Tight end sleepers for 2026 fantasy football

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 12: Gunnar Helm #84 of the Tennessee Titans gets set during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on October 12, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. | Getty Images Welcome to the 2026 fantasy football season. In this article we’ll dig for some late value at the tight end position. This is not a place where many strong fantasy tight ends come from though. Many a late-round tight end has ended up back on waivers after Week 1. But, it is possible to find some value late, especially when “value” for a fantasy tight end has a fairly low bar. Last season we saw the Cardinals’ Tre McBride absolutely go crazy with 126 receptions for 1,236 yards and 11 touchdowns, while the next best fantasy tight end was Kyle Pitts, who caught 88 passes for 928 yards and 5 touchdowns. That’s a difference of 115 PPR points between first and second! You have to go down to TE30 on the year to get that far away in PPR points from Pitts. If you go to TE10, the difference is just 33 PPR points. This is all to say that tight ends just don’t score that many fantasy points on average. Of course, Brock Bowers, George Kittle, and Tucker Kraft suffered injuries last season, while Colston Loveland didn’t break out until late. My draft strategy for tight ends is to get someone in the first two tiers if at all possible. I don’t want to rely on a late-round tight end, but I also don’t want to grab Bowers or McBride at their ADP. That puts players like Harold Fannin Jr. and Dalton Kincaid as players I’d be happy with if they fall at all in the draft. But, these three below, especially Johnson, are players I’ll target in every draft. Juwan Johnson, Saints Johnson was a steady tight end last year, ending his season as TE8 after accumulating 77 receptions and 889 yards. Unfortunately he only found the end zone three times, which kept him from having a true breakout season. Johnson isn’t free this season, but his ADP isn’t going to break the bank at TE16. I love the Saints offense, as it is pass heavy and up-tempo under Kellen Moore. They also will be without rookie receiver Jordan Tyson to start the season, which should help Johnson get off to a good start. And with any TD regression to the mean, we could see those numbers be more of a positive this season than last. Brenton Strange, Jaguars Strange missed a good chunk of games in the middle of last season, but was able to return and catch three touchdowns over the last six games. He is an efficient pass-catcher, as he hauled in 46 of his 60 targets for 540 yards and those three touchdowns. He’ll have plenty of competition in Liam Coen’s spread out offense, but he proved last season that he can contribute and given a healthy year, he should be a usable TE2 with TE1 upside if Trevor Lawrence and company can take another step forward. Gunner Helm, Titans For the most part I want to stay away from Titans’ players, but there’s something about Helm that has me intrigued. First off, the Titans let Chig Okonkwo go to Washington, pushing the second-year Helm into the starting position. They did pick up Daniel Bellinger from the Giants, but I’d expect him to be behind the second-year tight end. Last year Helm set the Titans record for rookie tight end receptions while being clearly behind Okonkwo. Brian Daboll, the new OC, also has a reputation for using tight ends in his offense. The question will be, can Cam Ward take a step forward? He did play better to end his rookie campaign and I like Daboll much better as an OC than a HC. Terrance Ferguson, Rams The Rams are going to use their tight ends an they have plenty of them. The question is, how will they use second-year tight end Ferguson? Of all their tight ends, Ferguson is the best pure receiver. He’s a deep threat at a position that usually doesn’t have many deep threats. In his limited work last year, he saw his average target depth at over 18 yards downfield. He’s going to line up out wide and try to find mismatches against linebackers and safeties. If given the opportunity, he could truly go off in their Sean McVay offense, but we just don’t know what kind of usage he’ll see. In redraft I am more than willing to take him late (ADP TE25), as we should know soon if he’s going to see a bigger role this year. If he doesn’t, then drop him and pick up a player who has surprised with their usage early in the season.

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