Fantasy Football: Dynasty rookie tight end stashes for 2025

Fantasy Sports

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• Oronde Gadsden II is a late-round dart throw: The rookie has early-season potential in Los Angeles, backed by Greg Roman’s affinity for tight ends and a shallow depth chart ahead of him.

• Mitchell Evans and Jalin Conyers are deep dynasty stashes: Evans offers sneaky upside if Carolina’s TE competition falters, while Conyers has long-term appeal if he makes Miami’s roster.

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Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

There’s never time to take your foot off the pedal in dynasty fantasy football; it’s a year-round process. Scouting the Ashton Jeantys and Cam Wards of the world for fantasy potential is the easy part. Finding the Kyren Williamses and Puka Nacuas tends to be a bit harder.

So, we’re diving into rookie stashes position by position. These three tight ends may go off the board late or not at all in 2025 dynasty rookie drafts, but they’re worth stashing due to their ability and team environment. Click here for dynasty rookie running back stashes and here for wide receiver stashes.

Oronde Gadsden II, Los Angeles Chargers

Gadsden is less a stash and more a late-rounder with a significant opportunity to work his way into the Chargers’ TE1 role in short order. The rookie TE7’s ADP places him at the very end of four-round drafts with 12 teams, but his upside is that of the class’ TE3.

The college wide receiver-to-tight end convert’s 934 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in 2024 were top-five marks among FBS tight ends. The Chargers can use him as a slot chess piece in Greg Roman’s offense, which helped Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely develop into two of the NFL’s top tight ends. Andrews was the PPR TE2 as a second-year player in 2019 and the PPR TE1 in 2021 under Roman. Likely recorded a 19.8% threat rate (target rate on routes run) as a rookie with Roman in 2022, the 11th-best mark at the position and the second-highest clip among rookies.

Even without a true top-end receiving tight end at their disposal in 2024, the Chargers sent 111 targets to the position — more than the 49ers, Eagles and Lions, among others — in Roman’s first year as Los Angeles’ offensive coordinator.

Don’t be put off by Gadsden’s dynasty ADP or real-life draft slot. Head coach Jim Harbaugh has already lauded his work ethic and ability, and only veterans Will Dissly and Tyler Conklin are ahead of him on the team’s depth chart.

Mitchell Evans, Carolina Panthers

The Panthers’ tight end room is an amalgamation of young, unproven players looking to ascend to the top of the depth chart. In 2025, that will likely be Ja’Tavion Sanders or Tommy Tremble. But on the off chance that their NFL careers continue on an underwhelming trajectory, fifth-rounder Mitchell Evans is capable of moving up the hierarchy.

The Notre Dame product never caught more than three touchdowns or saw more than 60 targets in four college seasons, but some of his rate stats are still promising. He ranked fourth in contested-catch rate among FBS tight ends with at least 10 such targets — including a perfect 100% clip on deep and intermediate contested targets.

Over his final two seasons with the Fighting Irish, Evans ranked in the 91st percentile in PFF receiving grade against single coverage and the 83rd percentile in separation rate, both stable metrics.

Any production from Carolina’s tight end group hinges on quarterback Bryce Young carrying over his late-season surge last year to this year, so it’s possible that none of the three pan out in 2025. Still, stash Evans, who is rostered in just 23% of Sleeper leagues, just in case.

Jalin Conyers, Miami Dolphins

Conyers is a deep stash, rostered in only 8% of Sleeper leagues at the time of writing. While rumors of Jonnu Smith’s swift exit via trade have quieted, they remain amid his reported desire for more money following a record-breaking season. That puts the undrafted rookie in an interesting position for dynasty purposes.

PFF fantasy analyst Jon Macri’s stable-metrics assessment of the rookie tight end class slotted Conyers in as the sixth-best prospect, despite his TE14 ranking on PFF’s big board. Only six FBS tight ends racked up more yards after the catch over the past three seasons than Conyers, including top 2024 prospect Brock Bowers, who went on to lead NFL tight ends in yards after the catch in his rookie season.

The first challenge for Conyers is simply to make the roster. The competition behind Jonnu Smith — Pharaoh Brown, Tanner Conner, Julian Hill and Hayden Rucci — doesn’t exactly ooze high-end potential, so Conyers is certainly in a good spot to do so. The second challenge is to get on the field. Since 2020, just three undrafted tight ends have seen even 10 targets in their rookie seasons — and none more than 20.

Conyers has an uphill battle to yield dynasty value, and it very likely won’t come in 2025. For now, he’s a deep stash who can climb into a bigger role, either over time or if Jonnu Smith is shipped off this offseason.

This news was originally published on this post .