2024 Dynasty Fantasy Football Sleepers: 3 Rookie TEs to Target
Thor Nystrom completes his dynasty series with tight ends, including two rookies who could have immediate 2024 impacts.
This is part four of a four-part series where I cover 12 rookie sleepers who are being undervalued in dynasty drafts. You can find QBs here, RBs here and WRs here.
To include intel for those in our deepest dynasty leagues, I’ve broken each position into three categories: Day 2 picks, Day 3 picks, and UDFA.
Below is a trio of rookie tight end sleepers for dynasty fantasy football.
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Day 2
Ben Sinnott (Kansas State) - Commanders
6040/250 | RAS: 9.73 | Player comparison: Sam LaPorta
With Washington likely to use three WRs in OC Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, Sinnott may not move the fantasy needle in 2024 behind Zach Ertz. But he’s a high-upside long-term play at the position in dynasty. Sinnott catches everything he’s thrown, breaks tackles, blocks his butt off, and lines up everywhere.
In our WR column, we outlined how Luke McCaffrey is a perfect fit for QB Jayden Daniels’ game. Sinnott is too – just in the exact opposite way. During the pre-draft process, we often discussed how Daniels’ intermediate timing throws remained something of a black box in his evaluation due to LSU’s ethos of throwing bombs last season.
This, I believe, is where Sinnott was brought in to help. He was one of college football’s best intermediate pass-catchers, with nearly half his receptions last year coming between the hashes within 20 yards of the LOS. This is the area Daniels needs to prove he can win.
Want more Thor? Check out his 2024 College Football Power Rankings
Daniels will not be able to throw deep at the same rate he did in college because NFL defenses will umbrella him with two deep safeties. He will earn more one-on-one downfield opportunities by forcing the defense to defend the middle of the field.
This is where Sinnott comes in. He’s extremely reliable, with a stellar 4.0% drop rate on 73 targets in 2023. Where Sinnott really evoked Sam LaPorta for me was after the catch – Sinnott ranked No. 3 with 14 broken tackles last year.
Sinnott will also be on the receiving end of many Jayden Daniels bombs. He gets up the seam extremely quickly. Sinnott’s 10.1 aDOT was No. 1 among TEs with 30 or more catches in the past draft class, and he ranked No. 4 with 15 explosive plays.
Day 3
Erick All (Iowa) - Bengals
6044/253 | RAS: N/A | Player comparison: Noah Fant
The Bengals, who for years have needed a legitimate receiving threat at TE, were the perfect landing spot for All. I believe All could bypass Mike Gesicki for the TE1 job in his rookie season.
All is a sleek athlete, with size, speed, and quick feet. Had he been able to test, he would have run in the high-4.4s or low 4.5s, which would have placed him No. 2 among testers at his position group.
All threatens the seam at alarming speed, and can also slam on the breaks and careen back to balls. Prior to an ACL tear last October, All ranked No. 1 among all FBS TEs in yards per route run. He spears the ball outside his frame. All led Iowa in receiving in 2023 despite playing less than half the season.
He’s a slick direction-changer who is a very strong runner after the catch. All knows when to leverage his speed and hit the jets to outrace defenders, and when to lower his pads and muscle for the yards available to him.
All fell in the draft because of medical questions. He appeared in only 10 games the last two seasons, with a back injury cutting 2022 short and an ACL tear last October. He’ll be a fantasy steal if his body is up for it.
UDFA
Dallin Holker (Colorado State) - Saints
6033/241 | RAS: 6.07 | Player comparison: Bo Scaife
There is a wide-open opportunity for Holker to make the Saints’ Week 1 roster – and perhaps even see the field – following the news of Juwan Johnson’s recent foot surgery. Johnson’s availability for camp is now in question.
Holker is small, and he lacks speed (4.78) and explosion (24th-percentile 10-yard split). He was also one of the draft classes’ oldest players. But what Holker’s routes lack in snap and pizazz, he augments with tempo changes and a grab bag of upper-body deeks.
Not fast, but shifty, Holker posted a 94th-percentile 3-cone and an 83rd-percentile short shuttle during pre-draft testing. He was a broken tackle machine in the Mountain West, finishing No. 2 in this class with 15 last year.
Holker is a hands catcher with ball skills – leading the past TE class with 10 contested catches in 2023 – who has a deceivingly large catch radius. Among TE prospects in the last class, Holker tied the 6’7/260 Brevyn Spann-Ford (a fellow UDFA signed by the Cowboys) for longest arms in the position group.
Holker can’t be played inline due to size limitations. But you can play him in the slot or move him around in an H-Back role. Ala Bo Scaife, Holker could catch 40-50 balls in a season at his peak.
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