Football

Stranger Things Are Happening to The NFL Tight Ends!

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by
Phil Factor
May 30, 2025

Nailing down the NFL Tight Ends position is often one of the biggest challenges we face as fantasy managers, and the 2025 season looks to be more of the same.

Unless you’re willing to pay up big for one of the top 3; Bowers/McBride/Kittle- the rest of the field looks like a crapshoot. Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews are not the consistency kings they used to be. Sam LaPorta looked like a sure thing heading into last season and was a solid contributor, but he didn’t pay off our lofty draft investment the way that most of us expected. Jonnu Smith was a revelation, but that was more out of necessity. With fewer offensive injuries, the Dolphins offense is unlikely to operate in the same fashion this season.

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The TE position is the most volatile position in fantasy football. If you can lock it down with a solid contributor for the season, your team will likely do well. More often than not, however, we’re left scrambling and end up using more than one TE. Although it’s a one-player position in most leagues, it would do you well to have a viable backup. That, my friend, is when things get strange, Brenton Strange. The team’s direction.

If you weren’t paying attention to the floundering Jaguars last season, you may not have noticed that when Evan Engram was injured after nine games, Brenton Strange did a pretty good Evan Engram impersonation down the stretch. So good that the Jags let Engram walk and kept Brenton Strange.

The Fact Of The Matter

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Here’s why I think that Brenton Strange will be a top 12 tight end in 2025:

Fact: New Jags Head Coach Liam Coen, who was the Buccaneers’ OC last season, made Cade Otton fantasy relevant after the Bucs’ wideouts went down. When Coen was with the Rams in 2022 Tyler freaking Higbee had 72 catches and 620 yards. Tyler Higbee?!!? Liam Coen knows how to use a tight end.

Fact: The Jags didn’t draft or sign any significant competition for the position.

Fact: Four of his 5 clutch games last season occurred when Engram was out, meaning that Strange is able to shoulder the load alone as the starting TE.

Fact: Brenton Strange is a freak. At 6’3”, 250 lbs, he’s able to run a 4.7 40yd and has a 36-inch vertical. The 4.7 40-yard dash isn’t overly impressive, but when it’s a guy his size, that’s a freight train going downhill at a 190 lb corner back. There are not a lot of defensive players in the NFL who can physically compete with him on a jump ball in the end zone.

There For…

I’m not recommending the “Stranger Things” as a TE 1 for your team. I am strongly backing him as your TE 2 if you plan to keep two on your roster. Or if your TE1 goes down, go looking for a little Strange on waivers. It won’t surprise me if he ends up as a top 12 TE this season.

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