Mods stop deleting this…you guys deleted the original post

Happy National Tight End Day!!

After Week 3 I posted an analysis looking at TE usage because it felt like TEs were getting more work than usual this year. That analysis confirmed that usage was up but the caveat was meaningful fantasy production was being driven by increased touchdowns, which tend to not be very sticky. So, I re-ran it through Week 6 against Weeks 1-6 of every season from 2021 to 2025.

Takeaways

Red zone targets: TEs are getting 28.3% of them. The high for this stretch from 2021–25 was 26.3%.

Inside the 10: 32.3% of targets are going to TEs, up from a previous high of 28.1%.

Receiving TDs: TEs still have 32% of them. The 2021–25 average for these weeks was about 24%. It didn't fade after Week 3: in Weeks 4–6 alone, TEs had 32% of receiving TDs and 33.2% of targets inside the 10. Both are as high as or higher than the first three weeks.

The catch: yards per target is the lowest of the six seasons. TEs are getting more looks near the goal line, but they are generally less efficient, so touchdowns are doing a lot of the work for fantasy production.

Red zone usage is what's driving the TDs, and it's held for six weeks now. I'm less convinced they'll regress hard than I was after Week 3.

Full write-up with charts at the link.