Free agency was relatively quiet on the tight end front. Dalton Schultz stayed in Houston, and ranked at TE14 in the rankings below. Zach Ertz, Gerald Everett, Mike Gesicki, and Jonnu Smith all changed teams, but none of them crack my top 20 at the position in redraft or Dynasty. There were two young tight ends who got new QBs and moved up in the March edition of my Dynasty tight end rankings, Kyle Pitts and Pat Freiermuth.
Both Pitts and Freiermuth are ranked higher than they were a month ago, but not quite as high as they were a year ago. That's because of a disastrous 2023 for the duo. Freiermuth only played 12 games due to injury and only topped 50 yards in one of those games. Pitts played all 17 games but never looked like he was fully recovered from his 2022 injury. Both struggled with poor quarterback play, as they have every year of their careers. There's hope that changes in 2024.
As a rule, Dynasty managers seem far more excited about Pitts' Falcons landing Kirk Cousins. That makes sense, because Cousins has been good more recently than the Steelers new QB, Russell Wilson. Also, Pitts, is just flat-out a more exciting tight end option than Freiermuth. There is a reason the Dynasty community ranked Pitts as Dynasty TE1 for the first two years of his NFL career. For now, he's bounced back to TE4 in the rankings below, but TE1 is well within reach if he starts 2024 off looking like the superstar he was drafted to be.
Freiermuth sneaks back into my top 10, and not just because of Wilson. Arthur Smith's offense has been tight end centric in the past and the Steelers just dealt Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers. There is a legitimate chance that Freiermuth ranks second on the Steelers in targets next season and that's often a precursor for a surprise top-five finish at the position. The nice thing is, because of understandable skepticism about WIlson, Freiermuth is still available for cheap in most leagues. If you don't have a starting tight end and don't want to spend big at the position, try sending an early 2024 Round 3 pick out for Freiermith and see if it sticks.
Here are my updated Dynasty tight end rankings:
