Whether you are taking part in a start-up draft or revamping your roster for next season, there is plenty of work to do in dynasty fantasy football. Finding value and getting ahead of the market is the key to success in this format, and this list should help you do just that. These four tight ends all have an ADP below 140, yet each have the potential to be impact players for your team in 2022 and beyond. Here are four tight ends to buy low ahead of the 2022 season.
Scoring is PPR and ADP data is sourced from Sleeper unless stated otherwise.
Irv Smith – Minnesota Vikings
ADP: 145
2021 TE rank: DNP
Smith showed promise in his first two seasons with the Vikings, but a knee injury forced him to miss the entire 2021 season. He now appears to be an afterthought for many fantasy players as a result. His current ADP has him as the 17th tight end off the board, but he has the potential to finish far higher than that this season. With the departure of players like Tyler Conklin, Smith has been left as the only notable tight end on the roster. As things stand, the players behind him on the depth chart are Ben Ellefson and Johnny Mundt. The two of them have 11 career catches between them.
Even with the receiving duo of Jefferson and Thielen, this pretty much guarantees a decent volume of targets for Smith. You can then factor in the coaching change in Minnesota. Kevin O’Connell comes from the McVay coaching tree and his offense has a history of generating production at tight end. In his two season as OC with the Rams he helped Tyler Higbee to a TE14 and TE18 finish. It isn’t inconceivable that Smith could exceed that this season. For an entrenched TE1 who is still only 23 his current ADP makes him an absolute steal.
Evan Engram – Jacksonville Jaguars
ADP: 182
2021 TE rank: #24
It is fair to say that Engram has never quite lived up to his fantasy potential. After finishing as TE4 in his rookie season with Eli Manning under center, things took a turn for the worse with the arrival of Daniel Jones. Since then he’s failed to finish higher than TE13 and hasn’t come particularly close to eclipsing his rookie numbers. The Giants chose not to re-sign him this summer, allowing him to land in Jacksonville on a one-year $10m deal.
Plenty of fantasy players have been burned by Engram over the years and with his arrival in Jacksonville, his value is at an all-time low. There’s reason to invest in him though. Chief amongst them is the fact that Doug Pederson’s offense is conducive to tight end success. Zach Ertz had 100+ targets in four of Pederson’s five seasons as Eagles head coach. He was a top ten tight end in all four of those seasons and finished inside the top three on three occasions. With a lack of marquee talent at wide receiver, you can expect Engram to see a fair number of targets in 2022. The one-year deal does lead to some long-term uncertainty, but for the marginal investment he is well worth the cost.
Brevin Jordan – Houston Texans
ADP: 197
2021 TE rank: #44
Jordan made a slow start to his rookie season in 2021, but there were real signs of encouragement. After being inactive for the first seven games, he finally made it onto the field against the Rams in Week 8. Over the course of his nine games he logged 20 catches for 178 yards and three touchdowns. Whilst these numbers are certainly nothing special, they were solid enough for a fifth round rookie and entrenched his place on the team. From Week 8 he ranked 26th at the position in yards per route run and fourth in passer rating when targeted.
We also saw this translate to fantasy success too. Jordan had a TE1 finish in four of the nine games he played as a rookie. He clearly established a rapport with Davis Mills too. Three of those TE1 games came with Mills under center and Jordan saw most of his targets come when Mills was on the field. As we enter the 2022 season, Jordan is the outright TE1 on the Texans roster. This, coupled with a full year of Mills at quarterback, means we should see a substantial uptick in targets in 2022.
Daniel Bellinger – New York Giants
ADP: 244
2021 TE rank: N/A
Bellinger is the lone rookie on this list. As a day three pick, he won’t be a name familiar to many fantasy football players at this point in time. His ADP and roster rate reflect that fact. Bellinger is currently averaging out as the 32nd tight end off the board in startups and is rostered in just 66% of Sleeper leagues. The picture I am painting might not scream fantasy success, but there’s reason to get behind him ahead of his rookie season.
The biggest of these is that he has a legitimate path to the field. He joins a Giants tight end room featuring Ricky Seals-Jones and Jordan Akins, both of whom recently joined the team on veteran minimum one-year deals. Neither have ever been high volume receivers and they don’t appear to represent much of a threat to Bellinger’s chances of seeing playing time. There’s also the fact that he’ll be playing under the Giants’ new coaching staff with Brian Daboll. Don’t forget that during his time in Buffalo, Daboll was responsible for turning another mid-rounder in Dawson Knox into a legitimate fantasy TE1. Bellinger is the ultimate low-risk, high-reward tight end this year in fantasy football.
