After writing up the QB, RB and WR positions, I land on what I consider to be the most disappointing fantasy football position of the 2022 season…TE! Over the past few years, TE has been thin and I thought that was going to change heading in 2022. I wrote an article around draft season lauding the crop of stud TEs and provided my plan to land one of who I considered being the Top 5: Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts, Darren Waller, and George Kittle. Of those five, you will read about three of them below along with two other names I have picked from the wreckage that is the 2022 fantasy football season TE position.
Bobby Lamarco and Mitch will be chatting about TE busts on the Tuesday night Razzball YouTube channel. Tune in and be a part of the discussion with your questions and comments. As always, if you want to discuss anything in this article, feel free to drop notes at the bottom of this thread.
Easily the biggest TE disappointment/bust in 2022 was Kyle Pitts. He burst on the fantasy football scene with his freakish athleticism in 2021 hauling in 68 receptions for over 1,000 yards. The 2021 downside is he only had one TD. The Falcons were bad in both of Pitts’ first two seasons and, are in a division where they should be better. A big key to them being better is leaning on Pitts who is certainly the best offensive player on the roster. His decline in 2022 to 28 receptions for 356 yards, over 10 games, was something none of us saw coming. The only silver lining is Pitts doubled his rookie season TD output to two. I am in on Pitts in 2023 and think a bounce back is coming. I do want to know who the starting QB for the Falcons is coming into draft season. I assume (today) it will be Desmond Ridder, but I prefer to have more fidelity on that prior to drafting Pitts. The second silver lining here is he should come at somewhat of a bargain in 2023.
The guy I targeted as my top TE option in 2022 was Darren Waller. I did not want to pay up for Kelce, Andrews or Pitts and thought Waller’s price tag would be right where I was comfortable drafting him. With 2021 being a season basically lost to injury, I was poised for a Waller resurgence. Man, was I left disappointed. Certainly, I did not count on his 2020 numbers (107 catches, 1,196 yards, 9 TD), but something close to that would warrant Waller as TE4 off the board. What I got instead was a second injury-riddled season from the Raiders TE in which he finished the season with 28 catches, 388 yards, and 3 TD. It turned out to be his best YPC season at 13.9, but the rest left a lot to be desired. Coming into the season, he was a little dinged, but I do not think any fantasy prognosticator foresaw only four games played until October 2nd and another four played in December/January, with most of the season spent watching from the sidelines. The two down seasons in a row after his monster 2020 campaign tell me Waller will be a value in 2023 so count me in if the replacement fir Derek Carr is above replacement value at QB.
I might take some ribbing for the next name, but trust me when I say Mark Andrews was not the TE we expected him to be when drafted as TE2 in Round 2. Andrews had five massive games that effectively made up 56% of his 2023 output. In those give games, Andrews averaged 8.2 catches, 97.6 yards, and 1 TD per contest. Those are insane numbers at the TE position. In fact, those are WR1 numbers in most cases. Think about getting 23 PPR points each week. Sign me up for that at any position, except maybe QB, and I will be ecstatic. In contrast, Andrews averaged 2.9 catches, 32.7 yards, and had exactly zero TD over those other 11 games. I do not think Andrews will be a bargain in 2023 so I will be hard-pressed to draft him as TE2 in the second round. If he drops to the third round, I will have a decision to make. A lot of his value hinges on the Lamar Jackson situation in Baltimore, too, so keep an eye on that moving forward.
Additional bust-worthy QB names:
Albert Okwuegbunam – Mister Unliiimmmmmited was the main issue in Denver and our TE sleeper for 2022 did not live up to even slim expectations based on QB play.
Mike Gesicki – I was excited to possibly land Mike G as my TE2 and I am thankful I did not. All the passes went to Tyreek and Waddle leaving no meat on the bone for Gesicki.
Noah Fant – After a few good seasons in Denver, Fant looked poised to take over in Seattle and it just did not work out for him, which is strange considering Geno Smith’s stats in 2022.
Dalton Schultz – We wanted playoff Schultz in the regular season, and it just did not happen.
Cole Kmet – Fields can run, but can he pass? Kmet’s stats say not.
Hunter Henry – Outside of a couple of nice games, Henry was not the guy we thought we saw play for the Chargers. Maybe it is the two-headed offensive coordinator. Maybe it is Mac Jones.
Thank you for hanging around the Razzball water cooler with us during the 2022 fantasy season. We will be around during the off-season with both articles and podcasts. Look for us on the Razzball YouTube site and drop your questions both here and there. Remember, your 2023 fantasy football season draft prep starts as soon as the playoffs are complete. We are down to two teams and one game, so get all the football content you can now!Â
-Mitch-
