Transcription
Of course, I want to leave every single draft this year with, I don't know, one of Brock Bowers, Colston Loveland, and Tyler Warren. They are probably my most drafted tight ends if I'm in a position to select them.
But Hayden, what we have learned over the last few years, if you are able to either Dr. Frankenstein the tight end position in the later rounds or find that one late-round tight end gem, i.e., Tucker Kraft, who was on this episode last year, then you have just a massive advantage versus the top two, three, four draft capital that your opponents spend on this position. That can be quite a graveyard week to week.
So, with that in mind, these are our favorite tight end sleepers for 2026 fantasy football, drafted either on Yahoo or Underdog pick 120 plus. And Hayden, I don't want you to give me one of these washed veterans. I want you to give me your spiciest take. Who is maybe an off-the-beaten-path tight end that you want people to know about this year?
>> Maybe too deep. I don't love UCLA Bruins, but Greg Dulcich is my first answer here. This one's pretty straightforward. If you look at the highest drafted pass catcher on teams in fantasy, there's only a handful of tight ends who are the number one in ADP on their teams. Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, Tyler Warren, that all makes sense. Harold Fannin makes sense. The last one is Greg Dulcich.
>> [laughter] >> He's the first Dolphins pass catcher to be drafted at 183. Long story short, somebody is catching passes on the Dolphins. They might not score many touchdowns, but Greg Dulcich at the very end of the season mattered. There's no competition at tight end or at wide receiver, and I'll leave you with this. He was second in yards per route run last year, only behind Dalton Kincaid. So, like this PPR scam, I think there's going to be limitations here. But in the deepest of sicko leagues that I know you guys are in, I do think that Greg Dulcich has a pretty good chance of being better than tight end 26.
>> If you weren't going to bring him up, I was. And I don't know what that says about me and you if we're absolute sickos, but in this case, we are. And this is not like a boy who cried wolf situation. I've been doing this show with you for over five years at this point. You and I have never been like pro-Greg Dulcich people. We haven't suggested him in this show or much throughout offseasons like other shows have, but in this case, in this environment, it does make the most sense. Like, as you talked about, we want to find these tight ends that have a chance of being top two pass catchers, even if the offense isn't projected for a lot of points. And just going through like the Our Lads depth chart at wide receivers and especially at tight ends, Greg Dulcich is right there. And then you go deeper. You go look at the beat writers, right? Marcel Louis-Jacques over at ESPN, right? Greg Dulcich quote continues to be massively underrated and was quote one of the primary targets for Marquez Callaway in spring practices. They added Will Dissly out of Ohio State, who is a pure blocker, and that is it. That frees up our guy this year, Greg Dulcich, to just catch passes. And think back to what Bobby Slowik did at the Houston Texans, multiple tight end sets, multiple heavy bodies, and that allowed Dalton Schultz to be the tight end 11 in points per game with him in 2023. So, I love this like home run swing that also has a chance of being a massive zero. And if he is a zero, then you just drop him and move on.
>> And I think he's just going to be a waiver wire guy. I think in like your basic, you know, 12-person Yahoo! league, you don't have to draft Greg Dulcich. Just don't be surprised when the first waiver wire show comes up and he's out there for 80% of the snaps and caught five passes if we have some interest. I would say he's PPR only, like half PPR. I mean, this is going to be disgusting. But I do think there's a lot of things going right for him. I the part that you mentioned, the offseason stuff has really been promising for Greg Dulcich. This is about the window when you enter the prime of your career. Third-round pick, always been a receiving type. And then when I went back and watched him, I mean, this is Mike McDaniel for you. They were doing cheat motions for Greg Dulcich. He's sprinting toward the sideline, cutting back upfield on dig patterns, like the stuff that you would typically see with Tyreek Hill. Greg Dulcich was doing that. He had some yards after the catch moments. He's an athletic receiving type. So, like if you were into Chigo Okonkwo last year, it's that type of profile here. I'm just hoping that like because there's nobody else to throw the ball to, this can be like one of the more higher-end outcomes for like a pure receiving type.
>> You just said, "If you were into Chigo Okonkwo last year." Hey, and I got news for you. What if you're into Chigo Okonkwo this year?
>> I got bad news for you.
