Tight Ends To Upgrade In Guillotine Leagues: Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, And More

In the first few rounds of a Guillotine LeaguesTM draft, you can tell who's played before. Seasoned Guillotine drafters have the tight end position squared away early.

Tight end is the position that I prioritize over all others, particularly when you're in a standard 18-team Guillotine League. To my eyes, there are only about five really safe tight ends. And about five more tight ends who might be plausible for Guillotine. But that only accounts for 10 tight ends. In an 18-team league, we've got managers trying to survive with, God forbid, Kyle Pitts. Searching for a viable tight end in Round 10 is like trying to find Timothée Chalamet's masculinity.

TE Upgrades in Guillotine Leagues for 2025

Brock Bowers—Raiders

—8 spots over consensus
There's a case to be made for Brock Bowers to be the first player taken in Guillotine drafts. Yes, 1.01—about 15 spots higher than his typical redraft ADP. But tight end is just that valuable in this format and he's that good.

Last year, he set the NFL record for the most receptions by a rookie at any position with 112 catches, surpassing Puka Nacua's mark of 105 from 2023. He also broke the NFL record for the most receiving yards by a rookie tight end, eclipsing Mike Ditka’s 63-year-old record—albeit in three more games. There's a chance Bowers will be the most productive tight end in NFL history.

Even though I'm a big fan of Jakobi Meyers, the reality is, the Raiders offense will go through Ashton Jeanty and Bowers. Hard stop.

Trey McBride—Cardinals

—8 spots over consensus
If I were forced at gunpoint to only use a single reference point for evaluating a player's Guillotine efficacy, it would be the FantasyLife Utilization Report. As you may know, the UR distills a plethora of data points to create one singular score to represent a player's usage in his offense. Last year's No. 1 tight end by UR was Trey McBride.

McBride's suppressed ADP is a direct result of his meager 5 touchdowns over the past two seasons. How likely is McBride to get more touchdowns? Per Stathead, in the past 55 years, no tight end has ever caught his 192 passes ('23-'24) and scored only 5 touchdowns. At any position it's only ever happened to four other players, three of whom were running backs.

David Njoku—Browns

—10 spots over consensus
David Njoku doesn't feel like a top-five tight end, but last year he finished fifth in utilization, fifth in targets per route run, fourth in target percentage, and first in end zone target percentage. Impressive! You can make a pretty compelling case that he's the Browns' best receiver at any position.

It's unclear who the starting quarterback will be, but it's probably veteran Joe Flacco. The last time Flacco played with Kevin Stefanski, in 2023, he pelted Njoku with targets. During Flacco's six Browns games, Njoku averaged 9 targets, 6 receptions, 82 yards, and .7 touchdowns.

Even if Flacco eventually cedes the starting job to one of the rookies, it's widely believed—and probably correct—that rookie quarterbacks love to use their tight ends as safety valves.

Zach Ertz–Commanders

—52 spots over consensus
We love consistency in Guillotine Leagues, which means the tight end position gets very thin, very fast. There just aren't many consistent players. Sure, I'd love to have guys like Bowers and McBride, who provide a huge positional advantage. But if you don't want to pay the luxury tax on the two obvious elite tight ends, Zach Ertz is a fantastic option in the middle of your Guillotine draft.

In his final 15 games, including playoffs, Ertz was a highly dependable Guillotine asset, finishing as T12 or better 10 times. Tight ends are known for dud games, yet over those 15 games, he posted only three games with less than 8 PPR points. Deebo Samuel might scoop up some of Ertz's over-the-middle receptions, but even so, Ertz is a proven-reliable starting tight end on an emerging offense.

Juwan Johnson—Saints

—32 spots over consensus
I prefer that you don't wait this long to take your first tight end, but I love Juwan Johnson as your failsafe plan. In March, he signed a shocking (to me, at least) three-year, $30M contract with New Orleans. He's going to be the Saints' top tight end. Remember, Taysom Hill tore his ACL in December, and at age 34 it’s unclear if he’ll play again. Also, backup Foster Moreau suffered a knee injury in January and wasn’t able to participate in OTAs. His status for the season is currently unclear.

Johnson’s coming off career highs in targets, catches, and receiving yards last season. So, his career arc is certainly trending in the right direction. And the Saints' depth chart at wide receiver is very thin after Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed.

Rookie QBs love their dumpoff tight ends, and it’s easy to see Johnson getting a lot of easy catches.

Lastly, new head coach Kellen Moore has a positive track record with tight ends. Last year as Philly’s OC, Dallas Goedert was TE11 in PPR points per game. The previous year as the Chargers OC, Gerald Everett was TE22. And the previous year as the Cowboys OC, Dalton Schultz TE7.