Sportsnaut
Who is the best tight end in the NFL? Travis Kelce has held the crown for years, establishing himself as one of the greatest players ever at his position. However, Father Time has now caught up to him and a new wave of talent at the position yields plenty of young players establishing themselves among the best NFL tight ends.
Let’s dive into our list of the best NFL tight ends right now as we approach the 2025 season.
George Kittle is the best tight end in the NFL. He’s earned All-Pro honors five times, most recently receiving second-team honors this past season. He remains an excellent blocker and a cog in Kyle Shanahan’s outstanding ground game. Even in his age-30 season, Kittle had six games with 80-plus receiving yards and nine with 60-plus. While there are certainly better pass-catchers at the position than Kittle, his well-rounded skill set makes him the unquestioned king at tight end right now.
Related: Best tight ends of all time
Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers joined the short list of NFL players to earn first-team All-Pro honors in their rookie season. His production started admirably, averaging 54 receiving yards per game on 20 receptions in the first four weeks. Over his next 13 contests, Bowers averaged 7.1 receptions and 75.2 receiving yards per game, both marks that outpaced George Kittle’s production. While there’s an argument that target share (25.8 percent, second among tight ends) inflated some of his production, that’s mitigated by the fact that Las Vegas had some of the worst quarterback play in football. At a position that historically has a multi-year acclimation period, Bowers came in and broke the single-season rookie records for receptions (112) and receiving yards by a tight end (1,194).
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The 2022 NFL Draft produced a few of the best tight ends in the NFL, but Trey McBride is the cream of the crop. After a quiet rookie season, the 6-foot-4 tight end is responsible for 1,971 receiving yards over the last two seasons, not far behind Terry McLaurin (2,098). In 2024, McBride finished with the second-highest yards per team pass attempt (2.20), generating the third-most yards after catch (513) among tight ends. He doesn’t find his way to pay dirt very often and he’s not much of a blocker, but Arizona doesn’t need him to be when he provides an exceptional weapon for Kyler Murray.
