If you aren’t willing to shell out a first, second, or third-round pick for one of Travis Kelce, Darren Waller, or George Kittle, there is a good chance your tight end position will be in limbo for the entire 2021 fantasy football season. While you might hit the early-to-mid-round jackpot on TJ Hockenson, Kyle Pitts, or Mark Andrews, the lack of week-to-week consistency could create uneasiness on Sundays.
Because some don’t find it necessary to spend top three draft capital on a consistent tight end, fantasy owners scramble to find breakout stars at the position. For instance, lucky fantasy owners fell into Robert Tonyan and Logan Thomas last season.
When 2021 fantasy preparation began, Adam Trautman and Anthony Firkser were two names that carried significant fantasy potential at the tight end spot. But after lackluster preseason performances and usage that screamed “situational tight ends,” it might be time to cross both names off the list before draft day.
ADAM TRAUTMAN MIGHT NOT BE THAT GUY
With Jared Cook and Josh Hill no longer on the tight end depth chart, Emmanuel Sanders now in Buffalo, and Michael Thomas off the reservation for however long, the Saints have 207 targets up for grabs from 2020.
Furthermore, the Saints utilized three tight ends pretty evenly in 2020. Cook registered 466 snaps, Trautman was on the field for 393 snaps, and Josh Hill finished third with 359 snaps. Thus, that leaves roughly 825 snaps between Trautman and newcomer Nick Vannett to share in 2021.
However, the Saints did not deploy Trautman out of the slot as the team did with Cook over the past few seasons. Instead, the Saints turned to Juwan Johnson on obvious passing downs during their first preseason game.
Trautman, who played 16-of-20 first-team snaps, only ran six routes on 13 passing plays. To make matters worse, he was utilized as an in-line tight end and didn’t touch the slot. The tight end was not targeted once and was utilized mostly as a blocker. Targets will be available in the Saints offense, but it looks like the targets will be spread out amongst the receivers and running backs.
It’s tough to trust Trautman as a late-round selection. As a result, he dropped to TE24 (-6 vs ECR) on The Wolf’s 2021 Fantasy Rankings and we’d need to see some more routes ran out of the slot to justify a late-round pick.
SITUATIONAL SLOT TE ANTHONY FIRKSER
With Jonnu Smith out of town, most thought Anthony Firkser would be a fantasy sleeper as the Titans’ top tight end. Entering the 2021 season, the Titans have the third-most vacated targets (224 targets and 47.9 percent) and they have the largest percentage of vacated targets inside the 10-yard line (15 targets and 48.3 percent).
Firkser has only started two games in his young, three-year career. But he did get additional playing time when Smith exited their 2020 Week 6 win against the Texans with an ankle injury. With TE1 duties, Firkser dominated. On nine targets, he put up 113 yards and a score on eight grabs. Furthermore, he commanded a 21.9 percent target share and ran 29 routes on Ryan Tannehill’s 46 dropbacks in that game.
Then in Week 13 (only his sixth game of the season where he played 40 percent of snaps or more), he received seven targets and hauled in five receptions for 51 yards… and had two touchdowns vultured by two other TEs which prevented a massive day.
According to Warren Sharp, the 2020 Titans utilized multiple tight ends on 48 percent of their offensive plays, which was tied with the Browns for the highest percentage in the league. With only Geoff Swaim as a (somewhat) legitimate tight end option, Firkser should see a high percentage of his snaps in the slot after seeing 40 percent of his snaps in the slot last season.
Fast forward to 2021 Preseason Week 1.
Firkser trailed Luke Stocker (five snaps) and Tommy Hudson (four snaps) and did not play a single down in 11-personnel. It’s good that he still manned the slot in two-tight end sets, but as a situational third-down pass-catching tight end, he’s not going to return consistent fantasy value on limited snaps.
According to PFF, Mike Gesicki was the only “situational” tight end that finished in the TE1 range last season.
Firkser dropped all the way down to TE30 on The Wolf’s 2021 Fantasy Rankings.
VERDICT
It’s only been one week of preseason action, but these are two examples of popular sleeper tight ends that fantasy owners might be waiting to draft. This highlights the importance of an early investment in this up-and-down position — which could stretch from Kelce to Andrews at TE6.
Go big or you’re likely to be shit out of luck at the tight end position.
