San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle conceived of the National Tight Ends Day holiday through an inside joke following a 2018 game with then-QB Jimmy Garoppolo and fellow TE Garrett Celek.
Both tight ends scored a touchdown against the Detroit Lions, as Kittle promised, and the name stuck.
Given the NFL’s media power, the red-letter day became a Significant Event, celebrated annually in October.
This year's occasion is this Sunday, Oct. 26, and the 49ers face the Houston Texans.
Unfortunately, one of the best college TE prospects of this generation, Brock Bowers (knee), is on bye and has been injured. But Kittle, the Cardinals' Trey McBride, Colts star rookie Tyler Warren, the Lions' Sam LaPorta, and many more big names are in action. (Check our fantasy TE Week 8 rankings for the full breakdown.)
We in the fantasy football community always like a reason to celebrate something, so we’re using this Kittle-tastic occasion to take a look at the position for this year.
Keep reading for everything TE related, and a fun look back at some historic fantasy performances at the position.
© Vincent Carchietta
Fantasy Tight Ends: 2025 value check
Best Fantasy TE Draft Pick
Jake Ferguson, Cowboys: Ferguson is smashing his ADP from draft season. Back in August, he was going as the third pick in Round 11. Ferguson is the TE1 through 7 weeks and is the second-highest in targets.
Even with CeeDee Lamb returning, Ferguson had an excellent fantasy showing in Week 7. There's no reason he won't be the TE5 or better after being taken off the board as the TE15.
Worst Fantasy TE Draft Pick
Brock Bowers, Raiders: I want to be clear, when Bowers returns after the bye week, he is expected to play. When he does, he'll be the TE5 or better. However, with where managers (including myself) drafted Bowers, him not being the runaway TE1 is brutal.
We all knew the risk involved with taking a TE early in Round 2. Bowers was the 18th player off the board back in August. You took that risk to be rewarded with a huge positional advantage. Looking back on it, if you drafted Bowers at his ADP, you passed on other options like Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Unfortunately, Bowers has been hurt, but nonetheless, it's a horrible pick looking back. (Fine, if you insist I include a non-injury selection, it's T.J. Hockenson.)
NEW - FANTASY TOOLS: NFL Player Stats | NFL Transactions | NFL Depth Charts | Fantasy Injury Reports
Top 10 Fantasy Tight Ends in PPR scoring through Week 7
1. Jake Ferguson, Cowboys (120.4 points)
2. Trey McBride, Cardinals (113.1)
3. Tyler Warren, Colts (101.5)
4. Dallas Goedert, Eagles (83.1)
5. Travis Kelce, Chiefs (80.5)
6. Tucker Kraft, Packers (79.9)
7. Sam LaPorta, Lions (74.9)
8. Hunter Henry, Patriots (73)
9. Zach Ertz, Commanders (71.9)
10. Harold Fannin Jr., Browns (67.4)
It's hard not to want to mention the season Tyler Warren is having. If not for Jake Ferguson, Warren was second in line to be the best TE pick in fantasy drafts.
Players like Dallas Goedert and Travis Kelce should fall from their current overall. Goedert had a crazy TD spree to start the season, and Kelce injured the only other target threat in Xavier Worhty in Week 1. Now the Chiefs have Rashee Rice back as well.
Again, once Brock Bowers returns, he'll be a top 5 TE easily. The Raiders may trade Jakobi Meyers as well, which would only free up more targets for Bowers.
Top 5 Tight Ends: Rest-of-Season 2025 (PPR)
1. Trey McBride, Cardinals
2. Tyler Warren, Colts
3. Brock Bowers, Raiders
4. Jake Ferguson, Cowboys
5. George Kittle, 49ers
Trey McBride is doing what we always knew he could if he could find the touchdowns. He's caught 4 TDs thus far in this season...and it's a career-high. In McBride's first three seasons, he caught just six total TDs.
Bowers was already mentioned, but Kittle will also be fine the rest of the way. It's important to note, this is not saying where they will finish on the season overall, it's stating what they will be from here on out.
Best TE fantasy TE sleeper for the rest of 2025
Oronde Gadsden II, Chargers: After Week 7, any fantasy manager who pays attention knows Oronde Gadsden II's name. However, he went under the radar up until last week, even though the signs were there.
In Week 7, he was hard to miss. Gadsden played a season-high 79 percent of the snaps and was targeted 9 times by Justin Herbert. Gadsden made the most of this and hauled in 7 receptions for 164 yards and a TD.
For the foreseeable future, the Chargers need to be a pass-heavy attack because their run game is virtually nonexistent. Gadsden will benefit from this, and if the volume sticks, he'll be a solid TE1.
Click for our full group of fantasy football weekly rankings.
Best TE fantasy games in 2025
Per PPR scoring, through Week 7:
||||||||||
No surprise seeing McBride up at the top, but Gadsden being there is undoubtedly a pleasant shock.
Ferguson being on here twice should show how dominant he's been in fantasy (he was just shy of having his name on here three times).
Interestingly, 7 of the 10 performances have two touchdowns. This depicts how TD-dependent the position is as a whole for those big fantasy days.
Best Fantasy TE games of all time
Rk Tight End TM Date OPP FAN PTS REC YDS TD
1 Kellen Winslow SD 11/21/1981 OAK 57.4 13 144 5
2 Kellen Winslow SD 12/11/1983 KC 48.2 14 162 3
3 Shannon Sharpe DEN 10/6/1996 SD 46.3 13 153 3
4 Mike Ditka CHI 11/12/1961 GB 46 9 190 3
5 Shannon Sharpe DEN 10/20/2002 KC 45.4 12 214 2
6 Darren Waller LV 12/6/2020 NYJ 45 13 200 2
7 Rich Caster NYJ 9/24/1972 BAL 44.4 6 204 3
8 Todd Christensen OAK 10/16/1983 SEA 44.2 11 152 3
9 Mike Ditka CHI 10/13/1963 LAR 44 9 110 4
10 Keith Jackson PHI 9/17/1989 WAS 42.6 12 126 3
11 Jimmie Giles TB 10/20/1985 MIA 42.6 7 116 4
12 Taysom Hill NO 11/17/2024 CLE 42.5 8 50 0
13 Antonio Gates SD 10/30/2005 KC 42.5 10 145 3
14 Jackie Smith STL 10/13/1963 PIT 42.2 9 212 2
15 Rob Gronkowski NE 10/26/2014 CHI 41.9 9 149 3
16 Pete Retzlaff PHI 11/28/1965 STL 41.8 9 148 3
17 Mark Andrews BAL 10/11/2021 IND 41.7 11 147 2
18 Travis Kelce KC 12/16/2021 LAC 41.1 10 191 2
19 Zach Ertz PHI 11/11/2018 DAL 40.5 14 145 2
20 George Kittle SF 10/4/2020 PHI 40.1 15 183 1
This table was incredibly fun to make as a fantasy nerd. The biggest surprise was the fact that Rob Gronkowski, Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, Zach Ertz, and George Kittle are nowhere near the top 10.
Kellen Winslow, who is an absolute beast, has the top two games of all time from the position. Shannon Sharpe and Mike Ditka are the only other 2 TEs who find themselves on this list twice.