2026 Fantasy Football Tight End Tiers - Brock Bowers in RD2?!?
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Jul 28, 2026
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Tue, July 28, 2026
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0:00Today I'm breaking down my tight end fantasy football tears ahead the 2026 season. 40 up, 40 down. Going to be starting off with the big dogs, your
0:08Brock Bowers, your Trey McBride, your Coulson Lovelins of the world. But plenty of attention to be paid to the late round prospects and even the guys
0:15who probably shouldn't be being drafted, but I'm doing so anyway cuz I'm freaking sick in the head people looking at you
0:21Terrence Ferguson. But truly is a great day to be great. And with that, guys, let's get after it with Mr. tight end
0:27one tier of his own tight end one Brock Bowers guys. All right, we're one year removed from probably the best rookie
0:34tight end season ever. Shout out Mike Dicka back in 1960. I'm not trying to take away from the old heads, but one of
0:40the best rookie seasons opposition's ever seen. And what happens last year?
0:44Disaster. Chip Kelly fired before December. We had an atrocity of quarterback play. All right, Gino Smith leads the league in interceptions and
0:52sacks. He's out down the stretch of the season as well last couple games. Brock Bowers has over a 100 yards in the first
0:58three quarters. Suffers a knee injury against the Patriots. Like everything that could go wrong last year did go wrong for Brock Bowers. And he finished
1:06as a tight end, too, in PPR points per game, guys. Tie with George KD. If you look at Tucker Craft's numbers and do a
1:12little bit of massaging with some of his missames, he would be number two. So, top four if you want to be again a
1:17little bit less provocative about it.
1:19And that was again in a worstc case possible scenario. We haven't seen a best case scenario for Brock Bowers.
1:27Maybe, just maybe, it's this year when Clint freaking Kubak goes ahead and makes Brock Bowers this year's JSN. All right. I know we've been looking at wide
1:34receivers. Devonte Smith, Devonte Smith, Njigba, Jaylen Waddle, like Lab Mccon.
1:38just all these different kind of year three wide receivers or just guys coming on to new offices and new roles where
1:43we're using that who is this year's JSN to be like who is going to have this again huge leap and go from being this
1:49early round pick to being someone who legit finished as a top five player in fantasy football why not the guy who
1:55literally just got JSN's offensive coordinator and an offense with no one else to get the football to all right so at the top of the draft all right it
2:03comes down to do you prefer Bowers over guys like Trey McBride and Coulson Lovelin and then More importantly, are you actually willing to draft Brock
2:10Bowers amidst all these top 10 wide receivers and top 15 running backs that are going to be there for you in round
2:15two? More and more guys, I am willing to do that. All right, so the quarterback room, it's not a strength, but it's
2:23moving up in the right direction. We don't really have room to go even lower than last year. I think we've been over
2:28that. But Kurt Cousins helped unlock arguably Kyle Pitts down the stretch of last year. I'll give Pitts more credit.
2:33I don't think Cousin is exactly a juggernaut at this point of his career or anything, but was capable enough last year to get Kyle Pittz gone with some
2:39real big numbers. Okay. And then if and when the Raiders decide to be done with this sham pretending like Fernando Mendoza should really be on the bench
2:46for all that long, we get the number one overall pick fresh off one of the best freaking college football seasons that
2:52we've ever seen. Truly now tossing the rock to Bower. So Oakland, Oakland, the Las Vegas Raiders are probably going to be bad guys, but this looks to me more
3:03so like a 2025 New Orleans Saints bat potentially. All right, we're going to have the young quarterback, but we should feel much better in Mendoza than
3:10Tyler Shuck. With all due respect to Tyler Shuck coming on late and trying to build that momentum for the next season.
3:15All right, I know with the Chip Kelly stuff, Pete Carroll, Spytech, Brady, it hasn't been the best start to this organization, to this new regime going
3:24on here. So maybe we see them pull the plug, fire Clint Kubiaak 12 weeks in the year. Even saying that as like just to
3:31try to check myself, it just feels so outrageous. So could we be wrong? Yes, I'm wrong every freaking year, guys.
3:36We're going to be wrong a lot more this year. But I'm more confident in the stretch run for Brock Bowers relative to
3:40other guys on bad teams like we're going to talk about here in a few minutes.
3:44Mentioned the Kubak factor. And the big difference maker for me, Bowers versus McBride, we don't have a Michael Wilson.
3:50We don't have a Marvin Harrison Jr. We have Trey Tucker, Jaylen Naylor, and Jack freaking BH. Michael Mayer, who we will talk about later. I freaking love
3:57that dude in Dynasty. He is arguably bigger target competition than those guys, especially when looking at Bowers, but I don't think there's any relevant
4:04target competition here to worry about for again maybe the single best tight end in the league already. Foot call a glorified slot receiver. I think you're
4:11wrong. But even then, 150 plus targets, guys. It's a good thing I don't run the Roto Wire projections because I would
4:18just be outrageous with all these. But again, we have him at 135. Only Trey McBride is higher at 140. And again, if
4:23I ever find a way to hack those projections, I would have north of 150.
4:27So again, McBride's a great football player. I'm a lot more worried about Mike Freaking Laflur and Carson Beck down the stretch than I am Clint Kubak
4:34and obviously Fernando Mendoza. So that really is the big time tiebreaker there for me. Faith in that ticket. Faith and Bowers just being a little bit of a
4:41better football player. Not that McBride or Loveland or these guys are bad. And accordingly, I am willing to draft Brock Bowers in round two. And accordingly,
4:48guys, one of my favorite freaking draft strategies is I'm going with it, the superowers draft strategy. All right, we get a sick running back in round one.
4:55Whether that's Jonathan Taylor or we're picking between Gibbs and Bejon and McAffrey, first five picks, we get our sweet running back. We lock down the RB1
5:03spot. Round two, hopefully your league mates let Brock Bowers fall to you. We go ahead and take Bowowers and then from
5:08rounds three through seven, we just attack one cool wide receiver after another. Sure, we're going to miss out on the top 12, 13 guys, but Lad Manki, a
5:17Mecha Ibuka, Jaylen Wadd, Christian Watson, there are so many great wide receivers who I do want to have exposure to inside the top 40, 45 picks. I draw
5:26the line right around that wide receiver 50 spot. Matthew Golden, Juanale Robinson. There's a few guys who leak through Jaylen Coker, Rashid Shahed. I'm
5:36sick enough in the head to still kind of like throw some darts at Travis Hunter, but after that, I don't want to be
5:41drafting wide receivers in round 14. We might get a hit. Maybe it's Trey Harris.
5:47Maybe it's Jaylen Aaylor or someone like that. I want handcuffed running backs. I want guys who are one injury away from
5:52immediately being relevant, not a wide receiver who we all have collectively decided given the ADP is not worth our time and then stashing them on our bench
5:59for for what? for them to finally give us a good game in week seven and then us to start him in week eight and then get
6:05the bust factor because wide receiver production especially from the threes and fours that are being drafted. It's hard to predict in just about anything.
6:12Sick RB round one Brock Bowers round two. We take four or five wide receivers next. We dive into an awesome late round
6:18quarterback pool. Jared Goff goes in round 11 in these home leagues guys right now and that's worst case. All right, you might even be able to get
6:24someone better in that. And we just use kind of a committee approach to get that RB2 spot sealed. So long story short,
6:30loved me so Brock Bowers. He's my 16th ranked player overall. My guy Theo also with team Rotoire has me even higher at
6:3612. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. Brock Bowers, this year's JSN could do some really big thing. Guys, last point before we move on. Benjamin Solic,
6:44amazing writer over at ESPN. For my money's worth, like when I'm trying to learn more real life football and everything, Ben Solic and Nate Ty over
6:51at Yahoo. The first two guys I pay attention to. One of Ben's board predictions, Brock Bowers, offensive MVP this year, goes ahead and messes around,
6:59breaks a single season receiving record for the position. I'm buying in Brock Bowers no matter what. Tier two overall tight end one upside. I do think Brock
7:08Bowers could be the overall tight end one, but again, if I am wrong, these would be the top three candidates I
7:13think can get it done. My tight end two is Coloulson Lovelin. Please give me a second. All right, don't turn it off
7:18just yet. Tight end three is Tren McBride. Tyler Warren's titan four.
7:21Let's get these guys on the board.
7:23Lovelin verse McBride is very very tough.
7:27But this is the tricky part with ranking sometimes. It's one of the reasons why I am go ahead and making this move. I feel
7:32like I'm not in the minority when I say I like drafting Lovelin more than Trey McBride. But it comes down to that cost.
7:38It comes down to Lovelin going to round four. Trey McBride depending on where you're drafting. Sometimes round two, sometimes round three. But he's
7:44regularly going a little bit ahead of Coulson and Loveland. And a big part of that is now people saying, "Okay, at
7:49cost I do like Lovelin more." But man, I feel like this way ranking Lovelin tight end two, Trey McBride tight end three.
7:57When someone looks at my ranks now, they know for sure that I really want to draft Coulson Loveland. I'm not telling
8:02you if Trey McBride's on the board at the end of round two and you really want Coulson Love to take this dude early.
8:07No, you should be waiting. Equal God, it's a freak. I I really think it's a coin flip. Equal. Okay. who out who
8:14scores more. And that's to take nothing away from Trey McBride. This dude is awesome. 17.1 PPR points per game over these last two seasons. That's seventh
8:23among tight ends and wide receivers.
8:25He's been crushing it. If I knew that we had Jacobe Brassette starting 17 games, I would probably be willing to go ahead
8:32and say screw it. Just why even make a big deal out of this Ian? Let's go with Trey McBride, tight end, too. But we
8:37don't know that. And in fact, I look at that Cardinal schedule. This is a team where I'd be very surprised if they have
8:42more than one or two wins after 10 weeks of the year. And at that point, it's going to be Garner Mchu or it's going to
8:47be even worse and it's going to be Mr.
