Tight end is by far the trickiest position in fantasy football. And that goes DOUBLE for dynasty. The problem we run into is that the talented guys don’t always land in the right schemes right away, nor do they get the best opportunities. So we find ourselves in a tough balancing act.

That’s why we use the S.O.R.T. system. Start Opportunity, Roster Talent. When you are playing to win now, you NEED opportunity. We’ve seen guys like Robert Tonyan or Jonnu Smith win leagues even if they aren’t the most talented. And we’ve watched guys like Trey McBride wait their turn. Heck, Delanie Walker was stuck behind Vernon Davis and didn’t break out until he was nearly 30 - then had multiple top-five seasons. You want to collect talented guys, but when it’s time to compete, you need someone to start.

Top 10 Dynasty Fantasy Football Tight Ends 2026

Today, we are simply looking at the top 10 options out there. In the next series, we’ll cover the players we are aggressively buying or cautiously selling. So let’s dive in and start right up top. 

 

 

 

Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders, 23 years old

For most of us out here, there’s a pretty clear top two right now with Brock Bowers and Trey McBride. They are both elite, and they both are among the top in the league in the key stats like route participation, target share, pass block rate, wide receiver rout percentage, yards per route run, contested catches, receptions vs. man to man, etc. Your decision on how to rank them likely boils down to where you are in the cycle - Trey McBride is a little “safer” if you are win now, while Bowers is younger if you have more of a long-term view.

The reality, though, is that both of them have the same problem here - quarterback. The Raiders are starting from square one here, but we have to ask ourselves how much worse it can actually be? The quarterback play was atrocious, and Bowers dealt with injury through most of the year, yet still finished as the TE2 in PPR points per game. This might be the last chance you have to acquire Bowers at a reasonable price.

  • Recommendation: Buy 

Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals, 26 years old

Not only did Trey McBride lead the league in all the surface-level stats, but he also led the league in virtually every meaningful underlying stat as well. Route participation, target share, pass block rate, wide receiver snaps, yards per route run, contested catches, missed tackles forced, screens - you name it. The deployment and usage simply could not have been better.

The two elephants in the room here are quarterback and coaching. As great as Brissett was for McBride, he led the team to a 1-11 record, including 9 straight losses to end the season. He’s not the answer. And there’s no guarantee that Drew Petzing is back either. Even though McBride has a “prime Travis Kelce” season, this is not a Kelce/Mahomes/Reid situation. There is some risk there so we just have to hope any new coach/QB combo understands that this guy is special. 

  • Recommendation: Hold

Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears, 21 years old

I love Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren. Truth be told, I think the 2025 tight end class could wind up being the best of all time for fantasy football. The bar really isn’t that high as only the 2006 class has had four guys with 1K+ career PPR points. So I’m happy collecting as many assets from this group as possible, though we do need to rank them so some degree.

This is another situation where the nod to me, at least partially, goes to the younger player. Both players ended up with great deployment by the end of the season. We like the direction the teams are heading in and they seem to have their franchise quarterbacks. The wide receivers for both teams are solid but also not necessarily commanding of ~150 targets like a Puka Nacua or CeeDee Lamb. By the end of the year, when the deployment for Colston Loveland got better, both these guys actually had fairly similar usage profiles. So the nod for us will go to the guy who is two years younger. That very likely factored into the Bears drafting Loveland over Warren as well. 

  • Recommendation: Buy
     
 

 

Tyler Warren, Indianapolis Colts, 23 years old

As we mentioned, Warren and Loveland both ended up fairly similar in terms of usage, aDot, pass block rate, yards per route run, contested catches, broken tackles, receptions vs. man to man, etc. There are actually two key usage stats that could put Warren ahead of Loveland, if folks wanted to do that. One is that Warren got 13 screens while Loveland had zero (something that the Bears need to rectify if you ask me). The other is the gadget ability of Warren where he got five carries, including wildcat QB stats.

If anyone wanted to say Warren over Loveland, I really wouldn’t argue particularly hard. It really only matters in dynasty startups. Once your league is up and running, the important thing to me is getting the best price via trade. If the price is the same I go Loveland, but if you can get Warren for cheaper, just do that. Sometimes we need to draw hard lines, sometimes we don’t.

  • Recommendation: Buy

Tucker Kraft, Green Bay Packers, 25 years old

It’s rare for young tight ends to get a full role right away. And, sometimes, when they are just given a role by default and don’t make a big splash it can be difficult to evaluate their future. Will they continue to grow into the role? Will they get replaced? With Tucker Kraft, we don’t need to worry about that. He wasn’t even the first tight end drafted by his team the year he was picked and he not only earned himself the starting job but it’s a full-time role in a scheme that features him.

