Lineup Fantasy Football Show - Updated Top 24 TE Rankings & Tiers | 2026 Fantasy Football

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

2026 Fantasy Football Rankings for the Top-24 TE picks are here for your fantasy draft. Mitch and Mello break down every running back into definitive tiers including true TE1s, high upside picks in your fantasy draft, screaming value in the middle rounds, and even household names you might want to fade this season. 0:00 - Fantasy Football Top 24 TE Rankings & Tiers 0:50 - Brock Bowers 2:11 - Trey McBride 4:44 - Colston Loveland 6:23 - Tucker Kraft 7:56 - Tyler Warren 10:03 - Sam LaPorta 13:01 - Harold Fannin Jr. 14:46 - Kyle Pitts Sr. 16:31 - Isaiah Likely 18:38 - Travis Kelce 20:02 - George Kittle 22:06 - Jake Ferguson 23:35 - Dallas Goedert 24:53 - Dalton Kincaid 26:43 - Chig Okonkwo 28:18 - Oronde Gadsden 30:20 - Greg Dulcich 32:26 - TJ Hockenson 33:49 - Kenyon Sadiq 35:57 - Gunnar Helm 36:38 - Mark Andrews 38:20 - Brenton Strange 39:33 - Juwan Johnson 40:14 - Dalton Schultz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Please play responsibly. Concern about your gambling or that of someone close to you. Call 16-531-2600 or visit conexontario.ca. Today, we are ranking and tiering the top 24 tight ends in fantasy football for 2026. There is always elite round tight end that shakes up the fantasy football season, and we're going to break down a few players who have a very good chance at doing just that. Let's go. Welcome into the live fantasy football show.

I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello, our final player rankings episode is here as we wrap up July and head into August. We have a huge guest next episode. We're going to be doing some draft strategy rankings, which is so fun. on. But let's jump into this and let's talk about our top 24 tight ends. I think for the most part, we really love the guys at the top. And then we're going to name a few guys that are like more sleeper type names that we do really believe have like high end tight end one upside.

Yeah. Starting with the obvious though, Brock Bowers here is one. I'm pretty noncommittal between McBride and Bowers, honestly. Like you really could go. Switching back and forth. Yeah, Ray Allen tweet again. I know you're a Bowers guy. I'll let you really get into him. But the one thing I will say is just Bowers in a Clint Kubiak offense with no good receivers has me dreaming huge. Like, this could be a historic season. Lordy, Michael Wilbon tweet.

Obviously, if you drafted Bowers last season, you were as disappointed as I was when I drafted him. He was hobbled. He missed time due to the PCL injury. They sustained against New England in week one. But as far as tight ends go, the ceiling is the roof here. He's now healthy. You replace Gino Smith with a combination of curf. Cousins, who absolutely just spammed Kyle Pitts last season, plus the number one overall pick

in Fernando Mendoza, they shore up the offensive line and free agency, and then they bring in the genius offensive mind of Clint Kubiak, as you mentioned, as the new head coach, who just this offseason called Brock Bowers, a football robot from heaven. I would love for my employer to call me anything like that, but this was 24's tight end one overall, record-breaking rookie. He is my zero hesitation tight-end one. I have more hesitation than you, but I also do have them as my tight end one. But the reason I have hesitation is for the guy you're going to talk about your next. Let's talk about number two, Tray McBride.

I feel like the Bart Simpson meme in the classroom when they're all like, say the stat. There was a bigger difference in points last year between Trey McBride, the Tide, the Tide, the Tide End 1, and Kyle Pitts, the tight end 2, than there was between Kyle Pitts and the Tide N27 Sam Leporta. To put that in layman's terms, Trey McBride was playing his own position in fantasy football. He was in a true league of his own. He was literally a wide receiver one. As I think in Arizona, he is going to be the wide receiver one.

I'm sorry to Marvin Harrison Jr. But the reason why I feel so confident putting Brock at number one is I just expect this passing volume to go down a little bit. One, because I just think that was unsustainable, what they did last year. And then you introduce Jeremiah love to this offense. I don't think you spend a number three overall pick on a guy like that. without the intention of giving him a good amount of carries. Plus, you've got Tyler Alger to feed.

So I think this is just a different passing environment that we're going to see here in Arizona in 2026. It will be. But with that said, another fun, Dr. McBridestack. Oh, here we go. He was the tight-in one last year, obviously, but he was the Titan three all time. The third highest scoring season by a tight-end ever. So that makes it hard for me to not put in that one. but I agree with everything you said, which is why I do have Bowers just slightly ahead of him.

The good news for McBride, though, is even if the value or if the production decreases substantially, he still could beat the Titan 1 or 2 very easily. No, that's sure. It's like in 2022, if you remember, people weren't drafting Cooper Cup as the first receiver off the board, despite him being the triple crown winner the year before and breaking all these records, because it was like, oh, it's not sustainable, he's not going to do it again. And I was kind of like, well, he doesn't have to. He was so much better than everyone else that he can slip and still be the receiver one.

