Some things get better with age. A fine wine, a nice scotch, jeans. And fantasy tight ends.

George Kittle wasn’t a monster his rookie season. Nor was Zach Ertz. Or even stalwarts or legends like Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham or Tony Gonzalez.

Of course, there are some exceptions. Rob Gronkowski was the fifth-best fantasy tight end in his 2010 rookie season. Hunter Henry has what can be considered an excellent rookie season by comparison to most first-year tight ends, finishing 11th at the position in 2016.

O.J. Howard was a respectable 14th in 2017. Evan Engram was better, ranking fifth the same season. And the only other one since 2000 to finish in the top five was Jeremy Shockey in 2002.

Simply put: Impact rookie tight ends are anomalies, unicorns of actual fantasy more than fantasy reality. So when draft day comes, it pays to keep that little mental nugget at the front of your mind, ready to quash happy visions of a tight-end unicorn dancing on a fantasy rainbow.

In keeper or dynasty leagues, where your investment can extend beyond the rookie season, you might take a different approach but would still need to factor in a low-output first season. In redrafts, chances are you can find a more experienced option with a higher upside.

Take Lions rookie TJ Hockenson, or his former Iowa teammate Noah Fant, now with the Broncos. And let’s throw Vikings rook Irv Smith Jr. into this mix. All will tempt some optimist fantasy owners on draft day. Don’t bite the apple.

Hockenson lands on a team that had a revolving door of unproductive tight ends last season. And the team’s history isn’t glowing in that department either — quarterback Matthew Stafford never getting out of Eric Ebron what he provided in his first year on a different team last season in Indianapolis. The 10 players to whom Stafford has thrown the most touchdowns in his career combine to total 169 scores. Just 20% of those went to tight ends.

Add to that the fact the Lions appear to be amid a conversion to a more run-oriented offense under second-year coach Matt Patricia, and it becomes easy for the Hockenson fantasy to evaporate.

Fant could offer slightly more upside. His team lacks proven top targets like Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr. Though running back Phillip Lindsay is a perfectly capable receiver, he isn’t as prolific as Detroit’s Theo Riddick. So Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco, or rookie Drew Lock if he takes over at some point, have fewer proven options to target. Also, using the same top-10 TD targets for Flacco, 25% went to tight ends. If it’s Lock, rookie allegorically show more preference to checking down to tight ends than veterans.

Does that mean Fant is a safe draft choice? If you’re looking for a backup late, well … no. Still no. Sorry. We tried to talk ourselves into it, but we just can’t. The rookie track record is just too bad.

Which brings us to Smith. This one is easy. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, using the same top-10 metric, has throw 19% of his TDs to tight ends. Or more accurate, tight end, singular. All 19 of Cousins’ 99 touchdowns to his 10 most frequent TD targets have gone to Jordan Reed. Combine that with the fact the Vikings have two top-tier receivers in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, and already have a serviceable tight end in Kyle Rudolph, and you get a hard pass.

Don’t chase the rookie-tight-end unicorn. Wishing for a fantasy is not a good fantasy strategy.