0:00This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play!
0:03Can you believe this? He's had no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
0:08Off to the races! And he stays at his feet!
0:11He's just gonna go the distance! Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
0:15We are talking tight ends here, breakout tight ends for the 2026 season on Fantasy Football Today.
0:20Adam Azer, Heath Cummings, Dave Richard, and special guest Jamie Eisenberg from Fantasy Football Today of CBS Sports.
0:26Hello, Jamie. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.
0:29I appreciate it. You guys are awesome. Oh, you don't mean that.
0:32I do not know the last time that I did a show with Jamie.
0:36It's been a while. Oh. And the funny thing is, I think we're recording this one second.
0:42We just did a quarterback show without Jamie, but I'm guessing it's gonna be published fourth.
0:46So the audio people are gonna be like, this isn't a funny bit at all.
0:51Um, I said on the, oh, Jamie left. I said on the tight end show, or the quarterback show, that I would
0:57go over some news and notes, and I forgot.
1:00So here's your news and notes. Minnesota named Kyler Murray, the starting quarterback.
1:04Josh Jacobs is out at least one week with a groin injury, and he still could be suspended, according to Adam Schefter, for his domestic violence situation.
1:12Still under review. Puka Nakua has a minor groin issue, minor groin soreness, it's being called.
1:17He could still be suspended. Miami head coach Jeff Halfley said, Devon Achan is going to have a big workload.
1:22He said he might give him 40 touches in some games.
1:26I don't know if he was a catcher. Yeah.
1:28J.K. Dobbins was back doing individual drills on Tuesday.
1:31Chris Rodriguez and Bejal Tootin, based on the depth chart, based on some practice reports, it seems like fairly even right now between the two of them.
1:39Rashawn Slater, a guy who missed the entire season last year with a knee injury, left tackle for the Chargers.
1:45He had a minor flare-up in that surgically repaired knee, but we're gonna be keeping an eye on that.
1:51A report from The Athletic that Tyrone Tracy Jr.
1:53is getting the majority of the two-minute drill snaps.
1:56When they were both healthy last year, Scadaboo and Tracy split that fairly evenly.
2:00Mike Evans returned to practice. Josh Downs, the same thing.
2:03Zay Flowers returned. Matthew Golden returned. GM Chris Ballard of the Colts said Alec Pierce did not have a second PRP injection
2:10on his ankle, and he's hopeful that Pierce will be ready for week one.
2:14Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan could miss time in the regular season with a hamstring injury.
2:19And Bears safety Kobe Bryant is out four to six months with a knee injury, and that's a prized offseason addition for them from Seattle.
2:26Good player and makes their defense worse, the Chicago Bears.
2:29Okay, let's talk breakout tight ends here. And you guys submitted names, but I think everybody's feeling Colston Loveland, so I don't
2:35think this conversation can exist without talking about Colston Loveland.
2:38Heath, how good could Colston Loveland be in his last four games, including the playoffs?
2:43He scored 21.4, 25.1, 23.7, and 9.6 PPR fantasy points.
2:46How good could Loveland be? Yeah, this one gets the duh award, but it's also the you better not do a breakout show without talking about him award.
2:54I had in his last 12 games, including the playoffs, 15 PPR fantasy points per game.
2:59That's not the ceiling. He is my tight end to ahead of Trey McBride.
3:03We have heard lots of good things about Luther Burden, probably more steady drumbeat about Luther Burden, but we've also heard that
3:10Colston Loveland is the son of the Bears passing game.
3:13Everything revolves around him. He could lead this team in targets.
3:16He could be amongst the top two or three tight ends in target lead.
3:20I would be happy to take him in round three at the very end of round three.
3:25What scares you guys, if anything, about Colston Loveland?
3:28Caleb Williams' accuracy. For me, it's high A dot for a tight end.
3:32He might lead the position based on what we saw last year.
3:35I don't love that, and he didn't have a single screen pass last year.
