Hitting on late-round players at any position in fantasy football is a net positive, no matter how you slice it, but getting a massive hit on a late-round tight end is that much more impactful. The value TEs drafted in the back half of drafts supercharge your roster at a “onesie” position without needing to invest high draft capital to do so, freeing up your team for a massive points floor and ceiling. Selecting and hitting on any sleeper tight ends for fantasy in 2025 will make your roster that much more robust.

We’ll be diving into some late-round TE fantasy football 2025 options as well as profiling the value TEs and TE draft sleepers you’ll need to churn out massive value this season. 

 

 

 

Why Late-Round TEs Can Win Leagues

Late-round tight ends can and HAVE won leagues. Plenty of them. If you’ve read anything from Andrew Cooper on this site ever, you’ll have it ingrained that the Yin/Yang Tight End draft strategy, made famous by Andrew Cooper, is one of the best strategies across any position. Pair a productive tight end with a stable floor with a huge upside stab that can provide league-winning upside at a position that doesn’t have very many options with big-time upside.

In 13 consecutive seasons, there has been a tight end with an ADP of TE18 or later that has finished as a top-five fantasy option. Last season, it was Jonnu Smith in his target-earning late breakout. The season before was Sam LaPorta’s awesome rookie season. In 2022, it was Evan Engram in his first season in Jacksonville. The hits keep on hitting at the tight end position, so that’s why we continue to go to the well time and time again to find the next breakout tight end.

In this season’s ADP specifically, it’s a three-horse race at the top with Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, and George Kittle the consensus top three at tight end. If you don’t want to pay premium draft capital to draft any number of them, a lot of drafters are choosing to piecemeal a tight end combo with floor early and upside late with the Yin/Yang strategy. The late-round TE fantasy football 2025 options are abundant to pair with established players.

 

 

 

Best Late-Round TE Options For 2025

Brenton Strange, Jacksonville Jaguars

With the constant injuries to Evan Engram last season, that gave Brenton Strange a ton of opportunity in an extended role to see what he can do. He showed more than enough, considering the Jaguars cut Engram before free agency, and not only did the Jaguars sign two blocking tight ends in Johnny Mundt and Hunter Long to replace him, but they didn’t draft a tight end to add to the room either. The runway for Strange is clear to be a massive value for fantasy this season, mostly based on routes-based upside but with some per-target upside too based on the offense in Jacksonville.

What made Strange so attractive to the Jaguars? Well, he’s on his rookie contract for starters. When Strange did get that opportunity, he delivered. With an almost 20 percent target per route run and 1.49 yards per route run last season, Strange was decently efficient on the field and earned targets at a solid clip for a tight end. He was in the slot at 43 percent of his snaps as well, so his alignment versatility should bode very well for the future.

With the stars aligning in terms of the Jaguars’ personnel decisions, as well as his burgeoning efficient skillset that rendered Engram expendable, Strange, as a late-round TE fantasy football 2025 option, has a solid path to targets. While Brian Thomas is the unquestioned alpha in the passing game and the team traded up to select Travis Hunter, Strange could be the third target in what could be a pretty condensed offense in Jacksonville. Given that the rest of the wide receivers, like Dyami Brown and Parker Washington, are part-time players or haven’t earned targets consistently throughout their careers to warrant further consideration, Strange is one of the best value TEs out there in the late rounds and definitely warrants placement amongst the TE draft sleepers for 2025.

Chig Okonkwo, Tennessee Titans

Chig Okonkwo has had a profile that has tantalized for the last few seasons, but even with 70+ targets in each of the last two seasons, we’re left wanting more. We know how targets are going to shake out for the Titans; it’s Calvin Ridley, and then it’s anybody’s game after that. We want top-two targets on their team, and for a pocket passer like Cameron Ward, who is less of a runner than people realize, that could dramatically bump up the team pass attempts and also bump up the floors of anybody he’s throwing to.