8:49Carson Beck down the stretch run of the season for a horrific team. And what do we see when this happens guys? Yes,
8:56sometimes we see stuff like last year, Trey McBride, Michael Wilson, guys get injured, they aren't brought back because it's like, why are we even kind
9:02of bring you back and this really, you know, dog [ __ ] end the season? And then we get garbage time stuff one week after
9:09another. Cardinals led the league in freaking, you know, Jacob's pass attempts were insane last nine, 10 weeks of the year. Maybe that happens. I don't
9:17like hinging a round two, a round three pick in fantasy football on someone whose team that we absolutely expect to be horrendous. If you are
9:27going to do it, we have seen more tight ends from these situations emerge than on other offenses. Okay, I looked at the
9:33last 10 years top performing fantasy players, top 12, okay, who are on a bottom 10 scoring offense. There's only been four quarterbacks and do that in 10
9:42years. All right, four quarterbacks were top 12 in fantasy on a bottom 10 scoring offense. There were 14 running backs.
9:48There were 12 wide receivers. There were 24 tight ends. Lot more tight ends on bad offenses in the other positions. I
9:56admit that. It's not ideal, though. I don't want to draft the Jets early. I don't want to draft the Cardinals early.
10:02I see the volume scenario. I see that he's a really good football scenario.
10:06Throw a late round pick at him. Fine.
10:08Omar Cooper, Kenyan Sadique at cost, fine. Garrett Wilson, Bree Hall, Trey McBride. I just don't want to buy into
10:16these offenses that very realistically could be absolute crap, guys. And that's just not me projecting that. Look at the Vegas implied team scoring ranks, okay?
10:26We can calculate this. They take every single game throughout the year. your spreads and your game totals. And then we go ahead and just calculate that and
10:32we see who Vegas has scored the most points every single game added up over the course of the season. Number 32's
10:37New York Jets. Number 31's Arizona Cardinals. All right, so that's not me crapping on the Jets and Cardinals. It's the guys with more to lose than anyone.
10:46The freaking bookmakers out there in the desert telling us that they're expecting these two teams to be the worst in the
10:51league. Maybe you disagree, but if you sat down and ranked all 32, I'm guessing you'd have them far closer to 32 than
10:56one or even 16 for that matter as well.
10:58So Trey McBride's the man in this offense, not so much the man. I just again the change in play caller is
11:05someone who we don't like. Who's to say it couldn't be an issue like Coulson Lovelin is kind of facing. All right,
11:11because that would be the why have Coulson Loveland over Trey McBride. It's like, well, Lovelin's dealing with Luther Burden and Roma Dunay. McBride's
11:17dealing with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson. I would give McBride the better chance of leading this team in targets over Lovelin. I don't think it's
11:25impossible to suggest though that it gets squeezed in a new offense potentially with new quarterbacks being trotted out there in the second half of
11:32the season that Wilson and Marv wind up being similar kind of thorns in the side to McBride as we see from Burton and
11:39Rome for Lovelin. So that was more so the anti- Trent McBride stuff to give Lawson to give Coulson Lovelin some love
11:47though 48 targets during the Bears final four games that was 21 more than Caleb Williams next most targeted guy Cole KT
11:56was out there yeah the Bengals game the initial blow up that was also against the Bengals we did see Cole KT leave
12:02that early and he honestly was a decent part in you know preventing Lovelin from breaking out sooner in this year but man
12:09the per route stuff, yards per hour run, targets per hour run. We like using route metrics. I know they're not super
12:16mainstream and it sounds nerdy. It is nerdy. All right. But it's just the largest sample. We have targets. We have receptions. Those are helpful, too. But
12:22the routes, that's our largest sample.
12:24So, the guys who are picking up the most yards per route, the most targets per route, particularly if we have a
12:28decently large sample size. To me, it's one of the best stats we can use to try to just again overly judge someone's
12:33efficiency. Incredible. Coulson Lovelin as a rookie better than anyone pretty much not named Brock Bowers over the course of the past decade. We saw the
12:41late season breakout. I did some work this off seasonason on wide receivers.
12:44I'll admit haven't quite gotten to it tight ends yet, but not all second half breakouts are created equal. A wide receiver almost, it wasn't 100% hit
12:53rate. Nothing freaking is in this business, guys. But the wide receivers are on playoff teams or at least contending teams who were doing huge
12:59things in the second half of the season compared to the first. much much much better reliable indicator than someone who was doing on a crap team like
13:07Michael Wilson. It was pretty much like a Monro St. Brown was the only guy who actually again averaged like eight or
13:12more PPR points in the second half of his season compared to the first half and then went on to kind of keep on
13:16keeping on. Otherwise, it's Michael Wilson, Jerry Judy, those sorts of guys who were more so doing it on teams that were dead in the water. So, I believe in
13:24Coulson Lovelin's talent as a top five player and more so I 100% went Ben Johnson over Michael Floor calling the plays for my fantasy team and I do
13:33believe in Caleb Williams. I know the completion rate wasn't great. Caleb Williams averaged nearly a 70% completion rate at USC. I know we're
13:42playing in the NFL now, but this isn't some Josh Allen thing where we're looking at his JV stats saying this dude's never averaged a 60% completion
13:48rate. Caleb's also throwing the ball away a lot because he's a freaking magician in the pocket and he's avoiding sacks more than anybody. Okay, the trick
13:56shots are amazing. I understand you can say they're a little fluky is not the right word, but they're harder to replicate year-over-year than simply
14:04getting five yards, not getting bored, taking a profit. He needs to be better.
14:08He's also entering year three in the league, and he wasn't one of these 24, 25 year old quarterbacks coming out. I
14:14believe in the Caleb Williams Ben Johnson partnership far more than Michael Floor and whoever is going to be under center in Arizona. Okay. For me,
14:22if I thought Trey McBride was in a different stratosphere from a talent perspective, all right, I think the volume could be very similar. I think
14:31the player talent go ahead and give Trey McBride's done at the NFL level. Trent McBride at this point in time is a
14:36better football player than Coulson Level. That's fine.
14:39I don't I don't I think that gap is much much smaller than the gap between the play caller quarterback combo and what
14:45we're expecting here. I mentioned it guys Jets 32, Cardinals 31 in these Vegas team implied scoring ranks. Bears are all the way up there at 10. Coulson
14:53Lin tight end two trimming pride tight end three on Tyler Warren now tight end four. Unfortunately, we had the literal grandpa. Shout out Philip Rivers, fun
15:02storyline. Not so fun for everyone that was trying to again win your fantasy championships with Colts players down the stretch. But Tyler Warren for what
15:08he did last year, even having to deal with that down the stretch, man. Little round of applause there. Bravo, Tyler Warren, one of just six rookie tight
15:15ends to actually post top 12 numbers in PPR points per game over the past decade, guys. Over the past freaking decade.
15:23I'll tell you what, it's a list that's not exactly full of scrubs.
15:27had Sam Laaporta do it pretty recently back in 23. Harold Fannon got there alongside Tyler Warren, Brock Bowers in 24, Kyle Pittz in 21, Evan Ingram in 17.
15:37So last four maybe a little better than those first two, but again I think if we had just almost Benjamin Buttoned I I've
15:45made this point too about uh who was it at wide receiver? Oh, Acha Ibuka. If you took Tyler Warren's last six games of
15:52the year and just switched them, you know, if he came out a little bit slow, but then all of a sudden was posting
15:56these awesome tight end one numbers, who's to say we'd have the gap we currently do between Coulson Lovelin and Tyler Warren when we're actually kind of
16:02looking at ADP across uh sites. I don't think Warren's as complete of a player as Coulson Lovelin. It was a little more
16:08schemy, a little more RPO touches and everything, but you know what? If we're looking for an offense that's going to keep on scheming the ball to their tight
16:14end, it's probably going to be one with very little help of wide receiver. We did not see an adequate replacement for
16:19Michael Pitman, who by the way works in the same sort of areas of the field as Tyler Warren. We got Alec Pierce coming
16:24off the ankle injury. I love Josh DS.
16:28You guys love Josh DS. I think the Colts love Josh DS, but man, Tyler Warren last year, there's a reason why he was
16:33getting fed more often than Josh DS each and every week out there. So, Warren goes well ahead of DS. I'm not trying to
16:38say like he's a complete surprise to everyone, but for as much hype as there is with Josh DS, I just think the more
16:44realistic answer is Tyler Warren works as the focal point of this offense. So things are looking okay for DS as well.
16:49I will say if and when the Colts do go out there and sign one of these veteran receivers, Stefon Diggs, Kieran Allen,
16:54Debo Samuel. Like these guys are still out there. It's going to hurt Josh Downs. It's probably going to be taking him out of those two wide receiver sets
17:01at least to a decent percentage of the time. Meanwhile, Tyler Warren should be out there pretty much every single snap that he can handle. Last point here that
17:09I would really think could be on the table in a couple years. Probably not this year because why not? When you're
17:13inside the 5 yard line, just give the ball to Jonathan Taylor. I don't think Shane Stiken is going to be overthinking
17:17that, but we saw it at Penn State and we even saw for stretches last season, Tyler Warren, the Wildcat, guys, it's
17:23scary. And if they can just teach this dude to all of a sudden be their tush push guy, I don't think they want Daniel
17:27Jones coming off this Achilles injury to be taking extra hits in that area of the field or anything like that. One of
17:33these years we're going to have a tight end, whether it's a tush push, whether it's Taesm Hill, Wildcat, you know, BS
17:38near the goal line. They're going to score six or seven touchdowns on top of an ample receiving role and it is going
17:42to break fantasy football. that is in Tyler Warren's range of outcomes. I think it's a very small uh range of outcomes for this season. In the future,
17:49though, could be much much bigger. So, very excited about what Tyler Warren can do. I've drafted him a ton in baseball
17:54land just kind of in those middle rounds because I do think he honestly probably that gap between him and Lovelin is a
17:59little bit wide reddraft.
18:02I'm more so playing catch-up. I think at wide receiver and that a little bit more of a first or last Ricky Bobby mindset
18:08for me this year because again, I would like to get Brock Bowers in round two in the Super Bowers draft strategy. I don't
18:13plan on drafting much Trey McBride.
18:15Coulson Love Lovelin. If I don't get Bowowers, I would certainly be very open to taking him at the very end of round
18:20three, maybe early portions of round four. I think that would be reasonable, but you know, I still got come up with a
18:25catchy name for the Coulson Loveland early round tight end strategy. So, I got to workshop that a bit, but that would kind of be my thing. All right.