3:39So I'm kind of nitpicking because not that much scares me about Colston Loveland.
3:43I think he's so good. I think the other thing that scares me, guys, is we talked about this a couple weeks ago.
3:50We had a great tight end season for rookies last year.
3:53Three of the eight highest rookie tight end scoring seasons in PPR in the last 25 years came from last year's class.
4:00And Loveland was eighth, by the way. Fannin and Warren outscored him overall.
4:04But the other guys who have been on that list, like Kyle Pitts and Brock Bowers and Sam Laporta, and even Pat
4:10Friermuth in the top ten, most of the guys did worse their second year.
4:15I just think, and Dave and Jamie can say if I'm wrong, but you don't – like fear doesn't come into the
4:21equation when you're talking about Colston Loveland. And maybe it should have last year with Brock Bowers.
4:26He got hurt, and he wasn't as good as I was hoping he was going to be.
4:31But I equate it to – I told you the greatest hike I ever took.
4:36I took on this last trip. We were going to Grinnell Glacier, and for like four miles, I'm walking straight up on
4:42the side of a mountain, going underneath a waterfall where if I step two feet the wrong way, it's over.
4:48And I couldn't be scared because I was going to walk on a glacier.
4:52And that's Colston Loveland. Okay. Yeah. Jamie, how do you feel about Loveland?
4:56You take him in the third round too. I think it really just comes down to the same sort of sentiment we
5:03said about when you're taking Brock Bowers and when you're taking Trane McBride, that the position feels like it's pretty loaded with
5:09at least 10 to 11 guys that you should feel comfortable with.
5:13And is it taking him too soon in comparison to some other great players around him when you know you can still
5:19get another tight end a little bit later? So like Bowers should be great.
5:23McBride should be great. Loveland should be great. But you're paying a premium price for them.
5:28And so it's not so much about fear. Are they going to be bad?
5:32It's about fear of my passing on somebody else that's also going to be great and can still get a good enough tight end later.
5:40So that's really the only concern I would have is that I don't expect him to have a complete drop off.
5:46Obviously, Caleb Williams getting hurt or him getting injured himself.
5:49But like if he performs like he's capable of doing, like this could be one of the best tight ends ever and
5:55could have one of the best tight end seasons ever.
5:58You know, he's got that much upside. Which me, yeah.
6:01Yeah. And that's the point is that it means even if you're taking him in late round three, you're still not getting
6:08him at a ceiling because the ceiling is legitimately tight end one.
6:11If we cherry pick his last four games, keep in mind the first half of the year, he was coming back from injury.
6:18The team said that he didn't know exactly what he was doing out there.
6:22You almost have to give him a pass for that.
6:25By the time he got to the second half of the year and especially those last four games, here's the last four games.
6:3212 targets per game, 20 PPR points per game, 13 non-PPR points per game.
6:36I don't think he can do that. But I think he can be in that neighborhood of 14 PPR points per game,
6:43seven and a half to eight targets per game, red zone weapon for the Chicago Bears, playmaker on passing downs.
6:49I think that there's an easy opportunity for him to finish as a top three fantasy tight end.
6:54And where you're drafting him around the likes of, and if you want to name names, you can on ADP, but it's
7:01like Garrett Wilson, Ladd McConkie, pick a quarterback, Zay Flowers.
7:04I understand that he may not score as many PPR points per game as those positions, but if I'm getting somebody who's
7:10close to those guys at the tight end position, my team is benefiting from that in the long haul.
7:16Yeah. There's just, there's not that, if he's going to go in round three, which he might in a lot of drafts,
7:22there's not much separation between Colston Loveland and Brock Bowers and Trey McBride.
7:26I mean, they're practically in the same tier at that point.
7:29So it's fine. I mean, he, he, he, the only difference is theoretical versus demonstrated just using a line that Heath used from the quarterback breakout video.
7:37And we've, we've seen it from McBride. We've seen it mostly from Bowers.
