Fantasy Football Today - 2026 TE Rankings, Tiers & Strategy! The Ultimate Draft Prep Guide! (07/30 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Help us raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital here: https://tinyurl.com/FFTDonate2026Get your draft board ready as the FFT Crew delivers their complete 2026 fantasy football tight end preview, breaking down the best strategies and ideal time to target the position (8:35). Then it's on to their favorite sleepers (25:18), breakout candidates (32:40), and busts (44:32). Find out why Dallas Goedert is one of the best ADP values and Isaiah Likely is primed for a big season with his new team. Plus, we debate the upside vs floor of the polarizing Kyle Pitts. To wrap things up, the crew reviews tight end ADP from top to bottom (58:35), highlighting the biggest values and toughest draft decisions across the position rankings. Whether you're waiting on tight end or targeting an elite option early, this episode has everything you need to dominate your fantasy football draft.Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Up to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

It, of course, is the year of the tight end. Right? And oh, always optimism this time of year. But this time, we think we kind of might mean it. There are a lot of reasons to feel good about the tight end position this year. How about this? 18 tight ends. Average 10 or more fantasy points per game in PPR last year.

That was last year. That was the most in at least 12 seasons. And then there's those sophomore tight ends that were pumped about. They are tight ends three, four, and five in fantasy pros, PPR, ADP. And we have high hopes for sophomore tight ends, which unfortunately has burned us in the past. But you know what? This year's going to be different. Heath, welcome back.

It's the year of the tight end, right? It is the year of the tight end could not be more excited about this position. There's no way they let us down. Dave? It's the year of some tight ends. Let's not go crazy. It's not like there's 14 or 15 tight ends that we can look at and say, oh, yeah, superstars. Everybody's going to have a good tight end, so you might as well go after a great one.

It's not like that. But the influx of last year's tight ends, make it a little bit deeper and certainly more exciting. And I don't know the last time we had, what, six tight ends that are going to get taken in the first six rounds or so. It's been a while since we've been able to say that. So some of the tight ends, yeah, it's their year, it's their time. But it's not like everybody's going to be rostering a tight end that gets you

12 ppr points per game. Jamie, how you feeling about the position this year? feel good I mean it's you know it's fun to see these guys this young group of tight ends that we got last year you know hopefully populating the position

for several years to come and producing at a high level and then still getting hopefully you know a healthy George Kittal and a productive Travis Kelsey so you got both ends of the spectrum here of you know some guys that are still producing at an older age and some young players

that can you know hopefully make a difference again for the future all right I want to talk about just a few reasons why we're optimistic about the position. And let's look at the year two tight ends. Well, first of all, I already told you, we had 18 tight ends average double digit PPR fantasy points last year the most in at least 12 seasons. But also, tight ends are just being targeted more. This is a massively important trend in the NFL. 23.8% target rate in 2025. That's the highest target rate for tight ends in

at least 20 seasons. And that tight end target rate has increased or stayed the same seven straight ears. I mean, it's almost hard for me to think it could get even higher than 23.8%. But the bottom line is, whether that happens or not, tight ends are a bigger part of offenses than they used to be. And then three of the eight best rookie tight end seasons since 2000 came last year. Tyler, just in terms of total fantasy points. Tyler Warren, Harold Fanon, and Colson Loveland's rookie season, which wasn't even that great, but it was great for a rookie tight end, was eighth best since 2000. So look at this list here if you're watching on YouTube. You see Tyler Warren had the third most fantasy points ever for a rookie since 2000. Fan and fourth, Loveland 8th. And then you look to the

right. How did those guys do? How did the top 10 guys do the next year? Most of them were worse. Bowers was worse. He lost a fantasy point per game. Sam LaPorteurta lost three fantasy points per game. Kyle Pitts lost almost three fantasy points per game. Evan Ingram slightly. worse. Jeremy Shockey was better, but he got her. He played six fewer games. Grankowski was amazing. Pat Fryer me with a little bit worse. So we are putting a lot of stock, Jamie, into these two tight ends, as you talked about. We have, unfortunately, these trends, and there's all these situations and scenarios and circumstances and reasons why that your two tight ends have slumped. But we do have to acknowledge your two tight ends have not necessarily

been great picks. Why is this you going to be different? Well, I think for two of them, it could be the same or potentially better in the case of Loveland just because of, you know, more playing time and more opportunities. Fan is the one that makes me nervous just because, you know, there's, there's so much change going on for him compared to what happened last year, you know, so Warren, you remove a player and you get a quarterback hopefully back at 100% in Daniel Jones. Loveland, again, you remove a player and you saw what he did at the end of last season. And then for Fanon, it's a quarterback change that I think is a problem for him, at least potentially.

you have dramatically improved on paper receiving core that is going to be a problem for him. And you have a coaching change that could potentially be a problem for him. And so the last one is probably the one that concerns me the least. The other two concern me the most. So does he continue to lead the team in targets? Does he continue to get quality opportunities or at least the volume of opportunities? Because if Deshaun Watson, which is probably the way that it's heading at least to start the season, Like, that's bad for Fanon.

So I still think he's worth drafting as a starter. I just don't think you should expect anything close to what you got last year. Yeah, Deshaun Watson. If you look at David Nijoku, three seasons he played with Deshaun Watson. He averaged 1.9 more fantasy points without him the first year, six more fantasy points without Watson the next year. And 7.8 more fantasy points without Watson the third year. It was really bad.

There's always context. You had, like, Flacco throwing a bunch of passes. You had Jamest throwing a bunch of passes. So he was always going to be better in those scenarios, but Watson just didn't target tight ends that much. Heath, your thoughts, because I know you loved Fanon last year, and I don't know how you feel about him this year per se, but your thoughts on the year two slump that we've seen from several of those tight ends. I was very excited to see that John Watson threw two interceptions yesterday, and I hope he throws five interceptions today. And I hope Shador Sanders wins the job because I think he's currently a better quarterback. and there's at least hope with him.

And then I'll be back in on Harold Fannand. If Deshawn Watson wins the job, then I think you're going to have a bad, probably month until they bench Deshawn Watson and give the job to Deshauteuars Sanders. But, no, I think, like, it makes sense that the guys who have had the greatest rookie tight-in seasons ever have had a hard time maintaining that production. That is kind of something we talk about a lot.

I'm going to talk about Trey McBride in just a moment. He just had one of the greatest tight-in seasons ever, period. I don't think he's going to be as good as he was last year. That's generally what happened when you do something all-time great is the next season's not as good. Yeah, but Bowers got hurt. Laporta started his second campaign with an injury and Jameson Williams was more involved.

Kyle Pitts was hurt and had a horrible offense. We're hoping better circumstances here for the three. Like I said, there are three, four, and five in ADP on fantasy pros, but on CBS, Lovelin's three, Warren's four, Fanon is eighth. So on CBS ADP, we don't like Fanon quite as much. All right. Dave, let's start with tight end strategy here.

We'll do sleepers breakouts, busts early on in the show as well. We'll talk about when to take McBride and Bowers. But what's your overall tight end strategy this year? I'm looking for a little bit of value from the elite tier guys. I don't want to reach for McBride or Bowers unless it's tight end premium or some sort of scoring advantage. That helps those two tight ends along. If I do get one of them, I'm trying to get the second one of those two. So when I see Bowers is usually going off the board first.

So if he's off the board first, I would put the radar up for McBride. But McBride's probably going to go within five picks of Bowers. And if I'm far away from that, say I'm picking late in round one or early round two, no chance I'm going to get either of those guys when I'm up in late round three. Once those two guys are gone, I'm looking for fair value from those other second tier, let's call them tight ends. I'm not even really thinking about the late round tight ends unless it's just a guy that I think is a blue chip player that might be able to do what Joanne Johnson did last year or frankly do what Colson Loveland did and Harold Fanon did last year. So I'm looking for one of the first, let's call it seven tight ends off the board, meaning that I'm going to focus one of my first six picks or so on a tight end.

who are you referring to when you say late round tight ends that you're not really thinking about when you start your draft guys that that i'm just going to put on my bench not interested in starting chigo concoe gregg dulcitch don quayd juan johnson i think he deserves another try at this kenyon sedik if kiddle doesn't come back anytime soon then jake taun just would be one of those guys that you can pick up and go a little zero tight end with and use him for the beginning of the year and then once kiddell's back you'll find another tight end off the waiver wire. Jake Tongis, let's see, scored double digit fantasy points in PPR in four of the first six games without Kittle. And then in the last three, he scored 19, 2.4, and 8.9. So he's pretty good if Kittal miss this time.