So yes, Tucker Kraft suffered a serious injury. But, before that happened, he was looking like his normal explosive self. His 2.33 yards per route run was second only to Dalton Kincaid this year. Through eight games he had multiple games with 9-10 targets and multiple games with 100+ yards, which is something only three tight ends did on the season. He also scored 6 touchdowns over those eight games. Kraft might not have the perfect profile but I don’t see the Packers bringing in two high end WRs this offseason to push him out of the spotlight. 

  • Recommendation: Buy

Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons, 25 years old

We have never stopped buying Kyle Pitts at any point in the process here. It’s just too rare to find a guy with his size and speed combination who can rip off big chunk plays at any time. I said it many times - if it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out, but you need to take a chance because most other tight ends have near zero shot of ever actually being special in fantasy football.

This year Pitts finished as the TE2 overall in fantasy. And his deployment was great as he had the second highest route participation and target share behind only Trey McBride. With that usage, we are fine with him staying in Atlanta. If he does decide to leave then it will be very likely to go to a scheme that can utilize his skillset properly, just like Evan Engram did leaving the Giants for Jacksonville to play “big slot” for Doug Pederson. So there’s not much risk here in free agency, in our opinion. 

  • Recommendation: Buy

 

 

 

Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions, 25 years old

Sam LaPorta makes us nervous. If you are competing now and don’t have another option, you don’t just trade away your starting tight end just because. LaPorta offers a decent floor after all. But his profile and situation are far from perfect.

Unlike a lot of these guys, he only rarely plays a lot of snaps at WR and only innegative gamescripts. For instance, in Weeks 1 and 9, he ran ~30 routes from a WR spot, which was just over 50% for those games, but in most other weeks, he operated like a typical inline tight end. This is a good team so they don’t go negative that often. The real elephants in the room, however, are Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and Jahmyr Gibbs. These are incredible talents and there’s only one football that hurts the consistency of LaPorta. His success thus far has largely been based on touchdowns. As crazy as it sounds, it would actually be best for his fantasy value if he were to walk away from DET after 2026. 

  • Recommendation: Sell

Harold Fannin, Cleveland Browns, 21 years old

There’s a lot to love about Harold Fannin, I mean, as a 21-year-old rookie, he just went out and finished as TE6 in fantasy while missing the final game. He also essentially beat out the incumbent David Njoku along the way for pass-catching work. So it should be wheels up right?

Our only hesitation is the uncertain future right now. Kevin Stefanski LOVES his tight ends - he is out as head coach. We don’t know who the quarterback of the future will be. We don’t know if they plan to bring in wide receivers or not. The price for Fannin is sky high so I’m holding if I have him. As the offseason develops and we get more clarity on the Browns direction, this could flip to either buy or sell.  

  • Recommendation: Hold

Oronde Gadsden, Los Angeles Chargers, 22 years old

We were drafting Gadsden in rookie drafts everywhere because we love the “wide receiver turned tight end” archetype. His father was a wide receiver and so was he before making the change at Syracuse. The problem these guys often run into is that teams will sometimes make them part-time players, like early in Juwan Johnson’s career. But Gadsden as a rookie, was able to beat out the competition and claim a real role. 

He’s got healthy stats in most categories in usage, target share, success vs. man, contested catches etc. And but the big news is the signing of Mike McDaniel. We just saw back-to-back seasons where he used Jonnu Smith, Darren Waller, and Greg Dulcich essentially as a big WR. Smith and Waller both ran 70% of their snaps from a WR spot. Gadsden could absolutely thrive in this scheme. 

  • Recommendation: Buy

 

 

 

Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills, 26 years old

Dalton Kincaid scares a lot of people. He’s dealt with injuries. He’s basically been a part time player with the Bills so far. I mean, in most games he’s playing around 50% of the snaps at best. That’s typically a guy we aren’t in on.

But, in this case, we’ll make an exception. Because he’s making things happen on those limited snaps. His 2.79 yards per route run is far away the best in the league for a tight end. He plays a ton of WR and virtually never pass blocks. When it comes time to pay Kincaid, the Bills will need to decide if this guy is going to be a focal point or not. If they let him go, someone else will pay him and you better believe they will utilize him. The Bills set up of rotating a million pass-catchers with no one playing more than 60% of the snaps is pretty rare. 

  • Recommendation: Buy