>> For the third time this summer, I'm bringing him up on this program. Not the only one. Ian was, I think, on the show with his five favorite players, and Ian brought up now new Washington Commander Chigo Okonkwo, who's going as the Titan 17 over on Underdog, Titan 21 in your home leagues over on Yahoo. My simple pitch for this is, you know, I think he really can be David Blough's Sam LaPorta. In that, Sam LaPorta certainly not the biggest of the Titans, and Ben Johnson does, I think, a great job of kind of masking that in Detroit's offense, where he was kind of doing those same cheat motions. He was working into stacks. He would be lined up as a wide receiver and motion inside. And it's just on this same path of, at least right now, it's Terry McLaurin and a whole bunch of questions. And so, sure, can a pure blocker like John Bates throw a wrench and finally Chigo Okonkwo getting over, you know, 70% of a route run rate on this team? Potentially, but I also think like this is a much different environment than the one he was with in Tennessee, where they are, I mean, obviously the Titans not the greatest wide receiver room, but they, obviously the Commanders paid so much for Chigo Okonkwo, made him a primary target for now a play caller that wants to incorporate more traditional stuff, more some heavier bodies, more under center work, and you know, worked and played under someone like Ben Johnson who has kind of managed, albeit a lesser version than Sam LaPorta in this style, to really get him going and accentuate his strengths.
>> Yeah, this one just comes down to you like, is Brandon Aiyuk for real or not? Is Stefon Diggs for real or not?
>> If >> Well, we know Brandon Aiyuk is not like for real.
>> He's not for real, but he might like for real be a Commander in a couple of years.
>> But I think that would be a more interesting conversation. I think in the status quo right now, I think Chigo Okonkwo is a totally fine pick and if one of the veterans comes in, obviously that's going to take a pretty big hit because we're just kind of expecting him, hey, like somebody's got to catch passes, might as well be him because he is the actual number two right now.
>> It's so fitting to me though, he's right next to Aronde Gadsden, who like somewhat profiles are similar, albeit Aronde Gadsden is now on a team with three tight ends on it and you know, multiple wide receivers. And while Aronde Gadsden has had much better spike weeks than Chigo Okonkwo has in their early careers, uh I just the the pathway and sure, I'm maybe banking on some perceived volume here and that can totally change by week one or week seven and all that rolls around. But uh if Chigo Okonkwo goes up like two rounds, then I'm probably out on that price. But where he's going right now again is tight end 17 over on Underdog, I'm highly intrigued.
>> Yep, if Brandon Aiyuk doesn't wind up there, I think it's going to be a totally fine pick right here.
>> I think he's I think he's going to be a tight end two, um but where he's being drafted, that's where he that's where he is.
>> Okay, we've talked a lot about, you know, this new wave of tight end blood and how that's kind of changed the position and all these guys are drafted earlier. That means that the olds, the uncs of the group are now like dropping further and further and actually qualify here. So, I know I have one and you brought one here as well.
>> Yep, Mark Andrews and he's just right on the you don't have to know about the sleeper with Mark Andrews. Just the reality is, beyond Zay Flowers, there's nobody. Like obviously they lose Isaiah Likely, it's pretty much like Bateman, who's really hasn't done anything for a couple of years now, and then a couple like fringe day two rookie wide receivers. So, if Lamar Jackson turns back to an MVP, it'll be hard for Mark Andrews to not matter. Now, last year on a per route basis, per target basis, it was easily the worst of his career. That is very, you know, that's probably the reason why his ADP is dropping and there's right reasons for that. This is just like blindly Lamar Jackson, there's nobody else beyond Zay Flowers. Like he's just going to be out there. I would not be surprised if he had seven, eight touchdowns this year, even if he's not the same player. And just going back and watching him, he's not the same player. Like we shouldn't expect that. This is just a pure great quarterback volume play and just we'll figure out the rest later.
>> Yeah, I mean, you talked about the wide receiver room and the status of that. What also gave us frustration is any given game or any given series, we didn't know how much Mark Andrews was going to play based on the Charlie Kolar's, the Patrick Ricard's, and the Isaiah Likely's of the world. Every single one of those players are gone. They have brought in Durham Smythe and Matt Hibner, and then someone I there almost said Scott Lucas, but apparently it's it's Lucas Scott is his name. So, it's always it's always a a dangerous task when you have two first names as your name. Um yeah, I mean, one of the craziest stats with Mark Andrews was back in 2024 when he had 15 red zone targets and 11 touchdowns. I mean, that is the hottest of hot streaks you can ever run because he actually had 14 targets inside the red zone last year and ended up with three touchdowns. I mean, that is such a gigantic and seismic difference of how you're going to even if the targets are in the same area, how effective and successful you're going to be um as a fantasy asset. And sure, you know, some of that was without Lamar Jackson, but also just the high variance-ness of this position that reminds and relies so much on on touchdowns. But, he's out there all the time, and that's what we want.
>> Note is Declan Doyle. He's a 30-year-old offensive coordinator. This is our first real look at him. What if he's Ben Johnson? What if he's Liam Coen? We just don't know. Like, there is at least some upside with It's not just like Greg Roman again here. Like, there's some upside where like, "Hey, we have a boy genius play caller for Lamar Jackson." So, a little upset there.
>> I do think that Todd Monken was pretty good for Mark Andrews in that he built the red zone passing offense around him. And if you ran the ball, it was Lamar and and Derrick Henry.
