National Football League

2023 Tight End rankings: Chiefs' Travis Kelce unanimous leader of top 10 in NFL

Updated Nov. 2, 2023 1:33 p.m. ET

FOX Sports NFL Staff

Only four teams allocate $20 million or more to their tight ends in 2023. That accounts for the entire position group — generally three players and sometimes four. In contrast, 13 wide receivers make at least that much on their own.

It's easy to argue that tight ends are underpaid and underappreciated. They're also among the hardest players to evaluate. None of our top three was drafted in the first or second round, and a few were selected late on Day 3. Hitting on one, however, brings enormous benefits to any offense. Tight ends are versatile and difficult to game plan against. The truly great ones are worth their considerable weight in gold.

With that in mind, our writers listed their best 10 based on their confidence in each tight end were he to take the field for a game next week. A first-place vote merited 10 points in our methodology and descended from there, down to a single point for 10th place. We then combined the scores to determine our rankings.

2023 Top NFL Tight Ends

1. Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs

Geoff Schwartz: Travis Kelce has always been the Chiefs’ most important offensive weapon during this run of seven straight divisional titles, three Super Bowl appearances and two Lombardi trophies. I don’t know if he’ll ever receive full recognition for his play, even with a gold jacket in his future. His mental processing and connection with Patrick Mahomes allow him to play the game differently than his peers. He has free rein to move around the field as he sees fit, and his outstanding footwork and body awareness leave him consistently open with the uncanny ability to avoid big collisions.

He’s had seven straight 1,000-yard seasons. Last season, at age 33, he had 152 targets and 110 catches for 1,338 yards. That number put him eighth in the NFL for receiving yards and nearly 500 yards more than the next closest tight end. Kelce isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

2. George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers

Eric D. Williams: Brock Purdy’s security blanket has a rare combination of pure speed to quickly get deep down the middle of a defense and also brute power to wreck defensive ends in the running game. Over the past two seasons, Kittle is second to only Travis Kelce in yards after catch (881) and receiving touchdowns (17). According to Next Gen Stats, Kittle led all tight ends with 405 receiving yards and six touchdowns on passes of 10-plus air yards in 2022.

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3. Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens

Williams: The Oklahoma product was Lamar Jackson’s No. 1 target in Baltimore’s tight end-friendly offense, finishing with 73 receptions for 847 receiving yards and five touchdowns last season. The addition of offensive coordinator Todd Monken, along with explosive playmakers on the perimeter in Odell Beckham Jr. and Zay Flowers, could mean fewer targets for Andrews. However, Jackson has a great rapport with Andrews in got-to-have-it moments, so the expectation is his top-flight production will continue. According to Next Gen Stats, Andrews finished second to Travis Kelce with 585 receiving yards aligned in the slot last season.

4. T.J. Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings

Carmen Vitali: Kirk Cousins is a better quarterback when Hockenson is on the field. That was apparent from the stats after Hockenson was traded from Detroit to Minnesota last November. Cousins’ air yards ticked up drastically. In Weeks 1-8 last season, Cousins had zero games with air yards per attempt in double digits. After? He had multiple.

Hockenson also gave Cousins a reliable third-down target as well as a guy who could simply move the chains. Hockenson accounted for 27 receiving first downs with the Vikings last season. Minnesota lives in 11 personnel, with head coach Kevin O’Connell a part of the Sean McVay coaching tree, so whichever tight end is on the field matters a lot. With Hockenson, the Vikings are able to unleash the full extent of their playbook and rely on him both as a receiver and blocker, which puts him high on this list.

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5. Dallas Goedert, Philadelphia Eagles

Ralph Vacchiano: While he may not be Travis Kelce, Goedert has the skills to be near the top of the next group. His biggest problem is he’s not the featured performer on his team. The Eagles are a powerful running team and their passing game goes through A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Still, Goedert was on pace for 80 catches and 1,000 yards last season before he missed five games with an injured shoulder. That’s phenomenal considering he’s the fourth option in his team’s offense. The Eagles don’t need to feature him more, but if they did, he’d be a big-time star.

6. Darren Waller, New York Giants

Vacchiano: It wasn’t long ago that Waller was the closest thing the NFL had to Travis Kelce’s equal. He averaged 99 catches 1,171 yards and six touchdowns in a two-year span. But that was back in 2019-20. And that’s the issue with Waller. It’s been a while. And after two injury-plagued seasons, can he still be what he was? After seeing him at training camp and very briefly in the preseason, the Giants are convinced they traded for the 2019-20 version. If they’re right, he should vault way up this list. But he’ll be 31 years old shortly after Opening Day and … well, two years is a very long time. Waller obviously has plenty to prove.

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7. Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons

Greg Auman: Pitts might be the most difficult tight end to rank on this list. Is this the guy who topped 1,000 yards and made a Pro Bowl as a rookie, or the one with three total touchdowns in two seasons? He was a top-five draft pick and he appears to be fully recovered from last year’s knee injury. With the lack of real depth behind Drake London at receiver, Pitts has every chance to be a top target for Desmond Ridder, especially in the red zone. In an offense loaded with high draft picks at skill positions, Pitts has a chance to show why he was selected so high two years ago.

8. Evan Engram, Jacksonville Jaguars

Ben Arthur: After a rollercoaster start to his career with the Giants, Engram enjoyed a breakout season with the Jaguars last season, catching 73 passes for 766 yards and four touchdowns. He had the best run-blocking grade of his career in 2022, too, according to Pro Football Focus. It earned him a big-money extension this offseason. With a year under his belt with quarterback Trevor Lawrence and coach Doug Pederson, known to produce tight end-friendly offenses (he had prime Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert in Philadelphia), the former first-round pick should continue ascending in Jacksonville.

9. Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers

Williams: The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Freiermuth is the first tight end who appears capable of matching the production of retired Pro Bowler Heath Miller, a list that included Ladarius Green, Vance McDonald and Jesse James before him. Like Miller, Freiermuth is consistently capable of making contested catches over the middle of the field. He totaled 63 receptions for 732 receiving yards and two scores last year. And at 24 years old, he is just hitting his prime.

10. Dalton Schultz, Houston Texans

Henry McKenna: Schultz had a pretty sweet gig with the Cowboys, who had one of the NFL’s most prolific passing offenses over the past few years. But that isn’t to say he didn't get his hands dirty. In 2022, Schultz had the seventh-highest run-blocking grade among tight ends who had 50-plus run blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus.

So, yes, it’s terrific that Schultz played a big role in winning fantasy football trophies in 2021, when he had 78 catches for 808 yards and eight touchdowns. But it’s his versatility that earns him a spot on this list. It will be interesting to see how productive he can be in Houston, where the offense isn’t quite firing like in Dallas. Can Schultz hold a spot on this list or might he lose ground?

Honorable mention: David Njoku, Chig Okonkwo, Cole Kmet

Other 2023 NFL Positional Rankings

These rankings were compiled by:

AFC South reporter Ben Arthur (@benyarthur)
NFC South reporter Greg Auman (@gregauman)
Dallas Cowboys reporter David Helman (@davidhelman_)
AFC East reporter Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis)
NFL and betting analyst Geoff Schwartz (@GeoffSchwartz)
NFC West reporter Eric D. Williams (@eric_d_williams)
NFC East reporter Ralph Vacchiano (@RalphVacchiano)
NFC North reporter Carmen Vitali (@CarmieV)