You can think about Jake Tongis. Oh, 2.4 kind of sucks. Yeah, but that was against Seattle, and that was, uh, oh, no, that was Philadelphia. Sorry, Philadelphia in the division. You also have two receiver injuries for San Francisco now, too. We sure do. We'll talk about Ricky Piersall a little.

bit later. Christian Kirk's also banked. Are you suggesting that the 49ers move in the direction of multiple tight ends from week? No, no, I'm saying if, if Kittles out on top of that, like Tongis is in a great spot. Jamie, what's your tight end strategy? I mean, it's not far off from Dave's. I think, you know, if you're in on Bowers or McBride, like, you have to make the decision probably middle to the end of round two, depending on your draft slot. It's very unlikely you're going to get them in round three. I think if you're in on Colston Love one, you're probably going to have to pull the trigger in round three. It's very unlikely he makes it to round four. So really when you look at the top three guys, I think that's going to be the group of them. And then it comes down to at what point you start to

value the tight end by comparison to everybody else, to every other player, you know, or every other position that you're looking at. So it's kind of, you know, the same thing like quarterback, you know, so once you get to that spot where you start to see the drop off and then you're like, okay, I like pits or craft or Fanon, you know, there, or, you know, I want to, or pull the trigger maybe early on likely or wait out, Kelsey, or. or Kittle, you know, you're going to see the whatever order, the 10 to 11 tight ends are going to be the same, you know, unless there's too much negativity on the returns of Kraft and Kittle, then maybe it's Andrews, Goddard, O'Conquo, Ferguson, you know, one of those guys that creeps into

the top 10. But I think it's just a matter of, you know what it is. It's easy to tier this position. You know, it's easier than quarterback because quarterback, you kind of get that jumbled group. You talked about that yesterday, Adam, you know, Staffordy, all those guys. that, you know, once you get to that part of the draft. But I think, you know, if you have your favorite late round targets, you know, so like for me, it's Ocunco and Goddard, if I know that I can just wait out those two in particular,

and I just missed and missed because somebody else was taking them, I'll reference the draft we did last week where I just kept watching the board, and then it was me and you were the last two, me and Adam were the last two to draft a tight end, and I knew where we were on the board. And Kelsey was the last guy that was. was, you know, I think that we both were interested as a starter. And so I was like, okay, I know like when it gets to me, if it gets past me and Adams up, he's going to take Kelsey.

I have to take Kelsey now. But that was kind of just wait and wait and wait and got somebody that I'm still comfortable with. Yeah. I do wait a lot. I have 11 guys that I'm comfortable with as my starting tight end. The 12th would be Mark Andrews, but I don't really want to go there. But the last of the group would be, you know, Kittle if he falls, but then it's likely Kelsey and Goddard. I'm like, okay, whatever.

If I'm in round 10 or something like that and I have to settle for likely Kelsey or Goddard, I'm cool with it. So, yeah, go ahead. I was just going to ask you, did you actually take a little bit of time to look through the tight end rankings list and start picking out the names of guys that weren't top six or top seven that you'd say, okay, yeah, I'd be cool with these guys as my starting tight end. You look at Pitts and you go, you might have said, yeah, of course I'm fine with him as a starter. And same thing with Kittle and so on.

Did you go through that process? It doesn't sound like a long process, but did you do it? No, not really. I mean, I think I have 11 guys that I'm comfortable with. And when I feel like the value is right for any of them, I'll take them. If I feel like, I kind of want to. So you said Goddard and Andrew. No, Andrews would be 12th for me, but.

So who's out of the top 11 then? Well, who am I missing here? Yeah. Your top 11. Jamie is Bowers McBride, Loveland Warren, Laporta, Kraft, Pitts, Fannin, likely Kelsey Kittle. Oh, God. Okay, it's 12 then. I'm sorry.

That's what I was getting at. I think there's 11 like locked in. You know, again, whatever order, I think there's just 11 locked in. Okay. I'm sorry. But I do think that every manager should take the time to make sure that they know their number, whether it's 11. Some of them might say eight.

I don't know. People might not be as in on. Kelsey or No, I totally agree. But I think just based on ADP, like we're going to see 11 guys in whatever order. Sure. I agree with that for sure.

But if your number is like eight or lower, you're prioritizing tight end. Sure. I'm going to get Heath's thoughts now. I'm sorry, my number is 12, which is obviously pretty significant with most of us playing 12 team leagues, not 11.

Mine's eight. Heath, by the way, welcome back. Hey, thanks. You know what they say. The Heath is on, baby. Welcome back. Fantastic. Fantastic sound bite.

Can't wait to get your tight end strategy, but we do have to take a break. So when we come back, Heath is going to have an extra 30 seconds here to think about his tight end strategy. And how many you're comfortable with is your starter. We'll be right back. Go for it, Heath. I think the commercial might have taken longer than my strategy. I draft Sam Laporta in round six. If he's gone, I draft Kyle Pitts in round seven.

If he's gone, I draft Isaiah Lakeley in round eight. And that's pretty much the three tight ends that I've drafted in almost every draft. And there's probably 12 tight ends that I'm comfortable with as my starter. I'm the low guy on Kittle because I don't really think he's going to play week one. I'm not sure he's going to play week two or week three. But so I have a hard time saying I'm comfortable with him with my starter because I can't start him. Sure. And we also don't know how good he's going to be coming off of torn Achilles that he suffered in the playoffs.

So this is going to be, I'm guessing the lowest, I wonder, the lowest ADP for George Kittelson. when probably a long time um all right uh heath i'll go back to you i know who you actually i can't go back to you on this one because you just answered it which tight end do you draft the most sam leporta we're just gonna i'm gonna see somebody start the counter how many times can heath say sam la porta on this show all right all right sam laporta uh jamie who do you draft the most at tight end it's a lot of leporta when i'm not drafting with heath um chaining like who i found myself drafting the most probably likely Dave?

Warren, Fanon, likely. And it would be a Laporta, too, but, you know. I think a better question is who do you avoid? Obviously, we're excited about a lot of these guys. Fanon for Jamie. Dave, who do you avoid? Pitts. So are you wanting us to give our bust picks now?

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, if it's the same. Yeah, that's my God of listen. Jerry McPryd. Yeah, I knew that. But do you also avoid Bowers? I will probably, so, and I'll probably just, like, intentionally force a Brock Bowers team or two. I would like to have some Brock Bowers.

So, but I don't generally draft him as high as I have to. The weird thing, I think Jamie hit on it. The weird thing about Bowers is you pretty much have to take him in round two or have a two, three turn pick. and I always have the 10th, 11th, or 12th pick in our mocks, so I don't ever really have that decision. Well, I'd love to know hypothetically, you know, at the 2-3 turn, that's my next question,

is would you guys take McBride or Bowers at the 2-3 turn? Who would take McBride or Bowers at the 2-3 turn? Me? Who would? I would take them before the 2-3 turn. I would take Bauer's middle of round two. I would take McBride at the two, three turn. Bark like a dog if you would take one of them at the two, three turn.

Anyone? A big dog. What are you doing? I'm trying to cue up Dave barking like a dog and I can't, oh. Rough, rough, rough, rough. I think the hard thing about taking McBride that early is I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get Elijah Higgins. And so I am just a little skis. scared.

Well, don't worry, Heathen, in auction, you can spend $7. You got to take Higgins. You have to let everybody know in the snake draft that you're taking Higgins so that nobody else takes, right, that's how it works in snake drafts. Okay, okay, good stuff. Hashtag these are fancy tips. I guess how, how important is it, I guess, not very for you guys to get one of those two tight ends?

Not. It's not important, but I think, again, if you're excited about Bowers, which I know a lot of people are and still believe in McBride, which a lot of people do, like you're going to try and, you know, look at those players when you start to compare them to, I think it's that group of receivers and probably a couple of running backs, but like when you get to the middle of the second round and it's like A.J. Brown and Nico Collins and George Pickens and those, you know, back end are wide receiver ones. Like they compare to those guys very favorably. Oh, gosh. Can we just stop with this crap here, please? Get this off the screen. So for those of you, I asked Jamie. Is that the one thing, like, if you could take it back, you would last like 10 years or something you said? I'm just going to tell you this, man.

