Fantasy Football: Tight End Sleepers, Values & Breakouts

Aug 16, 2022

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I’m typically going to be targeting Travis Kelce or Mark Andrews early in 2022 fantasy drafts, but there are quite a few fallback options if that plan goes awry.

More Sleepers, Values & Breakouts: QB | WR | RB

Below are several Values, Breakout Candidates, and Sleepers that fantasy managers should consider as drafts get into the middle- and late-rounds.

Values

Dalton Schultz, Cowboys

Schultz looks like a nice value as the sixth tight end off the board at the end of the sixth round. He finished as the fantasy TE4 last year and, if anything, his outlook has improved this season. (That’s not the case for most of the other high-end tight ends this season.) Amari Cooper was traded away and Michael Gallup is likely to miss part of the regular season recovering from his ACL tear. This means that Schultz will be competing with Jalen Tolbert and Noah Brown for targets behind CeeDee Lamb to start the season.

T.J. Hockenson, Lions

Hockenson was the TE13 last season but missed a few games. He was tied with Dalton Schultz with the seventh-highest per game average. He was the TE5 in 2020. His positional ADP (TE7) seems about right to me, though the distance between him and Schultz (pick 67 vs. pick 85) seems bigger than it should be. I’m slightly concerned about the number of mouths to feed in Detroit with Amon-Ra St. Brown emerging and D.J. Chark and Jameson Williams now in the fold. Hockenson should continue to see close to 7.0 targets per game, however, and is a solid addition to any fantasy squad.

Zach Ertz, Cardinals

In 11 games, Ertz averaged 5.1-52-0.27 on 7.4 targets per game after joining the Cardinals via trade last season. (He was the TE4 in that span.) He did benefit from the absence of DeAndre Hopkins, but he should continue to see a regular role in the Arizona passing game even after Hopkins returns from suspension in 2022. As the 10th tight end off the board near the 9th/10th turn, he appears to be a nice value.