A move TE in Detroit whose value must clear a 10-team replacement bar, not the old 12-team pick-72 framing.
The role
Tight end is the position where the job, not the talent, decides everything. Most starting tight ends are hired to block and never have the ball thrown to them. A move TE is split out and used as a receiver instead — effectively a large slot receiver who fills a roster slot almost nobody else can fill. That scarcity is his whole value: a target is a throw in his direction (see Fantasy football glossary), and he collects them at a position where the TE10 replacement reference is the relevant comparison.
The number
The promoted file lists 163.5 projected points, 60 catches, and 10-team proxy ADP 83.7. These are projections, not observed production.
The risk
His risk flag is low, and the real risk is price rather than player: the file contains other move TEs projected within a hair of him whose ADP sits several rounds later. ADP here is a Fantasy Football Calculator PPR proxy, not ESPN's own. At ADP 83.7, compare him with the live 80/81–100/101 alternatives rather than buying a pre-set turn. The 17-game projection is also a larger assumption than the low flag implies: he played nine games in 2025.
The context
He is 25.7 on the opener, and Detroit spent the 34th pick of 2023 on him — high capital for a tight end, and by Draft capital dominance why the job was his immediately. His availability line is strange rather than alarming: 17 games in 2023, 16 in 2024, then 9 in 2025. Of the nine missed across three years, seven never appear on the official injury report, so most of that absence was not medical; the report lists two weeks Out and one Questionable, on a calf, a shoulder and a back. In those nine games he played 90.7 percent of Detroit's snaps (plays; see Fantasy football glossary) and caught 40 of 49 targets, 8.9 percent of the throws. He is in the last year of his rookie deal, $2.4 million a year, free agent in 2027.
Historical observed context: age, games, injury-report weeks, draft slot, 2025 usage, and contract terms from Data/player_context.csv, retrieved 2026-07-25. It does not supersede the Aug. 2 market snapshot above.
Open questions
August 2 candidate snapshot
The gated 10-team candidate file lists 163.5 projected points, 60 catches, and Fantasy Football Calculator 10-team PPR proxy ADP 83.7. These are dated 2026-08-02 projections/market inputs, not observed production.
- Is the market paying for something the projection cannot see, or is this a name premium?
- His bye falls in week 6, the second-worst week of 2026 — a real cost at a position with no easy weekly replacement (see Bye-week planning).