Brenton Strange Tops Our List Of 2025 Fantasy Football Breakout Tight Ends
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The tight end is a position where you can get a huge advantage in fantasy football if you can identify and draft one in his first big breakout season. There usually tends to be just a handful of guys who are well ahead of the pack when it comes to fantasy production. These are the tight ends who are going to break out this season.
Brenton Strange, Jacksonville Jaguars
The tight end has been highly targeted in Jacksonville since Trevor Lawrence has been their quarterback. With Evan Engram now with the Denver Broncos, Strange is left as the clear TE1 in this offense. We saw him flash last season when Engram missed time, peaking with a game in which he caught 11 of 12 targets for 73 yards.
Brenton Strange.
— SleeperJaguars (@SleeperJaguars) August 14, 2025
You might want to know that name before the season starts😤😤
📹: @Demetrius82
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He showed enough last season that the Jags were willing to move on from Engram and not bring in anyone of significance at the position. Strange was a second-round pick in 2023, so it appears both the talent and draft capital are there. We've been spoiled in recent years with young tight ends like Sam LaPorta and Brock Bowers, but this is how tight ends generally develop in the NFL.
Chig Okonkwo, Tennessee Titans
Okonkwo is the best athlete in the Tennessee Titans' offense. Unfortunately, like most players in Tennessee, he's been bogged down by horrific quarterback play. That all changes this year with first-overall pick quarterback Cam Ward under center. He's a supreme talent who can both read defenses and throw darts with accuracy, which is something Chig has never experienced on a professional level. He's flashed before topping 500 yards, but has been held back. Even with his nightmarish quarterback situation, last year in the fantasy playoffs, he caught 22 of 28 targets for 182 yards. He has a ton of upside and should have both a high-floor and high-ceiling with Ward throwing him the ball.
Elijah Arroyo, Seattle Seahawks
Speaking of Ward, Arroyo was his star tight end at Miami last season. The second-round pick is poised to break out as a rookie after the Seattle Seahawks watched him at camp and decided it was safe to cut Noah Fant outright. I have been on record saying that he will be the top rookie tight end in 2025 ahead of guys like Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland, and Mason Taylor. That sentiment has only gotten stronger as we get closer to the regular season. Arroyo is going to be a star in the league, and he's going to establish that early.
“Elijah Arroyo continues to catch everything from everyone in this camp,” per @gbellseattle
— SleeperSeahawks (@SleeperSeahawks) July 29, 2025
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Ja'Tavion Sanders, Carolina Panthers
Bowers was the clear top tight end in the 2024 NFL Draft, but this is the man I graded out second. He's an outstanding athlete at 6'4, 252 pounds, and flashed his potential last year with limited opportunities. This year, he now enters the season as the clear TE1 in an ascending Panthers' offense that really seemed to find its footing in the back half of 2024. I love both his talent and upside and expect him to emerge as a budding fantasy star this season.
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-0e06b43c57ceb063781f337e307e72d4.png "Mark Morales-Smith")
Mark Morales-Smith is a father of five, a former college football scout and semi-pro football player. Morales-Smith is a long-time competitive fantasy football player with well over a decade of professional writing experience at multiple high-level sites, including Sports Illustrated, FullTime Fantasy, FantasySP, and more.
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