I was ridiculed. Ridiculed last year when I said that Caleb Williams had the best arm in the NFL. Ridiculed. By the same people that ridiculed me for my Isaiah Pacheco take. So, yes, I would take it back 100%. Do you feel vindicated at all that Jemir Gibbs is holding out? Yeah. Yeah.

I do. All right. You know, I had a good point to make about that. I just made it very poorly. I'm going to try again on Friday's show. Anyway, you're going to do it again. Oh, great. I asked you.

I regret it. I wish I could take it back. I'm going to do it again on Friday. I asked you, Jamie, I think, how many fantasy points would McBride and Bowers have to average to justify a pick at the two? three turn. I believe you said 16 a few days ago. So, and I think I gave this stat, but for those of you who are just starting to listen now, watch now, here's something to know. In the last 10 seasons, 11 tight ends have averaged 16 or more PPR fantasy points per game. Five of them are Travis

Kelsey. No one else has done it more than once, which is amazing. But this always gets me. Of those tight ends who average 16 or more PPR fantasy points, every single one of them was on a team that averaged at least 251 passing yards per game. And that's a lot. I think only seven or eight teams did that last year in the NFL. And one of them was Arizona. I didn't see that coming, right? So it could be a surprise, but they led the NFL and pass attempts.

My point is, and this is why I didn't draft those guys last years. I just didn't think the offenses would be good enough. Obviously, I misread the situation in Arizona, and I drafted McBride a little bit, but I didn't target him. But these teams, 11 of them, all 11, 251 or more passing yards per game. nine of the 11 through 28 or more touchdown passes. So I think you have to ask yourself, do the Cardinals or the Raiders have that kind of offense

that can get me a 16 point per game tight end? Or in the case of Bowers, do you think he's just going to dominate target so much that he could be the guy that's the outlier here? And that could certainly happen. All right. Tight end strategy in two receiver versus three receiver leagues. It is a big deal for me.

Is it a big deal for anyone else? Heath, are you, more likely to take a tight end earlier in a two receiver league compared to a three receiver league. Not really. Like maybe just a couple of picks, but not really. And Dave, same question. I'm more inclined to take a tight end early in either a shallow league where I know that there's going to be wide receivers waiting for me a little bit later because they all get pushed

down the board, fewer teams making picks, or in deeper leagues where I just need difference makers. and I'm just trying to get as many difference makers on my team as I possibly can. But right in the sweet spot of 12 team leagues, which most people play in, I don't think it matters whether there's two receivers or three receivers that you must start. Jamie? Two receivers and how many flex spots? One.

Then, yes, I'm more inclined to take a tighten in a little bit earlier. Okay. And by the way, I should have said this earlier, but most of our, when we do podcasts, we mostly talk about 12 team leagues. I mean, that's our default. So if we're saying a round three pick, a round four pick, this is in 12 team leagues, which I do, Jamie, have to disagree with something you said about Colson Loveland not getting to round four. Because right now his ADP is pretty firmly in round four in 12 team leagues.

So I think you might get them in round four. We'll see. It would be great. It would be great. All right, let's do sleepers breakouts and busts. Jamie, who's your favorite sleeper tight end? I think Dave took my favorite one of O'Conco. So the next one will be Goddard.

I think just looking at it again, small sample size, but he played four games that AJ Brown, but three of them he was very solid and just target opportunity there. So hopefully for one more year, we'll see what Stowers does and what kind of role he plays is the future tight end for the Eagles.

But I think just looking at it as he's going to compete with Mikhail Lemon for that second spot in terms of targets. And it might just be the comfort level and rapport that Jalen Hurts has with him that will kind of give him that edge. But we know the touchdowns should be there for him as well. So I like Goddard as that.

He's my 13th tight end. I like Oconco 12. 13 is a good number because Dallas Goddard has finished as a top 13 tight end per game in PPR in seven straight seasons. Top 10 per game in five of the last six. Top six per game in two of the last four with A.J. Brown. So Dallas Goddard, yeah, that's seven years in a row top 13. Heath, who's your favorite sleeper? I will go with Greg Dulcich.

I think I got to choose first on all of these. So my, but yeah, I think he, we always talk about the guys from the double digit rounds who turn into top six or eight tight ends, almost always finish first or second on their team in targets. The dolphins don't have a proven wide receiver one or a proven wide receiver two. Greg Dulcich was second amongst tight ends, on a very small sample size in yards per route run last year. He's still young enough. He's been good in terms of yak. So Greg Dulcich.

At minicamp, he was getting targeted a lot and moving around the formation a lot. And Malika Willis does have a history. We know his history of not throwing to running backs. He does have at least a decent history of throwing to tight ends. I like the Dulcich call. I like the Goddor call, too. Do you like the Ocunquo call by you? I do also like the Ocunquo call, which is just a nice sign that there are three good sleeper tight ends that people can think about.

And I bet if you forced us, we could name three other ones who could fill that role, which means that the idea of taking a second tight end, not something you should completely write off. But if O'Conquo is replacing Zach Ertz in the Washington offense, and the Washington offense is not adding Brandon Ayuk or Stefan Diggs, then just as he said, here's a tight end that can finish first or second on his team in targets. Last year, 4.7 targets per game. It's not a lot.

And it's in Tennessee. And Tennessee sucks. and he averaged over seven PPR points per game. That might be able to extrapolate to nine or 10 PPR points per game if he's getting north of six targets per game. That might be a little rich because the target per route run for Eertz with Daniels on the field was 17.2%. But Eertz filled a very valuable role for Jaden Daniels.

He was the short area target. But Eertz couldn't really do anything with the ball after he caught it. You know, he's an old guy. Ococco, we know what his efficiency is like. We saw it at the end of the season. a couple of years back. We know that he's kind of an athletic freak. You're able to get him in the late rounds.

There's all kinds of rich potential with him. Zach Ertz in 2024 averaged 10.4 PPR points per game with Jane Daniels. And Oconco only 16 games in his career with at least six targets per game, with least six targets. And he averaged 11.7 ppr points in those 16 games. So he's been basically a good low-end starter if he gets those chances. His yards after the catch avoided tackle rate over his past three seasons dwarfs what Ertz has done in his past two. It is an upgrade for the commanders.

You just have to watch out for Stefan Diggs signing, Antonio Williams breaking out, Traylon Berg's getting healthy and suddenly morphing into a first round pay. Like all these things, they're hurdles, but they're not necessarily like straight up roadblocks for O'Conquo being good. Okay, I'm going to ask you guys about breakout tight ends in a minute, but we have Draftathon. starting, it's already begun, and you can bid on, well, you can purchase a spot in a mock draft. You can purchase a mailbag question to be read on our mailbag show. And it all goes to St. Jude. And Monday, you can get into the FFT Open. There are plenty of opportunities this year.

We're going to have 36 leagues in the FFT open. So I just, sorry, Thomas, if you can throw that URL, I forgot it, tiny URL.com slash something. I'll tell you what it is in a moment. FFT Donate 2026? Yeah, there you go. Tiny URL.com slash FFT Donate 2026. And on Monday evening, the FFT Open League spots will become available. Was it 7 p.m. Eastern?

Is that, I can confirm that for me. But for some of the leagues like the Adam, Dave, Jamie Heath, Dan, Jacob Leagues, you're going to have to get there, like right on time and get in. But if you, what's up? Yeah. Sorry. It's 7 p.m. Eastern. 7 p.m. Eastern. Tiny URL.com slash FFT Donate 2026. That's live Monday night. All of the FFT Open leagues will be up. Now, if you don't get into one of those, don't worry, there are plenty of leagues and plenty of great people from around the industry like Andy Holloway of the footballers and Alfredo Brown and Joe P. Sapia and Chris Harris and Chris Harris and Jake Seeley. Dave, who are some of the guys that you lined up for the FFT Open?

We got Bob Harris. We've got Gary Davenport. We've got. Got rotopat. There are all kinds of people. If you've ever sat there and said, man, I wish I could take on a fantasy analyst in a fantasy league. Man,

you have your pick of the litter on who to play against in the FFT open. And it's for a great cause. You're helping St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This may just go over like a lead balloon and I'll never mention it again. And hopefully we'll just talk about Isaiah Pacheco.

