2025 Fantasy Football TE Rankings: TJ Hockenson vs Sam LaPorta
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The tight end standings became a bit shuffled in 2024. Sam LaPorta fell below expectations, while Brock Bowers and Jonnu Smith exceeded. Hardly any tight ends finished around their drafted ADPs and it very well showed how you may leverage ADP when it comes to drafting your fantasy team.
As we approach draft season, two tight ends appear that they are being drafted below their ceiling, and we can perhaps leverage ADP in this scenario. These two players are divisional rivals, TJ Hockenson and Sam LaPorta.
Current ADP
In standard scoring, Brock Bowers currently is the uncontested TE1. Trey McBride sits behind at TE2. As we look down the board, Sam LaPorta is being drafted at TE4 while TJ Hockenson is TE6. While these may seem fair, both players do have high upside and may be strong value picks at their current draft positions.
Debating TJ Hockenson
TJ Hockenson came into 2024 as a later-round investment by many fantasy owners. This was because he would miss a notable portion of the season while recovering from a serious knee injury suffered the year prior. Though he would miss time, many owners were optimistic that he would return and quickly provide Top-5 positional value. This very much did not play out as Hockenson finished at just 18th among TEs in PPR Points per Game.
Heading into 2025, I have a lot more optimism in Hockenson with a clean bill of health and a full participation at training camp. The Vikings will enter their next season with JJ McCarthy and though he is inexperienced, he projects to have Hockenson very involved. Kevin O'Connell is going to want to keep the offense manageable for JJ, and that leads to a lot more short-to-medium passes where a tight-end will feature more frequently
In 2023, with Kirk Cousins, Hockenson entered his first full season after being traded from Detroit. In this campaign, Hockenson put up a stellar effort with a points-per-game mark that tied with Travis Kelce as the best among tight ends in PPR formats. The offense in Minnesota stays much unchanged from the recent years, and so you can expect Kevin O'Connell to have a healthy Hockenson right back in a heavy usage role.
Current ADP: TE6 | My Upside: TE1
Debating Sam LaPorta
Sam LaPorta was a disappointment for fantasy managers last season as he would finish the year as just the TE8 in PPR formats. This came in a year where he was the consensus TE1 following a breakout rookie season. So, what went wrong?
The reality is, the Lions had a lot of mouths to feed, and that did not benefit LaPorta. In 2023, LaPorta recorded a stellar 10 touchdowns on 86 catches for 889 yards. Though great stats, Amon-Ra St. Brown and a newly available Jameson Williams took away a lot targets in 2024. I expect a lot of the same to be in store for his third season.
The offense still includes, St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs, and David Montgomery. Further down, they also have Tim Patrick, who had a great 2024, and Isaac TeSlaa — a rookie they love. As they work with a new OC and a quite successful 2024 (relatively speaking), the touches will be numbered for Sam LaPorta. He is great, and will touch the ball, but I have a hard time projecting TE1 upside. There just isn't enough time in a football game to rack up the stats that some others will be able to.
Current ADP: TE4 | My Upside: TE3
A thought I’ve had often this offseason.
— 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝟑𝟒𝟒 𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 (@Section344Lions) July 18, 2025
Sam Laporta had 730 yards and 7 TDs last year.
Thats in a LOADED offense with 90 other mouths to feed & he didn’t have a training camp then hurt his ankle Week 2 at Arizona.
Yet the narrative was he underachieved?
Dude is a… pic.twitter.com/Ixz09wUeVc
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.