7:41We've only seen it in one spurt from Loveland and he's a rookie, obviously, but I think you're betting on the potential here.
7:48And Adam, as we saw in the draft last night, the mock draft we did with users for, for our listeners, for, for St.
7:55Jude, that there was a very close proximity to when Tyler Warren was drafted.
7:59Yeah. Right. And so back into round three, we saw Warren go beginning round four.
8:04Like that's another guy that I think has pushed himself into the conversation to be with those guys, especially if you have
8:10Alec Pierce out at the start of the season or however many games he may miss.
8:15Josh Downs is banged up. What Warren did at the beginning of last season with Daniel Jones, like that wasn't to the
8:22level of what we saw from Colston Loveland. No, but you think about it.
8:26They were both first round picks. They both expected to be featured parts of their offenses.
8:31They're both going to be featured parts of their offenses.
8:33And I think it's, if you, again, looking at it, how you're building your team, if Loveland is going to go back
8:40end of round three and you like other players there, you could probably still get Tyler Warren early round four.
8:46That's the route you want to go. All right.
8:49Well, pretty good, pretty good crop of tight ends.
8:51We think hopefully it pans out. Let's get some other names here.
8:55Jamie or Dave. Actually, why don't we pick up on the Tyler Warren discussion here?
8:59Because he did go 37th. I think in the draft we saw last night, first pick of round four.
9:05When would you take Tyler Warren? No, that's too rich for my blood.
9:09I think he's in that late round four, early round five range as the fourth tight end off the board.
9:15What Jamie referred to last year was 12 games with Daniel Jones, 13.1 PPR points on six and a half targets per game.
9:22I think we could all agree that with Pittman out of there and Alec Pierce, not a hundred percent, at least for
9:28the beginning of the year, Tyler Warren should be in the neighborhood of seven and a half targets per game.
9:34When Pierce is back and he's doing his thing, maybe he falls down to maybe 6.8 targets per game, but an uptick nonetheless.
9:41And therefore I think it's fair to assume that Warren can get right back to 13 to 14 PPR points per game.
9:47That's a notch below what I think we'd expect from Loveland.
9:51I don't think he has the same type of ceiling as Colson Loveland, but I do think he's going to be a
9:57huge part of this Colts offense and absolutely should be viewed as stud, must start tight end, big, big potential, maybe just not as much as Loveland.
10:05Okay. Yeah. If you find out that Alec Pierce is back and he's going to be ready for week one and all
10:12that, does that change how you feel about Tyler Warren?
10:15No. Because I'm expecting Pierce to be back for a majority of the year anyway.
10:19Yeah. Okay. I don't think Pierce is in danger of missing like half the season or anything like that.
10:25Maybe a game, maybe. And he'll probably listen. If he's going to, if they're saying they're hopeful for week one, that means
10:31that maybe the first few weeks of the season, Pierce won't be himself.
10:35He's got to get himself back into game shape.
10:38There's obviously the risk of re-injury and all that stuff, but it's not enough for me to, to pull Warren higher or lower.
10:45I think if there's a benefit for Warren as a result of Pierce, Pierce is expected to do a lot of different things this year.
10:52And now he's not getting the opportunity to practice those things right now.
10:56And so there's 111 targets available with Michael Pittman gone.
10:59They did next to nothing to replace Pittman. And so if you look at it, we always say who could be first
11:05or second on their team and targets. This should be their target leader.
11:09This should be the guy that gets the most opportunities.
11:12Like Pierce, I don't think is jumping from 84 targets to 140.
11:16Like that's just not, I think the type of player that he is and downs while he should be better.
11:22I don't think that's the guy either that you focus on.
11:25This is their guy. And so if you don't want to pay the price of Bowers, McBride or Loveland, this is the guy you go after.
11:33Let me, you know, I give this that, I've given this that before, but think about it for Loveland.