I didn't shave the mountain beard yet because I was on the airplane coming home, one of the 17 airplanes I was on coming home. And I thought, I wonder if we could raise any money for St. Jude, if we did like the buckets where people get to choose if I have to grow the beard out throughout the entire football season. Or if I have to just shave the beard off and only wear the mustache for the football season? Do you think we'd raise any money doing that? Yeah, I do.

If you would donate money for that, put it in the chat or send us an email and let us know. and if we get some response, then I'll tell Claire that I will do that. My wife didn't like it, but I told her we'll have a bucket for Heath Shaves's face and she can donate money if she wants that one to win. All right, real quick, it's a couple other things to promote.

We have a CBS Sports Network show tomorrow at 1 p.m. Eastern. Please join us for that, CBS Sports Network. And finally, the app. I got an email this morning, someone raving about the new app. So please check it out, the CBS Sports Fantasy app. If you're watching on YouTube.com slash fantasy football today,

scan the QR code. Heath was worried about the beard stuff going over like a lead balloon. It's definitely going to go over like a lead balloon in his house. Ben had a very good comment in the chat. It says, shave three lines in your beard and I'm in. All right, all right. Enough picking on me. Let's get to the players we love at the tight end position.

Heath, who's your favorite breakout this year? This is the one where I really just like stole the thunder. The most obvious breakout pick of all time. It's Colston Loveland, but I really do think, like, you were talking about the guys who average 16 fantasy points per game and how good their offenses are. It's kind of funny because Loveland's definitely, for most people, a tier below Brock Bowers and Trey McBride. But if you were going to ask who could be on a really great offense this year amongst the top three tight ends, everyone would say Colston Loveland. I'm going to be on Beyond the Box Corps talking about ambiguous target trees in just about 45 minutes. and the first one we're talking about is the Bears.

As of right now, I just have Loveland, O'Donzee, and Burden all projected for a 20% target share. So just tied. If Colston Loveland is the number one option in Chicago, he could absolutely be better than Brock Bowers and Tray McBride this season. I love him in round four. I don't ever seem to get him there. I know Adam you say his ADP's there. He's not generally in our drafts or at least when I'm picking. But yes, Colston.

in Loveland. Breakout. Everyone obvious. Is there anything that concerns you about Loveland? I'm going to throw a stat at you because you know Jacob Gibbs loves Loveland and I threw this stat at Jacob and he did not seem to like it very much. Now, we gave 16 points per game for Bowers and McBride

to justify the two three turn. Can I just say 15 points per game for Loveland or 15? In round four, I think 14 would be fine. Okay. Even a little lower than that would be okay. Let's just take 15, though, just as an example real quick. Seven tight ends have averaged 15 points per game over the last five seasons.

They have averaged 9.1, 8.4, 8.9, 6.3, 9.0, 9.2, and 9.9 targets per game. So six of the seven tight ends averaged 8.4 or more targets per game. And those are the guys who averaged 15 points per game over the last five years. and the one guy who didn't do it was George Kittle. And we know George Kittle is the man. In terms of 14 points per game, over the last five years, there have been 14 tight ends

who have averaged 14 or more points per game. Eight of them averaged more than eight targets per game. Ten of them averaged more than seven targets per game. So right there, bam. 10 of 14 tight ends who scored 14 or more points per game in the last five years averaged seven targets per game. That's 119 targets per year. You at home ask yourself,

do I think Colson Loveland can get that. There have been guys, George Kittle three times in Tucker Kraft and eight games last year, average 14 or more PPR fantasy points with less than seven targets per game, but that's usually the number you need. You have him projected for 119? I've got him projected for 126. Hey, okay, then we're in the money. And that's with a 20% target share?

Yeah. Great. That's great. Okay, Dave, who's your favorite breakout? out. I like the idea of Isaiah likely as the number two target getter in New York and someone who would obviously get a lot of work if Malik neighbors weren't ready to start the season. But based on what we've seen on social media in the last 24 hours, Malik Neighbors is going to be ready to start the season. And that's still a good thing for Isaiah likely because I think there will be enough targets to go around where likely can at least average around six per game, something that he didn't really have the opportunity to do a lot of in Baltimore. We know about the athletic profile. We know that he's a mismatch problem. We know that Matt Nagy does have a tendency to lean on his tight end. Granted, Travis Kelsey was his tight end for a bunch of time in Kansas City.

And in Chicago, he tried to make it work with Trey Burton. Trey Burton was a little below average. But he's still, it's still something that he's had. It's a component of his offenses. It's been consistent. Jackson Dart had a 22.8% target rate to his tight ends last year. Honestly, that's below average. I think that number could go up.

Isaiah likely nine career games. Six or more targets, 12.5 ppr points in eight of the nine, 14.8 in six of the nine. He just needs targets. I think he's on a team where he's going to get them. And I love the ADP. He's going right around 100th overall. That's a steal.

I think Dave and I have one fight coming up on the show, but we've come together on Sam Leporta. We've come together early in the offseason. We were arguing about Leporta, likely, and pits. We've come together on Isaiah likely. we have. We've got one more coming together. Yeah, we're not going to come together on that. Just a little bit later. Not happening.

Jamie, who's your favorite breakout? I mean, it's a guy that was on his way to doing it last year, so I just hope he gets a full season of it, but it's Tucker Kraft. He's talked about ambiguous receiving cores. I mean, the Packers are right up there at the top of the list as well. So who's going to be the leader in targets for this team? They lose 131 targets from Romeo Dobbs and Dantevin Wicks leaving. Kraft was averaging just shy of six targets per game.

hopefully we get a little bit more opportunities for him. First of all, hopefully he's healthy. But I think if you just look at what he was on his way to doing last year, had he finished the season, he would be, I think, in the conversation to be in the top five, if not maybe the top three as well. So a lot to love about Kraft's scenario here. So you have Christian Watson and Matthew Golden and Jane Reed,

you know, all competing to lead the team in targets. This is a team that typically does not have one true alpha in the LaFloor era since Devant Adams left, excuse me. So we'll see if we can get 120 target season. I don't know if that's realistic, but 110. I think that's certainly within the realm of possibilities for Tucker Craft. And I think if he gets those chances, he had, I think it was six touchdowns in the nine games he played. Yeah, he did.

Six and eight games. Eight games. Eight games. Eight games he played. It's just easy to gravitate towards somebody like this again. and hopefully that he's healthy. Didn't love that he started on the Pup list, but that's not a guarantee that he misses week one.

Yeah. Tucker Kraft expects to come off the Pup list. And I think you look at his 17 game pace if you take out week nine when he tore his ACL. It's 100 targets, which for him is enough, not necessarily to be amazing, but to return value. 73 catches, 1,139 yards, 15 touchdowns. There's some flukiness. He had a bunch of long touchdowns with a lot of yak that no one has basically ever done before in an eight-game sample size.

He is the best yak tight end probably in the history of the NFL. I don't think that's an exaggeration. 9.1 yards after the catch, which is in his career. That's the most since True Media started tracking it with a minimum of 50 targets. He's incredible. You just have to wonder what's he going to be like coming off 20 ACL. He's back to being himself. He's so good.

And guys, honestly, my issue with the tight end position is I just, I don't know who has the best value. if you start, get past those top three. I know that none of us are going to take Harold Fannan, Jr. in round six as the fourth tight end. I don't think. Not when we can wait and get someone else, right? But on CBS, Harold Fana Jr. is the eighth tight end. But, you know, Harold Fanna Jr. in round six.

Oh, sorry. Tyler Warren in round five. So Fannett was a fifth tight end, my bad. Warren in round five, Fannan in round six, pits in round six, the porter round seven, Kraft in round seven, Kittle, round eight. What's the best value there? Leporta.

The Porter. Laporta's up there. I don't hate Warren. As tight end four in round five. Sure. And yeah, I don't hate that. I also think that if Tucker Kraft is moving around just fine and all reports are hunky dory out of Green Bay, he's moving up. Yeah.

Because first he's got to get off the pub. Right. First he's got to get off the pup list. Then he's got to be eased into practice. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. but I think anytime you've got a tight end that's already winning in terms of hyper efficiency, and then there's the possibility of giving him more opportunities to take advantage of that efficiency, you could have a real, just an absolute game wrecker on your fantasy team.

