Top NFL Rookie TE for 2025

Teams across the NFL have begun their OTAs, so now is a good time to continue looking at this rookie class. After the running backs that I started with, I'd say that tight ends are the next strongest group this year. To reiterate, this isn't necessarily a ranking for dynasty football but more of an exercise to talk through who I think the top options are and how much they could contribute as rookies.

And once again, the basis of what I look for originates from JJ Zachariason's prospect guides over the years, although TEs are newer to his model. Based on his research and Ryan Heath's at Fantasy Points, athleticism matters the most at this position compared to running backs and especially compared to wide receivers. I'll be weighing physical traits (ideally from the NFL combine, with pro day results from Dane Brugler's The Beast) and draft day age before production profiles based on career yards per route run (YPRR) via Pro Football Focus, and then situation comes in at the end.

1. Colston Loveland - 1st round, 10th overall pick, 1st TE drafted - Bears

The week of the draft, I posted in my work's "Hot Take Board" that although Tyler Warren will be drafted first, Loveland has the highest upside of this class and will end up as the TE1...and then Chicago made me look smart by taking Loveland first despite all of the mock drafts and rankings out there. He didn't give us any athleticism measurements but did come in at an impressive 6'5.75" and 248 lbs while only turning 21 just a few weeks before the draft.

That youth makes it even more impressive how efficient Loveland was in a limited Michigan passing attack. As a sophomore, he caught 45 passes for 649 yards and 4 touchdowns in 15 games for the national champions, and while that might not sound like much at the surface level, that's where YPRR tells more of the story given how little his team threw the ball. His 2.38 mark that year is pretty elite, and it was even better last season, 2.67, when his raw totals were 56 catches, 582 yards, and 5 scores in only 10 games. Overall, he finished with 2.22 YPRR for his career before getting awesome draft capital as the first pick of Ben Johnson's career as a head coach. The hottest offensive coordinator on the market, Johnson ran the show in Detroit when Sam LaPorta shockingly led the position in total points as a rookie two years ago, and while I wouldn't expect that lofty of a season due to the WR target competition, Loveland certainly is in line to pace his 2025 peers.

2. Tyler Warren - 1st round, 14th overall pick, 2nd TE drafted - Colts

Warren was widely expected to be the first TE off the board after he had 104 catches, 1,233 yards, and 8 TDs last year with an additional 218 yards and 4 scores on 26 carries, but I'm not entirely surprised that he fell slightly since that came somewhat out of nowhere as a redshirt senior. As a high school quarterback who joined a position group at Penn State that contained three other NFL players (Pat Freiermuth, Brenton Strange, and Theo Johnson), it's understandable that he was a late bloomer, having just turned 23 this past week compared to Loveland.

It all came together last year for 2.78 YPRR after being at 1.41 and 1.34 the previous two seasons, and that brought his career rate to a strong 1.98. Neither of these top-two TEs gave us athletic testing, but you can see on film how much Warren beasted opponents at 6'5.5" and 256 lbs. The problem in the immediate future is that he landed in Indianapolis, where either Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones will be throwing passes to him as a rookie. While I already would've had him as #2 in this class, I think that drops him to a tier by himself after Loveland.

3. Terrance Ferguson - 2nd round, 46th overall pick, 4th TE drafted - Rams

I think these next three form the next tier, and I had a hard time deciding on the order. Ferguson has the most complete profile, though, thanks in large part to leading the group with a 4.63 40 yard dash at the combine at 6'5.375" and 247 lbs. That gave him a great Speed Score of 107.50 right before his 22nd birthday, and then he got nice draft capital in the early 2nd round.

The production side was more average but still acceptable. A strong senior season with 2.05 YPRR helped bump his career mark to 1.51, which was right in the middle of the pack for this class. Like I said at the top, though, TE is the position where athleticism weighs heaviest in the equation, and Ferguson had the best testing numbers out of everyone. It also doesn't hurt that the team who drafted him so highly was the Rams, who have one of the best offensive minds in the league, Sean McVay, calling plays and a QB that has turned many players into fantasy stars, Matthew Stafford.

