the play, a double modifier on any full back yards gained, etc. As any good rule change requires some statistical evidence, this one would need to be studied more. About ten years ago, I had created an IDP league scoring model that would equally weigh all positions and full backs were by far the hardest to equalize, so it would take a sincere effort by fantasy football organizations to award points for blocking.

3. Disclaimer that WR/TE was never meant to be a solution for tight ends. It was only a means to include the elite tight ends as pass catchers. It was my thought that fantasy football would be headed toward a place where tight ends would be grouped into wide receivers, but there is still a strong base of tight end supporters especially in smaller league formats.