18:32Never hate the player, always hate the ADP. If we see Tyler Warren, you know, round six or something like that, okay,
18:37I can go ahead and get behind it. And I and to be clear guys, I never want to go into a fantasy draft with a
18:42predetermined strategy. I think that's an easy way to to miss out on value that's going to arise or your friends reaching on other dudes and then all of
18:48a sudden a dude popping up. But hey, it's one of those things where if we can, you know, have a general idea for
18:53how the draft's going to go in our mind and then say how would I react to it, the super bowers or the super lovelin or
18:58whatever we're going to call that would be my preferred method there. So never said never. I'm McBride and Tyler Warren. If we are seeing the prices drop
19:04to a good range, fantastic. Sign me up.
19:07I would say just similar concerns with Tyler Warren when it comes down to a training. I don't think the Colts are
19:14gonna be as bad as the Cardinals or anything like that, but I would say again Daniel Jones come off that torn
19:19right Achilles losing another weapon and Michael Pitman and having his field stretcher and Alec Pierce all sorts of banged up. Again, Tyler Warren our
19:27Rotoire projections like he is one of only five tight ends projecting to lead his team in targets for a reason. and
19:32the fact that he does work in these underneath areas of the field, it's going to make it easier for like, you
19:36know, a potentially hobble, potentially reduced arm strength version of Daniel Jones to get in the football. I'm just worried that respectfully a Daniel Jones
19:44who was so freaking good in the first 10 or 11 weeks of last year. You look at his whole career, guys, and it's like,
19:49all right, well, 2023 is all right as well. Maybe it was 2022. I think it was 2023. He had the one good year with the
19:56Giants. Then he had a great great 10 weeks in Indie. Everything else was not very good at all. So if we had to say
20:03what are we getting in 2026 coming off that injury, I wouldn't lean more towards a not good at all range. Not
20:08exactly ideal when again we are signing up to use an early round to a mid-round pick on these fellas. Tier three, we are
20:16fans, but I have at least one concern.
20:17Okay, so tight end five is going to be Kyle Pittz for me, tight end six, Sam Leaporta, tight end seven, Tucker Craft,
20:22and tight end eight, Harold Fannon.
20:24Unfortunately, three of these guys are coming off at least some level of injury. have to be maybe somewhat concerned about. All right, Sam Laaporta
20:31did have offseason back surgery, but he managed to avoid the pup. He'll be out there practicing, so not too worried about that. I'm not worried about any of
20:37these for I would say like week one availability, but just thought I'd mention him off the top. Tucker Craft is tentatively, I'm recording this on July
20:4427th, expected to start on the pup list.
20:47Not necessarily going to be an issue for his week one availability, but I don't like when it's a torn ACL, space, breath, and then something else.
20:55And that is what we have here. Okay. So, again, not something where I think it's going to be a huge massive issue or
21:00anything like that, but you know, it's something, guys, and it's something where we do need to consider it for like someone like George KD, too, where I
21:07don't think Tucker Crow's going to be pulling in 150 targets in this offense.
21:10A lot of the targets he does get going to be underneath. So, we need him to be at apex, a number one, you know, 100%
21:16form in order to make the most out of these opportunities. So, again, for Craft, twin ride ACL, a quote minor slight miniscus tear, it's just not
21:24ideal, guys. But Cal Pitts top of the list here and yes he is fully healthy and yes he's coming off you know a
21:31freaking awesome year where if you do want to go ahead and beat the fantasy analyst that doesn't say per game and
21:35you look at the total points he was right there at number two you know tight end two on the season. So 166 yards not
21:41one not two three touchdowns in that opening playoff week 15 again hell of a drug on Thursday Night Football. The damning part here are the splits with
21:50and without Drake London because let's face it, down the stretch of the season it was with Drake London first sideline and then just kind of a show of himself
21:57coming off his own PCL injury that he was trying to play through. So Kyle Pitts last year without Drake London on
22:03the field 2.56 yards per out run. That's the second best marker among tight ends.
22:07His target per out run first. With London on the field those numbers slipped to 35th and 33rd guys. So, I like the way they were able to get Kyle
22:15Pittz some easier looks. I'm going to talk about some downfield stuff here shortly, but it was just asking Kyle Pitts to win as a wide receiver while
22:24you are a tight end. It's just not the most consistent thing to ask of your guy in fantasy football land. So, the fact
22:29that really from week one on last year, we were seeing the Falcons get pits a little bit more involved in those
22:34underneath areas of the field, it was a good sign. I just worry again looking at his career and to be fair years two
22:41through four for Pitts it was a situation where yeah we had him dealing with injuries he was coming off that knee he didn't look like the same player
22:48in 2024 we did see a healthier you know just bigger more badass traditional version of Kyle Pittz in 2025 the case
22:55here for him doing great things the play caller Kevin Stfansky Tommy Reese partnership in Cleveland we had Dave Njoko and Harold Fannon have four top
23:04eight seasons combined since 2022. And quarterback Tua, great things with Jon Smith in 2024. Even got old man Darren Waller, you know, working out well in
23:142025. And with the lack of target competition, other than Drake London, we should be expecting pitch to either be the two or three, but it should be
23:21close. Like him and Bejian Robinson, 90 to 100 targets. Like that's a pretty good range that we should be liking for
23:26tight ends. I just don't think the Falcons are going to be very good, you know? And when looking at this range, oh
23:32god, Pitts, Leaporta, Craft, I would say Pitts has the better chance of racking up more targets than Leaporta and Craft because Leaporta has his version of
23:43London and Amanra. He has his version of Bejian and Gibbs and he has a Jameson Williams there. I talk about Zachariah
23:50Branch way too much. I'm not going to go down again. I think we all agree he's not exactly a Jameson Williams. Tucker
23:55Craft, I'm more concerned about the injury and the role. And then Christian Watson, Jaden Reed, Matthew Golden, not exactly, you know, a group of zeros at wide
24:02receiver as well. So, I'm not going to make the midshow switch. I'm going to keep Kyle Pittz at tight end five. Out
24:09of respect to him looking at least closer to that allegedly generational prospect that obviously we knew him to be coming out of Florida. We got the
24:16great late season run. I can see the path of the play caller and the quarterback. Kyle Pittz and five. Sam Laora. I've heard some be like, he's a
24:24skeleton key. He's the guy you really need here. Shout out to Drew Petting. I do think he's a good offensive mind,
24:30particularly in the run game, guys. I know the Cardinals, but last year, like a lot of that passing game stuff, again,
24:35volume, garbage, time, and deuce. But the 2023 and 2024 Cardinals before their entire backfield died last year, basically. I mean, Pson had really good
24:42things going. Give plenty of credit to, you know, Kyler Murray, but his uh what's the freaking dude's name? His disciple actually went to Dallas last
24:49year with Brian Shottenheimr, and they ended up doing really good things in the run game. Clayton Adams. Clayton with a K. Adams. How could I forget? But yeah,
24:56very good stuff from Ping in the run game. I think that's going to help what was again kind of a stale group down the
25:00stretch of last year. A lot of really rough games. We had that unreal Giants game for, you know, Jir Giz where he
25:06averaged like 10 or 11 yards per carry.
25:08But there were some games down the stretch where thank god he caught eight or nine passes because again things were not going smooth down the ground.
25:15I'm willing to give Ping that benefit of the doubt. I'm not so sure he's some sort of tight end whisperer though. All
25:19right. And he might not might not need to be. Leaporta to start his career.
25:23tight end three, tight end nine, tight end seven in PPR points per game. I just look at this offense and it's like
25:29Amanra is for sure going to be the one.
25:31Gibbs is going to find his way to likely 80 or 90 targets. Jameson Williams for the first half of last year was indeed
25:38more so the third banana behind Amanra and Sam Laaporta.
25:44I wouldn't say it's a given that happens again though. Jamos on the come up. I think their offense I think most
25:49offenses are better when you have someone as freaking good as Jameson Williams to make them your number two.
25:53Get your tight end more as your number three or number four. So that would be the main reason why I have Leaporta
25:58here. I think there's a realistic scenario where he's the number four pass game option in an offense that rules. I keep bringing up these Vegas ranks.
26:05Lions are one number four in Detroit probably better than number two in like with the Jets. you could say not Alan
26:12Leaporta, but this whole tier, guys, I will admit kind of going back to that Ricky Bobby first or last mindset here.
26:19I just struggle to see such a bullc case for these guys where like, all right, yeah, you know, screw the wide receiver
26:27three. I like screw this, you know, last kind of RB2 borderline sort of player, my Baltudans of the world, guys like
26:34that. I just don't see myself reaching in for these guys. There's enough of a concern. Maybe it is just one enough of
26:41a concern for each where I'm not again chasing them over really high players.
26:45But this is where it kind of comes back to know your ADP, know your provider, guys. Know when you can expect to get
26:49these guys. I know drafting an underdog, which I'm getting away from baseball.
26:52But just it's where you've been drafting throughout the summer and I wasn't taking these guys a lot of the summer, but once they start slipping past the
26:58top 100 picks, hell yeah, I've been drafting more of them. Use that same sort of mindset though when you are in
27:03your reddraft leagues. All right, for example, we do have Tucker Craft. He's someone that in more leagues than not, I don't see myself taking. When I'm on
27:09Sleeper, his ADP is tight end six. He's going pick 68. I'm not going to be taking him there. If I'm drafting on
27:14ESPN where he's going literally pick 108, tight end 11, yeah, I'll take Tucker Craft every single time he's available there. So, again, know your
27:22ADP. Know who your guys are going to be and then where they are going accordingly. So, talk pits, talk Leaporta, talk Tucker Craft a little
27:30bit. We'll talk craft and Fanning kind of in the same breath because this is an interesting study I did. All right. Both
27:35these guys are very tethered in the line of scrimmage, which hey, when you're as good as them with the football in your
27:40hands, like you it's okay to be tethered in the line of scrimmage. I do have the concerns though, fanning coming off the
27:47groin thing, hernia, whatever freaking it is. I was kind of holding him out of OTAAS. Should be fine for training camp
27:53and week one and everything. It's just not ideal for someone like Tucker Craft coming off the knee, who needs to be the
28:00biggest and baddest dude on the field in order to make the most out of this. So maybe they just completely got that dog
28:06in them and they're going to be able to overcome it. But you do look historically last year Tucker Craft had a 4.8 average
28:12target depth. We had Harold Fan at six yards. Leaporta was down there too at 5.7. Top three tight ends at McBride
28:19Bowers and KD were at 7 7.5 and 7.1 respectfully. You'd have to go to kind of Coulson Lovelin at 9.5. Concincade
28:269.5 Aronda Gasson at 9.4 for to find the kind of highest guys being used downfield in in the course of their
28:32targets. All right, ADOT average target depth, average depth of target, I should say. Again, how far are you downfield when you're getting thrown the football
28:39on average? We don't need a super sky-high average target depth, right?