And he got hurt that year and ended up not playing most of the season. But he still was the wide receiver one in points per game in 2020. And my point isn't that Trim McBride is going to get hurt like Cooper Cup did, obviously. And it's not even that Tram McBride is still going to be the 10-1 in points per game. It's just that he still could very well do it, which is why he is still worthy of a top 25 pick and should be in that conversation with Brock Bowers. What I will say is, as much as I'm no hesitation, Brock is over Trey McBride, they're back to back in my rankings. Because I just think once one guy goes off the board, you should snag the other guy because the drop off is so massive.

And I don't know if we're crazy for this, but we have a tier break after S like so clearly for this next guy that everyone's hot and bothered by. Oh, I think there should absolutely be a tier break here for Colston Loveland in the next tier at three. I think the 2026 fantasy season has introduced the world to the Loveland paradox, which is that Colston Loveland is an elite tight end with a limitless ceiling while simultaneously only having three career games with 15 plus fantasy points and PPR formats. Ooh, spicy. And I certainly haven't cracked the Loveland paradox myself, because on one hand, I genuinely think he has the best odds of anyone besides McBrideen Bowers of being the tight end one overall.

So I want to draft him. I really want him on my teams. But on the other hand, it feels like we're a little premature maybe. It's just a little weird that we're drafting him as high as we are when he's in a crowded offense. He was the tight end 16 in points per game last year. And I think he has as low of the floor of guys going seven or eight rounds later. I love the talent and the situation. I genuinely think he should be the tight end three off the board.

I'm not by no means trying to talk anyone out of that. It just feels a little paradoxical to me. he's he's getting propped up this much because of and we always talk about this like when you get a back half explosion as a rookie people get so excited i mean it's literally look at his teammate luther burton except luther burton's was like two games um i'm with you that's actually crazy i didn't realize that he's only got three games with 15 plus ppr points um i think he deserves this spot i won't lie to you i am just about an inch away from flipping him and this next guy which um Um, shoot, sorry. Do you have, um, do you have a bowl? I'm just starving and I'm ready to talk about my favorite value, Kraft mac and cheese, Tucker Kraft. A little craft joke for the mac and cheese heads out in Green Bay,

but last year's tight end won before the ACL injury. There's now even less target competition than last year after they let Romeo Dobbs, their target leader, walk away here in free agency, plus Don Tavian Wicks. And I have a confession, Mello. I felt a little bit lame, not putting him at three. I felt the pressure of the consensus and the ADPs and the best ball rankings not to do it. But I kind of really feel like he should be the tight end three. In Dynasty, I'm still a Colson Loveland guy through and through.

It's not close to me. But this season, I kind of like Kraft as my three. I'm glad because I have the same intrusive thought. It's the ACL is all it is. Because if you told me right now he was magically healed snap of a finger like it never even happened, I think he would not only be above Loveland in my rankings. I think he'd be closer to the McBride in Bowers tier than he would be to Loveland. Like, that is how high I would have him.

And if I see just one camp video of him looking agile and explosive, we might be on an island as the only guys that have him as our tight end three in 2026. I know. I feel like I'm willing to get on that island. But like just to illustrate this, like he got injured. We talk about like games with 15 plus PPR points. Like he played eight games and he had two of them. already before he got hurt.

He was the Tideon 1 or Tideon 2, depending on what format you play in. He was that good before he took his ACL. Last guy, I think, or at least one of the last guys in this tier, Tyler Warren coming in at the tight end 5, though. He was the Tidon 2 overall for Week 10 last year, which just doesn't feel real. We feel so far removed from that. And we give a Mecca Abuka a pass, as we absolutely should, before the second half of the year regression that he had as a rookie, but we don't extend the same grace to Warren, which kind of

makes me a little bit worried that I'm being a hypocrite as someone who hasn't been super into Tyler Warren. I still think there is plenty of great upside, though. I love him as a player. Like a real-life tight end, I think he is phenomenal. I'm just really worried about this Colt's offense as a whole. I'm worried they will not be close to the same level of productive as they were for the first few months last season. And that's why I struggle to rank Tyler Warren a little bit higher compared to a guy like Tucker Kraft. I think that's a very good checking ourselves a little bit on the Emeka-Buka comparison, because I feel the same way.

I think he's kind of been the disrespected man in this A-tier in terms of like how much we've talked about him on our show. But I think he does absolutely belong with these guys in terms of the conversation of high upside elite tight ends. Like you talk about like the Michael Pittman situation where he leaves and that vacates 111 targets. And last year, Tyler Warren was second on the team and first read target share. behind Michael Pittman.

Now you remove him. And I think we've been so excited about Josh Downs. And we talk about, okay, if Alec Pierce isn't fully healthy going into the year, this should be great for Josh Downs, should also be great for Tyler Warren.

And he finished last year as the tight end seven, but he was the tight end four before the Daniel Jones ACL tear. All as a rookie. And so something even crazier, he only had four touchdowns last season. If he tacks on a few more, like what kind of finished could you see?

