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Fantasy Football: Top 3 late-round tight ends to draft in 2023

2RMAW5J Green Bay Packers tight end Luke Musgrave (88) a preseason NFL football game Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

• TE Luke Musgrave, Green Bay Packers (66.3 PFF preseason offense grade): He secured the team’s No. 1 tight end role this preseason, crucially outplaying third-round rookie Tucker Kraft as both a receiver and a run blocker.

• TE Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills (60.4 PFF preseason offense grade): Kincaid is a high-upside TE1 option available in the 10th round or later in all three home-league platforms.

• Dominate your fantasy league in 2023: For up-to-date fantasy draft rankings and projections, check out PFF’s fantasy rankings tool!

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes


Successfully identifying a high-scoring late-round tight end gives fantasy football managers an advantage over opponents who used an early-to-mid-round draft pick on a non-elite tight end with middling production.

Below are three tight ends with high-scoring TE1 upside, found in the double-digit rounds on the three major home-league platforms: ESPN, Sleeper and Yahoo!.

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TE Luke Musgrave, Green Bay Packers

Per PFF senior fantasy analyst Nathan Jahnke, Green Bay’s second-round tight end Luke Musgrave (66.3 PFF preseason offense grade) secured the team’s No. 1 tight end role this preseason, crucially outplaying third-round rookie Tucker Kraft (45.6 PFF preseason offense grade) as both a receiver and a run blocker.

Pat Kerrane’s recent “Impact TEs in the early rounds piece expertly explains run blocking’s positive impact on fantasy football production for tight ends. The 6-foot-6, 253-pound Musgrave is expected to dominate first-team snaps this season, operating as a high-volume target earner against PFF’s second-softest tight end strength of schedule.

The table below compares Green Bay’s rookie tight end preseason data against one another.

GB TE PFF Preseason Grades Luke Musgrave Tucker Kraft
PFF Receiving Grade 69.0 49.1
PFF Run-Blocking Grade 58.5 52.0

Musgrave can be drafted in Round 15 or later on all three home-league platforms.

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