28:44You can honestly make the argument that if you're honestly just always being asked to run down the seam and everything, you're not getting the sort
28:49of, you know, PPR friendly three, four yard catches. We always think of upside as like the guy who can go ahead and,
28:54you know, catch the 80 yard touchdown, which, yeah, of course, we'll take all the 80 yard touchdowns we can get. But
29:00guess what? If we get eight straight 10 yard catches on a drive, that's going to lead to more fantasy points than one for
29:0580, you know, throughout the way. Just some good, clean uh family fun math right there for all you boys and girls.
29:10But anyway, back to the study. We're shooting for the moon here. I want a tight end if I'm taking them inside the
29:16top seven or eight rounds. I want a realistic top three upside. And I'm not saying these guys couldn't pull it off.
29:22We did see Craft before the injury working as the tight end too in PPR points per game. We saw Kyle Pittz do
29:27some awesome things down the stretch.
29:28Leaport has been very good in his career. Harold Fannon again led the all freaking tight ends and tackles avoided last season. Really is a beast. He's got
29:35Tom Monk now who did great things with the Ravens tight ends, you know, during his time in Baltimore as well. But I
29:41looked at the last 10 years top three scoring tight ends. I just looked at their average target depth because again, we're going for this top tier of
29:48the tier one tight ends. Only 2019 George KD at 6.1 ADOT actually had an average target depth under 6.5 yards.
29:57Could Leaporta, could Fannon, could our guy Tucker Craft all of a sudden be used more downfield this year? Yeah, it's possible. But man, based on what we saw
30:06last year, we should not be assuming it.
30:09And it is just pretty damning guys for that to be the only guy under 6.5 yards to register a top three season. I don't
30:15love those odds. It's a 30 player group.
30:18We did see 2024 Trent McBride 2024 Brock Bowers there at 6.5 and 6.6. You know, who's to say we couldn't get a couple
30:26bombs and all of a sudden gets them up there. Travis Kelce had a couple good years under seven, but really was a far
30:32stronger correlation again between the highest of the high tight end seasons and their average target depth actually at least being not so much in the gutter
30:40there. So know the ADP these guys do fall past the top, you know, 36 37 wide receivers. If I'm looking at Courtland
30:48Sutton versus Tucker Craft, all right, Craft Mac and Cheese, let's get it. Her fandom falls outside the top 100 players. It's him and like you know the
30:56Vikings running backs. Okay, I need a tight end. Give me a Herald fan and that's fine. Really going to be tough
31:01for me. Top eight rounds are sooner.
31:04Non-tight end premium leagues probably not going to be for me. Let's move on.
31:08Tight end four top five upside after you consume a Kona big wave or three. All right, these are the guys where yes, we
31:14can tell ourselves a story, but once we actually have to sit down and rank and tar them, there's a reason why I have
31:18them again making my tight end nine do tight end 16 spots. And this is one of those things where we kind of see it
31:23year after year, guys. There's usually the has and the has nots at tight end where at a certain point you look at it
31:28and it'll be between tight end nine and tight end 14 or 15 or wherever the gap is during any given year. And there's
31:33like 1.2 fantasy points per game actually dividing these guys up. So I think this could end up being that tier.
31:39But hey, if you're able to get one, just ride out some of these by weeks. Only, you know, there's only going to be
31:44another just crazy math fact. Only going to be three top three, you know, fantasy tight ends next season. If you don't
31:49have one of them, we still got to be able to try to play the waiverwire game and use our late round picks accordingly
31:53to hopefully hopefully get some guys that can at least boom for us every now and again. So with that in mind, I got
31:57tight end nine Mark Andrews, tight end 10 Isaiah likely, tight end 11 Dalton Concincaid, tight end 12 George KD, tight end 13 Travis Kelce, tight end 14
32:06Jake Ferguson, tight end 15 Dallas God, and tight end 16 Jigosium Okonquo new commanders tight end one. So, at the top, I thought when I was writing up the
32:17Ravens team preview earlier this summer, I kind of came in with the impression Mark Andrews was a little bit washed.
32:22You know, we had career low marks and receiving yards and yards per target last season. But, man, he's had a nice
32:27run out. All right. Isaiah likely went in the Giants. Charlie Kohler went the Chargers. And now it's looking like Andrew is going to have a chance to get
32:33back to that true everyown role where we have seen him actually post the tight end one overall season before. So getting into why I really don't think
32:40he's washed, it's the underlying metrics. Only Brock Bowers last season had a faster top speed than NextGen stats with the football in his hands.
32:49Now Mark Andrews came on that quirky you know fake tush push reverse thing. They did and he busted like a 30- yard
32:54touchdown run. So fun time there. I don't think he's necessarily going to be getting that sort of runway uh you know
33:00throughout 2026 or anything. But second fastest time of any tight end last year.
33:05Mark Andrews very much surprised me for someone who's going to be 31 soon. the separation based stuff is more so what
33:10I'm excited about fantasy points great separation metrics make sure you guys check them out their average separation score he was a tight end six last year
33:18then ESPN who has their open score which again is actually looking at these guys not just on their targets all right
33:23because I see some I I love nextgen stats I just shouted him out when you look at nextgen stats separation metric
33:29all these tight ends always lead it because it's literally only doing it at the catch point so like Cole KT one year
33:34I think was number one separator tight end because defenses would accordingly leave him in the flat. He catched the ball 10 yards of separation. They rally
33:41up and you know make the tackle for like four yards. Fantasy points in ESPN are doing per route. He was tight end six
33:47for fantasy points and tight end one for ESPN.
33:51So that's a story that we got to tell ourselves, right? The counting numbers, the efficiency, they haven't been as good, but we lost all the target
34:00competition we had to worry about.
34:01Isaiah likely and Charlie Kohler and didn't even get that much in the wide receiver way of things. All right, Elijah Sra, Kobe Lane, maybe they can be
34:07something, but it's not even like Cleveland with Casey and, you know, Boston. It's pretty minimal all things considered.
34:14Should be the number two target earner behind only Z Flowers for Lamar Freaking Jackson, who is one year removed from being arguably the single best
34:21quarterback in all of football. So, if Lamar's gonna have a nice bounceback year, throw for 40 touchdowns, which Vegas seems pretty confident. Again,
34:29it's okay. I I personally when Vegas tells me the Ravens are going to be the third highest scoring team this next
34:35season. To me that's a surprise. That's too high. I would not have the number three. I'd still find a way for them to
34:40be in my top 10, top 12 at the lowest.
34:43So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about their number two pass game option in Mark Andrews. If he does manage to find
34:47his way again outside these top nine or 10 rounds, very much down to make him my late round tight end and preferred.
34:54Sticking with him, Mark Andrews, it just makes sense. Get him and Isaiah likely next to each other. So broke his foot
34:59last August. I think that kind of sabotaged any chance from having a huge season. Then also a Lamar Jackson and now the lineup that didn't help. Had
35:05that weird, you know, should have been a touchdown against the Steelers, but it wasn't. Dez caught it, by the way. And
35:10then also had the one where he got again stripped like at the one inch line against the Bengals. So very quirky, not
35:15so great season. But what happened? He got paid. He's one of only six tight ends now making 40 million plus over the
35:22course of their contract. Also similar to Mark Andrews, utter lack of competition anywhere. Great news that Malik Neighbors avoid the pup list.
35:29That's still pretty much it. I'm not worried about Darno Mooney and Malachi Fields and these guys being that big of a thorn to side for Isaiah likely who
35:36also has the backing of his head coach and Mr. John Harbaugh. Already said that Likely is going to be putting up bigger
35:41numbers than ever now that he's not surrounded by guys like Mark Andrews and Charlie Kohler. So to me, it's like Isaiah Likely is being priced as this
35:49late round guy because we do need to be worried about like, well, he never has had this true full-time role. Well, why
35:54would he now have the full-time role?
35:55Well, again, he got paid. And with all due respect to you Theo Johnson truthers out there, I have a really hard time
36:01believing that we're gonna see this dude in a part-time role with only Theo Johnson has his major problem. So, even Chris Manner, didn't he go to freaking
36:09Tennessee with Dable? Dable brought the most random guys all with him to Tennessee. All due respect to Chris Manner. No, he's still there. Daniel
36:17Bellinger, that's what I was thinking of. Daniel Bellinger went to Tennessee.
36:20That helps. Chris Manhur's breakout season. People are wondering. Last point here. likely. Some of the best things he's done, God, remember that Chiefs
36:28game week one a couple years ago? He's so good at getting open on the scramble drill. And to me, that is like Jackson
36:35Dart's best part of his game. Like the Jackson Dart 90 second cutup of him just kind of running around and making
36:41something out of nothing. You look at a lot of Juan Dale Robinson's best plays from last year. That was what Dart was
36:46doing. I think we're going to see likely really, really getting on the same page with Dart from that perspective. Very much accordingly something we should be
36:52excited about. Tight end 11 Dalton Concincaid guys, I might have even moved him up ahead of Likely. We'll keep him here for now. Dalton Concincaid I think
37:02has a very very good case as the late round tight end of 2026. Dolan Concincade, Isaiah Likely, Chigosi McCono. These are the three guys who
37:11more than anything I'm trying to go to war with and get on my teams down the stretch. We have rankings for a reason.