I feel like he is a great candidate for a true sophomore break. out and a guy that I think we need to put a little respect on his name. Yeah, I probably should. I don't think I'm going to move him above five, but I think in terms of aggregate ranking, I could see myself moving him up. Yeah, yes, that's right. I don't think he moves up these rankings anytime this summer, but I think where I'm actually drafting him goes up and this is just like such a clean tear break to me before this next guy. And that's Sam Leporta, who I've mentioned as a potential bust this season. This is actually where I'd put my friend Kyle Pitts, but I suppose we'll

talk about him later because someone had him lower in our consensus rankings. I'm someone. I just think there's a lot of mouths to feed here. And since that rookie season where he finished as a tight end one, like you've got Jamison Williams carving out a bigger role. They draft Tesla, who we've seen carving out a bigger role. And Jamo doesn't exactly provide like a threat to the red zone work as much as a guy like Gibbs does or a guy like Tesla does. But he only had 42 targets during that rookie breakout from Laporta. And then we've kind of seen James and Williams get out of the doghouse. And then he built up to 91 targets and then 102 targets last year.

And so then you look at the red zone work, which Sam Laporta had 10 touchdowns that rookie year, which is a huge thing that propped him up to that tight end one finish. You've got Isaac Tesla carving out this role that they were using him so much in the red zone. And we've seen some of the coach speak coming out of Dan Campbell that they're really impressed with the steps he's taking this off season and that he should get more opportunity. And I'm like, okay, so you're trying to feed Amin Ra, who's an absolute red zone machine. He, like, led the NFL and red zone targets last year.

Then you've got Isaac Tesla who could be working in. James and Williams is getting more and more targets, even if it is more work between the 20s. And then you've got Jumeir Gibbs, who I think all of us, it's like, if you want to take a bet on someone scoring a touchdown in the red zone on any team in the NFL, I kind of want Jamir Gibbs. And I just, I have a hard time seeing the elite upside for Sam Leporta, and I feel like you're drafting him in a spot where you kind of need him to have that upside.

As someone who likes Leporta more than you, I do agree with pretty much everything you just said. The one thing I will say with the mouths to feed is if there's any offense where there's plenty to go around, it's the Detroit Lions who have the highest point total going into 2026. So there's going to be a lot of scoring. I mean, every year they have multiple super relevant fantasy assets. Like you mentioned, he's had the tight and one finish before, so we've seen the ceiling. I agree that he won't get back to that for the reasons you mentioned. But he's got a great floor to his worst finish in points per game throughout his career is tight end nine.

So yes, he doesn't have that elite ceiling. But I feel super safe about Sam Laporta to be a tight end one, which is why I personally like him a little bit more than you. And we have on that six here in our rankings. But with all of that said, I'm still not really targeting Laporta in drafts because you mentioned that tier drop off into our B tier here. this is a tier I'm just not taking any of the tight ends that cost

I'm either I won't say I have them as my tight end seven I just have Kyle Pitts above him it's more so a philosophy around almost every player

in this range yeah I'm not taking unless one of them falls away below ADP or you know something like that happens yeah I'm just not taking these

tight ends at cost because I like the cheaper guys later right and that brings us to another tight end in this tier Harold Fanon Jr.

of the Cleveland Browns. I really like him as a player. I really like what he can do a lot. He's a big wide receiver more than a tight end, which for fantasy sounds great in theory. And it was great in practice as a rookie at 107 targets. The problem is he's still in this murky middle that we talk about where I'm really not drafting tight ends, you know, like we talked about with Laporta. I just don't want him at cost. And I've been pretty vocal about my fears for Fanon already on this show before. I'm not as confident in him as a lot of people because he's on the Cleveland and because Stefansky's out the door who love to fan and built the offense around him in a lot of ways through the air.

And then also you draft two pass catchers in the top 40. So the target share might not be quite the same. I'm a huge fan of the talent. And I like him enough to even have him at As are Titan 7 on these rankings. I'm just not actually interested in drafting him with where he's going in ADP. You mentioned Stefanski's departure. You mentioned spending a first-round pick on Casey Concepcion, a high second on Denzel Boston. We're now in the middle of a conversation of his quarterback's going to be Shador Sanders or Deshawn Watson.

I just, I can't envision why we would be drafting him as the tight end six. Like the thing I love, like he led all tight ends in 0.24 targets per route run as a rookie. And that's very impressive. And he got a ton of volume. I just, it doesn't seem like he's going to be able to get as much volume. And when you're looking at drafting a Cleveland Brown's pass catcher, you're talking about getting the volume because you're not going to get the same high value touches that you'd get in a real NFL offense versus a CFL one like this one.

