Come, come - grab a seat by the fire. Gather round. And I will regale you with the tale of the mythical Elite Tight End. The true and elusive knights of the elite tight end strategy. You place them high in your tight end rankings, you draft them early, and they deliver all year long. One less thing to worry about in your fantasy football league? Easy enough, right?

WRONG. Sure, we’ve had some years from Travis Kelce where he was the top TE drafted and delivered on that.  Trey McBride was a hit last year. But the battlefield is strewn with the corpses of fantasy gamers who thought taking an early-round tight end would solve all of their problems. The actual hit rates for early tight ends are enough to send some warriors scurrying to hide beneath the round table.

So, today, we are here to tackle the mythical beasts and the age-old question all at once. When do you actually draft a top right end in fantasy? Which ones should you take? And when should you live to fight another day?

What Makes A Tight End Elite?

Lucky for you, brave knights, we’ve done extensive research on what makes an elite tight end for fantasy football. And we’ve conveniently compiled all of that research into one article that we creatively named What Makes an Elite Tight End. That article is basically your noble training grounds for those who wish to be a true champion one day. Alas, if you just want the quick and dirty boxes you want your tight end to check off, here they are:

  • Be a top 2 target on his team
  • Block on less than 15% of pass snaps (ideally, around 7% or less)
  • Line up at wide receiver often
  • Create for himself vs. man to man
  • Have a knack for scoring
  • Run real, high aDot routes
  • Run really fast
  • Be part of a high-volume offense
  • Be part of a highly consolidated offense

That’s it. One thing to keep in mind is that these boxes aren’t necessarily all created equally, either. Historically speaking, those first two points are absolutely critical to top five upside. Virtually mandatory. The rest are all gravy on top that help enhance what the results might be. The more of those boxes we can check, the better. 

 

 

 

The Positional Advantage of Elite Tight Ends

You’ve probably heard the term “positional scarcity” before. If not, what it pertains to is the differing pool of players at each position relative to how many you need to start in fantasy football. Some positions have a deeper pool of elite players to choose from, while others are shallower.

For instance, the top kicker last year scored 11.9 points per game. The 12th-best kicker scored 8.8. So we are talking about only a 28-point difference season-long between the top starting kicker in 2025 vs. the bottom starting kicker in a 12-team league. Plus, our ability to identify who will be good or bad at that position is not super reliable (shoutout to our friend Linda, who does an incredible job). Overall, though, it’s not a particularly scarce or top-heavy position, so we can wait on it in drafts.

Conversely, the top tight end last year scored 18.6 points per game. The TE12 in points per game scored 10.6. That’s a difference of 136 points, which clearly creates a meaningful difference between the top tight end and the worst starting tight end. The difference isn’t always that stark because there isn’t always a Trey McBride each year, but there is still a bigger advantage to be had than positions like kicker, DST, and even quarterback. 

Is Drafting An Elite Tight End Worth The Cost?

For this question, we are assuming you play in a fairly “normal” league. That means a league with 10-12 teams, one tight end spot, and no tight end premium scoring. In the average fantasy league, we can fairly easily define what positional scarcity means and what it doesn’t.

In full PPR, the top tight end season of all time is Rob Gronkowski with 330 points. Which is a lot. But we know that elite RBs and WRs blow that number out of the water on a regular basis. The top guys each year are scoring 375 to 400 PPR points. Christian McCaffrey last year scored 416.6, Ja'Marr Chase the year before scored 403, CeeDee Lamb scored 403 before that - Cooper Kupp once scored 439.5. That’s 100 more raw points.

Last year, Trey McBride had a top-five ALL-TIME season at the position - which was good for 315.9 points. Things broke exactly perfectly. Yet he still scored 44 fewer points than a guy like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who was drafted after him. Based on positional scarcity, I would say that Trey McBride was worth his ADP last year, but how reliably can we bet on anyone to do that?