So there's potential there for craft for sure. Just got to see it. And I don't talk about Tyler Warren much at all. I mostly agree with Dave saying like Tyler Warren in round five is good. I just can't pull the trigger when Sam LaPorte is in round seven because I think they're kind of the same guy. We got to get into LaPorta here. We got to take a break, though.

So we'll get to our busts after this. Then we'll do an ADP review. We talk about Leporta, talk about pits. Very important players, very exciting prospects going into the 20206 season and what they could do. But obviously, I'm here with my pitcher of cold water. I got to pour it on here just to be the devil's advocate, and we'll be right back.

Wait, that was that, that was only the second break I took, right? I didn't take a third break. Did I? I was your second break. Okay. All right. Who's going to be a bust, Jamie? I said it to the start of the show.

It's Fanon. You know, I'm just concerned. Tight-end eight's not bad, but I don't think we ever see him get there in draft that we don't do. So I understand the excitement for him. He was awesome last year, led the team in targets, had one of the best tight-end coaches, maybe in NFL history. He loses that. He gets a quarterback.

doesn't throw to his tight ends, at least based on what we're expecting to see at the start of the season with Watson starting over Sanders. And now you have these two rookie wide receivers, a first round pick in Casey Concepcion's the second round pick and Denzel Boston. You still have Jerry Judy there for what it's worth. So the receiving core is much better. And so I just think we're going to see Fanon take a step backwards. I don't think he's going to be bad. I don't think he's going to be outside the top 12 barring is just something disastrous. But I don't want to draft him where I think you're probably going to have to draft him, which I think is closer to tight end six than tight end eight. Dave, who's going to be a bust?

Kyle Pitts. Okay. Here we go. This is where Heath and Dave are not aligned. Ridiculous. Absurd. Absurd. He's been in the league five years.

I have eyes. We all have eyes. He's been, he has not met expectations once, except last year in five games. Without Drake London, he was a monster, 8.8 targets per game, 19 PPR points per game. That looked like the guy that, uh, that we had drafted as an early pick in dynasty drafts. And then it went away. And he didn't get off to a good start.

How did he do in 12 games with Drake London? 9.6 PPR points per game. That's on 6.2 targets per game, almost as many targets per game as Bejan Robinson had last year. And I get it. Kevin Sophansky is this great tight end wizard who's going to turn Kyle Pitts into Travis Kelsey. And gosh, look at what he's done with all those guys in Cleveland.

I'm going to bet against it because I've seen it enough times from Kyle Pitts. and on top of that you've got quarterbacks that aren't 100%. They're not great throwers to begin with. I don't know if to a tongue of a, yeah, once upon a time he did support Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle. I don't know if he's going to be able to do that

in Atlanta with Drake London and Kyle Pitts. I'll bet on London all day long. I think those easy targets will be there. There's buzz about other wide receivers in Atlanta. I don't want to overrate Kyle Pitts based on the numbers that he got in five games, including one monster game against Tampa. London wasn't there for that either.

He's exciting, but he's been teasing us for five years, Adam. I don't think Kevin Safansky can save him and turn him into somebody that's going to be a top five tight end. And I sure tell him they're not drafting him as a top five tight end. He's not being drafted as the top five tight end. So I think if we're like using calling somebody a bus based on an ADP that is higher than the ADP that they actually have, he's tied in six. He's tied in six.

Okay. Oh, he's not in six. And he's certainly not a top 70 pick. Where is he going right now on fantasy pros? He's almost at 70. He's a little bit ahead of 70. I would also say that like a thousand yards season as a rookie tight end, averaging 9.3 yards per target is good.

That's great. The last five games weren't the only time he's ever been good. He did suffer a PCL injury in the middle of 2022, which we've come to find out the PCL is a pretty bad thing. It basically destroyed Brock Bowers last. year. The other thing I would say is like Kevin Cefansky the last three seasons, his offense, 166 targets to the tight ends, 166 targets to the tight ends.

That was two years in a row. I didn't repeat myself. 169 targets to the tight ends. He goes to Atlanta. They give Kyle Pitts $7 billion. It's just an enormous tight end contract. And we're just supposed to expect that they're not going to throw the ball of the tight ends as much as Kevin Stifansky always has.

it's not having Sophanci calling the plays. No, it's the guy that was calling the plays the last three years for him. I don't think he was calling plays the last three years. Last two years. Two years? Yeah.

Two years. All right. Fine. That's fine. Rees is certainly in line to deserve credit for that too. Yeah, six targets per game is where he's been basically. It's where he was last year with London. I'm telling you, I don't think he's going to go up much more than that.

I think just to go back to your two, point. John Hsu Smith, 13.1 PPR points two years ago with Tuatung of Biloa. Yeah, right, but that was the only, yes, that's true. Darren Waller was good when he was held. Darren Waller in three of the five games they played together. That's the comparison that I'll buy into.

You can get me on that one for sure. John, who was like used like a running back almost because he was getting these little short dink targets. Now, they could use pits the same way we don't know for sure. But the way that the dolphins used Waller last year, absolutely in line with what Pitts potentially could do. No question about it. This is a topic for another show, but if we're bumping up pits because of

Stifansky, are we lowering London or Bijan Robinson? Because those guys had a bunch of targets last year. Pittsburgh had London at 112 and Bijan at 103. And London only put 12 games. But let me not get off on that tangent. No, no, it's funny you say that about Bijan because I'll have a story up by the end of the week of making a case why every player in the first round could be a bust. And Stefansky, the most targets he gave to one running back in the last, since 2020 was 63.

Right. This is where I go back to personal. And his number one running back in that span from 2020 to 2025 average 44 targets per game. Like that's scary for B. But he's no, but it's scary. But that's coaching malpractice if he does that. It's coaching malpractice. It's also going against everything too, it does.

So, you know, it's just, you know, it's counterintuitive to what the player and the quarterback have. But just in terms of, you just, you just said it, Stefansky's offense does not like throwing to running back. Again, he didn't have a player like Bichon Robinson. Well, a lot of, a lot of their dump-offs just go to tight ends instead of running backs. And listen, it's not like he hasn't had any good running backs in that stretch. Like, there was a Nick Chubb's years in here. Yeah, but he doesn't have a good pass-catching running back. Nick Chub is like Derek Henry.

No, he had Kareem Hunt for a few years, which is not the same as Bisonan-Rompson. but he did some nice things that passed. And tell me who his wide receivers were in Cleveland. Maybe there's one I'm forgetting. He had a Mari Cooper. Yeah, he had Amari Cooper. Jerry, Judy had a great year one year. Yeah, I meant to ask you this.

When you did the Parker Washington late season finishes, was Judy on that list? I'd have to go back and look. But yeah, he has to. What are you talking about? Like big season? Guys had great late season finishes. Was he part of that graphic?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, two years ago. Just for, to finish that discussion, Adam. I've got it at 28% target share for Drake London, 22 for Kyle Pitts, 18 for Bijon. Okay. All right. Totally fair. What's the overall projection for Pitts?

93 catches 1,045 yards, 6 touchdowns. Because the six touchdowns is the most obvious part. Right. So a career year for Kyle Pitts. All right. What do I need here? I need a bust from Heath? Oh, yes, yes.

I mean, it's Trey McBride. I think he's awesome. But also last year, he was third in yards per route run. That's good. 11th in fantasy points per target. 12th in yards per target. 15th in explosives per target. 16th in yak per reception.

And you're like, well, how in the world was he so much better than every other tight end? He ran 122 more routes than any other tight end. Basically two more games worth of routes for Tray McBride than any other tight end. I think it's probable that Jacoby Perseval. That's not going to be quite as good as he was last year. It's probable that we're going to see Carson Beck for a third of the season, maybe more. And I think we're going to some of that great McBride came with Marvin Harrison, Jr. Not on the field, especially when it comes to the touchdowns.

And he and Michael Wilson, who has ascended. So McBride's still a top two tight end for me right now. I haven't quite been brave enough to move Colston Loveland ahead of him, but I may if I get a couple of training camp highlights. No, but I just don't think he's going to be worth the squeeze. I basically have him and Loveland does the same thing. Okay. It's tough. It all makes sense, but this is a guy in his last 43 games is on pace for 159 targets.

Which is about what Drew Petzig and Kevin Savansky average per year. He's really good. He also had 18 end zone targets last year, which led the NFL. McBride, but when Marvin Harrison Jr. was on the field, he only had six of them. Marvin Harrison Jr. actually dominated the end zone targets, basically for the second straight year. If I were the Cardinals, the perfect play design, and I probably would do it like almost any time in the red zone, I would just make sure that Marvin crosses in front of McBride, he'll drop it. Yeah.

