The 2023 regular season is mere days away and, as teams start to trim their rosters ahead of Week 1, it's time to comb through various depth charts to see what players could be poised to break out this year. Specifically, we'll be looking at the tight end position, which has grown increasingly more vital within the pa sing game in recent years.Some of the names you'll read below will be recognizable while others are a bit more obscure. That said, the events of the offseason and what we've gathered throughout the preseason do spell an opportunity for each of them to enjoy a career year while further putting themselves on the map as one of the top players at the position in the . PIT TE #88 TAR98REC63REC Jonathan Bernier Women Jersey YDs732REC TD2FL0 CBS Sports fantasy season projections: 90 targets, 60 receptions, 686 receiving yards and four touchdownsOver/Under receiving yards total: 625.5The offense as a whole looks primed to take a step up in 2023 as enters his second season in the league. While wideouts and should be the No. 1 and No. 2 targets in this Pittsburgh pa sing game, Pickett's play throughout the preseason is showing promise of this offense being able to support three pa s catchers. It also doesn't hurt that Freiermuth has been running routes on 87% of the plays Pickett has been on the field this season. Freiermuth is coming off what could already be considered a breakout campaign a year ago where he saw 98 targets and was sixth among all tight ends with 732 receiving yards. From a statistical standpoint, however, Freiermuth's ceiling does appear like it can stretch a bit beyond what we've seen throughout his first two seasons in the league.Pickett has already shown an affinity for throwing to tight ends and had a solid rapport with Freiermuth after becoming the starter in Week 5. The duo got off to a somewhat sluggish start with Freiermuth receiving just two targets in Pickett's first start and then the tight end was inactive for Pittsburgh's Week 6 game against Tampa Bay. Upon his return in Week 7, however, the two went on a seven-game run that featured some prolific play. In those seven games, Freiermuth caught 33 pa ses for 395 yards. Things stalled out a bit after that -- which included a zero-target game for Freiermuth in Week 15 -- but we are anticipating more consistent play from Pickett and, in turn, more consistency from his pa s catchers.For what it's worth if you extrapolate that seven-game sample size over the course of a season, you have him with 80 receptions and flirting with a thousand-yard season with 959 yards. That might be a little too lofty, but we do expect the 6-foot-5, 258-pounder to see some positive regre sion in receiving touchdowns after finding the end zone just twice last season. During his rookie season, Freiermuth had seven touchdown receptions. If he can keep that consistency up and couple that with more touchdowns, he could establish himself as a top-five tight end in the league. BUF TE #86 CBS Sports fantasy season projections: 71 targets, 49 receptions, 572 receiving yards, six touchdownsIt's rare for a rookie tight end to put up T.J. Tynan Women Jersey numbers, but I think Kincaid is going to be the exception. Why? Because he's not really going to be used as a traditional tight end and instead be a big slot receiver within this high-powered offense run by . The Utah product already showed at the collegiate level that he can handle a heavy pa s-catching workload, hauling in 70 balls during his final season before declaring for the . The Bills left go this offseason, opening up 65 targets within their offense. If you suggest that Kincaid adopts the lion's share of those looks from Allen out of the slot while also eating into some of 65 targets from a season go, there will be plenty of opportunity for Kincaid to be a valuable piece within this offense, especially as a big slot that Ken Dorsey can move around and exploit mismatches. Great route by rookie : Stream on NFL (@NFL) In the preseason finale, Kincaid was in route on 71% of Josh Allen's dropbacks during his lone drive of the game. What's interesting about that Paul Kariya Women Jersey number is that it included Knox (57%) in the mix as well, meaning that he'll see plenty of opportunities for Allen to find him on the field. HOU TE #83 TAR89REC57REC YDs577REC TD5FL1 CBS Sports fantasy season projections: 87 targets, 58 receptions, 555 receiving yards, five touchdowns Dalton Schulz already has some impre sive seasons under his belt, but there is a narrative out there that he'll dip in production now that he's with the instead of the . However, I think he could actually find his way to a similar output to his OG breakout in 2021 where he had 808 yards and eight touchdowns.Schultz will now have throwing him the football and, as we've seen in recent years, rookie quarterbacks tend to lean on their tight ends in the pa sing game more often on quick pa ses on low ADOTs. I will acknowledge that Schultz playing just four snaps with the starters and running just two routes in the preseason finale isn't going to instill a bunch of confidence, but we should also not overreact too much either.The Texans have the this year, so the road may not be too treacherous for Schultz. I also don't believe the combination of , , Tank Dell, and will eat away too many targets from Schultz either. That's especially true if he continues to run routes of this caliber. What. A. Route. By Dalton Schultz Apollo Texans (@ApolloTexans) LAR TE #89 TAR108REC72REC YDs620REC TD3FL0 CBS Sports fantasy season projections: 81 targets, 55 receptions, 511 receiving yards, three touchdownsThis is a volume play. Higbee has a chance to be the No. 2 target in Los Angeles' pa sing game behind , John Wensink Kids Jersey which isn't a bad place to be whatsoever. He's building off of a career-high in 2022 where he notched highs in receptions, targets, and receiving yards. With back healthy, there's an argument for him to post an even better stat line in 2023.In the first nine weeks of the regular season when Stafford was healthy, Higbee put up 36 receptions for 312 yards. If you project that number out throughout a full 17-game schedule, he would have seen 121 targets and caught 76 balls for 663 yards. That target share alone should have your antenna up about Higbee, especially when there is no one else too threatening behind him on the pa s-catching depth chart. Behind Higbee and Kupp, the have , , and as the notable names. There's every po sibility that Higbee sees 130 targets within Sean McVay's offense, which would have been the second-most among all tight ends in 2022 and only trailing . Remember, this is an offense where Stafford flirted with 5,000 pa sing yards and threw for over 40 touchdowns when he was healthy in 2021. If the veteran quarterback returns to that form and can play all 17 games for L.A. this season, Higbee is going to have a heavy workload. NO TE #83 TAR65REC42REC YDs508REC TD7FL0 CBS Sports fantasy season projections: 62 targets, 39 receptions, 484 receiving yards, six touchdownsJohnson had a semi-breakout in 2022 with a 500-yard and seven-touchdown campaign for New Orleans. With coming into the fold this offseason, however, Johnson has been a popular breakout pick heading into this regular season, and for good reason. Similar to some of the receivers we've already mentioned, Johnson could work as a big slot within the offense Sergei Boikov Men Jersey and Carr has shown an affinity throughout his career of throwing to tight ends. With the , had two thousand-yard seasons with Carr and there was also an 896-yard season from sprinkled in during that tenure in 2018. So far this summer, one of the biggest storylines to come out of Saints camp has been the connection between Carr and Johnson. to New Orleans Saints (@Saints) In the preseason opener against Kansas City, Johnson both of his targets from Carr for 29 yards on what was the opening drive of the afternoon. On 12 total snaps played with Carr in that exhibition, the quarterback dropped back to pa s eight times. Johnson ran routes on five of those dropbacks. Similar to Schultz in Houston, the Saints also have a friendly schedule for tight ends this season with a PSoS (positional strength of schedule) ranked as the second easiest in the league. A soft schedule plus a quarterback who has proven succe s with throwing to tight ends makes Johnson a name to watch this season.
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