So, how I handle the position in the very early rounds is pretty simple. I make a list of RBs and WRs who I believe can be the top overall player in fantasy football, and I take them before I consider a TE or QB - even if I believe that player will be the top TE or QB. For me, that list often lasts more than two rounds, but if your list is shorter, feel free to take a tight end in the second round.

 

 

 

Which Draft Strategies Pair Best With Elite TEs?

If you are going to spend up on an elite tight end, you only draft one. That’s why we call it the “standalone” tier in our Dynamic Tier Tight End Rankings (also known as Yin & Yang Tight End). You are spending the draft capital, so you’ve made a commitment to that player - you can’t afford to roster two.

Since you are using one of your early picks on a tight end, you could potentially lean into a Zero or Hero RB build. We’ve got a full description of those within the draft guide, but basically, you go out and get your WRs, TE, and QB early, then backfill the RB position. 

One strategy that I find does not always pair particularly well with an elite tight end is Robust RB. If you are spending three top picks on a running back and another on a tight end, you run the risk of being far too thin at WR, especially in leagues where you are required to start three. I might consider using four of my top five picks on three RBs and a TE only if it’s a shallow league with 8-10 teams in it.

Who Are The Elite Tight Ends?

We never know for sure who the elite tight ends will be at the end of the day. In fact, a tight end has come from TE15 in ADP or later to finish top 5 in fifteen straight years now, so there’s a good chance all the top drafted guys WON’T finish at the top. 

Below, we’ll discuss the guys who are being drafted in the elite range and whether or not we think you should brandish your sword and battle those beasts. Yes, we’ve chosen this very moment to return to the medieval analogies we seemingly abandoned three sections ago. Keep in mind on your journey that, if you do choose to pay up for a high-end tight end, that is your bet, and you are not likely drafting two. The heavy draft capital spent is a commitment to that player outside of bye weeks and injuries.

Tight End Evaluation

As always with this series, we are going to break down each player evaluation into three sections. The Good, The Bad, and The Advice. Here’s what each will entail. 

  • THE GOOD - As much factual info as possible on why this player could be good.
  • THE BAD - As much factual info as possible on why this player could be bad.
  • THE ADVICE - My opinion on whether you should draft them at ADP or not.

The first two sections should be fairly objective if you’d like to absorb the information and make a decision for yourself on whether or not to draft them. In the third section, I will include my subjective opinion as to whether or not I believe they are worth their ADP given my research and experience with the position. Simple as that - so let’s dive in!

 

 

 

Elite Tight Ends for 2026

Brock Bowers

The Good

The big story with Brock Bowers is that he got hurt in 2025. And he played through injury for a good chunk of the season. So you’d think that we’d now be using that as an excuse as to why his stats aren’t particularly good. But we don’t really need to. Because most of the metrics we actually care about were still great.

For instance, Brock Bowers was still among the top tight ends in route participation (88.7%), target share (19.4%), pass block rate (3.2%), contested catches (14), receptions vs man to man (17), first read share (26.5%), etc. Those numbers are all top five for the position, and many of which are top two. That’s how good this guy is.

We’re also excited about this new scheme coming to town with Klint Kubiak. Kubiak loves his fullback and blocking tight ends, so we should see plenty of snaps for Michael Mayer and Connor Heyward. Having guys on the field that don’t touch the ball often can highly consolidate the snaps and targets among the few focal point pass-catchers on the team. We expect Brock Bowers to move all over the formation, and there isn’t much target competition from guys like Tre Tucker or Jalen Nailor.

The Bad

We all know the elephant in the room here. The Raiders were a bad team last year - that’s how they ended up with the number one pick. We are hoping Klint Kubiak and company can reinvigorate things, but sportsbooks like BetMGM still suggest that they will be a 5-6 win team. That is scary.