Go right through his hands, and McBride will catch touch them. Yeah, it's not been a good camp so far for Marvin Harrison Jr. So yeah, McBride's super interesting. We've talked about him in depth. I would encourage you, maybe if you want to listen to Beyond the Box Square episode that Jacob and I did on Trey McBride, it was a lot, a lot, as much Trey McBride info as you could possibly handle. But yeah, tough player to, to pass on, but also we make compelling cases why he could really regress. Okay, just a couple of things you need to know. Remember, top two in targets over the last 10 seasons, there have only been four tight ends who have finished as a top five overall, not per game, top five tight end and PPR and have not been

first or second on their team and targets. So that is 50 tight ends, 46 of them who have finished top five have been first or second on their team and targets. And this is, you know, we talk greater late for quarterback, 38% of the tight ends who have finished top five overall in PPR in the last decade were drafted in round 10 or later. Greater late exist. And sometimes they come out of absolutely nowhere. Like John Hussmith, a couple of years ago.

So I'll ask you the same question. I asked you about quarterbacks. Who are the three you think that can qualify for this? Based on average draft position that could become a top five tight end, definitely O'Conquo. Kincaid, because I still think he's a really good player. Yeah. And then, yeah, so I said round 10 or later. I mean, there's a bunch of guys.

Likely, Ferguson, Goddard, Andrews, Kincaid. or all rounds 10 and 11. Did you hear what Liam Cohen said yesterday? I saw he praised Parker Washington, I think. We always praise the Parker, Washington. He praises everybody. The two players that Trevor is going to throw the ball the most to are Parker and Brent and Strange.

Oh, great. That's great stuff. Top two of targets. Jake Ferguson, I think, is going too early personally. He's going ahead of Goddard and Andrews and Kincaid and all that. Is he the worst tight end that's probably going to get 100? targets? Ever?

No, no, this season. I'm not sure he gets 100 targets this season. I don't know that he will because he was pretty... Every DAC tight end gets 100. I haven't projected at 99. The answer might be Dalton Schultz, but it's one of those two. Just Drake Ferguson averaged 8.7 points per game in 13 games with CD Lam.

So he was amazing without CD Lamb. 18.6 points per game. Four of his eight touchdowns, five of his 11, end zone targets in four games without lamb. I'm counting the Chicago game where lamb, I believe, left on the opening drive. He was like, he was basically Kyle Pitts. It was like the Kyle Pitts, Jake Phillips, Jake Ferguson, CD Lamb splits, except. Wait, does that benefit Ferguson or does that benefit your argument by keeping that game in for Lamb?

Benefits Ferguson. Okay. And by the way, yeah, I was going to say, like, he's actually probably a really good handcuff. because if Lamb or Pickens gets hurt, I think Ferguson then could easily be a top five tight end. You know, Ferguson was the number five tight end in fantasy last year. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, he's going to get, I think he's projections right.

I think he's got 100 targets. It's basically what DAC does every year. He gives his tight end 100 targets. And will he be surprisingly productive? Like, he could be the touchdown tight end this year. You know, the guy that catches seven or eight and just doesn't have a lot with it and creeps his way into the top 12. But we're like, we hate that guy.

Yeah. Do you guys think Mark Andrews is cooked? I was watching some tape yesterday and it was not good. Well, I mean, like as far as athleticism goes and all that. He used to be an elite athlete, I think, at the position. Yeah. He's definitely slowed down, but I still think he's in a position to put up some okay numbers. He's not a top 12 tight end, but he's said he's in the best shape of his life yet. No. I don't know, but he has 69 or 70 targets, two straight years. That's just so low. And he's played every game. not an exciting tight end of draft, but I would be 0% surprised if he scores 12 touchdowns this year. Exactly.

He's always very involved, Andrews in the red zone and the green zone, and the end zone. Lamar loves him. Declan Doyle came up as a tight end coach. They're going to use more tight ends in the offense this year. Andrews or Goddard.

Mike Deke's nephew. Goddard. Andrews or Goddard. Dave says Goddard. Got it. I think I have Andrews one spot higher, but they are the, they're both around

Spider-Man meme. Yep. Hopefully. But we just really haven't seen a lot of Goddard without A.J. Brown. So there's possibilities

for more targets, certainly more than 70. I mean. When's the last time we saw Andrews, that Isaiah likely? We saw, I think, week one,

at least week one. He had like a nothing game against a team that was very good against tight ends, Baltimore. I'm sorry, in Buffalo.

And, all right, let's do our ADP review. So Trey McBride and Fantasy Pro is going 20th. Brock Bowers is going 21st. On CBS, those guys are actually into round three, early, early round three.

So we talked about that earlier. 20th, certainly too early for McBride. When would you guys take Bride? When would you take Bowers? I'm good with McBride at 20th. I don't want to overthink it. I totally get Heath's point and I don't think McBride will be as good.

I don't think he scores many touchdowns. I don't think the targets will be quite up there. But he also averaged like 19 ppr points per game. He was like 11th amongst everybody that wasn't a quarterback in fantasy points per game last year. It's coming down, but it might not come down that much. He's the best pass catcher on this team. Jacoby Brissette has a long track record of trusting his tight end. He's going to continue to do that.

I am sure that Carson Beck, when he gets on the field, will be told, do the same thing, lean on Trey McBride. He's the best guy they have. They're going to be trailing in every single game. He's still going to run a ton of routes. He's still going to have a ton of garbage time. he's still going to be very, very good. I'm not going to fault you if you put Bowers ahead of him,

but no one else, not even Loveland, you can make a case for in full PPR ahead of Trey McBride. What are you anticipating as the floor for McBride by calling him a bus? What does he have to do to justify you being right? 14 fantasy points per game or lower? Yeah, that's not a round two pick.

That's fair. Yeah. That's fair. But that's not going to kill you, though. Like if we fast forward six months And that's what McBride has And you took him in at 20th overall Like it's not awesome

It's not what you drafted him for It probably is it probably is dependent on how he gets to the 14 Because Bowers was at 14 last year And it was clearly Frustrating injury plagued Right he didn't play Big fight game against Jacksonville where everything Look like okay he's back

He's gonna be this dominant guy again And then it was another Good game here, bad game there Like you know so his 14 was really misleading I think what I'm really afraid of with McBride is it's 15 fantasy points per game for the first 10 weeks, and then Carson Beck takes over, and when you need it most, it's 11.5. Okay.

It's also with the quarterback change. Like, they have the worst schedule in the league. Yeah. You know, so you have everybody healthy going into the season because he dealt with Marvin Harrison missing the second half of the year, big portion of the second half the year. You have maybe a quarterback change coming at some point. You have, you know, new coordinator who, new play caller, who doesn't. have the same history as pet sing does or comes from the same tree the pet sing does not that's

bad but it's just not the same and so like again for me i'm i'm i'm more bowers over mcbride i just think like that's why i wanted to get he's you know number or you know like where where does it where it's like if he gets you 14 like dave said like that's not that's not awful but it's not where you're drafting him and that's i think fair for both sides right like if you told me 12 instead of 14 and the dude's averaging six catches for 55 yards or even worse five catches for 45 yards and he has a touchdown every now and then. Yeah, that's terrible. But that's, I don't think that's possible. I think he's the best guy that Arizona has, period.

And the other question that you fantasy managers have to ask yourself is, is this really going to be a great year for tight ends? Because that influences how high Bowers and McBride should go as well. If you think that these, that we have a. deeper position than ever, then the true studs aren't going to stand out quite as much. This will stand out, but not quite as much. I'm a little skeptical because, look, I've sat here many times, been like, this is going to be a good year for tight end. We've all been kind of feeling that way. And it just, it never works, even though the tight end target rate keeps going up. Well, that just is other tight ends. It's not like they're going just to the starting guys

that we play in fantasy. It's all, it's like the, it's a macro trend. It doesn't, you can't apply it to the every single tight end. Wasn't last year a pretty good. great year for tight ends? Yeah, it was. It was. But McBride was still, I mean, a huge advantage. So much better than everybody else. Yeah.