11:38Think about it for Warren. Just 14 PPR fantasy points per game.
11:42It's a really good season. It's not like a league winning season, but it's really good.
11:47But in the last five years, there've been 14 tight ends who have averaged 14 or more PPR fantasy points per game.
11:53Okay. 14 tight ends, 14 or more PPR points per game over the last five years.
11:58Eight of the 14 average more than eight targets per game.
12:01That's I think 136 targets in a full season.
12:0410 of the 14 average more than seven targets per game.
12:07So they average at least 100 or about 120 targets or more.
12:11The four guys who average 14 or more PPR points per game and fewer than seven targets per game were George Kittle
12:17three times and Tucker Craft in eight games last season.
12:20So basically, I would say if you want your tight end to score 14 points per game, 120 targets is kind of
12:27where they need to be unless they're George Kittle.
12:29Heath, how many tight ends do you have projected for 120 or more targets?
12:33Probably more than everyone else, if I was guessing.
12:36But one, two, three, four, five. Wow. And those would be?
12:39Six. I'm sorry. So Bowers, Loveland, McBride, Pitts, Laporte, Warren.
12:42Pitts, Laporte. Okay. Okay. We're going to take a break here.
12:46So we've talked about the two, two of the year, two tight ends and Colson Loveland and Tyler Warren, but we have
12:52a lot more to get to Kyle Pitts. It will come back and we'll discuss Kyle Pitts as a breakout from Heath after this.
12:59All right, Heath, let's talk about Kyle Pitts. He's been your guy for a while now.
13:04He was the, he was a number two tight end overall last year.
13:08He had 118 targets last year on a per game basis, 10th and non PPR, but sixth and fifth and half and full PPR respectively.
13:15What do you think about Pitts this year? I was really torn between saying Laporte or Pitts.
13:20And since Laporte has already had a tight end one overall season and his best per game average was better than Pitts.
13:27I went with Kyle Pitts. I think both of them are going to have career years.
13:32I've talked a lot, but probably too much about the play caller slash offensive coordinators.
13:36Kevin Stefanski, Drew Petsing, 27% target share to their tight ends.
13:39Maybe more importantly, like you talked about no easy button targets for Lovelland last year.
13:44That's what this offense does. When things break down, you just dump it off to the tight end in the flat.
13:50Kyle Pitts coming off of his best year, at least in terms of total fantasy points, because he only scored one touchdown as a rookie.
13:57And one of the big things that changed was he had his lowest ADOT at 7.4.
14:02He's been below nine each of the last two years.
14:05I think that continues with Stefanski. Pitts has not been as bad as his reputation is.
14:10We've just ranked him too high a couple of years, and he was awesome when he got their opportunity last year.
14:16I expect this to be one of the most concentrated target shares in the NFL between London, Pitts, and Bijon Robinson.
14:22I think they'll have to be pass heavy because the defense isn't going to be very good.
14:27Kyle Pitts is a top five or six tight end in my projections, depending on the format.
14:32And he has a chance to be tight end one.
14:35Dave, a quick rebuttal, because I know this is one area where you do not see eye to eye with Heath.
14:42There's a five game sample and without Drake London, where Kyle Pitts was a monster.
14:46He had 8.8 targets per game, 19 PPR points per game, 12 non-PPR points per game.
14:51The 12 games with Drake London, 6.2 targets per game, 9.6 PPR points per game, 5.2 non-PPR points per game.
14:57I get where you're coming from. I even love the idea and agree with the idea that his A dot is going
15:03to be lower, and that'll help him get more targets in Atlanta.
15:07But I have to draft him based on the larger sample with Drake London healthy.
15:11And that means a breakout year for him. Listen, technically it's a breakout year if he finishes with, I guess it's not
15:18really a breakout year if he finishes with 10 PPR points per game.
15:22It would be his second best year because last year, thanks to that five game sample, he was over 12 PPR points per game.
