2026 Fantasy Football | Shopping The Tight End Bargain Bin

by Dan Williamson · Featured
Tight End Bargain Bin 2026

Is there any position in fantasy football that causes more consternation than Tight Ends? Now that most teams have eliminated Kickers and Defenses, I think the frustration is universal. Tight Ends are the most hated men in our fake sport. Why is that?

For starters, there’s usually only a couple of true studs at the position that we can rely on yearly. And with George Kittle and Travis Kelce aging out of the elite tier, we’re left with only a couple of contenders for the title of “stud”. Say hello to Brock Bowers and Trey McBride. But even these two don’t have the lengthy track record we’d like to see. But if not these guys, then who? Every year, some sure-bet TEs mysteriously disappoint, while a handful of obscure names rise from the depths of ADP to become conquering heroes.

Whether you play best ball, seasonal redraft, or dynasty, the dynamic is the same. We want to score as many points as we can with the smallest possible investment. Sure, it’s nice to land that elite option in Bowers or McBride, but there’s a significant cost involved. And once they’re gone, the guessing game begins. Who to take, and when?

My rule of thumb for drafting the onesie positions (QB and TE) is to take them when there’s no compelling value at either WR or RB. This is how we factor in opportunity cost. Especially at TE, there are still usually some solid bets in the final rounds of our drafts. Meanwhile, the RBs and WRs get down to the dregs much more quickly. But usually, you’ll find a spot on the clock where a TE stands out as a clear pick over any other position, and that’s when you should pounce. The trick is recognizing those spots.

Fortunately, by reading this article, you have enlisted the services of a bona fide TE Whisperer. Yes, that’s me. We all have our strengths and weaknesses in evaluating players. Mine just happens to be predicting the best and worst TEs to roster. This is truly an obscure skill, much like reciting pi to 100 digits or quoting movie dialogue. Unlike those skills, however, this one is actually useful in fantasy football.

So let’s begin. I’ve got six TEs who are probably undervalued in your drafts right now, as well as a couple you might want to avoid at all costs. Rather than use specific ADP for any site, we’ll show the rank order in which you’ll usually see these TEs go off the board.

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Stop Whispering, Start Shouting

Travis Kelce | TE10, Kansas City Chiefs

He’s older than your grandmother, but Travis Kelce still has plenty of appeal, especially when we factor in Rashee Rice on the Double-I Scale. That’s the Injury-prone and Idiot Scale. One or both of these factors have limited Rice to a total of 12 games over the past 2 seasons. Heading into 2026, Rice is a perfect two-for-two. He just had a knee cleanup, AND he’ll be rehabbing that injury from jail. The direct beneficiary of Rice’s woes has been Kelce because once again, there’s nobody else to pick up the slack.

Kelce is just a PPR scam at this point, though. He’s less worthy of mention in Half-PPR formats such as Underdog, but he still looks solid in PPR formats. If you happen to play a TE-Premium format, you’ll extract maximum value from his target-hogging ways. In dynasty, take advantage of your leaguemates’ ageist biases. You can probably get him in trade for a bag of nickels.

Dalton Kincaid | TE13, Buffalo Bills

This is the first time in three years that I’ve been in on Dalton Kincaid (Ed. Note: Gross). His enticing rookie year in 2023 pushed his price into the stratosphere in 2024 and 2025. Finally, the injury risk and part-time usage are baked into his price. What intrigues me most is that he and the team claim he’s healthier at this point than he’s been in the past two years. If he can avoid the injury bug, he’ll have more spike weeks.

What we’re really hoping for, though, is for head coach Joe Brady and OC Pete Carmichael Jr. to notice that Kincaid is one of the Bills’ three best receivers. In the nine weeks in 2025 when Kincaid got to a just a 40%-plus route share, he was a TE1 in five of those weeks. His season-high route share was a lowly 58.1%. If Buffalo ever gets him up to a 60-70% route share weekly, he could smash his ADP. That shouldn’t be a difficult ask if Kincaid is truly healthy. However, if his route share in healthy games continues to yo-yo up and down, Kincaid will be a classic “better-in-best-ball” pick. In seasonal leagues, the roller coaster ride might make you sick. So while he’s a more risky pick than the rest of these players, there are paths to a big win in every format.