>> Yeah. I saw Lamar's won MVP uh his first two times with new offensive coordinators. This is to be the third one. So, you know, if you want to believe in that whatever trends, go for it.
>> Go. And Mark Andrews does fit this list. I mean, he's 125 overall on Underdog. That is tight end 11. But, in your home leagues on Yahoo, he's uh tight end 15. Okay. My old man is Dallas Goedert, tight end 15 on Underdog in the 12th round. He's going even earlier in your home leagues, obviously, as as tight end 12 on Yahoo. Um 11 touchdowns last year. But, that replaced, you know, an average of just four catches for 40 yards per game, which is really low. I think it's lowest since 2021. Again, I'll continue to say it, the easy math here is that we want to target tight ends who have a chance of being top two pass catchers within their offense. Without A.J. Brown on this offense, that is more possible than ever for Dallas Goedert as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. Uh and then with Sean Mannion, who is coming from the Green Bay Packers coaching staff, that highlighted the strengths of Tucker Kraft, the yards after the catch, like, that is a possibility. Now, Dallas Goedert now is 31. We know the contract saga that went on at the beginning of this offseason. He certainly does not move like he used to. But, you know, after DeVonta Smith, it is Quez Watkins, who's a rookie that we love, but a rookie, and Dontayvion Wicks, who is certainly not Mr. Reliable out there. So, if we get some changes and some positive ones, we've not only seen Dallas Goedert be in like the RPO short screen game, that can generate some stuff, and then especially in the red zone, but down the seams, he works vertically there, too. And so, this is the cheapest it feels like we can get Dallas Goedert on on really an offense that we still want pieces from.
>> Yeah, he's tight end seven in expected points, finished as a tight end five. A lot of those touchdowns were like there's a lot of attention on the tush push. What if you just threw the ball to Dallas Goedert real quick? Like, maybe we continue some of that. Like, that's could be three free touchdowns for us. Uh maybe it's not going to be six of those, but maybe it's two or three of them. We'll we'll take those, and then yeah, obviously, when you have you're losing A.J. Brown, like the targets are going to go somewhere. I think there's like obviously the other players you just named are going to soak up some of it, but yeah, I think Dallas Goedert's totally totally fine pick here. He also averaged, you know, 40 yards per game. That's not nothing um at this position. So, he's not only touchdown reliant. I think he's going to be a fringe tight end one, too. I don't view him that dissimilar to a lot of the tight ends that go, you know, just a couple picks before him.
>> Okay. Before we reveal our final two names, uh hit subscribe. Join us here on the channel. We hit 173,000. We need 175,000 subscribers. It's totally free to all of you, and we'll have uh plenty more content this summer to help you win your fantasy football league. All right. I think we these two names we also discussed on this very program last year, and they had really strong seasons, and yet you can still draft them very, very late. So, who's next for you?
>> So, this would be like my favorite like true sleeper of the three. I think this is somebody that could like is a true sleeper that can finish potentially as a low-end tight end one. That's A.J. Barner. He's 24. He plays for the Seahawks. By the way, in that Super Bowl, he played 95% snaps and then 90% snaps in the Super Bowl and the uh conference championship. So, when everything's on the line, he's a full-time player. He's definitely athletic enough. He's a kick-ass blocker. I think he's one of the most underrated tight ends in the league, period. And this is one of those teams where I like Rashid Shaheed, who's one of my wide receiver sleepers, but the number two pass catcher on the Seahawks is wide open. It's a race between Dissly and Shaheed and maybe Cooper Kupp. And then what happens if JSN moves out of the way? So historically, we're looking for the first or second pass catchers on NFL teams. That's your starting fantasy tight end options. I do think there's a chance AJ Barner could qualify as that. He's just a totally fun player, and when it mattered, he was he was useful for the Seahawks.
>> You have to score more touchdowns to be fantasy relevant. He scored quite a few last year. It does concern me that, you know, he wasn't even, I think, in the top 25 in yards per game among tight ends last year, but, you know, the Seahawks were seventh in number of red zone drives per game. He scored five of six touchdowns in the red zone. And then I believe you just said this, in three wide receiver sets, they only ran that 42% of the time. This is very much a 21 and 12 personnel team. And when they let go of Noah Fant, everyone wanted to say Elijah Arroyo, and you and I were sitting here saying, "Actually, it's AJ Barner. He's going to be out there on the field all the time." And that's the case. It's going to be Barner and Arroyo or Barner and Oots. And that's it. And uh Barner's a really good player, and he's one of these guys who already had a really strong skill set coming to league as a run blocker. That's like a sixth offensive lineman. And then you can just see with his athleticism, the receiving game growing each and every year. And what, now in year three? Maybe it's taking another leap.
