Fantasy Football Stat of the Day: The TE target dominators

(Leading up to the 2021 NFL season, FTN’s Tyler Loechner will dive into the fantasy football numbers to bring you his Fantasy Stat of the Day, five days a week.)

A few weeks ago, we look at the target dominators across the NFL. Aside from the top TEs in the league, all the top receivers in the league — based on team target market share — are WRs.

Along with the megastars, names like Robby Anderson, Justin Jefferson and Marquise Brown popped in that study.

Today, we will take another look at target dominators, but this time we will only look at TEs.

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Noah Fant has the biggest obstacle among 2021 TE breakout options, and we’re probably sleeping on Evan Engram

The chart below shows the 12 leading TEs based on team target market share from the 2020 season.

Player	Team	Targets	Recs	Rec Yds	Rec TDs	Team Target Market Share
Darren Waller	LV	146	107	1195	9	28%
Travis Kelce	KC	145	105	1416	11	24%
Mark Andrews	BAL	89	58	701	7	23%
Evan Engram	NYG	109	63	654	1	22%
Logan Thomas	WAS	112	72	670	6	19%
T.J. Hockenson	DET	101	67	723	6	18%
Noah Fant	DEN	93	62	673	3	17%
Mike Gesicki	MIA	85	53	703	6	16%
Hunter Henry	LAC	92	60	613	4	15%
Austin Hooper	CLE	70	46	435	4	15%
Hayden Hurst	ATL	90	56	571	6	15%
Dalton Schultz	DAL	89	63	615	4	14%

A few thoughts from this list:

Can anyone join Darren Waller, Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Mark Andrews among the TE target dominators? Waller, Kelce and Andrews were the only three TEs who made the list among league leaders in target market share across all positions in our first study. I’m adding Kittle here too, because his 2020 season was mostly lost due to injury. T.J. Hockenson (18% target market share last season) is a favorite choice to “make the leap” in 2021 — but people may be sleeping on Evan Engram (22%).
Can Logan Thomas be an every-week fantasy starter with Ryan Fitzpatrick? Thomas delivered as a fantasy sleeper last year, posting 72 catches for 670 yards and 6 scores on a 19% target market share. Inconsistency prevented Thomas from being a staple in fantasy lineups last year, but there’s a good chance that changes with a new QB in Washington in 2021.
Noah Fant is a breakout option again in 2021, but Courtland Sutton’s return looms. Fant is another 2020 sleeper TE who remains a “breakout” option in 2021. But of all the breakout options, Fant has the biggest obstacles: Denver’s WR1, Sutton, is returning from injury, which makes Fant’s healthy 17% team target market share a lofty goal for 2021. Fant will need to improve his TD rate to make another big leap this season.