4. Elijah Arroyo - 2nd round, 50th overall pick, 5th TE drafted - Seahawks

Arroyo is a really interesting comparison to Ferguson because they were drafted just a few picks apart to NFC West teams, they have nearly identical size (6'5.125", 250 lbs for Arroyo), and they were even born just a month apart. Arroyo didn't run a 40, but he displayed his athleticism on the field with a measured time of 21.8 miles per hour (see below)...which was also almost the exact same as Ferguson's 21.83. It's a little bit of a reach, but based on that and their sizes, I'm willing to bet that Arroyo would have a similar Speed Score to Ferguson's 107.50.

Former Miami TE Elijah Arroyo had the fastest ball-carrier time (21.8 mph) of any TE in 2024 - NCAA or NFL.

Probably don't need to worry about his lack of athletic testing #NFLDraft2025 pic.twitter.com/Y6V8x8zFhA

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) March 25, 2025

The production profile for Seattle's new weapon is a bit different. He was efficient on a small sample size early on with 1.72 YPRR as a freshman and 1.69 as a sophomore before tearing his ACL after just five games. That wiped out basically two seasons before he finished strongly as a senior with a 1.70 mark while catching 35 passes for 590 yards and 7 TDs from #1 pick Cam Ward. That resulted in a career YPRR of 1.63 that is above average for this class, even if there wasn't an overly high peak in a single season. Scott Barrett at Fantasy Points pointed out how much the Seahawks brass raved about him in their post-draft press conference, saying that he could even line up like an X-receiver with how good he is, and that was emphasized in a recent ESPN article discussing how incumbent starter Noah Fant could be replaced sooner rather than later.

5. Harold Fannin Jr. - 3rd round, 67th overall pick, 6th TE drafted - Browns

If this were purely a dynasty discussion, I'd be tempted to have Fannin even higher because I love his game. I thought he was robbed of the Mackey Award after his 117 catches and 1,555 set the FBS record for TEs, becoming the first at the position to lead the country in both categories, and then in response to being snubbed, he had 17 catches for 213 yards to set the bowl game record for TEs. As you would expect, all of that resulted in an absurd YPRR of 3.76 as a true junior, and since Fannin also had a great sophomore year (2.62), he has a truly elite career mark of 2.99.

You do have to consider that Fannin did all of that at Bowling Green, which means a lot of lower level competition in the MAC. However, he showed that he can hang with the big boys when he put up 11-137-1 against Penn State and 8-145-1 against Texas A&M in back to back weeks. Clearly Cleveland wasn't too worried about the "weak" schedule since they took him at the top of the 3rd round, just 17 picks after Arroyo. However, that landing spot is enough of a concern for me to put him at the bottom of this tier (for this season at least) given their chaotic QB room and the presence of David Njoku in the last year of his contract. That shouldn't be too much of an obstacle in the long run, but the real question is about Fannin's athleticism. Despite being on the smaller side at 6'3.25", 241 lbs, he only ran a 4.71 40 for a 97.94 Speed Score, and even if going by MPH, Fannin still trails Ferguson and Arroyo by a notable amount despite being lighter. Still, Fannin doesn't even turn 21 until the end of July, which makes his production even more impressive and still leaves some room for physical development, so down the line I think he could be right up there with Ferguson.

6. Mason Taylor - 2nd round, 42nd overall pick, 3rd TE drafted - Jets

Age is also on the side of Taylor, who turned 21 this month, along with bloodlines: he's the son of Hall of Fame defensive end Jason Taylor. He measured 6'5.125" and 251 lbs at the combine but didn't run until his pro day, when he weighed 246 lbs. Perhaps that helped him put up a reported time of 4.68, which at his new weight would give him a solid Speed Score of 102.56 if accurate. If you want to adjust for being hand-timed, anything past 4.7 would drop him below the 100 threshold, but since there were also reports of him being in the 4.59 - 4.65 range, it shouldn't be too much of a concern.

The problem is that Tayor's athleticism hasn't seemed to translate to much production on the field, at least not yet. His 1.00 YPRR as a freshman only improved to 1.03 and 1.24 over the next two years for a career rate of just 1.10. Maybe you could chalk it up to the WRs he was competing with for targets for LSU, but the overall profile didn't really do much for me. I was surprised that he was getting so much hype to be in the 1st round discussion, and he ended up going in the early 2nd ahead of these other TEs above. The good news is that he hardly has any competition to lead the Jets in snaps at the position, but the bad news is that this doesn't project to be a very pass-friendly situation for him with Justin Fields at QB, Garrett Wilson at WR, Breece Hall at RB, and Aaron Glenn as a defensive minded head coach. There probably will not be a ton of passes going Taylor's way, and I think he's more of a long-term project, anyway.

