Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings: Travis Kelce Vs. T.J. Hockenson
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Reasonable minds and expert rankings can agree that the first three tight ends selected in 2025 fantasy football drafts should be some order of Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, and George Kittle (and I’d argue that exact order). But what do we do when we’re on the clock and staring at Travis Kelce and TJ Hockenson as the best two options?
TE Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
While Kelce might have scored the first podcast interview ever with Taylor Swift, he hasn’t exactly been scoring on the field as much as we’ve become accustomed to. The soon-to-be 36-year-old only scored three touchdowns last season (his lowest total since coming into the league), and also failed to top 1,000 receiving yards for the second straight year, so we’re very clearly looking at a decline in real time.
Not all hope is lost as Kelce still saw his typical 120+ target workload and topped 90 receptions for the seventh straight year. The floor is still relatively high for Kelce, but his ceiling is limited due to both his age and the emergence of other Chiefs receiving options like Xavier Worthy and the now-healthy Rashee Rice.
Kelce is currently the TE5 in our 2025 PPR Rankings.
TE T.J. Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings
Hockenson returned in Week 9 last year after recovering from an ACL injury and put up 41 receptions on 62 targets for 455 receiving yards for the Minnesota Vikings. Those numbers don’t exactly pop off the stat sheet at an average of 4.1 receptions and 45.5 receiving yards per game – especially when you consider that Hockenson didn’t score a touchdown all season.
However, there is some silver lining here as Hockenson averaged almost one red zone target per game during that time span, so he’s due for some positive touchdown regression. And while he’s dealing with a change at quarterback, I’m also not sure there’s too much of a downgrade from Sam Darnold to J.J. McCarthy (and some might argue that’s actually an upgrade). Justin Jefferson is also dealing with a hamstring strain, and Jordan Addison is due to miss the first three games of the season due to a suspension so Hockenson should see increased opportunities to start the year.
Hockenson is currently the TE6 in our 2025 PPR Rankings.
The Verdict
Kelce and Hockenson come with a certain amount of risk and there’s a very valid argument to be made that it’s best to pass on both players and draft a tight end later. However, we’re here to make a decision and I’d rather put my eggs in the basket of the 28-year-old who is a full season-plus removed from his ACL tear over the aging legend who is quite obviously on the back-nine (and maybe even the last hole). I’m locking in Hockenson over Kelce.
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Once a top-ranked fantasy gamer on ESPN, Nick Raducanu has been playing fantasy sports for over 25 years. His written fantasy coverage includes stops at Rotoworld, Rotowire, and The New York Times.