• Brenton Strange absorbs a significant opportunity in Year 3: With Evan Engram‘s departure, Strange becomes a top-three option in Liam Coen’s passing offense.
• Isaiah Likely is trending toward surpassing Mark Andrews as the top receiving tight end in Baltimore: While it’s close, Likely’s playing time and talent point to a potential changing of the guard for the Baltimore Ravens, but it won’t be easy.
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Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Each season, players take their game to new levels and significantly improve their fantasy production along the way. The tight end position can often be frustrating for fantasy football purposes, but patience and knowing what to look for can go a long way in finding the next great asset when building out your roster.

A few qualifiers before diving into this year’s candidates

• A significant jump in overall fantasy finish or fantasy points per game is expected, not just an incremental improvement.
• We’re looking for around 150 PPR fantasy points/9.5 PPR points per game in 2025.
• No rookies. Let’s make things more challenging than that. List of rookies that will make a fantasy impact in Year 1 can be found here.

Here are 10 examples of players over the past five years who fit the above criteria before delivering their breakout season:

Strange is a 2023 second-round pick out of Penn State who contributed very little as a rookie in Jacksonville but was called upon for a larger role to step up in Evan Engram’s absence for several games in Year 2 of his NFL career. As a result, Strange became a fantasy-relevant waiver-wire target and delivered on that potential with four top-12 finishes across the eight games without Engram in the lineup. With Engram off to Denver, Strange’s opportunity grows exponentially, which will have him in play for a breakout fantasy season.

Locked in as a consistent top-three option in the passing game

The Jaguars offense is one likely to look much different than last season with Liam Coen taking over as head coach, Trevor Lawrence healthy for the entire year, Travis Hunter being added to the mix, and Strange now taking over as the team’s TE1. All of these changes can be viewed as positives for the Jaguars’ 2025 offensive outlook, and Strange cementing himself as a consistent receiving option in that situation should allow him to easily surpass his career receiving totals.

Strange will have to earn his targets in Coen’s offense, as the tight end position wasn’t a significant part of Tampa Bay’s passing offense unless either Mike Evans or Chris Godwin was out. For Strange to earn a large enough role to be a consistent fantasy option, he’ll have to build on his success as a starter last season, especially with Lawrence at the helm, to fill the void left by Engram, who was a top-two target on the team over the last two seasons. Strange’s efficiency was on par with Engram’s in 2024, finishing right behind Engram’s 1.51 yards per route run (1.49). Strange’s 8.6 PPR points per game across eight games without Engram also came close to matching Engram’s 9.9 across his nine games last season. 

Strange’s best stretch last season came with Lawrence under center from Weeks 2-5, earning the ninth-most fantasy points at the position over that stretch. A full offseason under his belt operating as the team’s top receiving tight end and building a strong rapport with Lawrence should not be overlooked as a big part of his development as he enters Year 3. Considering the lack of depth behind Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter, Strange has a great opportunity to play a fantasy-relevant role in the Jaguars’ passing game.

Play like a starting NFL tight end

Being thrust into a spot-starting role in Year 2 after having minimal impact as a rookie, it was understandable that Strange didn’t exactly thrive in that role by posting high-end numbers for his position. However, now that the team has let Engram walk and expressed confidence in Strange as a result, he’ll need to improve even further from Year 2 and into Year 3, as most of his receiving numbers were essentially average and replaceable on the whole last season. To qualify as a breakout, ideally, we’ll get more than just one year of starting fantasy production. Strange will have to perform well enough in 2025 for that to be possible.

While Strange returned decent fantasy value in his eight games without Engram in the lineup, his overall marks as a receiving tight end have room for improvement if he’s going to remain a starter going forward. Strange ranked just 25th among 45 qualifying tight ends in receiving grade (68.2), tied for 17th in yards per route run (1.49) and 17th in target rate (19.6%). Strange’s target rate is likely the most encouraging mark right now, as that would be a solid number across an entire season and a larger snap share, but considering the small bucket of tight ends that we’re trusting on a weekly basis for fantasy, he’ll still need to make the most of those opportunities to crack starting lineups and have a breakout fantasy season.

Brenton Strange’s TE ranks in 2024

Likely’s breakout potential is admittedly a more hopeful one than an opportunity-based one like with Brenton Strange, as Mark Andrews poses a significant threat to playing time and targets as the Ravens’ top receiving tight end. The hope for Likely comes from the fact that as Andrews has aged and declined in both playing time and some key efficiency metrics, Likely has the opportunity to increase his role in this offense while eventually taking over the TE1 role this year. With Andrews often a subject of trade rumors as well, it’s possible that his time in Baltimore might come to an end this calendar year, which would be massive for Likely’s breakout potential.

Continue to increase his role as a receiver

As alluded to above, since Likely was drafted, Andrews’ playing time as a receiver has steadily decreased each year while Likely’s role has grown to the point that by 2024 season’s end, the splits were nearly even between the two, as highlighted in the chart below. Despite Andrews’ history of being a high-end receiving option and often the team leader in receiving production, the fact of the matter is that these two players are at the opposite end of the spectrum for their NFL careers, and that intersection of playing time is a good indication of the Ravens recognizing that, so there is potential for Likely to surpass Andrews in 2025.

The Ravens also run as high a rate of two-tight-end looks as any team in the league, leading the NFL in 22-personnel percentage (14.7%) and ranking top five in 12-personnel (32.3%), which is unlikely to change in 2025. Helping Likely’s potential in this regard is that he ultimately ended up with more playing time than Andrews in these two-tight-end situations overall when both players were in the lineup. Likely ran 94% of the team’s routes in those situations, while Andrews ran 85% of routes with two tight ends on the field. With these snaps accounting for nearly half (44%) of the team’s passing down snaps, if Likely can then cut more into Andrews’ 11-personnel routes where Andrews held a 51% to 39% edge over him, that subtle shift toward Likely as the top receiving tight end would be a lot more noticeable for fantasy in 2025.

Be too good to ignore

Likely’s role has also increased at the cost of Andrews by being really effective with his opportunities. Likely delivered top-10 marks at his position in receiving grade (77.0), yards per route run (1.71), missed tackles forced (11), yards after the catch per reception (6.1) and receiving touchdowns (seven). While Andrews was no slouch in his own right, it’s clear that the Ravens have a receiving weapon in Likely that they can, and have, utilized in an increasingly larger role.

If Likely can truly emerge as the clear top receiving tight end in this offense, the rumors of Andrews as a trade piece could become more realistic, as there are several potentially competitive offenses in need of a tight end now. Miami just traded away Jonnu Smith, and Mike MacDonald in Seattle has familiarity with Andrews from his time in Baltimore. Iif Bryce Young continues his high-end play in Carolina, the Panthers could utilize a veteran like Andrews. Again, an Andrews trade is the ultimate result for Likely’s breakout year, but even with Andrews there, Likely is trending in the right direction.

Isaiah Likely’s TE ranks in 2024