DLF Team Dynasty Predictions for 2024 NFL Draft: Tight Ends
Dynasty League Football is the premier source for dynasty fantasy football analysis, and its contributors are some of the top minds in the industry. So, we needed to figure out how the team at DLF feels about the 2024 class of rookies! We surveyed the team, and we’ll analyze the results in a four-part series, wrapping up here with the tight ends!
Let’s get right to the point with this tight end class. Brock Bowers is the headliner. There’s no opening act, no warm up artist, Brock Bowers is the main attraction and the rest of the class is in the audience. He is a weapon on the football field, who is entering the NFL Draft with as much hype, if not more than Kyle Pitts had a few years ago. He’ll be a first round pick, may even be a top 10 pick, and he’ll immediately be one of the top fantasy tight ends in the league for dynasty. But, just how high up the tight end boards is he right now?
According to the DLF contributors we surveyed, Bowers is solidly in the top eight of tight ends, averaging out at about TE4. That nestles him right in between Pitts and TJ Hockenson on the DLF Expert Rankings for dynasty tight ends.
Image courtesy of DLF Expert Rankings.
“I absolutely love Bowers,” says Justin Taylor, who ranked Bowers as his TE3. “I think he is made for the pro game. Sam LaPorta and Tre McBride are the only TEs I’m taking over Bowers in dynasty.”
In April Startup Dynasty Mock Drafts, Bowers’s ADP is 51st overall, the fifth tight end being selected, after LaPorta, McBride, Andrews, and Pitts. I personally voted for Bowers to come in as TE7, pushing Dalton Kincaid and Hockenson above him as well as the five listed above. That’s not to say I’m out on Bowers. Not at all. In fact, I think I’m taking Bowers higher than most people would when it comes to rookie drafts! I just see tight ends having a bit of a youth renaissance right now. There’s a plethora of talented, young tight ends at the top of the board who have already proven that they can succeed at the NFL game. Call me conservative, but I want to see Bowers do it as a professional before pushing him ahead of players like Kincaid and Hockenson, but it is extremely close.
Bowers is such an exciting prospect, he may rank amongst the best tight end prospects we’ve ever seen coming out of college. In fact, 30.8% of the contributors said just that: Bowers is the best tight end prospect they’ve ever seen. “He’s 100th percentile in my rookie model and the highest film grade I’ve ever assigned a player,” explains Richard Cooling. “He is tops for me,” according to Justin Taylor. “College TEs rarely put up huge statistics in college and Bowers was the best offensive player on a national championship team.” 61.5% of responders said that Bowers is a top three tight end prospect they’ve ever seen while 7.7% ranked him outside of the top three.
The final piece to the Brock Bowers puzzle is where he will get drafted on April 25. The most common answer amongst DLF Contributors was the New York Jets, who currently hold the 10th overall pick in the NFL Draft. That would be incredibly exciting to see Bowers teamed up in New York with Aaron Rodgers. In fact, he would probably be the best tight end that Rodgers has ever had to throw to. The Jets do have a glaring hole on the offensive line, so they may decide to dip into this very talented offensive tackle class instead. Despite the need on the line, Rob Willette still chose to send Bowers to the Jets. “The Jets made short-term moves along the offensive line, freeing them up to take Bowers if they feel he is the best player available.”
I chose the Colts for this exercise, the second most popular pick amongst DLF contributors. “The Colts want to give Anthony Richardson all the offensive weapons they can to make him successful,” explains Justin Taylor. “Also Chris Ballard loves athletic TEs and Bowers is the ultimate athlete at TE. Ballard is going to want him badly. “ Bowers would solve the ever-revolving door at tight end for the Colts. They haven’t had a consistent contributor at the position since Peyton Manning was under center, throwing the ball to Dallas Clark. The Colts have the 15th pick in the draft, and if Bowers is available to them there I believe they will take the Georgia tight end. The Bengals at pick 18 and the Chargers at pick five also received votes in this exercise.
After Bowers comes a dropoff to Ja’Tavion Sanders, considered by almost everyone to be the TE2 in this class. Sanders was a productive tight end at Texas who excelled in the passing game. He’ll need to prove he can handle the professional game, and improve his in-line blocking a bit, but he has shown potential to be a valuable tight end for fantasy football. But, we wanted to know just how valuable he could possibly be at the NFL level.
Most of the contributors believe that Sanders will max out as a low-end TE1 in his best season for fantasy football. “I like Sanders, but he needs a good landing spot where an OC will use him correctly,” explains Justin Taylor, who voted Sanders as a top 6-7 tight end. “He has top 5 potential, but I’m not sure he ever gets there.”
Despite being the number two tight end in this class, we know that this class is not bereft of fantasy football talent. Brock Bowers is the cream of the crop, but there is a huge dropoff to Sanders and the rest of the tight ends. Even though he is widely considered the second-best tight end in this group, he may never live up to his draft capital. “I’m not a Ja’Tavion Sanders guy,” says Andrew Francesconi, who voted TE14-15 in the survey. “I don’t think he’s a huge difference maker and he’s not athletic enough for me to buy into the hype.”
Naturally, the next question with this class of tight ends becomes: who is the number three tight end? With Bowers the obvious one and Sanders the consensus two, who is the third option if you’re looking for a tight end in your rookie drafts? The survey results were tight for this one, but Ben Sinnott out of Kansas State got the nod with the most votes.
Sinnott seems to be the perfect combination of college production and athleticism that could succeed at the NFL for fantasy football. He has great speed for his size and speed and he can be dangerous after the catch. The problem for Sinnott may be where he lines up. NFL teams may see him as more of a fullback than a tight end, and he may be limited to a Kyle Juszczyk role at the NFL level. “I just like what Ben Sinnott does,” explains Justin Taylor. “He can play fullback, H-Back, and tight end. This is going to keep him on the field.”
My vote was for Theo Johnson, who I just wrote a rookie profile about for DLF. He is an athletic freak at tight end who never quite got the opportunity to be the guy for the Nittany Lions. He split a tight end room with day two NFL picks Pat Freiermuth and Brenton Strange, along with another future draft prospect Tyler Warren. These tight ends are going to be late-round selections in rookie drafts, so at that point, I’m hoping to hit on a high-end lottery ticket. Johnson has all of the athleticism to succeed in the NFL, but none of the technique or experience. He may take a year or two to develop, but I think he has the third-best opportunity in this class to be in the top 12 tight end discussion.
Ben Stover out of Ohio State received the third-most votes at 23.1%. Florida State’s Jaheim Bell also received votes.
It’s the Brock Bowers show at the tight end position in this year’s rookie draft, and everyone else is looking way up at him. He is the only one in the top 150 in startup ADP right now at 51 overall. You need to go down over 100 more picks until you find Ja’Tavion Sanders at 165 overall. Ben Sinnott, Theo Johnson, and Jaheim Bell are next up at 213, 220, and 246 respectively. One year removed from one of the deepest tight end rookie classes you’ll ever see (Sam LaPorta, Dalton Kincaid, Michael Mayer, and Luke Musgrave are all top 20 dynasty tight ends right now), we’re looking at one elite player and several dart throws in the 2024 tight ends. If you need a tight end in dynasty this off-season, and you don’t have the capital to get Bowers, you’ll be hoping to find a diamond in the rough in this year’s rookie draft class.
- Dynasty Fantasy Football: Analyzing the 2024 UDFA Class - May 3, 2024
- Positional Strengths of the NFL Draft: Offense Edition - April 24, 2024
- DLF Team Dynasty Predictions for 2024 NFL Draft: Tight Ends - April 23, 2024
