5 Tight Ends Every Fantasy Manager Will Regret Sleeping On (2026 TEs)

**Dave Kluge** (0:11)
Tight end is a position of haves and have nots, and if you miss out on a high scoring tight end, you could feel like you are fighting an uphill battle all year. But do not worry, Bob Harris and I have identified some of the best values that you should be targeting in your fantasy drafts. And Bob, start us off with a guy who is coming off of a pretty big year, but still a huge value in the drafts right now.

**Bob Harris** (0:32)
Yeah, tight end ate last year and it was better. There were weeks of much better production than that. We got top five production on a number of weeks. That's Joann Johnson. Steady presence in New Orleans offense over the past four seasons. Took another step. I think he's eight, he's 29 last year. He's not a spring chicken. They did get Oscar Delph in the mix.
But one of the things you like about Johnson is, you know, well, first connection with Tyler Schock, right? He roomed together, they roomed together at Oregon. But more than any other player outside of Chris Alavi, Johnson's 102 targets ranked well ahead of the field. Now, Jordan Tyson going to change that a little bit? Yes. But I can't imagine Johnson not remaining a focal point in Kellen Moore's offense. His long standing rapport with Schock gives him advantage. He could hit the thousand yard mark this year. So he'll still need to fend off Delph and Noah Phant, but it could well settle in as a high second, as high as second as target priority. Currently going as tight end 17 with an 11th round price.
It's almost a free square play. You know, like a lot of these guys I'm going to talk about today, I don't know that I'm advocating drafting them as you're starting tight end. But if you did, I can think of worse, more horrible outcomes than that if you're cashing in on value earlier in your draft. But if you're drafting a second tight end, there's no way you can go wrong with like, you know, it's almost like we do a quarterback today when you draft that high upside play a little earlier than you get to steady eddy later on. Juwan Johnson has kind of turned into a steady eddy at the position, and I think that's going to continue this year.

**Dave Kluge** (1:59)
Yeah, shout out to Andrew Cooper, who talks about the yin yang theory that you kind of want to get like one of these like high end, like kind of safer guys, like a Hunter Henry adult and Schultz or Juwan Johnson, and then pair him up with a Kenyan Siddique or the unknown rookie, something like that. And you talk about like there are other tight ends in New Orleans, but like, no offence, we can wish cast that all we want, but the reality is like never lived up to his draft day potential. Like he has been more of that in blocking, in line blocking, tight end, he's not really a receiver. Oscar Delp, I like very much, but he's a rookie and like we see this all the time, like these rookies take time to get up to speed. And you said Juwan Johnson, not a young spring chicken, really the 29 years old for a tight end, those are the peak performing years. Like we see like a running back that's still getting 29 touches is a unicorn, or at 29 years old still getting touches is a unicorn, but we see most of these tight ends kind of hit the peak production at age 28, 29, 30 years old. So yeah, he's been around the league for a little while, but like he is theoretically hitting his prime this year.

**Bob Harris** (2:59)
So let's talk about Tyler Shock, too. We all know that he was a little bit older when he was drafted today. Played together in college is amazing. I think last year's numbers, the career high and targets, catches, yardage, fantasy points, all ranked eighth or better among tight ends. So just an easily overlooked guy, not one of the sexier picks. Probably nothing anyone's going to go, oh, when you make that selection. But a guy that can probably carry you through some weeks if you need him.

**Dave Kluge** (3:25)
Well, we are here on YouTube right now. And Bob, we've been doing this series for the last couple of weeks. We did running backs last week. We did wide receivers the week before. And we're not going to make you wait a full week. We're doing quarterbacks tomorrow. So go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Check out the episodes we've already done and come back for future episodes as well. And please like this video. It is Red Zone. Training camp is here. The season is kicking off in just about a month and a half. So like this video, help this channel grow, do what you can to help us there. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, please leave a review. I'm not going to whine about the one-star review anymore. I'm done. It's in the past. But please leave us a review. We love those reviews. And let me go ahead and talk about one of my favorite targets. Now, Bob, you and I, we have very loose parameters for the players that we want to pick. You took some of the deeper players. And my strategy this year is that you should be paying up for some of the more premium tight ends. And when I look at Kyle Pitts, this guy just got a big contract. He is still well ahead of his peak production years, just continuing to get better. And he was the tight end too in fantasy scoring last year. Now, of course, there's context that goes along with that. George Kittle got hurt. Tucker Kraft got hurt. Brock Bowers got hurt. And of course, Drake London got hurt. And when Drake London was out of the lineup, that's when we saw Kyle Pitts have his best games. But this is an ascending player. I'm not going to bore you with all the prospect talk, but where this guy was drafted, with the off-the-charts athleticism, the college production, we have had lofty expectations for Kyle Pitts, his entire NFL career. He comes in his rookie season, immediately has the second best rookie season ever behind only Mike Ditka, and then deals with that MCL injury. And that really zapped his explosiveness. We saw he was struggling to get in and out of his breaks for the next couple of years. But last year, he looked more like the player that I saw at Florida. We saw the game breaking speed. We saw the big plays. We saw the after the catch abilities. And of course, we saw the upside in the games where Drake London had to miss, where he basically punched your ticket into round two of the fantasy playoffs. The one other thing, we talk about this upward trajectory, Kyle Pitts has scored exactly one more touchdown every year he has been in the league. Year one, he had one touchdown. Year two, two touchdowns, so on and so on. Now going into year six, we can project a career best. Six touchdowns for Kyle Pitts and hopefully another strong fantasy season. I don't know how you feel about Kyle Pitts, Bob, but I know he's one of those guys that has been a buzzy name for the last half decade. And I think people have soured on him because he hasn't really realized that upside. But we still have to imagine that his best days are ahead of him.