Fantasy Football 2022: Too Early Tight End Sleepers

It’s never too early to do a sleeper or a bust list. Basically, as soon as experts start to put out their rankings, we can start to see patterns and ebbs and flows develop. After all, for the 95% of people who aren’t on fantasy football twitter in February, these rankings will make the draft lists come August. But, nothing is perfect. That’s why we are going to take a look at FantasyPros Expert Consensus Rankings to suss out some sleepers and busts for the 2022 fantasy football season. Is it too early for TE sleepers? Probably! But, here they are, anyway.

Zach Ertz, Arizona Cardinals (TE18, 139 Overall)

Zach Ertz was TE5 last season. Let me repeat that: Zach Ertz was tight end five in the 2021 fantasy football season. He finished the year with 143.7 fantasy points, and while that comes out to TE12 in fantasy points per game, he was much better than that with the Cardinals. He was vintage Ertz with Arizona, notching 5 catches for 52 yards per game in his 11 contests with the squad. Kick in his touchdowns and that comes out to 9.6 fantasy points per game for Ertz, which was the same as Darren Waller. He is a free agent, but I can’t imagine a situation better than Arizona’s where he could end up. If he does end up back in Arizona, TE18 is going to be the steal of the century.

Blake Jarwin, Dallas Cowboys (TE27, 224 Overall)

Now, hear me out. Dalton Schultz is a free agent, and it’s entirely possible that he flits off to somewhere else before the season. If that’s the case, then the TE27 will be a top-12 tight end basically overnight. Let’s not forget that Dalton Schultz grew and flourished in what we dubbed the Blake Jarwin Role prior to the 2020 season. Now, it could be Blake Jarwin’s role again in 2022. The Cowboys threw to the tight end 124 times last year, the tenth-most TE targets in the league. They could also be without Schultz, Michael Gallup and Amari Cooper, meaning that pie will just grow for Jarwin.

Dan Arnold, Jacksonville Jaguars (TE28, 225 Overall)

While the Jaguars won’t have Urban Meyer at the helm anymore, they will still have Dan Arnold, who was a key part of the Jaguars’ offense when healthy last year, and they will also have Doug Pederson at the helm, who utilized Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz all the way to the Super Bowl in Philadelphia. Dan Arnold had a five game stretch in 2021 where he was fully integrated into the Jags’ offense after a trade prior to their week four Thursday Night Football game against the Bengals. In those five games, he averaged 7.6 targets, 5 catches and 57 yards per contest. While he didn’t score a touchdown, 5/57 is a line worth a top-12 pick at tight end, not TE28.