I know there is a lot of hope in the building for the quarterback position. Kirk Cousins is expected to start, with Fernando Mendoza taking over at some point. But what does that often look like? For Mendoza to take over, the team has to be losing. Down the stretch from Week 9 into fantasy playoffs in Week 15, the Raiders' schedule goes 49ers, Seahawks, bye, Chargers, Broncos, which is not an ideal schedule for a rookie QB to take over a bad team. 

We also have to wonder, what if things are actually pretty good for Bowers with Cousins, then they make the QB change right at the fantasy playoffs, like the Cleveland Browns seemingly do to us every single year? Maybe Cousins can somehow hold the job, but we expect a QB change at some point, given the history of 1.01 pick QBs making an appearance. You could end up getting your top fantasy football sword stuck in the stone at the worst possible time. 

The Advice

With my early picks in fantasy football drafts, I want certainty. I want the perfect convergence of talent, scheme, and opportunity. I want superstar Ja'Marr Chase playing with superstar Joe Burrow in a scheme where he’s the clear top target. So, even though Brock Bowers is my top-ranked tight end, I don’t find myself taking him at ADP that often. 

The caveat here is that we still like Bowers, so we are still willing to draft him - just not where he goes as the 20th overall pick off the board on average. If he falls into the third round, we’re willing to grab Bowers at that stage, as we do believe a top 5 all-time season, or even the number one TE season of all time, is within his range of outcomes. Just know that, if you take him the first or second, you are basically betting that that happens.

Trey McBride

The Good

This section doesn’t need to be very long. Trey McBride was either first or second in every major tight end metric we look at. He had a top-five all-time season at the position with 315.9 PPR points (the best season ever was 330.9 by Rob Gronkowski when he scored an absurd 17 touchdowns). Trey McBride was just about perfect in every way in 2025, so we aren’t going to write a bunch more than that here for the sake of writing. As Kevin Malone famously asked in The Office, “Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?”

The Bad

Is Trey McBride’s season repeatable? Possibly. But the issue we have with his season vs. the prime Travis Kelce seasons is that the Chiefs WANTED to repeat what they were doing. They were winning. The Cardinals have no desire to repeat what they did last year - 2025 was a nightmare for the Cardinals.

And the more you think about how it all went down, the less likely it is to repeat. First off, the Cardinals lost their top wide receiver, which consolidated targets among McBride and Michael Wilson. Jacoby Brissett came in and led them to a  1-11 record while throwing the ball like crazy to make up for a bad defense. He put them in a hole all on his own at times, like the Seahawks game when he started the first two drives with fumbles that were returned for touchdowns. Along the way, the Cardinals were the only team in the league to not run the football 30+ times in a single game.

The Advice

Let’s say you are a golfer who usually shoots around 80-90 but has never cracked 80. Then you go out and shoot the best round of your life with a 70, which includes a couple of very lucky holes. Will everyone expect you to shoot 70 again every time you go out? No, you will probably regress back to your normal scores. And that’s probably what the case will be with Trey McBride.

But that’s not how fantasy gamers react. He had that season, so now he’s being drafted in the second round as if that’s the new normal for him. In 2024, he scored 249.8 PPR points, which was good for TE2 in fantasy. If that were 2023, that would have been good for TE1 ahead of Sam LaPorta. But the truth is that positional scarcity does not make up for the difference between the raw points that WRs and RBs drafted in the second round are capable of. At that ADP, it doesn’t matter if he’s the “TE1” - it needs to be an all-time great special season. So it’s absolutely okay for you to draft Trey McBride at ADP, but just know what you are betting on. We don’t really like making that bet.

Colston Loveland

The Good

Colston Loveland is the exact kind of tight end we love taking in dynasty rookie drafts. He has the kind of profile where you never have to worry about him being pigeon-holed as an inline blocking tight end. That “big WR” build. Being picked as the first tight end off the board was the cherry on top.