Chigoziem Okonkwo | TE19, Washington Commanders

Now we’re starting to get deeper in the weeds, but this is where the best values are usually hidden. After four years of being underutilized in Tennessee, Chigoziem Okonkwo has taken his talents to Washington, DC. There, he’ll step into the Zach Ertz role. What makes this risky is that we are looking at a new TE in this role and playing for a new OC, David Blough.

What makes Chig enticing is that he could easily find his way to being the 2nd-most targeted receiver on the team, which is a skeleton key for TE dominance. Given that Washington has Terry McLaurin followed by a bunch of unproven pass-catchers, drafting Okonkwo is a bet I’m VERY willing to make at this price.

Dalton Schultz | TE24, Houston Texans

I promise, I really don’t have a fetish for TEs named Dalton, but I suppose I can’t blame you for wondering. Unlike Kincaid, Dalton Schultz has no route participation issues. He actually had the 12th-highest route participation among all TEs in 2025. He has also finished as a top-10 or better TE in four of the last five years. In 2025, Schultz was a TE1 in eight of his last 12 games. Once again in 2026, Schultz looks to be an integral part of the Texans’ pass offense. More importantly, fantasy drafters are heavily undervaluing him yet again.

David Njoku | TE28, Los Angeles Chargers

Now we’re speculating a bit more, but it might just be worth it. This is an OC Mike McDaniel offense that made Jonnu Smith (as head coach in Miami) into the overall TE3 just two short years ago. Odds are good that the Chargers will run a lot of 12 personnel, which means a pair of TEs on the field. David Njoku is capable of playing either in-line or split out. He also has a massive experience advantage over the raw-but-promising Oronde Gadsden II, who is really only suited to play split out from the formation. It’s quite possible that Njoku could be the leading target-earner among all TEs here. He even has a chance at getting the second-most targets on the team. This could blow up in my face, but at this price, that’s a chance I’m willing to take.

Greg Dulcich | TE32, Miami Dolphins

Before you run for the bathroom to begin projectile vomiting, please give me a chance here. Granted, the Dolphins are likely to have the NFL’s most anemic passing offense. Also noted, Greg Dulcich has never been a fantasy factor for more than a 10-game stretch since entering the NFL. But we’ll always have the 2022 Broncos to remember him by, right? We just might have to change that narrative after this season, though. Sad to say, Dulcich is easily the most capable receiver on the Dolphins roster. But therein lies his appeal. He could easily have the biggest slice of the (admittedly small) Dolphins receiving pie. That could vault him to fringe-TE1 status for a bargain price. In the nine games for Miami in 2025, Dulcich caught 26 balls on 33 targets (12.9 y/c).

Careless Whisper | Don’t Dance with Them Again

As a bonus for slogging through the depths of the TE position with me, here are two players I’m fading in my drafts.

Harold Fannin Jr. | TE5, Cleveland Browns

I was drafting a lot of Harold Fannin last year, and it paid off in a big way. Now he looks like a young elite tight end, but appearances can be deceiving. Two important factors have changed Fannin’s outlook: He’s gotten a lot more expensive at the same time as he’s gotten a lot more target competition. Don’t get me wrong, he still has plenty of talent as a receiver. But instead of competing with just Jerry Jeudy and a bunch of scrubs, now the Browns have added standout rookies KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston to the mix. This might be less problematic if Fannin could play as an in-line TE and stay on the field in 11 personnel, but he really can’t. Fannin is overmatched as an in-line blocker, so that role is likely to go to better blockers like Blake Whiteheart.

In redraft formats, I’m just fading Fannin at cost. In dynasty, we have a great window to move off of him. The redraft price signals that there is plenty of optimism out in the fantasy streets for him. Take advantage of that optimism and flip him for maximum profit.

Juwan Johnson | TE21, New Orleans Saints

Many drafters will remember how Juwan Johnson has helped them over the past year and mark him as a priority late-round target. Do yourself a favor and pivot to one of the other options listed above. Johnson is another TE-in-name-only who is really just a big slot receiver. The problem for him is the same as for Fannin, above. There’s been an influx of wideout talent, and the Saints have predominantly run their offense with 11 personnel. Furthermore, they drafted an in-line TE in Oscar Delp who profiles as a weapon in the passing game. Last year, the Saints threw a lot to Johnson because they didn’t have much choice. This year, they have more options, and that’s going to cost the UDFA the targets he needs to be a viable sleeper candidate.


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