37:17if we are going to see these other dudes fall and be available at the same sort of late round price points as the
37:22concaid's likely some chicks. Okay, we'll reassess in our draft. But to me, concage just stands out as the guy where we are literally just one usage data
37:31point from having him in the top six or so. That's where we're at. This dude did not surpass a 55% snap rate in a single
37:39game at any point last season. And he still finished as a tight end 14. That's pretty much where he's being priced this
37:45year. We are drafting Concaid assuming he's going to have the same role as he did last season with Dawson Knox and
37:51Jackson Halls just being annoying and also being out there. Everyone eats yada yada yada and concade made it work man because only JSN and Puka average more
38:01yards per hour run than dog concade last season. That's right. That same stat that has every fantasy nerd you know losing their freaking minds about Luther
38:09Burton for good reason. Luther Burton's a dog. It's Dalton Concade too. And I think it's one of these things where we
38:16had these years where, you know, first round pick, Josh Allen, he's going to be his new Travis Kelce. Like, we've gone
38:21out there for Don Kade. We've been excited to draft Don Kade. We just haven't really gotten much of it. And, you know, I remember the time he pointed
38:27at the two Lions defenders, but it's not like we've gotten consistent these high-end ridiculous flashes from Don Cade. Maybe like someone else, pick any
38:34other stat you want from last year, they're going to tell you this dude was one of the most single efficient tight
38:38ends in the league. We just didn't quite have the full-time role. Why did we not have the full-time role? because Dolan
38:44Concaid has continued to have to recover and deal with playing through this PCL injury limited in practice throughout last season. Brandon Bean and these
38:52coaches for the Bills have talked about again that being a major reason why he wasn't playing in a full-time role and
38:58not to be the fantasy analyst who cried he's in the best shape of his life. But for Concaid, that was the problem. It was his shape.
39:06It was his health. That was the singular reason why he was not playing more. We heard as much from the Bills. Why would
39:11the Bills not want to play this dude more often? Their offense was rolling along just fine. And maybe they do on a
39:17preservative if he is going to be healthy. But man, if we see Dolan Concaid get a 75 80% route rate and
39:24actually get featured as the 1A or 1B in this passing game, regardless of how you feel about DJ Moore, tight end five as
39:30early as week two, because again, we're getting Josh Allen a top two option for Josh Allen. I'd be ranking him ahead of
39:37Sam Leaporta if we knew we had an 80% route rate ahead of Tucker Craft, ahead of Harold Fan, ahead of Kyle Pittz. It's
39:43close to Tyler Warren. It's close to Trey. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.
39:47All right, I'm kidding. It's not close to Trey McBride. But man, that's all we need for Dolan Concaid. We need a week
39:53one or even a freaking first team preseason, you know, half where we see Kade getting this legit full-time role for the first time. We've drafted him as
40:02like a top seven, top eight tight end as recently as I think last year. We believe in the talent. We believe in the
40:07quarterback. We believe in the scoring upside. We have the same OC and Josh Brady who's helped bring this out of Concaid and the offense as a whole. One
40:14data point away from Don Concaid skyrocketing up the ranks. This is the exact example of drafting someone closer to their Florida ceiling. Don Concincaid
40:22the late round tight end of 2026. George KD is my tight end seven tight end 12, excuse me. I'm a little worried about
40:29the week one availability. I don't think he's going to be on the pup going into the season missing four weeks or
40:35anything like that. But it is a situation where they are going to Australia. So just do you really want that to be it if he's not maybe at 100%.
40:41He's at 95%. But regardless of that, I'm still worried guys because I talked about in my RB tier. Same thing with Cam
40:47Scatter and Quinn Sean Judkins and even Daniel Jones, you know, over in the quarterback streets. Like we get in our head where we're just so obsessed. When
40:55are they gonna be back? When are they going to be ready? When are they going to be active?
40:58Is he going to be 100% when he's there?
41:01This D is gonna be 33 in October. I've heard people say it's not the as bad type of Achilles injury, and I'm not a
41:07doctor. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not so sure the not as bad version of Achilles of an Achilles injury is still
41:14pretty bad. All right, we don't have this long track record of dudes suffering this Achilles injury, coming back, and looking great. It's starting
41:22to get a little bit better. Cousins look like a complete shell of himself. I know he's a quarterback and he's older, but
41:28took Cam Acres a while to do much of anything. Never really got back on track. Like Justice Hill is probably our
41:34best sort of story at this point. He's been a little bit better in basketball from what I can gather when I watch the
41:38playoffs every year. KD Tatum and these guys. I get it. But it's problematic, guys. And it is the cheapest chance we
41:45had to get George KD. So that's the argument. I still got him top 12. I get it. But just like Tucker Craft, just
41:51like Carol Fannon, for KD to make waves, cuz we've never gotten back the one time we did get a sick 130 plus target, you
41:59know, workload. KD's putting up historic numbers and everything. I before the injury, if you ask me, Space Jam style, aliens invade the planet. We have one
42:07football game to defend the planet, to save humanity. We got to beat the aliens. Like George Carol was my tight end one. No disrespect to this dude.
42:14They got Evans McAffrey. I'll even throw Ricky Parasol and know dribbling on these guys. We've seen Shanahan repeatedly refrain from giving KD these
42:22nine or 10 target workloads. They would probably be able to get in a lot of other offenses and he's been just fine
42:27because he's consistently been one of the biggest anomalies in terms of what they're able to do with the football in his hands and after the catch. Yeah, I'm
42:35worried about the 32 soon to be 33 year old still being that freaking good coming off an Achilles injury. It's just
42:40like there's no care to it. Could it work? Sure. I'm just not really trying to put a chip down on it. But if he does
42:46fall into the true late rounds, he's going, you know, pick 120 or so, go for it. I will note in the meantime, if
42:51you're in deep enough league or something, and there is, maybe, you know, later in August, there's bigger concern about KD. Even if he's not
42:57landing on Puff, maybe it could be multiple weeks. Jake Tund's guys actually did supply. I think it was tight end eight, tight end nine
43:03production during that first stretch of last year when KD unfortunately got hurt in week one. Did some decent things in the last two games when KD actually had
43:09that Achilles in the first place. So Jake Tundes, you know, not going to win your league or anything like that, but
43:14if you're in a situation where, you know, 20 tight, the top 20 tight ends are already on other rosters, you're in
43:19a deeper league, KD happens to be missing a week, don't sleep on Tund actually coming in there and doing a okayer thing or two for at least a week.
43:26Tight end 13, Travis Kelce. I mean, we've never seen kind of a worse version of him, but he still finished tight end
43:3210 in PPR points per game last season.
43:33It was the first time in several years that we actually saw his yak improve in a meaningful way. It was sliding, and
43:38last year it went up a little bit. I do think, you know, a change in offensive philosophy had something to do with
43:43that. We didn't see as many screens, you know, for good reason. He's old. Look at him. But man, this is the point where
43:49it's like, I mentioned this kind of earlier. We see it every year. Kelsey averaged 11.4 PPR points per game. Now he's at tight end 10. Then the tight end
43:5816 was 1.1 fewer fantasy points. Okay, so kudos to Kelsey in that top 10 finish. He's 36 years old. He ran pretty
44:06hot last year. Rasheed Rice only played eight games. Xavier Worthy also missed, you know, three games after Travis Kelce himself friendly fired him. Can you Can
44:14you Chiefs stop doing that? Mahomes took out Rice a couple years ago. This is the only freaking team in the league that
44:19has his problems. So, Kelsey wasn't as bad last season as maybe be remembered.
44:24He did have he had three drops that led to interceptions. That's only happened twice in the last five years. And the
44:30only other guy to do it was Tyreek Hill when he was still on the Chiefs. I don't know, something about that ball Mahomes
44:34throwing. But Kelsey, he just seems to me like the guy that we're always going to be ranking around the tight end one
44:39borderline. But when I'm looking at this group, when I'm looking at a late round tight end, I mean, I'm not looking for a
44:44borderline tight end one. I'm going to be able to find one on the waiver wire in all likelihood because of how small
44:48the gap is. I'm looking for someone who can actually go out there and boom in a meaningful way, get into that top eight,
44:54be someone that we can actually be feeling good about the upside about on a weekly basis. I don't think in the year
44:592026 Travis Kelce is that guy anymore, pal. Similar sentiment for Jake Ferguson again. Tied at 11 last season, but the splits are so freaking damning, guys.
45:0918.6 PPR points per game in four games without CD Lamb. Just 9.4 with him. I don't want to completely overthinking it. Overthink it. It's number one tight
45:19end. Clearly, he's had tripledigit targets in his last two fully healthy seasons with Dak Prescott. And we wouldn't be surprised if the Cowboys
45:25lead the NFL in scoring. But you bring in Pickkins, we get maybe a little bit of a leap from Ryan Floroy. There are
45:30other tight ends in Dallas that like to rotate. It's almost like back to that Dallas Scott or Zack Irch situation where whenever a Cowboys tight end makes
45:37a catch. It's like this pause and you're like 87, 86, 8, they're all white.
45:43They're all wearing numbers in 80s. It's very difficult to tell who is going to have it. Can we get some different cleat
45:47colors or anything? I am begging you guys. But yeah, Jake Ferguson perfectly fine. Borderline tight one. If we get an injury to Cier Pickkins all of a sudden
45:55like he is going to be in the risers part of all of our, you know, ranking articles and everything like that. just
46:00struggle to be looking at Ferguson and going like other than him catching again 12 13 touchdowns which is possible but again I would say unlikely given the
46:07wide receivers I don't think Jake Ferguson is the late round tight end dart we want to be throwing again concaid likely and chicky who we're
46:13going to talk about shortly more so the guys I'm looking at Dallas though I could be overthinking him after all he
46:20scored 13 touchdowns in 16 games last year I have never seen a flukier not fluky he scored them what's the right
46:28word pathetic I think that's almost like more mean. I've never seen a more pathetic 13 touchdown season. So, all due respect, if you can say that after
46:36just openly criticizing someone like that, but man, eight of the 13 scorers came from inside the 5 yard line. And we're talking like shovel passes. They
46:44gave him a jet sweep in the playoffs.
46:47It's like Kevin Patulo just instead of fixing the actual offense, he just got underneath the hood and repeatedly designed weird ways for Dallas to score.
46:56They were doing these like push passes when he was lined up kind of like over another tight end. He just fall into the
47:01end zone. I I don't know. I'm sure AJ Brown was just like on the outside of the formation like, "Are you freaking
47:06kidding me? We just called this play.
