Kelce has been the gold standard at tight end for the better part of the last decade, but he looked like he'd lost a step for much of 2023 and finished 16 receiving yards short of an eighth consecutive 1,000-yard campaign. His postseason performance was vintage, however, as the 34-year-old had 355 yards and three touchdowns in four playoff games to help the Chiefs win another Super Bowl. Kelce missed the 2023 season opener with a knee injury and was rested for the regular-season finale, but he played 15 straight games in between, marking the 10th consecutive campaign in which he’s played at least that many. Even if Kelce’s best days are behind him, he should still be the most trusted pass catcher for QB Patrick Mahomes, after leading the Chiefs in targets (121), catches (93) and receiving yards (984) last season (each mark was top four among NFL tight ends). Free-agent signing Marquise Brown and rookie Xavier Worthy both are undersized speed merchants who don't figure to draw many targets in the parts of the field where Kelce thrives, while second-year pro Rashee Rice has a legal situation threatening his 2024 availability. Kelce remains the safe bet to pile up short and intermediate targets in Kansas City, with potential to rebound in the TD department (five last year) even if he doesn't get back to his peak volume (143.4 targets per season 2018-22).

Kittle quietly jumped back over the 1,000-yard threshold for the first time since 2019, leading all tight ends with 1,020 receiving yards last season. He also tied for second at the position with six touchdowns, making the most of pedestrian volume. With plenty of other mouths to feed in San Francisco -- namely Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel -- Kittle had to settle for 90 targets, tied for ninth among tight ends. Kittle’s robust average of 7.5 yards after the catch coupled with Brock Purdy’s accuracy allowed the tight end to produce a career-high 11.3 yards per target, following five straight years between 8.9 and 10.1 YPT. He also tied a career high with 16 games played, a mark Kittle previously reached in only 2018. From a health and efficiency perspective, 2023 was about as good as it gets for Kittle, though there is some risk of a down year in 2024 if he suffers regression in those areas and doesn't get more targets per game to make up for it. While Kittle is recovering from offseason core muscle surgery, McCaffrey and Samuel have their own checkered injury histories and Aiyuk is embroiled in contentious extension talks. There are a few avenues that could lead Purdy to pepper Kittle with more targets, but it's also possible those lanes don't open up until next offseason.

McBride had just 265 receiving yards as a rookie but emerged as one of the league’s most productive tight ends in the second half of 2023. Veteran tight end Zach Ertz hurt his quadriceps Week 7 and didn’t play for Arizona again, opening the door for the 2022 second-round pick to catch 66 of 85 targets for 655 yards and three touchdowns over the final 10 games. Prorated to 17 games, those numbers work out to 112 catches for 1,114 receiving yards and five TDs on 145 targets, which would've made McBride the TE leader for targets and yardage last year. He should have a bit more competition for Kyler Murray's attention with No. 4 overall pick Marvin Harrison replacing Marquise Brown as the No. 1 receiver and Zay Jones adding depth, but it mostly looks the Cardinals are counting on McBride and the rookie to carry their passing game. Few TEs across the NFL, if any, have a higher volume ceiling than McBride, who caught five or more passes in seven of the eight games Murray started last year.

Bowers is the best tight end prospect since Kyle Pitts in 2021, and arguably a more complete player. In fact, Bowers looked NFL-ready as a true freshman back in 2021, catching 56 passes for 882 yards and 13 TDs for the national champs. He finished his Georgia career with 26 receiving touchdowns and five more on the ground, deployed as a primary weapon in a way that's almost unheard of for college tight ends. Bowers also was praised for his effort as a blocker, though he was listed at just 230 pounds for most of his college career and weighed 243 at the 2024 Combine. A hamstring injury prevented the 6-foot-3 tight end from doing pre-draft workouts and perhaps creates some doubt about the relevance of his bulked-up weight at the combine, but that wasn't enough to deter the Raiders when Bowers was available at No. 13 overall. Vegas isn't the best locale for immediate fantasy value, as the Raiders have Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell at quarterback and drafted 6-foot-4, 265-pound TE Michael Mayer in the second round last year. Bowers is much faster than Mayer and should immediately be one of the best tight ends at gaining yards after the catch, but it's nonetheless possible the rookie cedes some valuable snaps to the second-year pro. Young tight ends traditionally need a year or two to marinate anyway, though similarly talented players like Pitts (1,026 yards in 2021) and Sam LaPorta (10 TDs in 2023) have bucked that trend of late with big rookie seasons.

Kincaid took a while to gain Josh Allen’s trust, but the 2023 first-round pick out of Utah got going from Week 7 onward, catching 56 passes for 555 yards and two touchdowns on 72 targets over the final 11 games. It helped that fellow Bills tight end Dawson Knox missed five of those games due to a wrist injury, but Kincaid’s two best yardage totals (87 and 84) came in Weeks 17 and 18 after Knox had returned. The biggest knock on Kincaid’s otherwise promising rookie season was that he caught only two of Allen’s 29 touchdown passes, though he added a third in the playoffs (along with 104 yards on 11 targets in two games). After scoring eight touchdowns in each of his last two seasons at Utah, the 6-foot-4, 240-pound rookie tied for 17th among TEs with nine red-zone targets last year, somehow seeing only one more than Knox. It’s hard to imagine Kincaid’s red-zone usage staying that low in the future, but with the 6-foot-4, 254-pound Knox still around, Kincaid may continue to cede more prime score opportunities than other similarly skilled tight ends.