CFL derogatory Cleveland Football League. Let's talk about my darling, Kyle Pitts, Sr. Last year's tight end two that you can get for the low, low price of the tight end eight, left from 74 targets in 2024 to 118 targets in 2025. We mentioned this before, but I think if two gets the job, it's a huge, bump for Pitts. We've already seen him prop up guys like Johnny Smith to the tight end four in in 2024. And I think this would obviously

be the most talented guy that we've ever seen Tua play with. Last year, Pitts had 88 catches, 928 yards, second in both to only Trey McBride, plus five touchdowns, which we know will be six this year, because he adds one more every season. And like, all jokes aside, like, I love talking up Kyle Pitts mainly because you hate him and I just like antagonizing

you. But I do think when I look at this range, Like, this is one of the only guys I can get myself out of bed for and excited about having potentially high upside of the tight end position. You know what, Mitch this episode is going too well for me to start a fight with you against. I won't do that. And also because it'd be a pointless fight because for me, it's like, yeah, I can say I like a guy like Sam Leporta or whoever else better, but I'm not drafting any of them anyways. Like, for me, I'm not getting myself out of bed. He's still in the same tier where I don't really want any of these guys. guys. And the other thing I'll add is

Pitts has not been, I mean, he hasn't been consistent period, but especially when Drake Lenin's been on the field. Like, yeah, he has really struggled to be fantasy relevant as long as Drake London's healthy. So if London goes in the next season healthy, it's just like, I don't really care to draft Kyle Pitts before he's going in drafts. Next, though, here's a guy we can definitely both agree on Mitch. Much cheaper than anyone we've talked about yet, because it's all hypothetical. We really haven't seen it yet. And that is Isaiah

likely who I will be likely to draft. Nice. I need to retire that. I think we all need to retire that. I think we've beaten that horse too many times. But it's like you said, it's a total shot on upside late in drafts, which is what I want to do, especially at tight end. I just want to shoot for upside if I've punted tight end late.

And for some reason, people were really excited about Isaiah likely when he was the second tight end on the run heavy raidens. But now all of a sudden, they have cold feet when he's in line for what could be a pretty sizable target share and what also could be a more pass-happy offense. If Malik Neighbors is as heard as he seems like he could be this, he could literally lead this team in targets.

He could. Absolutely. Especially the first month or two if, you know, if we're seeing Malik open the air on the pub and he's not playing. Isaiah likely could be a huge part of this offense. We've seen, I mean, we saw it with Theo Johnson last year. There's no doubt in my mind, Isaiah Lackley is the much better pass catcher. And that's why I like him because he has, to me,

the same upside as guys going five or six rounds ahead of him. The floor is obviously lower, but he's so much cheaper, which makes more than makes up for it in my mind. Yeah, outside of those top four guys, this is the guy I've been drafting the most. Honestly, I'd have to look at my exposures. This might be my most drafted tight end in best ball right now. He's still only 26 years old. Like you said, DART was targeting Theo Johnson like crazy last year. Imagine what he could do with a guy like Isaiah likely that, again, you put it so well. We were so excited for him as the tight end two in a run-heavy Ravens offense. And now you move him over here to New York where he could be the lead pass catcher, and it's like none of you

even care. I've said this stat before, but if you extrapolated into a full season, Isaiah likely's averages in games without Mark Andrews in his career, he would have been the tight end three last season. This is a screaming value. We're way above consensus, but like a serious, serious flag plant for us. I mentioned this about Brock Purdy, about another guy that's like leaning towards my my guys right now. He's close to there for me too. All right. We just talked about a guy who could have been the tight end three if you extrapolated those numbers. Let's talk about the guy who was actually the tight end three last year. That is Travis Kelsey.

And I know the big news surrounding Travis Kelsey this summer, obviously, is that he's now eligible for an AARP membership. But if you are willing to look past the advanced age, take a look at the fact that Travis Kelsey has been in the past 10 seasons, the tight end 35312, and then five straight tight end ones. This guy is a top five tight end every single season and ADP-wise you're getting him as the tight end 10. I don't think there's a ton else dad. Does he get a marriage bump?

I know there's like a baby bump. I recently got married and put on eight pounds. That was my marriage bump. I hope Kelsey gets it in the form of fantasy points. If you were Marvin Harrison Jr., we'd be drafting you so much higher right now for putting on those eight pounds during the summer. Yeah, it won't slow me down or anything

or make me not be able to run a slant route. I do think there's a real world where Kelsey's just completely washed. Like that does exist. But like you said, he was the Tidin 3 last year, and he was playing with something called a Chris Alutocan at quarterback for multiple games, whatever that is. And on top of that, the Chiefs brought in absolutely zero pass catchers this off season. So sure, he could be washed.

Sure, you might cut him by week five. But for the first time in his career, he's going super late in drafts, and he still has pretty good upside. he's someone else I'm interested in taking some shots on. Another old tight end here though, continuing this unction function, we have George Kittle at 11 who, as somebody who's been a George Kittle stand throughout his career, it has made me borderline depressed that I've been, I've been pretty fully out on Kittle for most of this off season because of the terrible timing of his Achilles tear. I just didn't think he'd be ready

for this season or he'd be effective this season. And I'm still not quite all the way back in, but I'm really starting to warm up Mitch. Like I'm really warming up to the idea of taking some late shots, aren't George Kittle, because like every player, he's ahead of schedule. I can't believe it. He's ahead of schedule. Everyone's ahead of schedule. They're saying he's going to be good to go for week one. I'm like, damn, he tore his Achilles in freaking January. How is that possible? But, I mean, it's good news to hear it. And then you think about the upside that he has. That's what I want, late in my drafts. I want that upside. He was tied for the tight end two last year in points per game. He was a tight end one in points per game in 2024. If he actually can stay healthy,

and 100%, which I'm still kind of skeptical of. But if he can do it through 17 games, he can have a top three finish and all of a sudden you had one of the best deals of the draft. I don't buy it. I don't buy George Kittle. And I'm out. You're still out?