47:08Oh, but it's another touchdown, so it worked out." So, career low, 9.9 yards per catch. He's 31 years old at this
47:15point. But there's no more AJ Brown, which is cool. Maybe he does score double digit touchdowns again, but man, I'm not even just screaming regression
47:23here. I'm screaming he's not going to get force-fed the football inside the five yard line again with an actual like rational human being calling plays for
47:32the Philadelphia Eagles. Also, as we continue to do my 180 on, you know, being terrified of fading Mai Lemon to saying, you know what, screw that. Let's
47:39draft Mai Lemon. Kyle Lemon ain't no slouch, guys. So, Devonte Smith. Devonte Smith. I said double negative. I just hated myself immediately and then messed
47:48up a name. Devonte Smith and Mai Lemon still two guys that we should be expecting to lead the way in targets.
47:53Dantavon Wix is getting hype. I think Dallas Gddard, chasing Dallas in 2026 feels like a mistake to me. He's cheap enough that you know what, you want to
48:01get him as your late round tight end, go for it. I'm not going to call you crazy.
48:04I will still call you Superman. But yeah, Dallas, it feels like we're chasing 2025 numbers to me. And finally, tight end 16, Chosonquo.
48:15I will move him up if the Commanders do not make a big move at wide receiver. I just think they're going to. So for me
48:22there is a gap between concade likely and then down to Chiggy. But if they don't right now he does have a very
48:29similar setup to likely. He didn't get the same 40 million plus dollar contract but he did get three years 27 million.
48:35That's enough money to make me believe that yes this dude is going to be the clear tight end one over you know Ben
48:40Sinn and John Bates and those guys. So we got the investment. It's kind of a similar thing where just over the years
48:45in Tennessee like Chickas Flash his rookie year numbers guys the yards per out run targets per out run they were all up there with Travis Kelce he was
48:51like the best in the league we just never quite saw a full-time role in a really bad offense uh you know lead to
48:57consistent fantasy success but really fun yak moments throughout his career as well had a touchdown against the Saints last season where he's throwing dudes
49:03off him like getting chicken with it man he is a really fun player and then you look at the offense where again likely
49:09only has to worry about neighbors conc has to worry about DJ J Moore Shakur gets his as well. But given all the
49:16volume in Buffalo scoring wise, we can feel a little better about it. Chippies just got Terry McLaren for now. I don't
49:23think it's if. I think it's when they either sign Stefon Diggs or maybe Brandon I decid to show up. He gets cut.
49:29He gets his wish. He goes to Washington.
49:31I don't freaking know. Keenan Allen's out there as well. I don't think Debo is going to go there. Maybe someone can
49:35please trade for my guy Kahan Booty Washington. It could be you. It could be you guys. They're going to add someone
49:41at wide receiver. It's not going to be Trayon Burks and freaking Antonio Williams. With all due respect to freaking Antonio Williams, if it is,
49:49let's get chicky with it. I can sign up for it right now. Tight end 16 for me.
49:54Tier five could be on the cover of week two waiverwire articles, but again, these are more so the guys where even if
50:00they are, it's probably going to be because of a week big week one. I don't think we're looking at, you know, this
50:04big huge season or anything. So, tight end 17, Hunter Henry. Hey, finally broke 700 yard mark last season. you know, took him nine years or whatever, but 31
50:14years young. He is Drake May's number one tight end, but they did sign Eli, not sign, they drafted Eli Raridon out
50:19of Notre Dame. So, losing Austin Hooper and adding Raridon, you could argue could even be more of a problem given the fact that the younger Radaron can
50:26maybe bring more to the table. Man, even more so than Ridon. We got AJ Brown, we got Romeo Dobs.
50:32Last year, I feel like given the fact that Hunter Henry stayed healthy, he got over 700 yards, we didn't have much
50:38target competition, and we got a borderline MVP season out of Drake May, and he still couldn't finish top 12.
50:45Hey, he might be within 0.5 points. The guy who finishes top 12, just not someone that I'm trying to draft and
50:50like actively go ahead and get going and build my team around. Titan 18, Jawan Johnson. Pretty much the same thing, guys. Last year went so freaking great
50:58for Jawan to playing this full-time role to start the year to having Rashid Shahid get traded to having Tyler Shock play truly well down the stretch against
51:06a bad schedule. Sure, but still played well. Only Chris Olive to worry about and we still could just get a borderline
51:12tight end finish. So he had 102 targets only Tre McBride Kyle Pittz have more receiving yards.
51:18We did see early on playing a near every time role and then down the stretch it was more 60 75% snaps and that matters
51:26guys. as we want every single route, especially at a position like tight end.
51:28We're not getting the same level of really big plays. I do think Nova fan Oscar Delp could squeeze the opportunities more than expected. Delp
51:35and Raridon guys, I know they weren't the biggest names in college, but these are I believe both like they were one
51:40and two in their former classes. Notre Dame, Georgia offenses that maybe don't force feed the ball to one position because of how loaded they are across
51:47the board. Wouldn't hold that against them. Jawan Johnson's been my most drafted tight end in previous years. I'm not so much in on him this year. could
51:55be a mistake. He's a great player. I saw uh recently on Twitter, Hayden Wink sent out like the Yahoo overall board. And
52:01you know, we got a you know, New Orleans Saints Pete reporters going out and saying that Jawan Johnson is too low.
52:06You know, it is New New Orleans Saints Pete Reporters. I get it. But I do love and I'm sorry I'm blanking on the
52:11freaking name, which is sad because I freaking love this dude. Who is it? Nick Underh Hill. My god. Sorry. Make sure
52:18you check out his work. Nick Underh Hill is the freaking man. Every beatw writer should be like him. But Nick Underh Hill
52:22is saying that Jawan Johnson is way too low. He is again enough in the weeds that I would respect his, you know,
52:27propaganda for one of his team's players more so than maybe another beat writer out there. But regardless, Joan Johnson and Hunter Henry, I just really struggle
52:34to see the bullcase. Could they f around and finish tight end 12 out of tight end, you know, 17 18 ADP? Fine. Yes.
52:41We're big game hunting though, baby.
52:43We're going higher and I would like to again be starting my team off with someone else instead. And by the way,
52:47guys, I want to be leaving my draft with one tight end. These dudes are going to get cut by the time you need to worry
52:53about your bye-week. Give me the handcuff running backs. All right, don't worry about even when you see your league mates taking a second or a third
52:59quarterback, taking a second or a third tight end. Get your guy. Those dudes are going to be cut by week one or week two,
53:05if not even earlier in a lot of cases.
53:07And I just think that again, the more bullets that we can throw at handcuff tight ends, the better handcuff running backs, excuse me, the better we can
53:15always find the second quarterback, second tight end out again at replacement level cost later in the draft. 10 and 19, Kenyan Sadi. This
53:22price tag alone just for a first round pick, someone that the NFL thought enough of to be a top 16 overall
53:28selection. Probably just throw a dart at him, right? I don't know. I can't quite get there. I should be. The price is
53:35fine. I'm not going to yell at you guys again for doing this.
53:39I look at this offense. I mentioned what Vegas thinks about them before. Let's talk about Frank Reich, though. That's who we landed on. That's who we got
53:47leading the way. Why is it Frank freaking right? He did some good things in Philly like a decade ago. In 2021,
53:54leads the ninth ranked scoring offense as Colts head coach. Jonathan Taylor RB1 season went nuts. Okay, since then.
54:002022, he gets fired halfway through the season for Jeff Saturday. Colts ranked 30th in scoring. 2023, Panthers head coach fired after 11 games, 31st in
54:08scoring. Doesn't work in 2024 from what I can find on the internet, aka Wikipedia. 2025 Stanford interim head coach. They ranked 122nd in scoring out
54:19of 136 qualified division one teams. I didn't even know there were 136 division one teams that qualify for this stuff.
54:26So, I will say Matt Ryan in 2022, not the best quarterback situation to be on, at least in the year 2022. Rookie year
54:34Bryce Young in 2023. And I'm guessing Stanford didn't have the second coming of Andrew Luck under center last year.
54:39So, maybe he's had it all figured out.
54:41He's been a victim of circumstances, but now we have 36-year-old Gino Smith, who yes, was really good in 2022 and 2023.
54:51I have my doubts that the Gino Smith Frank Rack partnership is going to be leading the fireworks in an offense where we have Omar Cooper and Bree Hall
54:58eating up those same underneath areas of the field that we would like to see Kenyans feasting in. And Mason Taylor, guys, good enough to go round two last
55:05year, good enough to be the Jets regular inline starting tight end.
55:10We saw it happen for a large portion of last season between Cole KT and Coulson Loveland. We saw what happened to Dolan
55:16Concave with Dawson Knox really throw his entire career. Knee issue notwithstanding. It's very problematic and it's not like we're in a Bears or
55:23Bills offense. We're in a Jets offense out in all likelihood is going to suck.
55:26So fun player with the football in his hands, but still only 21 years old. I like Sadiq more in dynasty than I do
55:32even as a late round pick this year.
55:33Last thing I will say about Sadique because I did find this interesting. I was watching them, you know, just throughout the draft process going, man,
55:39got a few passes down the scene, but generally they were just trying to kind of get the ball in this dude's hands. A
55:43lot of screens. And sure enough, I looked up last five draft classes. This was like an April, so I might have
55:48missed out a couple guys who ended up going in rounds two and three, but last five draft classes, all the tight ends
55:55who went on day one or day two, 34% of Kenyan Sadique's career targets were screens. That's the highest of any player, which is usually a negative,
56:03right? We think of it like a negative for wide receiver Zachariah Branch. You know, that was the big kind of talking
56:07point for him throughout this draft class. Like these guys, it was like h they weren't really running routes. They were just getting screens and forcefed
56:12the ball at the line of scrimmage. The only other tight ends though who are at 20% or higher and getting screens,
56:19Tucker Craft, Tyler Warren, Harold Fannon, Elijah Aoyo, and Brock Bowers.
56:23So, I think a tight end we actually shouldn't have that negative mindset. It should be, oh wow, this tight end's athletic enough. He's good enough after
56:30the catch to get that OC to actually be feeding him screens to be designing touches for the tight end in the first
56:35place. Very rare. Bright future for Sadi. Just don't think that future includes 2026. Tight end 20, Brettton Strange. 36 million reasons for the
56:43Jaguars to get this dude the football.
