In the fantasy football world, one of the most underrated aspects to look at is each team’s coaching tendencies. After looking at the best coaches and worst coaches for running backs last month, as well as the best coaches and worst coaches for wide receivers earlier this month, this article will look at the best coaches for tight ends. To start, we will look at which coaches provide the most overall opportunities (targets) to the position. Then, after looking at the coaches that provide the most opportunities overall, we will dive more specifically into the best coaches for tight ends depending on your league’s scoring settings (standard, 0.5 PPR, PPR). Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Writer’s Note: These lists only include the 42 active offensive-minded head coaches and offensive coordinators who have previous NFL experience as either an offensive coordinator or NFL head coach.
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Opportunities
When you plan to create your own personal rankings for your fantasy football draft, it’s always good to know which coaches have historically given their tight ends the most opportunities (targets) since it can impact a player’s value. To help you with this, here are the top ten active coaches (with previous NFL experience) in providing opportunities to their tight ends.
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
Looking at the coaches that rank in the top ten of tight end usage, we see seven teams with their projected primary play-caller featured - the Indianapolis Colts (Frank Reich), the Philadelphia Eagles (Nick Sirianni), the New York Giants (Jason Garrett), the Denver Broncos (Pat Shurmur), the Miami Dolphins (George Godsey), the Los Angeles Rams (Sean McVay), and the Atlanta Falcons (Arthur Smith). If you want tight ends that are likely to see a healthy receiving workload each week, you should consider investing in the primary pass-catching tight ends on these teams.
Fantasy Players This May Impact: Travis Kelce (TE - KC), Mo Alie-Cox (TE - IND), Jack Doyle (TE - IND), Kylen Granson (TE - IND), Dallas Goedert (TE - PHI), Zach Ertz (TE - PHI), Evan Engram (TE - NYG), Kyle Rudolph (TE - NYG), Noah Fant (TE - DEN), Albert Okwuegbunam (TE - DEN), Mike Gesicki (TE - MIA), Adam Shaheen (TE - MIA), Adam Trautman (TE - NO), Nick Vannett (TE - NO), Juwan Johnson (TE - NO), Tyler Higbee (TE - LAR), Johnny Mundt (TE - LAR), Kyle Pitts (TE - ATL), and Hayden Hurst (TE - ATL)
Fantasy Points Per Game
While seeing the number of opportunities a coach provides to their TE room is great, it's perhaps more important to look at which coaches have historically gotten the most fantasy production out of the position. Below are the top 10 offensive-minded coaches/coordinators in standard, 0.5 PPR, and PPR scoring formats.
Standard Scoring
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
0.5 PPR Scoring
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
PPR Scoring
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
Looking at each of these tables, there are eight teams whose primary offensive play-caller lands in the top ten of at least one of the three primary formats - the Indianapolis Colts (Frank Reich), the Philadelphia Eagles (Nick Sirianni), the Atlanta Falcons (Arthur Smith), the New York Giants (Jason Garrett), the Cleveland Browns (Kevin Stefanski), the Los Angeles Rams (Sean McVay), the Baltimore Ravens (Greg Roman), and the San Francisco 49ers (Kyle Shanahan). This suggests that these offenses have a better shot than most to produce a fantasy-relevant tight end in 2021 - especially if the receiving work ends up primarily going to one player.
Fantasy Players This May Impact: Travis Kelce (TE - KC), Mo Alie-Cox (TE - IND), Kylen Granson (TE - IND), Jack Doyle (TE - IND), Dallas Goedert (TE - PHI), Zach Ertz (TE - PHI), Adam Trautman (TE - NO), Nick Vannett (TE - NO), Juwan Johnson (TE - NO), Kyle Pitts (TE - ATL), Hayden Hurst (TE - ATL), Evan Engram (TE - NYG), Kyle Rudolph (TE - NYG), Austin Hooper (TE - CLE), David Njoku (TE - CLE), Harrison Bryant (TE - CLE), Tyler Higbee (TE - LAR), Johnny Mundt (TE - LAR), Mark Andrews (TE - BAL), Josh Oliver (TE -BAL), Ross Dwelley (TE - SF), and George Kittle (TE - SF)
- Worst Coaches & Coordinators For Wide Receivers
- Best Coaches & Coordinators For Wide Receivers
- Worst Coaches & Coordinators For Running Backs
- Best Coaches & Coordinators For Running Backs
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Eli Grabanski is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Eli, check out his archive and follow him @3li_handles.