We love Ben Johnson as a playcaller, and Caleb Williams flashed the gunslinger upside we liked to see. Our only concern with Colston Loveland in redraft was how crowded that offense was. Not only did you have another tight end in Cole Kmet, but you had Rome Odunze, DJ Moore, and fellow rookie Luther Burden. That did hamper Loveland for much of the season - until he was unleashed down the stretch,

How often do we EVER see tight ends get back-to-back-to-back-to-back games of double-digit targets, let alone as a rookie? That’s how Loveland closed out the season with games of 10 and 13 targets to end the regular season, then 15 and 10 targets in the two playoff games. And that was with DJ Moore there, who has since been traded to the Buffalo Bills. The question now is whether or not Loveland can be put back in the bottle.

The Bad

And the answer to that is - maybe. One thing we need to address is that Rome Odunze suffered a foot injury that saw him miss five games, including Weeks 17 and 18. And he was clearly not healthy in the two playoff games. Even with DJ Moore there, Odunze had 101 targets as a rookie and 90 in only 12 games last, which is a 125+ target pace. Odds are pretty good that he’ll clear 100 targets this season.

That sets up Colston Loveland for a direct battle for targets with fellow sophomore Luther Burden. We know, historically, it’s incredibly rare for three players on the same team to all get 100+ targets without injury help. If Burden is going to break out in Year 2, like many are projecting, that could leave Loveland as the third fiddle on this team. And, if Loveland doesn’t get 100+ targets, it’s going to be hard for him to pay off his TE3 price tag.

The Advice

This is the first tight end we are really willing to consider at ADP. We still aren’t reaching because, as we illustrated above, it’s not perfect. But there are enough factors here for us to make the bet if he falls to a reasonable price.

The bet vs. Luther Burden is reasonable enough. But Rome Odunze has also mentioned that his foot may never be the same again, citing a “new normal” in dealing with it. That does not sound great to me at all, and we’ve seen careers derailed for less. Because Cole Kmet plays inline TE with Loveland basically playing WR, we don’t really need to worry about a WR3 here - we don’t often bet on teams having three guys get 100+ targets, but the Bears with Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams might be our bet.

As we’ve mentioned time and time again, the two paths to a top-five tight end are 90+ targets or double-digit TDs. Odunze and Burden don’t necessarily need to fail or get hurt for Loveland to get there, but there is also contingent upside there if that does happen. That said, if you believe the two wide receivers are in line for big seasons, you probably should be fading Loveland because for him to have MASSIVE upside, those two really can’t both be getting 120+ targets. 

 

 

 

Tyler Warren

The Good

There has been much ado made about Colston Loveland and Harold Fannin in their rookie years. But it was actually Tyler Warren who was the top rookie tight end in fantasy, finishing as the TE4 overall. And he did it despite competition from Alec Pierce, Michael Pittman, and Josh Downs. Not to mention losing his quarterback for the final five games of the season.

On the season, Warren and Loveland had similar WR snaps, pass block rates, contested catches, broken tackles, and catches vs. man-to-man. Warren had a better route participation, target share, and he also got 13 screens, a stat where Loveland was oddly a zero in 2025. The stat where Colston Loveland were better than Warren were basically just aDot (9.5 vs. 5.9) and yards per route run (1.86 vs. 1.63), though that could also be due to Loveland’s lower routes run in general.

The other sneaky aspect Tyler Warren has going for him is his gadget upside. He’s a converted quarterback, so, on top of your typical end arounds, wildcat, and Tush Push TDs are on the table. Last year, he had six rush attempts, which included a TD and fumbling a goal-line snap that could have resulted in another. He also attempted a pass, something I could see them mixing in with the lefty throughout his career.

The Bad

The situation here is remarkably similar to the one for Colston Loveland. You have Alec Pierce on the outside. He might not have been on a ~125 target pace like Rome Odunze (he wasn’t even on a 100 target pace), but they paid him like that kind of player. So Pierce is penciled in as a 100+ target guy.