56:44He was a tight end 12 per game weeks 12 through 18 last season. Trevor Lawrence and Liam Cohen take a leap together in
56:50year two. Like maybe he does go ahead and get that nine touchdown spike season. A lot of mouths to feed though.
56:55Parker Washington, BTJ, Jacobe Myers.
56:57And again, I still think Travis Hunter is going to be involved. Running backs as well. Again, Brenton Strange perfectly fine, late round tight end. I
57:04just don't think he's got that scenario where sitting here, you know, in November going, "Oh man, ranking Bretton Strange, tight end five again." Like,
57:11yeah, who could have seen this coming?
57:12Very doubtful that's going to be the case. Aronda Gaston, last one in this tier for me. Again, tight end 21 had a
57:19four-week stretch last year, guys. weeks six through nine, 68 yards, 164 yards and a touchdown, 77 yards and a touchdown, another 68 yards there, and
57:28then he averages 27 yards per game the rest of the way. So, just seeing that stretch from a tight end, particularly a
57:34rookie one, is impressive enough, but I have serious questions here, guys. Very, very serious questions. As much as we can write off and say, well, you know,
57:41we had the offensive line injuries once Joe Alt was out of the picture. They had to keep Gaston and block a little more
57:46often. I get it and maybe that is the case. But you signed Charlie Kohler and Dave the Joku. That sounds to me like a
57:53group [clears throat] that's going to be rotating. And who's to say Charlie Kohler couldn't honestly leave this room. I've been toying around more and
57:58more with this. But the dude's an amazing blocker. That's why he got the money he did there, right? I'm not that's that fact is not lost on me. I
58:06don't think he's like Josh Oliver, though. The Vikings block first tight end. I think Charlie Kohler, man, this dude had 2100 freaking yards at Iowa
58:14State. He scored 23 touchdowns. more than a lot of the top freaking fantasy tight ends out there can attest to having in college. So Kohler, there's a
58:22reason why he hasn't been used as much in the NFL. But then again, he was behind Mark Andrews and Isaiah likely. I
58:28just think if you're putting a bet down, who's going to lead Chargers, tight ends, and snaps? I think it's Charlie Kohler over Gaston the Joku. Could they
58:36rotate them enough? So Gaston still runs the most routes and he's out there when they want to pass. Okay, maybe. But if
58:41Coler isn't even that big of a drop off, like why not keep him out there and keep the defenses guessing more and more
58:46Gasson at this point, similar to Sadique, if you just want to take him late because you believe in the upside path. And hey, it's so late anyway in
58:54drafts. I'm never going to be hating on someone as like a last two round pick.
58:58That's just lazy to me. Like, oh my god, you guys drafted this dude whose ADP is at 180, you freaking embeile. Like, I
59:04I'm not for that. So, if you do believe in the four game stretch, okay, I think Charlie Kohler is going to be a major
59:09thorn in the side right here. Tight end six or I'm sorry, tier six. I titled it, we live on a rock that floats in space.
59:17Maybe this could work. After all, we do live on a rock that floats in space, so maybe this could work. I am doubtful,
59:21though. Tight end 22, TJ Hawinson. Tight end 23, Dalton Schultz. Hawinson, he was tight end two in 2023. Very much aided by Justin Jefferson missing half
59:32that season. He was tight on 18, tight on 27 these last two seasons. I was more so buying the potential bounceback hype
59:38with Kyler Murray improving the offense and everything like that. We have seen it before. Once they added Dawan Jennings though, that was where it was
59:45tough for me. Now we're looking at someone pretty likely to be a number four pass game option in an offense that
59:50we would like to think takes a step forward, but I'd be fine with, you know, an average above average scoring offense. Expecting it to be top 10 to
59:57enable four guys. I'm out on that. And then Dalton Schulz, similar sentiment.
60:02Tight end 11, tight end 28, tight end 15. Could he be one of these guys in the Hunter Henry range? Well, yeah, you
60:06know, he's fine. He's within one point of the tight end 12. Okay, I can get that. But Nico Collins, returning Tenell, the Iowa State year 2 Cyclones
60:14and an offense that probably wants to run the football and just kind of lean on their defense. Not going out of my
60:18way for Dalton Schulz. I'm not going out of my way for any of these guys to actively start in a traditional league,
60:22but hey, some of us are in nontraditional leagues and I appreciate you guys out there. A little more interesting after those two. Tit and 24,
60:28Greg Dole. Small sample size. Be damned.
60:31small sample size flyer everyone. His per out efficiency numbers were baller.
60:35It was down the stretch and we saw the offense helped Darren Waller too. So Mike McDaniel was maybe doing some work
60:39there. But he's always been one of these guys where we've liked the athlete.
60:43We've liked the pass down ability. It's just been a problem of getting that full-time role. And we do not have the
60:47likely or the chig new team or the new extension to help us believe that full-time role is going to be coming
60:53out. But we do have a depth chart with no wide receivers that we should be afraid of. They drafted Will Kazeric out
61:00of Ohio State in round two. He is very much block first. He made some nice catches down the steering against Michigan. I'm a Buckeye nerd. I watch
61:07every single game. Always have, always will. So, I'm probably even giving him a little bit too much credit, but did use
61:13the day two pick on it. They have Bobby Sloic as their OC. He was their like senior pass game coordinator or
61:20offensive adviser. He had some sort of, you know, role under Mike McDaniel last season. So, maybe he likes what we saw
61:25with Dolich here. It's just the offense.
61:28Malik Willis, if he finishes under 3,000 yards passing, nobody is going to be surprised. Maybe Dolce is gonna be a number one guy with that. Just I
61:35struggle to think that he's going to again for the first time in his career get this fulltime role. I think we're
61:40probably sitting here in week two going, "Oh, 55% route rate for Greg Dolphus.
61:45That sucks." Yeah, I drafted him a lot in baseball as like a literal last two round tight end again. But just in terms
61:51of our manage leagues guys, not going to need to draft him. We'll see what things say in week one on the waiverwire. The
61:55guy I would be drafting, tight end 25, Terrence Ferguson. This is the latest grossest tight end dart that I am willing to throw in a general generally
62:04managed fantasy football league. All right, only 11 receptions last year, but my god were they a fun 11 receptions.
62:10Like this is like the tight end version of Isaac Tesla or like Mitchell Tinsley where every time they did get the ball,
62:15it was downfield, was for a big play, it was for a touchdown, what have you.
62:19Shawn McVey, plenty of nice things to say about this dude in the offseason.
62:22Now, I know that's kind of a Shawn McFace staple to go ahead and always hype up his guys. And why wouldn't you
62:27as a head coach, don't worry about us fancy nerds. Just be nice to your freaking dudes. Like, absolutely get it.
62:32But you do look at the depth chart. Rams have been a team allegedly in the market for a wide receiver because they're
62:38looking at their number three. It's Konado Munfield or freaking, you know, Jordan Whittington. Like, it it would make sense for them to add another wide
62:44receiver, but if not, we do have the potential with Terence Ferguson to to be basically the wide receiver three and tight end one in this offense. So that
62:53is a scenario we're probably going to need to happen. If they add another wide receiver, it's going to be really tough
62:57to get behind because unfortunately none of these guys that were such a problem for Ferguson last season are out of the
63:03picture. We still got Kobe Parkinson, Tyler Higgby, Davis Allen, and they even use a day two pick on Ohio State's Max
63:09Claire who is a sort of receiving capable tight end where he could even make things a little bit tougher. So the
63:14allure is that wide receiver three basically potential because he's used so far downfield, guys. That's the crazy part.
63:2150% and I know we only had I think 25 targets total on the season, but 50% of Terren Ferguson's targets last year were
63:29thrown at least 20 yards downfield. The next closest tight end was at like 21%.
63:33All right, so he's got that downfield ability that we talked about earlier. We often see with the highest scoring players as a position. I'm of the belief
63:40that if you're able to work downfield, you can do the other stuff more underneath, which he did at Oregon. It's not like he
63:46can't catch a screen, can't catch a five yard crosser. The opposite, I think, is where it's tough. It's like, oh, can
63:51this uh tight end who's not being used downfield all of a sudden have that, you know, club in his bag? Can he actually
63:56put stress on the defense trying to run down the seam? We know Ferguson can do the hard part of being, you know, a
64:01high-end receiving tight end. He just needs the opportunities to do the easier parts that we'll actually need to see him do in order to get him in our
64:08lineup. But last stat here, and this is why we want to be tra chasing Terrence Bergsen, though, because we love McVey,
64:12we love Matthew Stafford and all that.
64:14Last year though, if we look at team team tight end total PPR points per game, the Cardinals were number one.
64:21Trey McBride makes sense. The Rams were number two. The Rams were the second highest scoring offense in terms of tight end fantasy points and their top
64:29scoring tight end was Kobe Parkinson as the tight end 22 in PPR points per game.
64:34Madness. Tight end 26 Gunnar Helm has some quality per out efficiency numbers just like Greg Dolich. Also like Dolich, we have enough concern. Daniel Bellinger
64:44coming with Brian Dale from New York.
64:45Also, again, not the most loaded wide receiver room in the world, but I would expect Carnell Tate, Juan Delale Robson, and Calvin Ridley all to probably have
64:52more targets in Gunner Helm. I'd like to think the Titans can be better. I'm not really sold on Brian Dable. I do really
64:58like Cam Ward as a potential future great quarterback. Need to see more.
65:02It's a bit of a leap of faith. Gunnar Helm probably more of a dynasty stash at this point than anything. Titan 27, AJ
65:08Barner. I wonder if I'm underestimating Barner a little bit. Darnold Stone for 4K last two seasons. Only him and Jared Goff can say that. I think he's good.
65:20They love him on short yardage especially. Fun fact. All right. Number one rusher last year in first down percentage on third and fourth with
65:28three or third or fourth down with three or four yards to go is AJ Barner. 87 and a half percent. He only missed one of
65:35these tush pushes they used them on all last year and they didn't even like actually do the full tush push thing.
65:40They tried to get queued against the Rams one time. They had like their wide receivers out wide anyway. So maybe AJ
65:45Barner is that answer that we were talking about, you know, gets those five or six rushing touchdowns because they just use them inside the one yard line.
65:53Maybe it could happen.