Okonkwo was having a lackluster 2024 season and then turned up the volume a bit with four of five games of six targets or more from Weeks 13 through 17, with two top-six fantasy finishes. Now with the rookie Ward and a ‘revamped’ receiver room that features real estate agent Tyler Lockett and somebody who should look into a new career in real estate in Van Jefferson, Okonkwo has the athleticism with a 97th-percentile 40-yard dash and 92nd-percentile speed score to pair with the opportunity to be one of the biggest TE draft sleepers this season. He’s flirted with breaking out over the last couple of seasons, but Okonkwo has a late-round TE fantasy football 2025 profile to smash if everything works itself out this season with a new quarterback and a ton of opportunity.

 

 

 

TE Sleepers By Offensive Scheme

Harold Fannin, Cleveland Browns

There’s a LOT to like about Harold Fannin. There is also a lot for people to nitpick about, like he doesn’t weigh enough – 241 lbs. He didn’t go to a big-time school – Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference. He ran a 4.71 40-yard dash, which COULD limit big plays, though he had three receptions of 60+ yards or more last season. The team he went to absolutely stinks… I mean, that one’s a given. Still, as one of the sleeper tight ends fantasy 2025 options, he has a lot for a fantasy manager to love.

Many are saying that what Fannin did at Bowling Green last season was good. 117 receptions and 1,555 yards as a tight end. The best receiving tight end season in the history of college football. Not a wide receiver, a TIGHT END. People want to put an asterisk on his production, like he did it against middle school teams. He was utterly dominant and was just that against Penn St. (11 rec., 137 yards, TD) and Texas A&M (8-145-1) too.

Team context definitely matters, and yes, David Njoku still exists. The Browns have talked about using more 12 personnel this season, and with the makeup of their wide receivers outside of Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman, it makes a ton of sense. He can jump into the slot as well, with no worse than 30% slot utilization in all three of his seasons at Bowling Green. All of these factors make Fannin one of the deeper but fruitful late-round TE fantasy football 2025 options.

Browns general manager Andrew Berry has said, “He's really kind of the queen on the chessboard" in terms of how the team could deploy him this season. Have you ever played chess? The queen is a pretty essential piece if you want to win. Fannin’s blocking has also gotten good reviews and will only help him get on the field faster and increase some play-action utilization. He’s one of the preeminent TE draft sleepers this season whose role could grow as the season develops.

Zach Ertz, Washington Commanders

Zach Ertz could be one of the biggest late-round TE fantasy football 2025 options in drafts yet again this season. We’ve been writing and erasing the obituary for Ertz in fantasy for multiple seasons, but he still puts forth productive seasons. Whether Ertz is a top-two receiver on his team depends on how you feel about Deebo Samuel and if he can earn targets this season.

All Ertz did last season was finish as the PPR TE7 in total fantasy points and TE10 in points per game. Another bump in play from quarterback Jayden Daniels should help Ertz maintain his floor, and he doesn’t have much behind him in the tight room besides ‘fullback of the year’ Ben Sinnott.

Earning 91 targets in your age-33 season while maintaining an 18% target share is admirable, but he was fourth among all tight ends in red zone targets. We have to take him for what he is, though: he’s not going to be a YAC producer. He’s going to have to fight off Samuel for the second target status on the Commanders. His price has everything baked in, though. So if you want to draft your whole team and then leave Ertz as your last pick, it’s perfectly viable.

 

 

 

Drafting Late-Round TEs vs. Early-Round Strategies

Drafting tight ends in fantasy football is pretty easy, because where you draft your first option dictates if you have to draft another one at all or if you’ll need to pair that tight end with another to get to shots at a top-12 tight end. If you draft a tight end high up in the rankings like a Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, George Kittle, or a couple more after that, you can stand pat with that tight end as the only one you’ll need to roster outside of bye weeks, where you’ll have to find a replacement for that week. You could still draft a late-round TE fantasy football 2025 upside play

If you find yourself in the mid-to-late rounds without a tight end, grabbing a couple of them in close proximity should give you two solid options that you can mix and match depending on their opponent or a potential role change. Pairing a Hunter Henry with an upside play like Elijah Arroyo makes a ton of sense. Same with pairings like Zach Ertz and Brenton Strange. Colston Loveland and Chig Okonkwo. Find your late-round TE fantasy football 2025 pairing and dominate your leagues this season!