All right. Bowers. Who's better on a per game basis than George Pickens, James Cook, Drake, London, Chris Olivae, Chase Brown. He was 100 points better than tight end two. We haven't seen the best of Brock Bowers yet. I think that's fair to say. And that's amazing since he's been over 14,

14 and a half points or better two straight seasons. and he's been on one of the worst offenses in the NFL both years. He played through a sprain PCL and a bone bruise in week one. They played through for the rest of the year, basically. We had his former coach on, and Scott Turner said, Brock Bowers might be the most talented player he's ever coached, or the best players ever coached. So we're, you know,

said it was the best player on the team when he was there. Yeah, pretty much. And that was when Bowers was a rookie. We had, we had Brian McFadden, uh, one of our NFL analyst, former defensive back for the Steelers. in training camp with Las Vegas yesterday, so I encourage you to find

the interview he did with Bowers. He looks ripped, man. Of course. It's, it's, uh, it, it sets up for a great season for him. I mean, the receiving corps is so bad on paper.

Yeah. You know, and so, look, somebody out of Nailer and, uh, Tucker and, and,

and, and, and Besh, if they don't add somebody else, are going to be okay. But like this, this was the big prize set up last year. You know,

we had missing time for other guys, inconsistent performances for these guys. It's just a matter of, can Kirk Cousins at this point in his career get what we need to Bowers for him to be elite? Or can Mendoza whenever he starts do the same thing? I'm going to say yes, because we saw it with Cousins and Pitts last year.

Like there's a lot to love about Bowers and just the setup. Forget about the execution. Process and results, different things here. Like Bowers can be what McBride was. last year. I don't think McBride can do it again. I think Bowers can do that. Yep. Well, we really only saw it with Pennix and Pitts, though, as I recall. And it's been that way for both. Well, it was a couple of cousins games. No, no, no, no, no. I'm so sorry.

I'm thinking of Pennix in London. It's Pets and London thing. It was Cousins and Pits. You're absolutely right. All right. London wasn't around. Colson Loveland, you know, we see him going around three could go in round four. We love Colson Loveland. I'd like to see them throw a screen to him. He did not have a single screen pass last year. That's kind of weird. Most of the top, most of the best tight ends get a lot of those. He's a high A-Doc guy, but he's super talented and should do a lot with his targets. So then we get Tyler Warren. We haven't discussed much about Tyler Warren here. He's the fourth tight end off the board. And Dave, you seem to sound some optimism on him as a round five pick for

Tyler Warren. 13.1 p.PR points per game in the 12 games with Daniel Jones last year, eight of them with 11 plus PPR. Michael Pittman's gone and not really replaced. So there's a chance that that target volume can go up. What if that goes up to a Brock Bowers-esque seven and a half per game or a Trey McBride-esque nine per game, then we're talking about an absolute smash. And this off, they're still going to continue to do a lot of the concepts that they did last year. It's get the ball out fast, let the receivers make a play after the catch.

I know that we're excited about Josh Downs. We don't know where we're at with Alec Pierce. There is nothing but upside in front of Tyler Warren, who's already shown us in the one year he's been in the league that he's capable of coming through on it. Red Zone Beast on top of that, I love drafting him in round five. Okay, Harold Fanon Jr. in round six,

I think that's been discussed enough. We're not quite there. Kyle Pitts in round six. Heath, as the Kyle Pitts guy, do you think round six is a good value for him? Yeah. Okay. You're definitely the Sam Leporta guy.

Is everybody a Sam Leporta guy in round seven? We all like Leporta in round seven? Yep. I like Loporta in round six. Yeah, I think he should go ahead of Pits personally. Agreed. Okay, why the optimism here for Leporta? Last year he was tight end seven per game.

What was he the year before that? It was similar to the year before that. Sorry, I'll look that up. This is my favorite, maybe my favorite tight-in stats. I'm glad we're giving it an hour and a minute into the show. Thank you guys for sticking. around. If you, like, we've talked about it a lot, Sam Leporta, his play caller, was Trey McBride's play caller the last three years. If you look at Sam Loporta's career averages versus Trey McBride's

career highs, Sam Loporta's career average in yards per target, 8.3. Trey McBride's career high, 7.8. So Loprida's average is a half yard better than McBride's career best. Touchdown rate, Sam Leporto scored a touchdown on 7.9% of his targets. Trey McBride last year was his career high, 6.5%. Fantasy points per target, 2.05 for his career for Sam Leporta. Last year was Trey McBride's best at 1.87. Wow. Yeah, it's funny.

If he gets Trey McBride's volume, he's tied in one. He probably won't because of Munrae St. Brown's there. But I do think that he could have the 120 targets that he saw as a rookie. and when he was, by the way, tied in one. And James and Williams. I think it's really interesting with him versus the rookies is he was better than all of the rookies as a rookie, and he was better than all the rookies last year,

I think except for maybe Fanon or maybe he was better than them in terms of fantasy points per game. Overall, he was better than all three, but that's without azer stating. Yeah, no, he was, right. he was tied in seven. On 5.4 targets per game, by the way. Yeah.

Right. And in his rookie year, his best year by far, Jameson Williams was a complete non-factor. But yes. And I think I'm getting ready to leave because I have to go talk to Dan and Ben Gritch on Beyond the Box score. But one of Dan's questions was,

can Sam Leporta take some of James and Williams' targets? And that's completely the wrong way to frame it. When Sam Leporta's on the field, James has to take his targets. Last year, that was true. 2024, that was not true. Okay. At the end, certainly at the end of 2024.

Okay, so if you Azer stat, part of one of the three years they've played together, it was James and Williams' targets. It's, I would say, first of all, it was half a season, and they were starting to get Jameson Williams this past year was half a season, 2025 for LaPorta.

They were starting to get Jameson Williams more involved after the bi-week, even before LaPorta's injury. I don't think it says clear cut that James and Williams is just the third wheel here that he can't out target or I think they come close

they probably have about the same amount of targets personally and they're both going to be really good with them and the defense probably isn't going to be that good and the defense might be awful it might be awful but you know this is where the defense has been the last three years of Laporta's career

23rd, seventh, and 22nd and when they were seventh they didn't throw all that much. They threw, they were 16th and past attempts per game. But they're not going to be there, right? So 23rd, 22nd, and two of the last three years, the Detroit defense. We already seen Detroit with a pretty bad defense. Could be worse, I suppose. There's one other thing that makes me a little bit nervous. And listen, I love Leporta. And I think Jameson Williams is hopefully going to get appropriately priced as a number three receiver. There's a lot of love going around for Isaac Tesla right now. And, you know, how much does he still touchdowns from Leporta and

How much does he still playing time from, or opportunities, I shouldn't play time, but opportunities from everybody if they factor him in a little bit more than what we saw last year. So it's a small thing to consider, but, you know, talented player that can, you know, maybe throw another wrinkle into this Detroit offence and a problem for some of the guys that we love. All right. In the interest of transparency, the targets were similar, but the last six games of 2024, LaPorta did out target James and Williams. but before that, I mean, the first 11 games of 2024,

he was horrible. He was the number 16 tight end per game. So there is a six game sample size where James and Williams almost got close to Sam Leportez. I believe 11 games before that, James and William probably had more targets than Sam Leporta. I was looking at the last six games. I don't have got to go.

I got to go. Yeah, you have to go. But I don't think it's personally, I don't think it's quite as simple as Laporta's number two and Jameson's number three. But remember Scott Turner, guy we just said he sang the praises of Brock Bowers, he actually said that he thinks James and William

is going to have a big year for the Lions. I think they all could have big years. I'm just a little nervous about Laporta. He has so many nothing weeks. You know, it's kind of frustrating. Round six is a fairly early pick. It's how much do you believe in Drew Petting and how much do you believe in the fact

that he is going to not completely turn around this offense or flip it over and make it a Leporta offense or lean on to the same degree that he leaned on Shane McBride because when you look at it, it's easy to say, okay, McBride, Dave said it. I agree. He was the best pass catcher. It is the best patch catcher in Arizona. Sam Laporta is not the best pass catcher in Detroit. But Petsing still had two really good receivers in Arizona.