65:55I just get concerned that the return of Elijah Aoyo turns this into more of a committee and an offense where he paid
66:01Rashid Shahib still runs through JSN and Cooper Cup's not going anywhere. You got Tory Horton out there, too. I don't think we're going to see enough
66:09multi-tight end personnel in Seattle to make up for a Royal splitting things up with AJ Barner, but again, we live on a
66:16rock that floats in space. Maybe this could work. Final tier guys, tier seven.
66:20Absolutely no way it's not going to happen. Maybe it does. Titan 28 Kate Otton. Titen 29 Evan Ingram. Titan 30 Kobe Parkinson. Titan 31 Mike Diki.
66:29Followed by Michael Mayer, Eli Sters, Pat Frymouth, Darnell Washington, my guy Charlie Kohler, David Njoku, Eric Allavian Sanders, and Justin Jolly.
66:40Broncos rookie. Kate Uton. If we see every wide receiver in Tampa get hurt, we'll be interested in him. Evan Ingram technically I guess is still going to be
66:49the Broncos tight end one. We have a couple of these guys all year where we almost unanimously expect them to be a
66:54cap casualty and then it doesn't happen.
66:56We just don't quite update. But you know what? Shawn Peyton has 18 years as a head coach and we continue to chase
67:01those Jimmy Graham seasons. Only Benjamin Watson and Jiren Cook turned in a top 12 season other than Jimmy Graham and they were tight end eight and tight
67:08end nine. So Ingram didn't even get a 60% snap rate in a game last season.
67:13It's a little of a post hype thing, but he's getting up there in age at this point. I think he's 33. They added
67:17Jaylen Wadd. I'm good on Evan Ingram.
67:20Kobe Parkinson nine touchdowns last season. Just expecting a little bit more of a bump forward with Terrence Ferguson. We also did see Parkinson
67:26benefit from Tyler Higgby being out.
67:28Also added Max Cla. My chip is on Ferguson in Los Angeles. Mike Jiki, tight end 31. I've drafted so much Jiki
67:35over the years, guys. Maybe the year I don't is a reason why he's going to all of a sudden do his thing. But what gets
67:40me like he only got 50 yards in one game last season which isn't ideal obviously but week 13 week 15 like T. Higgins was
67:49sidelined. All right because that I thought that's what we had in Jiki in 2024 when Higgins was out a game or two.
67:54We actually had Jiki going out there and doing big things working as that big slot essentially. 28% snaps and 57% two
68:01games with T. Higgins sidelined. That's not going to cut it there especially with Eric all now healthy. So I got him
68:06a little bit lower but this could be an intriguing one. Dynasty Streets more than anything. But Zack Taylor, fun quotes. I'll even freaking read them for
68:14you guys. You know, it's the type of guy I am. Reading Zack Taylor's quotes on Eric All. Quote, the word physical in
68:20the dictionary is a picture of Eric All.
68:22Another quote, he's trying to put his face through somebody's soul. That's the best way I can describe him. I don't know. Maybe I got to be a little more
68:28tuned into Bengals pressers. I feel like he doesn't exactly throw around oneliners like this very often. He does for Eric All. Did some good things
68:34earlier in his career as a in 2024 as a rookie. just unfortunately had the, you know, torn up knee that prevented him
68:40from playing down the stretch of that year and then all throughout 2025. I don't think Tiki, Drew Sample, or even Tanner Hudson are going away. But if you
68:47did have to put a long-term chip on this Bengals tight end room, mine would be on Mr. Eric all the single most guy I'm
68:54excited about in this range though, tight end 32, Michael Mayer. Alltime Notre Dame school leader in receiving yards, alltime Notre Dame school leader
69:03in receiving touchdowns. We've seen at least a couple of games throughout his career when we have had no Brock Bowers.
69:09And he's actually been able to put up some good numbers. Five catches, 50 yards, and one touchdown in week six last year. Nine catches, 89 yards in
69:16week 17. Unfortunately, got a little bit banged up early in the year alongside Bowers. So, he didn't get this super long run of him working alone. But, you
69:23know, he could be a starter this year. I know I'm not going to be chasing the ghost of, you know, Rob Gronowski and
69:29Aaron Hernandez all the way back in 2012 or 13 or whatever it was at this point, but you look at that wide receiver room
69:35for the Raiders. I think Michael Mayer is a better piece out there than Jack Bash, who you kind of just want as a
69:42blocker than Jaylen, Trey Tucker. There was going to be an offense in the league to really lean on this multi-tight end
69:49stuff. I think the Raiders have the personnel at tight end and wide receiver to make it work. It could be like a 2024
69:56Isaiah likely sort of like round 18 dart here where you maybe get a couple games that work okay just independent of Brock
70:04Bowers mayor catch the touchdown here or there. God forbid something happens to Brock Bowers though guys. Mayors could be on the cover of every Waverwire
70:11article in the industry. So if you are blessed enough to have Brock Bowers in Dynasty get a bench spot for Michael
70:16Mayers. Really can't stress that enough because he's going to be a free agent next year anyway. This year maybe it works out okay. Maybe he's traded in the
70:22meantime. Lot of good scenarios here for again the 24 year old and Michael Merritt. Eli Sters, I could look dumb for this one. I know he has a lot of
70:30fans in the industry. I just think it's a red shirt year. So go ahead. If you want to draft him at the end of round
70:33one, your rookie drafts guys, go right ahead. I just think if Darter doesn't get injured like what is Stard going to
70:40be working ahead of Mai Lemon or Dvonte Smith? Absolutely not. So I think we're looking at tight end. I don't even think
70:47Dantavian Wixs. I would be if there's no injuries, I don't see how Sters is even better than the fifth pass game option.
70:54I'd probably put Squan ahead of him. The bigger issue and I've heard some of this like just kind of reading the tea leaves
70:59with some of these beat reporters like I think he has some work to do to be like an actual inline tight end. I think they
71:03care about that in Philly like Grant Calcetera, Johnny Munt, these guys could be problems for Eli Styers as well.
71:08Could be a very fun future. Again, just the amount of yards he had at Vanderbilt and things he did as someone who had to
71:13convert from playing quarterback like it's nothing against against this dude.
71:16It makes sense that he has to like work on his blocking and the the intricacies of playing tight end. Such a hard
71:21position for rookies to play because you have to block like the freaking tackle you're next to and then run routes like
71:26the dude split out alongside you. Very, very tough. Eli Sty is more of a dynasty pick for me. Pat Frymouth worth $48
71:34million on his contract. Darnell Washington worth $42 million on his contract. Very interesting in Pittsburgh. I'm not sure what they're going to run because Mike McCarthy has
71:41leaned on 11 personnel. uh one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers for the majority of his career. They got a ton of money locked
71:48up in DK Mechaf and Michael Pitman as well. You'd like to think with this money it's going to be more muth more
71:53Washington, but you know, use the day two pick on Jerry Bernard. Roman Wilson is allegedly getting a little bit of hype. I'm interested what they're going
71:59to do. Famous only one year removed from a tight end 14 finish. Darno Washington is the most fun tight end to Washington
72:05league. Him or Tucker Craft, but like Washington is just like a shock factor.
72:09Every time he gets the ball, I still see how big he is. Aaron Rogers likes him, too. It's so funny. Connor Hayward does
72:16a tush push in Washington. Just freaking just shoves this dude over like five other human beings. Pittsburgh Steelers are a wild team, man. Yeah, enjoy the
72:23red zone highlights for Darnell Washington. I'm not drafting Steelers tight ends. Charlie Kohler hyped him up a little bit already. David Njoku had
72:30three top eight tight end seasons, 2022, 2024. I drafted him a lot last year because I'm freaking dumb sometimes. A lot of knee injuries going on. I don't
72:39like the fact that the joke made it out of like the first two two or three rounds of free agency without any
72:44suitors ends up signing here for not that much money after the draft. I think we've already seen the best years of his
72:49career. Talk about Eric all Tavon Sanders. All right, he's with the Panthers, but they always rotate him.
72:54Tommy Tremble. Tommy Trembles and Mitchell Evans. Dave Canales since he's been there since 2024. Third, fewest targets. Again, they add someone like
73:02Chris Brazil. I I just we'll adjust to it if the snaps come in week one. It would be to Sanders my chip. I doubt
73:09there's much there. And then finally, Justin Jolly. If we did see a scenario for this dude, I think it's like the
73:15Broncos like their young tight ends and they cut Evan Ingram before camp, but I don't I mean before week one, I just
73:21don't know why they would still have him on the team unless they wanted to keep him to this point. So, I will say Justin
73:26and Johnny both start with a J just like Joker. Yeah, I don't have it here. Now that I made that really dumb joke at the
73:33end, I think that is going to wrap up this edition of another tier video guys.
73:37I have run out of things in tier though for now. So going to be getting more into the streets, talking to some of
73:41again best analysts around the industry.
73:43Got an interview with Ryan Heath from Fantasy Points coming up on Thursday. So make sure you guys check that one out.
73:48And also just getting more into draft season. Okay, I do want to talk some more, you know, just highlight the late
73:52round tight ends. Again, probably in like a shorter video. But for me, like I wanted to spend this last month really
73:57going long on some of these tier videos and then also just doing some more one-offs going position by position. So now with August on the way and the
74:04preseason football games starting to come and training camp reports, we can get in the streets, we can get in the weeds, we can go through draft strategy,
74:10we can go through risers and fallers with the with the training camp reports, with the preseason action, all that and so much more. So again, probably not
74:17going to I say I'm probably not going to plan on going this long with more videos than not, but I did just rip rip out,
74:24you know, an hour long training camp thing last week. So I don't know. We got stuff to say. It's a fun time saying it.
74:28And I appreciate the support from everyone that's been joining me while getting this channel started. So as always, make sure you check out my work
74:34on rotowire.com if you're into reading things in the year 2026. Lot a lot of really cool tools as well. We do have a
74:39free mock draft tool I'll be tweeting about here soon that you guys can check out and again for free. Why would you
74:44not want to do that? Otherwise, again, just some cool stuff going on. So, if you like the video, please like the
74:48video, and it always helps when you hit that subscribe button as well. Until next time, everybody. I'm Ian Hardit.
74:54Who's awesome? You're awesome. Take care everybody.