I'm still out. I just, I don't see him coming back fully himself off of an Achilles stare in January at 32 years old. I'm 28 and if I step weird, I'm like out of commission for the next three weeks. So to me, the injury timelines, it's true.

The timeline is just, a little bit fishy. I agree. I do agree. I said, though, the tight end two note is very key here, though, that if I'm wrong, the upside's crazy. I just, I would like to put my flag on the out on George Kittle side. I

agree with you. I think the timeline is super fishy. I think there's a low chance. We see that type of upside, but at least he has it. Is the only reason I'm starting to warm up. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let's get into our final tight end one, and then we're going to kind of speed through these tight end twos here. But before we do,

If you haven't yet, please hit that subscribe button. It helps us so much and you'll be notified every time we drop a brand new episode with fantasy tips all summer long, plus some free fantasy tools coming soon here in August. But let's talk about the final tight end one in Jake Ferguson. I think this is a guy who's consistently underrated. I understand a lot of people want to point to the lamb injury as to why Ferguson had such a strong stretch last season, got him to a tight end five finish overall. But I want pieces of this Dallas Cowboys offense.

I don't want to have to pay the premium price for guys like lamb. and pickings. And I think he's the perfect guy here to end the tight end one tier because I feel pretty safe that if he plays 17, he's going to end up in there. Yeah, and it's unexciting. Yeah. He doesn't inspire a ton of excitement. But he's a great, like, spot start, low end, tight end one with benefits.

And that's what I like about him because he has a pretty safe floor. And like this past heavy Cowboys offense, like you mentioned, and they like using in the red zone, which is great, so you feel good about starting him if you have to. But it comes with significant benefits, as I referred to them earlier, if Lamar Pickens were to go down. Because he was the tight end two overall through week seven last year. Four of those games to start the year, CD was inactive. And over those four games, Jake Ferguson was the tight end one overall. So you obviously don't root for injury, but he gets a significant bump if one of those two receivers were to go down.

Right. And that's not the case for most head-end. So you do have to bake that into the ranking. No, I think that's completely fair. Recently, our company's softball team lost the big game by one run. Then Dale tried to console us with the quote, winning isn't everything. Well, Dale and I are very different.

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Dallas Goddard was a 10-7 in PPR last year, tight-in four and a half-point PPR. So from that perspective, he's a great value with where he's going. He stays in Philly. J. Lit Hertz loves Dallas Goddard. You lose AJ Brown, vacates a ton of targets. A.J. Brown has led the Eagles in targets

the last four years. Sure, they drive to the Eli Stowers, but that's more of a developmental project for after 2026. So with all that said, I like Goddard as a late round flyer. I will admit he's not scoring 11 touchdowns again. That's completely unrepeatable. He had never had more than five in his season before last year. But they do like using him in the red zone. So he still definitely has tied and upside. And with where he's going, I like the value. Yeah, this is all reliable. And you're going to be able to get him as even more of a steal than before than we thought starting the spring because of the Stowers pick and we're both in agreement. I don't think Stowers does a ton of damage to his target share in year one. But yeah, this is Jalen's safety blanket in the red zone and now we

don't have A.J. Brown and I think we see him lean on Goddard even more. I think this is a really solid pick and a guy we're ahead of consensus on right now. I don't think you can really go wrong with this pick. It's definitely an unsexy one though. No, yeah. It's like your ugly buddy. That's a good time still. All right, on to number 14. Let's talk some Dalton Kincaid. I think we've certainly been on the negative side of the Dalton Kincaid debate, and I wish we weren't.

Like, there's a lot of things to get excited about. He led all tight ends and yards per route run last season. He's attached to Josh Allen, which is an immediate bump in fantasy football. But what bothers me is that he's going as the tight end nine, which, as you can tell by our ranking, we're horribly below consensus. But since the mini breakout as a rookie where he finished as the tight end 11. He's since finished as the tight end 30 and the tight end 20. It's just a little bit rich for me. And then I think you also think about the fact they added some more passing options.

They add DJ more. And I'm just like, he's never finished as a tight end nine. So why are we drafting him there? No, I, we have him lower like you said. And honestly, to me at least, it feels obligatory to even have him here because of the reasons you mentioned, the draft capital, the bills and the yards per out run. But like, part of he thinks he should even be lower. Like, he's a guy I'm willing to plan my flag on us. I just don't have interest. Okay, yeah. And it's, it really below us down to this.