7. Oronde Gadsden II - 5th round, 165th overall pick (traded up), 9th TE drafted - Chargers

My favorite late round sleeper, Gadsden, is also the son of a former NFL player, and he was originally a WR like his father. He bulked up to TE size, though, and measured 6'4.625", 243 lbs at the combine before dropping a couple of pounds to 241 at his pro day to run a reported 4.61 40. That would give him a 106.72 Speed Score to trail only Ferguson in this class, and even if you wanted to add 0.05 to account for the hand time, Gadsden would still be over 102.

Turning 22 later this summer, Gadsden was really productive at a young age: he had 61 catches for 975 yards and 6 TDs as a true sophomore with a 2.32 YPRR in his first year converting to a movement TE/big slot role. He missed most of his junior year due to a Lisfranc injury but came back the next season with another strong campaign (73-934-7, 1.93), and he finished with a great 2.04 career YPRR. Although Gadsden fell to 5th round, the fact that the Chargers made a trade to snatch him up is a good sign. They also have a pretty climbable depth chart for him to be catching passes from a top QB, Justin Herbert, in no time.

8. Gunnar Helm - 4th round, 120th overall pick, 7th TE drafted - Titans

Helm's profile feels like one that might make him a better real life football player than fantasy option. He was a somewhat light 241 lbs at 6'5", and then he sprained his ankle at the combine. That almost makes me want to just throw out his 4.84 40 yard dash and atrocious 87.83 as a result, but he also didn't look particularly fast at Texas.

Helm was more of a reliable target than game breaker as he led the team with 60 catches in a breakout senior year, resulting in 786 yards and 7 TDs over 16 games. His 1.63 YPRR last year wasn't terrible, but the 1.38 career rate certainly isn't anything to write home about. Turning 23 right at the start of the season, Helm could potentially be ready to contribute sooner rather than later after receiving decent draft capital to an offense that might be on the rise with the #1 pick taking over at QB. Incumbent TE Chig Okonkwo is going into the last year of his contract also helps, but Helm would likely have to be more athletic than he was able to show in order to make a real fantasy impact.

9. Mitchell Evans - 5th round, 163rd overall, 8th TE drafted - Panthers

The latest product of Notre Dame's TE pipeline doesn't have any standout aspect to him but has some solid numbers across the board. At 6'5.375" and 258 lbs, Evans ran a decent (for his size) 4.74 40 at the combine to produce a solid 102.22 Speed Score. After turning 22 years old a month before the draft, he was a 5th round pick, so again, nothing notable. 

Evans was in the midst of a pretty good junior season breakout with Sam Hartman as QB in 2023 before unfortunately tearing his MCL and ACL in his 8th game of the year. He was able to make it back for the start of his senior year, but between the injury recovery and the drop off to Riley Leonard as a passer, Evans saw his YPRR drop from 2.18 to 1.40. His career mark of 1.46 is just a tick below the class average, but at least his combine performance showed that the knee was not a long-term problem at all. Going to Carolina pairs him with fellow ND TE Tommy Tremble along with a 4th rounder last year, Ja'Tavion Sanders, and the most likely outcome is that they all split snaps to prevent anyone from emerging. There is a chance, though, that Evans ends up the most well-rounded option without any particular weakness between his size, athleticism, and receiving ability.

10. Gavin Bartholomew - 6th round, 202nd overall, 10th TE drafted - Vikings

It's a little surprising that Bartholomew was even the 10th player taken at the position after he finished with 326, 283, 326, and 322 receiving yards in his four years at Pitt. At least he's consistent, I guess. His 1.85 YPRR as a true freshman was nice, but he didn't really improve between then and turning 22 the week after the draft.

Bartholomew has solid size in his favor at 6'4.625" and 246 lbs, and his 4.70 40 at the combine put him just over the 100 mark in his Speed Score, 100.83. And while I don't expect anything out of such a late pick, he's at least worth mentioning as a potential option down the line in a Kevin O'Connell offense.