>> Uh the new Seahawks OC, obviously they they lost uh Clint Kubiak, comes from the San Francisco 49ers. They might know a thing or two about these tight ends.
>> Um and 12 and 21 with like the Kyle Youchecks and the George Kittles and the Tongas and all the of the world.
>> So >> Maybe he turns into George Kittle, you never know.
>> My name that I love last summer is Evan Engram. I'm actually stunned that we can get him as tight end 19 on Underdog and tight end 17 on Yahoo. That probably speaks to the position a little bit, but I also also think it speaks to him missing a chunk of time last year, but when he returned from injury, five of the final seven weeks, he scored as a tight end five, five, 10, 19, and five per game. Um I know you can look at it on paper and say, "Well, the Jaguars just invested, you know, two draft picks on tight ends and also added Quinton Morris, I believe, from the Buffalo Bills. To me, that's all a sign that we can get even more like receiving work here from Evan Engram. That is to free him up because when he went down, they could not run 12 personnel at all, and it kind of stalled their offense for periods of time. John Shipley, our buddy, ranked Evan Engram as the fourth most important Jaguar of the 2026 season.
>> Wow.
>> Jaguars agreed. They just paid him, you know, a nice contract. Uh the reason Shipley said that amongst all receivers with at least 20 targets last year, Engram ranked number one with both total receiving EPA and receiving EPA per target. So, he's a weapon in the run game, and I think he's a growing weapon in the pass game along the same lines that I said that he started off as an athlete that could block and now is growing as an athlete who can be has some receiving chops.
>> And the downside here, and I'm sure you're going to bring it up, lots of receiving competition here for the Jaguars.
>> Yeah, the the receiving competition is is the big one. From week 12 on though, including the the the postseason, he was tight end 11 in expected points, and he's a good football player, so uh there's a pathway despite a bunch of competition that he still kind of holds the line. I do think an injury to one of the receivers would certainly help him out, but if they are going to pivot to 12 personnel, he's going to be on the field for those snaps while one of the wide receivers he's technically competing with is standing on the sideline. So, I think this is about right for him. I I if there was Parker Washington or Jacob Myers didn't exist, I think this would be like a wheel it in home run pick. Um I kind of understand the ADP, but I'm not ignoring him. He's He's too good of a player like you and Shipley are are uh forecasting.
>> All right. I've got two quick names. Just cuz I have to throw them out there just in case they hit so I can bring it up.
>> Okay.
>> Uh that [laughter] we did. You know how this job works. And we already talked about them in the second-year tight end show, right? Uh Gunner Helm and and Terrance Ferguson. Just quickly with Gunner Helm, this is the Tennessee Titans. Obviously, they brought in and drafted wide receivers and he might be, you know, the third or fourth pass catcher. And only ran a route on 38% of dropbacks last year. And he's not one of these types that I absolutely love because his testing athleticism wasn't great. He also had a tennis ball attached to his ankle that he rolled in his 40-yard dash. So, I will say we'll never know his true athletic profile. But he does make tight window catches. He does snatch the ball away from his frame. I think he sits in zone pretty well um and makes himself pass-friendly. And I think he's going to be the tight end one for the Titans. And then quickly with Terrance Ferguson, just because he's unique. He's almost a unicorn at the tight end position with how he's used. Again, so much 13 personnel for that Rams team and he was Tutu Atwell in that 13 personnel. Like 15 of his 31 targets were 20-plus yards down the field. There is no other tight end in the league that does that. And so, I think there is a chance that somehow he is the most talented tight end in the Rams room by the end of the season. The season is very long. Uh and I'm just a big T Ferg guy.
>> Yeah, I think T Ferg and Colby Parkinson are both totally fine picks in Best Ball. I think like week one, week two rolls around and he's finally getting the snap shares and we'll obviously talk about that in our recap and stats versus film. We'll have better answers, but those are great dart throws. The the one, he didn't technically qualify. Isaiah Likely is, you know, the punt tight end in redraft that you can start in week one and week two. If you don't want to spend a premium pick, you miss out on the Kyle Pitts tier and you just like punting this thing off. If Malik Nabers isn't going to be out there for week one, he is by far the number one Giants pass catcher and like that's all it takes. And there's untapped ceiling with him in a semi full-time role. So, I think Isaiah Likely didn't qualify this, but like punt tight end sleeper, could he finish as the tight end eight this year? I think like absolutely, especially in the month of September, which is what we're focused on, at least in in redraft initially.
>> All right. That does it. We're actually going to post running back rankings early next week. Not running back rankings, running back sleepers early next week. We just didn't fit it in in time for the fourth. We want to take some time off, you know, for you so you can watch our other programs from the summer and uh, you know, draft some more teams this weekend on top of it. All right. That is going to do it. Shout out to all of you who hit subscribe. Leave a thumbs up on this video, too, before you get out of here and we'll see you in the next program.