He can't stay on the field. And normally when we say that about guys, it's because of injuries. But for him, it's more than just injuries. That's been part of it. But it's also that he's literally not trusted to stay on the field because he can't block and he can't play in line tight end. He's really just a big receiver. And that hurts his playing time through 12 games last year.

His season high in snap percentage was just 55%. He only played over half of snaps in three games last. last year. He only played over 50% of snaps in three games. So when you're not playing that much, it just caps your upside. Like you can't be a top five, six, seven tight end without being on the field. So I just really don't have interest in Dalton Incade. That's, that's a great, great group of stats to back that up. We actually do have another more wide receiver than tight end, tight end here at 15. But one I am getting excited about. And that's Chigacanquo recently signed with the commanders.

I'm going to give my super expedited chig pitch because I've already given it on this show. But if you haven't listened to our late round values episode, check that out. We really dived in deeper. But basically what we talked about there is his underlying metrics last year were phenomenal. Before, during, after the catch, we've always known he's a phenomenal athlete. He was just stuck in Tennessee. Probably didn't get the workload necessary to really break out. But now he's in a Jaden Daniels offense that made Zach Ertz look good.

the oldest most senile version of Zachary. Penile. Seenile. I'm trying to say reasonable because Chig is a year-for veteran. He's never really broken out. He's been the Titan 21, three straight years, which I don't think that's talked about enough. He's like the most horrible version of Amun Rost St. Brown is Titan 21 every year.

But now he's in a much better situation, and I like the upside a lot, super late in drafts. Yeah, we love looking for these situational changes with guys who are like proving it with the underlying metrics. Like you mentioned, like he fished fourth and yards after the catch, third and contested catch rate, third and average separation among all tight ends with at least 50 targets. Put him in this commander's offense with Jaden Daniels,

who, when healthy, turned senile, as you mentioned, Zach Ertz into the tight end seven, like sign me up. I'm all in. I think this is one of my favorite values late. To take a shot on a guy that also, you know, if it's not working out, you just cut him. Like, you're not spending all that high of draft capital on Shigalconquo. So let's jump in in number 16, a guy we're below consensus on.

And that's a Rondea Gadsden. We've joked about the Jaguars with all the past catchers that we all want to see have a great season, and we start projecting it. And all of a sudden, you add it up, and Trevor Lawrence has 6,000 yards and 70 touchdowns. And I kind of think that's happening with Justin Herbert a little bit. I personally absolutely love Lab McConkey. I think he's going to be the alpha in this offense. And I think there's still going to be the volume for Gadsden as well.

well as QJ and even Trey Harris. I just, I think they're going to spread it out a lot and not necessarily allowing enough targets to present real upside of the tight end position. And we talk about this a lot where it's like, if they don't have a real shot at being like a top five or six tight end, then the difference isn't all that important. Not to mention, I've also said it before. I don't love the fact that they felt the need to go out and sign David Njoku. That's a big reason I'm falling on gas. Not that I think to Joku's like great but you know the hope for Gadsden going into 2026 months and months ago is that he was going to be the clear number one tight end on this Justin Herbert Mike McDaniel offense and we've already seen the report between Gadsden and Herbert he had five six plus target games

last year but then they bring in a joku like you said and it's like all right now there's more competition at tight end and then all of a sudden they signed Charlie Kohler and it's like all right whatever that doesn't matter until you hear all these reports that you know he was used super heavily as a blocking tight end in Baltimore they're still going to use him like that in LA, but they're probably going to use them more in the passing game as well. He was just stuck behind Mark Andrews and Zay-Lakley, and it's like, I don't know if I fully believe that hype, but it's not a good conversation to hear. No. Because now of a sudden it goes from Gasson being the clear number one tight-end to one of the tight-ins they deploy a lot of. Granted, they'll probably run a lot of

two-and-three tight-end sets, but still, it's just you're not going to get the same fantasy upside as you were before if that is the case. I still think the upside is there if he can at least be the clear receiving titan in the offense, but the floor is plummeting from beneath him. I really, like we have him as our tight end 16. I really don't like the tight end 12 price tag right now. This is a flag plant that I'm out. Yeah. At

cost I also am drafting any guest him. Yeah. Someone I am drafting because he's so much cheaper though is Greg Doolchich here at tight end 17. And if you had told me back in March Mitch that we'd have him as our Titan 17 heading into 2026, I just straight up wouldn't have believed you.

I just like, that's not a possibility. This is by far our biggest, like, well above consensus. Do you know what he is right now in ADP? Tide N 24? 31. 31. He is our tight end 17. You know what, though? Like, I get, if I'm ranking where I think guys will finish, he might be there for me too, but he at least has the upside. And that's what I want late. Like, I want upside. You don't draft based on where you project guys will finish. You draft based on the expected value based on what their upside.

be. And someone has to catch the ball in Miami. And I know it's Miami and no one's excited, but someone has to catch the ball. Doolchich has been the one getting the hype out of OTAs. Maybe where there's smoke, there's fire. Maybe we're just eluding ourselves into believing something that isn't there. And maybe he will be a bus. But guess what? At ADP, I mean, he's free. He is free. He's free. You can take the shot. You can see if he gets eight targets week one. And if not, you just come. Yeah. This is like the post, post, post, post, post, post, post, post-hype sleeper in Greg Dolsich. Like, the receiver room that he's competing with for targets is Malik Washington,

the three rookie receivers, Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell, and Kevin Coleman, Jr. And so it's like, it's a pretty fragile depth chart to be competing against. And then the camp hype has been buzzing that him and Malik Willis have had like a serious connection. And then if you're wondering, like, oh, well, was he even good going into this year? Among 59 qualified tight ends in 2025, he was fifth in targets per route run, second in yards per outrun, second in yards after the catch per reception, and fifth in first downs per route run.

