Fantasy Football Tight End Sleepers

Everyone can draft a superstar early in their fantasy draft. However, championships are won by identifying sleepers in the later rounds who will become league winners. We now turn our attention to the best tight-end sleepers for 2023. We're only looking at true sleepers here, tight ends being drafted outside the top 12 at the position by ADP. 

Tight End Sleepers

Chigoziem Okonkwo, Tennessee Titans

This is a guy who the fantasy community was in on full steam ahead entering the offseason. But once the Titans signed DeAndre Hopkins, the hype died down significantly. The argument here is that Tennessee just doesn't throw the ball enough to sustain two fantasy viable options in the passing attack, and D-Hop is the obvious alpha now. It has now gotten to the point where Chig isn't even being drafted as a TE1 anymore. I completely disagree with this take and am of the mindset that Hopkins only opens everything up for the entire offense. 

Treylon Burks could be a very good wide receiver; nevertheless, I was not confident that he would be able to draw enough attention from defenses for the rest of the offense to get going. The addition of Hopkins changes everything. He opens up the middle of the field for Okonkwo and will allow Derrick Henry to move the offense without dealing with a full defensive box. This will lead to more mismatches for Okonkwo and more end-zone opportunities. Linebackers will struggle mightily to cover him, and that's what we're going to see more of now. This will boost his PPR value, and we already know he can stretch the seam: He avaraged a massive 14.1 yards per catch last season on 32 receptions. 

Taysom Hill, New Orleans Saints

Hill has climbed to the TE17 spot over the past few weeks. Do you have any idea how ridiculous that is? He finished as the TE3 in Standard leagues (TE9 in PPR) last season and gives you a potential advantage no other player in the sport offers. You get to start a guy who is potentially a running back, tight end and even a quarterback on any given week. Yes, consistency can be an issue with Hill; nonetheless, there is no excuse for the fantasy community to ignore him once again this season. 

Last year wasn't some one-year wonder. In 2022 he accounted for 11 TDs. He scored nine, 13 and seven in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. During that span, he has also averaged 565 yards per year. He's not a traditional tight end and gets it done in unconventional ways, but that's what gives him so much value. The fact that guys like Cole Kmet and Dalton Schultz are being drafted as TE1s in the Bears' and Texans' offenses while Hill has only just clawed his way up to be the TE17 is a case of gross negligence by the fantasy community as a whole. 

Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints

Speaking of Hill, his teammate also finished as a TE1 last season. Johnson landed as the TE11 in Half-PPR leagues at the end of 2022. He is the conventional tight end in this offense, and that's not going to change this year. Apparently, a massive QB upgrade and an Alvin Kamara suspension have led the fantasy community to believe that he will now finish as a low-end TE2. Currently, his ADP has him being drafted as the TE21. How anyone came to that conclusion is beyond me. Johnson began to show promise as a sophomore in 2021 and took a big next step in 2022, posting over 500 yards and seven TDs. There is no reason to believe the former WR won't continue his ascension in year four. 

What are fantasy owners afraid of here? It better not be the zombified corpse of Jimmy Graham stealing touchdowns, Foster Moreau causing too much competition for targets, or a broken Michael Thomas suddenly regaining his All-World form, because it's not happening. I've even heard people say that Derek Carr has a big arm, so he's going to be pushing the ball downfield more year this year, which will hurt the tight ends on this team. As if we didn't watch Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow have career years with this very same quarterback just a few short years ago. Like the two previous tight ends on this list, Johnson should be drafted ahead of multiple guys being drafted as a TE1 right now.