Fantasy Football TE Fades for 2025

The 2025 NFL preseason is wrapping up and that means fantasy football draft season is underway. We finally made it people.

There are plenty of top options in your draft will be that immediately taken off the board, but some of them will not live up to expectations. Those top picks not producing the way you thought they would could put your season in jeopardy early and that rings true at tight end. A number of factors could contribute towards them not performing up to snuff and could cause you to begin looking at your TE2 or even TE3 earlier than anticipated.

Below, I’ll give you three top tight ends for you to fade ahead of your respective drafts. Considering that the average fantasy football league consists of 10-12 teams, I’ll define a “top” TE for this exercise as someone currently falling in the 1-12 range of ADP (average draft position) according to FantasyPros. We’ll use PPR rankings for further clarity. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Mr. Taylor Swift is entering his 13th season in the league and has certainly shown signs of his age over the last two seasons. Kelce remained Patrick Mahomes’ go-to option in 2024 with 133 targets, but yielded what was the least productive season of his career by turning 97 catches into just 823 yards and three touchdowns. He was still able to produce 12.2 fantasy points per game for managers in PPR leagues, but we’ve certainly seen way better from the seven-time All-Pro.

Kelce’s lack of big plays was also noticeable as he averaged a career-low 8.5 yards per reception. Despite running the second-most routes among tight ends with 498, his meager 1.65 yards per route run ranked 26th among his peers. Meanwhile, backup tight end Noah Gray has seen his number of looks increase over the past few years and he was actually more reliable big-play target with 10.9 yards per reception and five touchdowns last season. *Hint Hint* That’s probably something to keep in mind.

Look, he’s about to turn 36 and is most likely at the end of the line with this being the final year of his contract. There is some value for him in PPR leagues just based on pure volume of targets, but I’d look elsewhere for younger, more explosive options as my TE1.

When healthy, Njoku was one of the lone bright spots during the Browns’ miserable 3-14 campaign last season. Through 11 games, the Pro Bowl tight end caught 64 targets for 505 yards and five touchdowns, earning fantasy managers 13.5 points per game in PPR leagues. He actually ended up commanding the fourth-highest target share in the league among tight ends in 2024 at 22.77%.

Fantasy managers are understandably tabbing him as a TE1 candidate so far this draft season, but I have my reservations. First, he’s 29 years old and is coming off a season where he missed six games due to ankle, knee, and hamstring injuries. The mileage eventually takes its toll and it should be questioned if the veteran can hold up for an entire season. Second…I mean, come on. You’ve seen this quarterback room, right? Do you trust any semblance of continuity for Njoku when a 40-year-old, a journeyman, and two mid-round rookies could be throwing to him at various points of the year?

I wouldn’t touch Njoku when it’s time to take a starting tight end.

Warren has all the makings of being a future tight end great in the NFL and it’s easy to see why the Colts took him in the draft this past April. The 6’5”, 256-pound weapon was a driving force behind Penn State’s run to the College Football Playoff semifinals last year and won the Mackey Award by catching 104 targets for 1,233 yards and eight touchdowns. His combination of size, athleticism, and toughness led him to being taken No. 14 overall and NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein even compared him to Jeremy Shockey.

So why is he on the fade list even with his upside? Well….the Colts, that’s why. The team just completed one of the more uninspiring training camp QB battles we’ve seen in a while when Daniel Jones beat out Anthony Richardson for the starting job. New York Giants tight ends didn’t necessarily thrive as fantasy football standouts when Jones was throwing to them and the organization is already being blasted for possibly making the wrong move at QB. And it’s not like the position has been a focal point of Shane Steichen and Jim Bob Cooter’s offenses anyway.

If you’re drafting rookies in a dynasty league, absolutely target Warren. For the re-drafts however, you’ll probably get more out of him next year when he has a new QB and/or a new coaching staff to work with.