This guy's like Ben Elite. He just needs the target volume. And I feel like we could see Malik Willis looking to him as a safety blanket. Yeah. At cost, it's just a no-brainer to me at cost. He's free. He's free. All right, let's jump to a guy who isn't exactly free, but he's still pretty cheap and

he's someone who's had some pretty high-end, tight-end finishes. That's T.J. Hawkinson. If Kyler Murray had not come to town, I would not even be entertaining this, but this is a quarterback who loves to target the tight end position. Now Hawkinson's a few years removed from those injuries that derailed him after a tight end two overall finish in 2022 and a tight end four overall finish in 2023. We're currently drafting him as the tight end 23 off the board. Is there a world match where he just took a year or two to get better from the torn ACL and MCL? And then Alcy had nine last year making every Vikings past catcher a victim of his wrath.

And who knows, maybe that's the case. And he's poised to go back to that elite tight end he was a few years ago. No, I'm not saying that's a likely outcome because it's not. But if Dr. Strange went through every possible reality and iteration, there's at least one where that's the case, where he actually is healthy now. He's good now. He's back to what he was before. So, you know, plug your nose if you're going to take him. I know it's kind of stinky, but you can take a shot in him late.

There is upside there, which is what we look for. I've really liked them. I've grabbed them a few times in basketball stacking with Kyler. Oh, Kyler stack. You don't have to convince me of that, brother. JJ, Kyler, and Hawkinson, you can grab Hawkinson for so cheap. It's electric. Speaking of some cheap tight ends with upside 19 here, we have the rookie Kenyon, Cedic. I'm not quite as excited as you, I think, but there is upside way.

I mean, we've seen these rookie tight ends be very good before in recent years. I'm just scared of the Jets. that's why I keep Sadiq buried in my rankings. I have a full-blown phobia of the Jetsetting at this point. I think it's like clinically diagnosable. I just don't want tertiary pieces on horrible teams, especially a rookie tertiary piece on a horrible team. But the counterpoint to that is he is a specimen.

And we say that all the time about professional athletes, because they all are. But he's like especially a specimen. Like I hate the cliche like built in a lab, but he might have been built in a lab. I don't think he was birthed the old-fashioned way. He can break the laws of both fantasy football and physics, that's the upside.

It's just the situation is like horrific. I think for me, it's kind of the thing that you were saying with Greg Dolcich, though, where it's like, yeah, do I think that he's probably going to finish, like, maybe around like the tight end 20? Like, I guess that, yeah, that's possible. But, like, his upside is so much higher than probably, like, five or six of the names we just mentioned. And because we haven't seen him.

And I get it. Like, the situation sucks, but we don't have the NFL numbers to go off of. What's very interesting is that we're going to see the. the first of him in training camp. He wasn't one of the rookies that reported to OTAs because he had the hernia issue. And so, like, what if he goes to camp? And he just lights it up. And all of a sudden, there's, like, so much, like, hype and potential around him. I just, we were so excited about him. We thought he might go to a team like Carolina. He ends up in New York. And I have a full-blown phobia, too. Like, we have a Jets issue here on the lineup fantasy football podcast.

But I think he is going to be a top end, tight end in the NFL. I just, the question is, like, when does it happen? And I don't blame anyone for being like it's probably not going to happen in his rookie year, but what if it does? We've seen crazier things happen. We've seen Sam Leporta just rise up and have a tight end one finish. And granted, Detroit's a lot better of a situation than New York. But I think that there's a ton of potential here for a guy that could theoretically be the second target earner behind Garrett Wilson. Oh, absolutely. He definitely could do that. All right. Let's speed round these last five guys. Let's talk about. about Gunner Helm. This is, to me, more of a best ball play. I don't really have a huge interest in him.

