Elite-tight-end builds — or even double-elite-TE builds — have long been a staple of winning roster construction principles at RotoViz. Even in Shawn Siegele’s foundational Zero-RB article, he mentions that his preferred construction in the first five rounds includes four WRs and a TE.

Looking back at the win rates for elite TE builds shows that beginning your draft with a top TE provides a sizable advantage.

FFPC Classic – 2017-2022

Double-elite TE builds provide an even bigger boost.

2-TE Before 6 (2017-2022)

Want to learn top tournament tips from the 2021 FFPC Best Ball Champion? Conor O’Driscoll offers you a contrarian path to supercharged elite TE builds. 

But Does Elite TE Always Work?

Of course, this is a format in which TEs score 1.5 points for every reception. Elite TE builds have not so been successful in Underdog drafts.

Although they have returned above average results in later playoff rounds, it has been harder to advance elite TE builds to the playoffs in the first place. And this isn’t just something unique about the last two seasons. Elite TE has been successful in FFPC drafts during the Underdog era.

In other words, the difference comes down at least in part to format — scoring settings and roster requirements. The reason the settings had such a profound effect is perhaps not exactly what you are thinking, however.

It All Comes Back to Picking Players

Although elite TE — taking your first TE before Round 6 — doesn’t get teams to the playoffs at a high rate, it’s important to remember which specific players we’re talking about in each format. For instance, in 2021, even in the FFPC, elite TE didn’t work from every draft slot in every round.

Taking a TE in the back half of the first round was usually a losing strategy. The sweet spot was around the Round 3-4 turn. In other words, the big win rate boost came from picking Mark Andrews, who had an ADP around the 4.04.

Andrews was also the key pick in Underdog leagues, but he was going much later.

Andrews’ ADP in Underdog leagues was at the 5.11, but he was very often slipping into the sixth round, just outside the bounds of how we’ve defined Elite TE.

Likewise in 2022, the TE pick you needed was