ESPN breaks down Fantasy Football: Sam Laporta overtakes Travis Kelce as No. 1 TE, Trey McBride No.3

getting you ready for all those fantasy football drafts hopefully you haven't drafted yet or maybe just like one of your leagues or something because we have Dave Richard here we're going through tight inss today he is putting them into tears you can take a look at Fantasy Football today's consensus top 12 tight ends is Sam lorta over Travis Kelce we have Dave Richard here we're going to go through some of your tiar uh first kind of explain though and you and I were talking about this upstairs the way people address tight ends in fantasy football is changed it has because in years past it was Travis Kelce right at the top Superstar Difference Maker for everybody who took him and then you would wait at least two more rounds before taking another tight end two more rounds after that and the position wasn't deep it wasn't stable it wasn't full with guys that could be difference makers for your team it's changed now kelse is getting older last year was a down year form by his standards and other tight ends a lot of second-year guys stepped up and I think that it really has created a different Dynamic for the position now almost half of your fantasy league will have a tight end that's viewed as a mustart no doubt type of guy and the other half of the league is still going to get a tight end that they could at least stream for the beginning of the year or maybe evolve up to that top tier at tight end one of the top tiers at tight end I should say but it's deeper than it's been in the past and it's a great thing because we were talking about getting rid of this position in fantasy Once Upon a Time just mix them in with the wide receivers because there's not anybody any good now leaport is there McBride's there kad's there we'll talk about them all this is a position that's gotten deep and better and it's going to make fantasy more fun so let's dive into that your top tiers you do have Sam laapa as your T tight end one yes and Travis Kelce so why do we see the switch there and then when would you draft someone like Sam lepto I'm looking at leapor or Kelce just after the two three turn and what that means for Fantasy nerds out there is right after your first pick in round three so late round two early round three there's a turn there in snake drafts maybe like right around 30th overall is the easier way to say that and what's the difference between leapa and Kelce well you can start with 12 years that's how much younger that leapa is than Kelce they were very close in PPR points per game last year they were separated by a half Point per game and Kelsey we saw last year he started off the season looking like Kelsey he got hurt in the middle of the season I think he played through it his Target volume just wasn't the same and then in the playoffs he was Superman look at what the Chiefs did this off season they added Hollywood Brown he's hurt right now he'll be back soon they added Xavier worthy I know that both of you saw what worthy did in their playoff game recently they added more targets to this passing game and that's going to take work away from Travis Kel so he's not going to be that Dynamo that's getting eight targets per game it's going to come down to maybe seven maybe even six and a half that's great for a tight end it's not great for a tight end that we were previously taking as a first round pick I think leap's targets will be right around seven his situation has changed a little bit not too much and I think he's just the safer pick to score a lot of touchdowns catch a lot of passes and be a top Target for the lions compared to Kelce with the Chiefs okay what about in that second tier because you've got Mark Andrews Trey McBride and Dalton Cade who you both mentioned they're still all really great options especially what I'm thinking about the bills and who they're going to be wanting to Target uh Dalton concade comes to mind yeah and he might end up being the top Target getter for Buffalo just like we could see Mark Andrews be the top Target getter for Baltimore and Trey McBride be oh he's going to be second in targets Marvin Harrison's going to do his thing in Arizona but these are three tight ends I think fantasy managers can settle on once you get to honestly early round four and into round five these are going to be the names that are there and I don't like this order if it's non PPR King cage should go ahead of McBride mandrews is still going to be third for me because I love that connection that he's had with Lamar Jackson and we've seen him step up and get north of 13 PPR points per game before we saw last year before he got hurt he was that dude for Baltimore I think he can do it again he's a little younger than Travis Kelce so we can't play the age card with him like we can with Kelsey McBride saw a ton of targets last year and really a lot of them came in the final five games of the Season there wasn't a true number one wide receiver