15:29I think he can be good. I haven't ranked as a starter.
15:32I don't think he's got the upside that he talks about.
15:36I think the ship has sailed on that. I still think Drake London is going to be a big target getter.
15:42Same thing with Bijan. And they have, they've started to use Zachariah Branch, their rookie, with their first team offense a little bit more.
15:49And they're giving him those easy throws, the screens and slants and whatnot.
15:53And I wonder if he's going to start to take away work from everybody that we're talking about in Atlanta.
15:59Not enough to necessarily ding London and move him down.
16:02Same thing with Bijan. But I think Kyle Pitts really is going to need a lot of target volume and a lot
16:08of red zone opportunities to even sniff a top five finish.
16:11All right. We're going to talk about two more players here.
16:15Jamie's got a couple of breakout candidates. Tucker Craft, who is tight end six in CBS ADP.
16:20And Isaiah Likely, who's not even top 12. All right, Jamie, floor is yours.
16:24Well, I think in the case of Craft, we saw a glimpse of it last season before the ACL tear.
16:30And the fact that he's on his way to playing in week one is certainly encouraging.
16:35So we'll see if that's the case and just what shape he'll be in.
16:39But they lose 135 targets from last year with Dontameen Wicks and Romeo Dobbs gone.
16:43And I think we're going to see three guys, four guys, I guess, hopefully fight for that.
16:48Um, in the case of the three receivers that we're all looking at as getting more opportunities and Christian Watson, Jaden Reed
16:55and Matthew Golden, but you know, Tucker Craft should also benefit as well.
16:59I don't know if we'll get to that 120 target mark, because that's typically not what the Packers do.
17:04That being said, you'd like to see the Packers throw a little bit more.
17:08Jordan Love's been sort of in this 26 pass per game, you know, range, uh, for the majority of his tenure there.
17:15And if they do open up the offense a little bit more, I think that benefits everybody and Craft included.
17:21So if he's a hundred percent, if he could pick up where last year left off, I think he's got a chance
17:27to be a top three tight end. Like he's just got that much upside.
17:32And I think had he finished the season last year, the way he started, we'd be talking about him as at least
17:38a top five tight end, if not in that top three range.
17:42So there's just a lot to love about him.
17:44In the case of likely we talked about a little bit more on the sleepers, uh, show.
17:49I just don't think his ADP is going to be reflective by the end of the month where it is now, especially
17:56the, uh, the positive reports that we got while Malik neighbors has, uh, you know, we've talked about this, you know, quite
18:02a bit, nine games during his career in Baltimore with at least six targets.
18:07He averaged over, he scored at least 12 and a half PPR points in, uh, I think it was six of those games.
18:13Um, uh, so he just gets production when he gets opportunities.
18:17And I think he'll get opportunities with this offense.
18:19Now that there's no Mark Andrews, I don't care about Theo Johnson being listed ahead of him on the depth chart.
18:26I do care that Jackson Dart leaned on Theo Johnson quite a bit last year.
18:30And I think that's a tendency that will carry over.
18:33So we'll see what happens when neighbors is healthy at a hundred percent practicing in full and how that goes.
18:39We'll see what happens with the new additions as well.
18:42Darnell Mooney and Malachi fields, field is kind of the one that scares me the most because I think he could be
18:48a red zone threat, but that's a rookie being asked to play a big role.
18:53I think likely is going to play a big role in this offense following Harbaugh from Baltimore to New York.
18:59And so when you start to get past what I think the meat of this position is, which is really Loveland through
19:05probably Fannin, uh, likely I like likely better than Fannin.
19:08Um, I think there's just immense upside for him.
19:11Finally getting the chance to get those opportunities from the targets we've been craving for him for so many years.
19:17So for Tucker craft, he's the best yak guy at the position, maybe ever.
19:21It's insane. And I was encouraged, you know, doing the research about the wide receivers who had the elite wide receivers who
19:28had come back from ACL tears and been, you know, really good Keenan Allen, Jordy Nelson.