Again, maybe not to the level of what we see in Detroit, you know, because I think on paper you can make the argument pretty easily that St. and Jameson Williams are better than what the Cardinals have. But he's still walking in a situation or leaving a situation where there were talented by receivers. It's not like where Bowers is right now where the receiving court is terrible. So does he come in and it's the Stefansky system that he's been running of featured the tight end, don't use the running back as much in the passing game, et cetera, et cetera. And then we get, you know, everything's sort of different from what we've been used to in Detroit

where Leporto, let's face it. Look, he's had, like you said, some frustrating. weeks or has frustrating weeks. His rookie season, it was touchdown dependent. He did a lot of other things with it, but the reason that he was tight end one was because he scored 10 touchdowns. Then we come back the second half of year two, and he sucked in the year two, he sucked in the first half,

scored a bunch of touchdowns in the second half when the defense fell apart. And then we had a little bit of resurgence where we felt better about him. And then last year it was sort of up and down a little bit. So I think the thing with Leporta is like if you, I think we're drafting him appropriately. I think the market is drafting him appropriately. like you're looking at him as a middle of the top 10 type of tight end, whether you think he's five or eight.

You know, I think that's kind of appropriate for where you're looking at. So maybe you like Pitts better, maybe like Fandon better, maybe like Kraft better, like all those guys I think are in that range of potential outcomes of how it's all going to finish. But I think just in the case of Leporto,

like you're seeing what he has done and now you're attaching him to this guy who has a history of featuring the tight end as the office coordinator, and that's what you're hoping to find out if it all works out. I get it. Is there a linebacker or safety that you fear in coverage on the Saints, bills, jets, Panthers, Cardinals?

No, I look, they have a good schedule. They might not have a good defense. They have maybe the best schedule. It's all systems go. Yeah. Now, they play a lot of better team. Sorry, let's move on here. Tucker Kraft in round seven.

Yeah, I think I like Kraft better than Laporta. I don't know. I mean, I'm not far off from you, but I just think the fact that there's the health issue and the play caller there. But look, the runway is clear. Like, I'm excited about Christian Watson. I like the value of Jane Reed and Matthew Golden. But like, what we saw from Kraft last year was like, again, could be, could have been in

the discussion to be tied in three if he had finished what he started. Like, that's how good it was last season. Man, that's stinking ACL. He's so good. What do you think about Kittle in round eight? Love it. This is going to be like a day-by-day question. The longer he stays out and we still have the concerns about the Achilles,

the less I'm going to like it. The worst-case scenario, well, I mean, the worst-case scenario is he misses the season or he comes back late. If the scenario is he starts off the season on the pop or he's slow to get going, maybe the second half of the year is when we get kittled back, the kittle that we know and love. and to wait for that for a round eight pick, I don't hate that at all.

I can find another tight end to tell him to get through the first two months of the season if it means having George Kittle waiting to go, coming off my Pupples. Two months. I mean, he's talking about being ready for week one. Well,

if he's ready for week one, he's not going in round eight. Well, he's coming off a torn Achilles and he's 33. His ADP will jump. I just don't know how much it will jump. And again, when does he come off the Pupplist?

because we know most drafts are going to happen the second week of August till the start of the year. So that will probably determine when that jump happens. I think the thing that you know with Kittle, look, we dealt with it last year. He got hurt, what, in week two and missed four games? You know, so it's the fear, the fear I have with Kittle from a roster construction is he's off the public list, but he sucks.

And now you're having to carry that second tight end when you don't have the luxury of stashing him in an IRS spot or, you know, on your fantasy team. And so, like, that ramp up period until he's kiddle, if he ever gets back to that, that's the worry there is, is like, you know, you're having to start this player who's just not very good, or carrying two tight ends, and then you're hamstrung a little bit once we get to buy weeks, and, you know, it's just harder to do. So if you want to avoid that headache, I get it.

But the longer he's on the public, like, it's almost your benefit. Like, if he starts the year on the pop list and you know you can stash him, and then, you know, you go the route that Dave, I think, is alluding to, you know, with, you know, conchlor. Andrew is one of those guys, and you're still getting in quality production there. might even get them in round nine if that happens. So if they're both back, later is better. If they're both going to be back by, let's say, week two,

would you rather have Kraft in round seven or Kittle in round eight? Would you rather have Kraft or Kittle? They're both back to week two. Craft. Okay. What if it's a round difference? Craft. Okay.

After that, we start to get to Travis Kelsey. I would take Kelsey over Kettle. Kelsey, we don't like Ferguson as tight end 11. Kelsey likely, likely, Goddert, is the next. group with the life one just doesn't make sense to me like i get ferguson to what he did last year but like this is what we've been waiting for for isa likely think about all the fad that was spent on him two years ago when he was that week one guy like why is the market not more in on isa like because he's let us down so many he let us down last year he let us down in a situation where there was a roadblock

the roadblock is doesn't matter he let people down and so they remember and i don't want to draft him yeah i know but the situation has changed much more so for likely than it has for pits. Both of them are in a better situation now than they were last year at this time. And just for for Claire, just because you brought up, you don't have pits outside your top 12. He's still a number one tight end. Oh, dude, he's in my top 10. I'm just not, I totally disagree with the ADP, but I'm also pushing down a lot of tight ends. So would you rather have Kelsey or likely? Likely.

Likely. I'd rather have likely than Kettle too. Me too. Kelsey was the number six tight end per game with Patrick Mahomes last year. Now, a stat that really concerns me, though, is he had about an 18.18.8% target per route run rate. That is bad. That is a career low. And remember, Xavier Worthy wasn't himself and missed a lot of time. Rishu Rice missed a lot of time. So he doesn't get targeted in the end zone anymore, Travis Kelsey. If he can start getting targeted, he still runs the routes there, but they never throw to him in the end zone. If he can get that back, that'd be great, but I'm not counting on it. I think that's going to be Rishu Rice territory. The target per route run rate can't keep going down. He's going to be 37. years old in October. But he was really good last year for fantasy, for fantasy, when Patrick Wilhomes was healthy. All right. I think Rice takes away from him and Kenneth Walker could take away from both Rice and Kelsey. Tell me if you're interested in Kincaid.

He's in that sleeper discussion. You know, again, this is one of those guys where we're going to keep waiting and hoping and this is the year and all those same conversations that we've had. But I do think, like, when you look at some of the secondary metrics and the things that he's done, and even if you just look at when he was healthy last year, like, this is a player that can take a step forward. It's just a matter of, can he stay healthy? I do like the fact that it seems like his knee problem is not an issue right now. There's been no talk about any, you know, setbacks or anything that he dealt with last year, because last year this time it was, okay, still working through it.

We hope he's going to be healthy, blah, blah, blah. I like, so if you're looking at, you know, like the second tier tight ends that you're drafting, I would take the chances on Goddard and Oconquo and those type of players. I think there's more upside for him than let's say Doltchitz, just because at least there's a track record with Kincade and you could buy into the quarterback a little bit more. It would not be a surprise at all if he's second on the team in targets behind D.J. Moore. I would still think that's probably Kul Shikir, but again, you're looking at Kincade's role and opportunity. and he could be the touchdown guy for the bills.

So I don't want to overvalue him in saying like he should be a top 12 guy. But top 15, yeah, he's in that conversation for sure. Donald Kincaid has never had more than five green zone or end zone targets, never had more than four green zone or end zone targets in a season. Which is crazy because he's been a touchdown dependent fantasy tight end. So he's made a bunch of touchdowns from outside of where you're talking. He has seven career games. he's played 41 games, which given his career and how many years he's been in the league, tells you just how much time he's missed with injury.

Seven career games with double digit PPR points and no touchdowns. It's not even 20% of his games. Maybe that's good. I don't know. But it, it doesn't, it makes me feel like he has to score in order for you to be satisfied with what he gives you from week to week. Let's end it here. I want to talk about Kenyon Sadiq, Joanne Johnson, a rookie tight end for the Patriot. that's getting a little bit of buzz right now.

Maybe a little more on Chigalconquo. Can T.J. Hawkinson bounce back? Greg Dolsich a little bit more. We're going to let, we have another show tomorrow. So we'll do tight end leftovers tomorrow. We'll answer some of your mailbag questions. We have a mock draft that we're doing today. We can talk about that as well.

But we haven't quite finished the tight end preview yet. So part two of the tight end preview, just the, I don't even know if they're going to be late round picks. They're probably going to be free agent additions, but some of them really could make a difference and we'll discuss them on tomorrow's show. show. Thanks to Dave and Jamie and Heath, Thomas and Sam are producers. I'm Adam. Thanks to you all for watching and listening.

We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football today. On podcasts.