there only one of those games out of the five did a wide out for Arizona see more than seven Targets this is when McBride went crazy he had a ton of targets had big numbers I'm worried about his volume but I'm not worried about it with canca because I think that the whole Buffalo offense has changed there is a breakout coming for Dalton con to be the number one target ahead of Keon Coleman ahead of khil Shakir to be that guy we're drafting him a little bit close to that ceiling by taking him in late round four or early round five but you know what if he ends up getting 80 balls for 1100 yards and N touchdowns fantasy managers will not complain one bit and in that case we're drafting him too low if that happens so the expectations are dialed down from there but I think in Kade can absolutely Smash in his second season a breakout for him someone we have been waiting to have a breakout for a couple of years now as Kyle pittz drafted fourth overall by the Falcons back in 2021 uh we have not seen it you say he has been way underrated he now has a new quarterback in KT cousins do we finally buy into Kyle Pitts yet by the way he's in his tier three I definitely don't I am nervous about Kyle Pitts and I know last year he was banged up and he wasn't himself he's healthier this year uh Amanda I saw him in joint practices for two days in Miami he did look better but he didn't look amazing and that's what I was kind of hoping for from Kyle pittz and then Kirk Cousins talked to the media and I asked him Kyle pittz is he just going to contribute as a physical guy for the team and he said yeah I'm trying to get KY Pitts to catch passes away from his body and to run as fast as he can all the time because he's fast as it is but he could be even faster for a tight end and I'm thinking to myself as Kirk is saying it why isn't Kyle pits doing these things already and that just it it kind of it's a red flag to me I think Drake London's going to be the top Target guy for Atlanta I'm nervous about people that are taking Kyle Pitts especially in round five but even round six I'm not touching them at that point I definitely like the other names in that tier better I think they're safer because we've seen a KD's there he's safer especially if iay gets traded man George K is going to move up a tier at least if not two tiers but Kyle Pitts we've been waiting for the breakout it's year number four I don't know if it's ever going to happen I don't want to trust it at this point I'm going to let somebody else take them in my drafts we'll see maybe fourth time is the charm here um when we look down in tier four couple of uh younger players Jake Ferguson Brock Bowers though on here kind of sneaking into the top 10 tell us about Brock Bowers because he's gonna have to split time there with Michael Mayer yeah I I think that Mayer will do more blocking and Bowers will do more route running and Bowers is not your typical tight end how many guys have we talked about in the last five minutes that can line up in the back field and run the ball or throw the ball and that's stuff that we didn't see that much from Bowers in college but he's done it and then on top of that he's a really good pass catcher really good after the catch someone that the Raiders should use in the red zone and the Raiders just named Gardner mchu their starting quarterback and muu last year seemed much more of a caretaker a short area target thrower someone who doesn't want to challenge downfield all the time that could be a little bit of trouble for Devonte Adams that will not be a problem for Brock Bowers who will not get double coverage he's going to have favorable match ups all the time he could see six to seven targets per game and be a factor once the Raiders get inside the 10 and yes the Raiders will get inside the 10 at certain points this year won't be crazy they're not going to be one of the best offenses in the league but I love well that's just me saying that they'll be average uh they're I love the talent with Bowers and so I want to draft Talent sometimes especially when we're talking about a pick and round nine round 10 I've been known to draft Bowers even after I get one of the top five tight ends earlier in drafts because that's how excited I am about him but I will take Ferguson first because I think he can be the number two target getter in Dallas and if CD lamb holds out maybe Ferguson is the number one target getter Dak is always lean on his tight ends that's my fallback tight end so if I whiff on all the first what is it like seven tight ends I'm going with Fergie Ferg that's going to be my starting tight end to begin the Year this is why we get stressed out about fantasy because like and for me it's like like I don't know whatever for you it's just like a no you got to have plan a plan B plan C and then Plan D is just streaming tight end no no I have a plan a and that's all I'm where I'm going okay so then you're takinga like for for [Music] for for for h is under attack me for Bo some come h op