19:32I can't remember everybody on the list, but, uh, this was about Malik neighbors, but the same has to apply for Tucker craft.
19:39Uh, I don't love drafting guys coming off major injuries, but I'm not sure that ACL is, is one of the worst
19:46in that regard in terms of just like performance the following year.
19:49So, um, you know, that's, that's obviously really important because he's super talented for likely guys.
19:54There aren't that many tight ends. He hasn't even had a 500 yard season yet.
19:58I understand the circumstances. He also was a fourth round pick.
20:02Most of the good tight ends in the NFL are taken in the first three rounds with big time exceptions.
20:08George Kittle, Rob Gronkowski, or no George Kittle, Aaron Hernandez, Darren Waller, Antonio Gates, Julius Thomas, Delaney Walker.
20:13Parker, but round three rounds one through three is like the sweet spot.
20:17Obviously for tight ends. Aren't that many that are good after that?
20:20I don't know. I guess what I'm saying is this is a round four pick.
20:25Who's never had a 500 yard season. And I do like likely a lot, but Jamie, how hesitant should I be to
20:31make him the focus of my, of my draft strategy at tight end?
20:35I think if you really like Isaiah likely, then he has arguably the best ADP at the position and maybe of anyone in fantasy.
20:42And I could see you basing your whole tight end strategy around him, but I can't ignore the downside of a guy
20:49who's never really done anything before, except in small sample sizes.
20:52I don't think basing your tight end strategy around a player that has got a mid round to, I guess mid round
20:59ADP is the way you want to go about building your team.
21:02I get what you're saying. I think you look at the tier that he's in and say, I want to get somebody from that tier.
21:10But obviously when we're looking at it, this is why we're saying breakout, you know, that this is going to be the
21:16best season of his career, that he's finally going to get this opportunity, that he's not going to be just a 500 yard guy.
21:23I mean, if I was more excited about Isaiah likely, I'd have him ranked closer to where I would be saying, that's
21:30a strategy I want to, you know, use to, to go get him.
21:34You know? So I think when you talk about strategy around tight ends, you're talking about, okay, when am I taking Bowers or McBride?
21:41When am I taking Love, when are Warren? And then I'm going to play out the rest of the position.
21:47And I think that's the category he belongs in.
21:49So like for me to say, I like him better than fan.
21:53And obviously I'm going against what consensus is. I think when you talk about where likely sort of falls into the, the
21:59category of tight ends you're looking at, it's in that settle for type of range, you know, at the top of that,
22:06you know, so if the first six or seven guys are off the board, that's when I start to put the antenna
22:13up of, okay, this is the time I want to go target Isaiah likely.
22:17And so most likely for me and the leagues I'm going to be in when I see fan and get drafted, then
22:23I think likely is in that next group of guys from when you're looking at tight ends to come off the board.
22:30Okay. He's, he's tight in eight for all three of you and he's tight in 13 and ADP on CBS and fantasy pros.
22:37So just based on that right now, I would say that Isaiah likely is a phenomenal value.
22:42I think we all agree. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It really stands out.
22:45One of the better values. If you guys are right about Isaiah likely.
22:49All right. Thank you guys for your breakout. So that was Tucker craft and Isaiah likely for Jamie Colson, Loveland for Heath, but really Colson Loveland for everyone.
22:57And Kyle pits for Heath. He also loves Sam Laporta, Tyler Warren for Dave and I'll, you know, Dave, if there's just
23:04no explanations, we got the rummy of Jake Seeley waiting for us to talk running backs.
23:09If you were going to put a second tight end on your breakout list, who would it be?
23:14AJ Barner. Really? Yeah. Okay. Um, thank you for watching and listening.
23:17Everybody more on AJ Barner, uh, some other time.
23:20That's interesting stuff. We'll be back with more episodes shortly.
23:23See ya. Podcasts.