Then you have Josh Downs, who is basically their version of Luther Burden. He’s always looked good on a per-snap basis but has not had a chance to be a full-time player - until now. With Michael Pittman gone, Josh Downs has reportedly been moving all over the formation in early practices with hopes of finally being a full-time guy. He actually got 107 targets in 14 games in 2025 and got 88 last year in 16, so many are projecting him to take the leap here with his biggest season yet. And you guys should know how the math goes at this stage. We can’t have two wide receivers getting big target totals and expect the tight end to as well, especially with the likes of Daniel Jones at QB coming off a torn Achilles.

The Advice

Last year, even as a rookie, Tyler Warren was the target leader for this team both on a per-game basis and for the season as a whole. His first read target share of 22.2% was second on the team, only to Michael Pittman’s 23.2%, and now Pittman is gone. That 22.2% by itself was good for TE6. So we could be living in a world where Warren is the top target on the team, and everything else trickles down to the other guys.

Like Loveland, when you look at things even from the worst-case outcome, it’s not so bad. Alec Pierce is a high aDot guy who really does not command targets in the 150+ range like some of the other WR1s on their team - in four years, he’s never had more than 84. Josh Downs also isn’t likely to jump from ~100 to that type of range (though it would be cool if he did). Warren is an every-down player who moves all around the formation and has gadget upside, so his floor is still extremely high. And, even in this worst-case land we’ve created, he has contingent upside if either WR gets hurt, as the other WRs on the team are not threatening in the least. So Warren is another guy we will consider around ADP, though we still are not reaching. 

Kyle Pitts

The Good

Kyle Pitts is a freak athlete. With a 4.49 forty-yard dash, he has 99th percentile speed for the position, which, with his 6’6” 245-pound frame, also translates to a 99th percentile size adjusted sped score per Player Profiler. Those dudes simply do not grow on trees, and we’ll go to the loony bin betting on a player like this in our dynasty leagues. Straight line speed is arguably more important at the tight end position than any other, as it doesn’t take nearly as much to outrun linebackers and safeties as cornerbacks. 

He popped as a rookie with 1,000+ receiving yards, but a trifecta of issues in injuries, poor QB play, and bad scheme fits plagued him for the next few years. Even in 2025, he dealt with QB struggles and a coach in Zac Robinson that historically used more of an inline tight end than a “big slot” type guy where Pitts would thrive (he only had a 55% WR rate in 2025). He managed to finish as the TE2 in fantasy in spite of that.

Now, in 2025, he’ll have Kevin Stefanski coming to town, who has a storied history of using multiple tight end sets. Guys like Austin Hooper and Charlie Woerner will handle the inline duties, which should free up Pitts to operate in that WR role he was born to play. The Falcons are so confident in the fit that they decided to extend Pitts to a big-time three-year, $54M deal. Drake London will likely be the top target on the team, but after that, the target competition is pretty weak in guys like Jahan Dotson and Zachariah Branch. 

The Bad

Let’s start with the fact that Kyle Pitts has not quite lived up to the hype along the way. Sure, he’s had a couple of fantasy-relevant seasons, but “the haters” have recorded some Ws along the way as Kyle Pitts has been irrelevant at times, and he certainly hasn’t lived up to the game-changing, record-breaking touting. Pitts still has work to do to live up to his initial billing.

Even last year, the success for Kyle Pitts largely came in the games without Drake London. Pitts scored 9.6 PPR points per game in the 12 games with London, which would have been good for TE20. In the other five games, he scored 19.6 points per game, which would have been good for TE1 in fantasy - that’s who he ended up as the TE2 overall. And it was largely due to one massive game with three touchdowns.

The quarterback situation is also, once again, set to be dicey. Yes, Tua Tagovailoa let the lead in passing yards once upon a time, but was that because he’s good or because of Mike McDaniel, Tyreek Hill, and Jaylen Waddle? If Tua fails, it’s back to Michael Penix, except this time he’s coming off a torn ACL. So even if Tua is getting Pitts the ball, if the Falcons aren’t winning games, they could switch QBs right in time for the fantasy playoffs and ruin our plans and completely blindside us at the worst possible time.