I think this is if you're stacking with Cam Ward. A lot of reports at a camp that they're building chemistry, making big plays. I just don't think he's a super high upside guy. I think he's more of a nice value piece. And like I said, a stacking guy in best ball versus a redraft pickup. Yeah, agreed. I don't have much more to add to that. I'm not super interested. I don't necessarily believe in the talent. There's sneaky quite a few mouths to feed all of a sudden and Tennessee. If you think this offense will take a huge step forward as a whole, sure, take on our helm and some two tight end or best polis. But outside of that, I don't have much interest. Yeah. Tideon 21. We're going to get fried for this. We have Mark Andrews here,

well below consensus. Well below. Way below consensus. And if you're asking how we can have him this low, it's because he's washed. He is burnt toast. He's done. I'm sorry. Mark Andrews is done. He has been done. Part of me wonders if the real Mark Andrews died in that car crash a few years ago and my god it's just been a body double sense the deep state planted fake mark andrews uh i don't know if i should be sharing my mark andrews conspiracy theories here but he just hasn't been the same player the last few years i don't think he has any upside anymore like the only upside he has is he catches like seven or eight touchdowns in the red zone and a year where he catches like 25 more than 25 passes but you know what i'm saying like he's not going to be not going to get the yards he's not going to

get the receptions. He's inefficient. I just don't have any interest anymore. This is one that's either going to age so well or so poorly. This is like such an egregious flag plant where 11 spots past ADP. We're barely putting him as a tight end too when he's a lot of people's in their solid tight end ones. I just think those days are over. I agree. Can you tell me, me, Mello, last year where Mark Andrews ranked in yards per out wrong among tight ends? It had to have been extraordinarily low because he played a lot and he wasn't catching a lot of pass. like 40th. He was 51st. He was also 30th in targets per route run. I think the path to him, like, being a tight end one is the same path as 2024 when he was 28 years old, where he scored

11 touchdowns. I don't see that happening again. I'm sorry. I'm fully out on Mark Andrews. Yeah, and it's just not fun to play that way. I don't want to bet on my tight end catching three passes for two touchdowns, and that's how I get my points. It's just not fun. Exactly. On to number 22, Let's talk some Brenton Strange. I think we're probably a little disrespectful here, but I just think we know who and what Brenton Strange is from a fantasy football production perspective. He just got the extension.

And like, I've been mentioning I want cheap pieces of this Jacksonville offense. And so like, I think from a, I think he's a basketball guy. That's what I think it is. I think he's a basketball guy. I don't think the upside's there for him. I'm maybe being a little hypocritical here

because I think that's a little, how I describe Jake Ferguson, a cheap piece of a high-powered offense. I just think Jake Ferguson has shown that upside that Brenton Strange hasn't. And you made a great point. Like, Ferguson's a clear third in that pecking order. I don't think we know where Brenton Strange is in this like hodgepodge of talented elite wide receivers. No, and I don't think he has the same benefits.

Because if Parker Washington or Brian Thomas goes down, like, I don't know that that's going to increase Brenton Strange his role that much because they have a billion receivers there on like Dallas where it's a top two and then a drop-off. So, yeah, he's a firm, firmly going to be a tight end two. The upside is super limited with all those mouths to feed, but he's going to be somewhere in the tight end two range, season end. All right, next up, somebody else feel pretty similarly about Juan Johnson. He was a tight end eight last year, so from that perspective, we have him kind of low. But last year felt pretty fluky to begin with.

His previous highest finish throughout his career was tied in 15 through six seasons. So last year was a little fluggy. And now on top of that you add Jordan Tyson, you add Travis Achan, and last year feels like it is no chance of being matched again, even if he still is solid and gives you tight end two numbers. Yeah, that you want to stack with Tyler Shuck, best ball, that's it. I don't see any upside here for Juan Johnson, but it did feel disrespectful to take the tight end eight and not have him in our top 24. Exactly. Let's wrap it up with Dalton Schultz at 24. or if you're playing redrafts, I don't care what your format is,

unless you're in some disgusting, like, 32-person league. You should not still be drafting tight ends at this point. But we're here, and we're in the top 24. So let's do the say something nice about Dalton Schultz challenge. He was sixth among all tight ends in receiving yards last season and ranked fourth among all tight ends who played 250 or more snaps in catch rate. If I'm being honest, he kind of reminds me of C.J. Stroud, in the way I just talked about him last episode.

I think he beats his ADP, I just don't think it means anything for fantasy football. The truest thing said this whole episode, he saved it for the end. He'll be better than the Tadent 24. He's been the Tidin 10, two of the last three years. But a big part of it's he played a ton, he stayed healthy. A lot of Titans get injured every year, and that affects the season-long finishes. I could not be less interested in Dalton Schultz and won Titan leagues, because he just doesn't have the upside unless he somehow catches like 14 touchdown passes,

which will not happen. So, yes, he'll finish better than this. but if you're shooting for upside, you just don't have it with Dalton Schultz. Agreed. And those were our top 24 tight ends for fantasy football here in 2026. If you have a favorite tight end that you've been targeting all summer, let us know down below. If there's anyone that you want to hear us talk more about,

also let us know down below. But Mello, before we get out of here, do we miss anything? I got nothing. All right, thank you all for tuning in so long, and we'll catch you guys next episode with a very special guest for a very fun episode. We'll see you then. My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Pre-K drop off.

Then straight to the gin. Back home to meal prep before heading to the fire station for my shift. When the three alarm comes in, I'm ready. Celsius. Live, fit, go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius energy drink at your local retailer. Or locate now at celsius.c. Enjoy Celsius responsibly. Design for occasional energy boost, not as part of your daily diet.

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