The Advice

Yes, the Drake London stats are scary. But it would be a lot worse for us if there were TWO meaningful wide receivers and the stats happened when one of them was out. In this case, there is only one meaningful wide receiver, which gives Pitts a clear shot to be a top two target on the team. And a scheme is coming to town now that actually utilizes his skill set in the right way and makes him a focal point. So we’re willing to bet on the upside here.

In fact, Pitts is the first tight end that we are truly willing to reach on in drafts this year. Depending on the platform, he ranks anywhere from TE6 to TE8, but we have him ranked squarely as our TE5. And, quite frankly, we wouldn’t balk at anyone ranking him as high as TE3, but, based on ADP, you don’t need to. Guys like Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren go anywhere in rounds 3-5, and Pitts has an ADP in rounds 6-7, so I essentially prepare to take Kyle Pitts the moment that guys like Colston Loevaland and Tyler Warren are drafted. He’s one of the rare guys who actually checks virtually every box we look for. 

Harold Fannin Jr

The Good

Harold Fannin made us nervous as a prospect. Yes, the stats were there. Incredibly college stats, in fact. But he did it against weaker competition. And his athletic profile wasn’t particularly impressive. At 6’3”, 241 pounds, he’s not particularly big, and with a 4.71 forty-yard dash, he’s not particularly fast either. Plus, the third round is decent draft capital, but it certainly could have been better.

But then Harold Fannin actually got onto the field, and he put most of those concerns to rest. Despite his lack of high-end speed, he proved to have fantastic “wiggle” as his 22 broken tackles were second only to the 24 for Trey McBride and eight more than the next highest player. Even with David Njoku in town, he managed to have a high-end route participation, target share, pass block rate, man reception rate, and contested catch rate when all was said and done.

The most important thing, as we all know by now, is that he led the team in targets - and that’s despite missing a game. Targets and fantasy points per game are two of the stickiest stats from one year to the next, so there is a real possibility that Harold Fannin leads this Browns offensive charge once again in 2026.

The Bad

Yes, David Njoku left in free agency. But Njoku wasn’t really a problem for Fannin in 2025. And most of the other moves this offseason really did not go in David Njoku’s favor. In fact, for your dynasty leagues, it’s really about the opposite of what you would want to see.

First off, Kevin Stefanski left. He was the guy who used the heavy two-tight end sets that put Harold Fannin in the position to play a lot of WR snaps, which Njoku as the inline tight end. Jerry Jeudy has said that Todd Monken’s offense is totally different, not just in the terminology but in the concepts, the playcalling, all of it. So we need to hope that he views Fannin as a focal point.

They not only used their first round pick on a wide receiver, but they also used a second round pick on one. So Jerry Jeudy will be joined by KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston this year. With Deshaun Watson and/or Shedeur Sanders at the helm, I’m not 100% sure this team can support multiple fantasy-relevant pass-catchers. If one of those rookies breaks out in a big way, that hurts Fannin. If they both do, that could relegate Fannin to the third target on this team for the next three years. 

The Advice

By the nature of ranking Kyle Pitts ahead, we don’t really end up getting Harold Fannin much. And that’s okay with us. With Pitts, we can be extremely confident that he will be a top-two target alongside Drake London. With Fannin, there is a big of uncertainty in how the target pecking order will shake out between him, Jerry Jeudy, KC Concepcion, and Denzel Boston.

Now, I would personally bet that Fannin does end up a top two target on the team when all is said and done. And that’s why Fannin isn’t a complete fade for us if Pitts goes first and Fannin slides. But it is a little riskier than folks may think, and the Browns still don’t have a reliable quarterback. So this isn’t necessarily our favorite pick on the board.