0:00Of course, I want to leave every single draft this year with I don't know, one of Brock Bowers, Colston Loveland, and
0:05Tyler Warren. They are probably my most drafted tight ends if I'm in a position to select them. But Hayden, what we have
0:10learned over the last few years, if you are able to either Dr. Frankenstein the tight end position in the later rounds
0:17or find that one late round tight end gem, i.e. Tucker Kraft who was on this episode last year, then you have just a
0:25massive advantage versus the top two, three, four draft capital that your opponents spend on this position. That can be quite a graveyard week to week.
0:34So, with that in mind, these are our favorite tight end sleepers for 2026 fantasy football drafted either on Yahoo or Underdog pick 120 plus. And Hayden, I
0:46don't want you to give me one of these washed veterans. I want you to give me your spiciest take. Who is
0:52maybe an off-the-beaten-path tight end that you want people to know about this year.
0:55>> Maybe too deep. I don't love UCLA Bruins, but Greg Dulcich is my first answer here. This one's pretty straightforward. If you look at the
1:04highest drafted pass catcher on teams in fantasy, there's only a handful of tight ends who are the the number one in ADP
1:12on their teams. Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, Tyler Warren, that all makes sense. Harold Fannin makes sense. The last one is Greg Dulcich.
1:20>> [laughter] >> He's the first Dolphins pass catcher to be drafted at 183.
1:25Long story short, somebody is catching passes on the Dolphins. They might not score many touchdowns, but Greg Dulcich at the very end of the season mattered.
1:35There's no competition at tight end or at wide receiver, and I'll leave you with this.
1:41He was second in yards per route run last year only behind Dalton Kincaid.
1:46So, like this PPR scam, I think there's going to be limitations here. But in the deepest of sicko leagues that I know you
1:53guys are in, I do think that Greg Dulcich has a pretty good chance of being better than tight end 26.
1:59>> If you weren't going to bring him up, I was. And I don't know what that says about me and you if we're absolute
2:03sickos, but in this case we are. And this is not like a boy who cried wolf situation. I've been doing this show
2:09with you for over 5 years at this point.
2:11You and I have never been like pro Greg Dulcich people. We haven't suggested him in this show or much throughout off
2:18seasons like other shows have, but in this case, in this environment, it does make the most sense. Like as you talked
2:25about, we want to find these tight ends that have a chance of being top two pass catchers, even if the offense isn't
2:33projected for a lot of points. And just going through like the Our Lads depth chart at wide receivers and especially at tight ends, Greg Dulcich is right
2:40there. And then you go deeper. You go look at the beat writers, right? Marcel Louis-Jacques over at ESPN, right? Greg Dulcich quote continues to be massively
2:50underrated and was quote one of the primary targets for Marquez Callaway in spring practices. They added Will Dissly out of Ohio State who is a pure blocker,
3:02and that is it. That frees up our guy this year, Greg Dulcich, to just catch passes. And think back to what Bobby
3:10Slowik did at the Houston Texans, multiple tight end sets, multiple heavy bodies, and that allowed Dalton Schultz to be the tight end 11 in points per
3:17game with him in 2023. So, I love this like home run swing that also has a chance of being a massive zero. And if
3:25he is a zero, then you just drop him and move on.
3:27>> And I think he's just going to be a waiver wire guy. I think in like your basic, you know, 12-person Yahoo!
3:31league, you don't have to draft Greg Dulcich. Just don't be surprised when the first waiver wire show comes up and he's out there for 80% of the snaps and
3:38caught five passes if we have some interest. I would say he's PPR only, like half PPR. I mean, this is going to
3:43be disgusting. But I do think there's a lot of things going right for him. I the the part that you mentioned, the off
3:49season stuff has has really promising for Greg Dulcich. This is about the window when you enter the prime of your career.
3:55Third round pick, always been a receiving type. And then when I went back and watched him, I mean, this is Mike McDaniel for you.
4:01They were doing cheat motions for Greg Dulcich. He's sprinting toward the sideline, cutting back upfield on dig patterns, like the stuff that you would
4:07typically see with Tyreek Hill. Greg Dulcich was doing that. He had some yards after the catch moment. He's an athletic receiving type. So, like if you
4:14were into Chigo Okonkwo last year, it's that type of profile here.
4:19I'm just hoping that like because there's nobody else to throw the ball to, this can be like one of the more
4:25higher-end outcomes for like a pure receiving type.
4:27>> You just said, "If you were into Chigo Okonkwo last year." Hey, and I got news for you. What if you're into Chigo
4:32Okonkwo this year?
4:33>> I got bad news for you.
4:35>> For the third time this summer, I'm bringing him up on this program. Not the only one. Ian was, I think, on the show
4:39with his five favorite players, and Ian brought up now new Washington Commander Chigo Okonkwo, who's going as the Titan 17 over on Underdog, Titan 21 in your
4:48home leagues over on Yahoo. My simple pitch for this is, you know, I think he really can be David Blough's Sam
4:55LaPorta. In that, Sam LaPorta certainly not the biggest of the Titans, and Ben Johnson does, I think, a great job of
5:02kind of masking that in Detroit's offense, where he was kind of doing those same cheat motions. He was working into stacks. He would be lined up as a
5:12wide receiver and motion inside. And it's just on this same path of, at least right now, it's Terry McLaurin and a
5:19whole bunch of questions. And so, sure, can a pure blocker like John Bates throw a wrench and finally Chigo Okonkwo getting over, you know, 70% of a route
5:29run rate on this team? Potentially, but I also think like this is a much different environment than the one he was with in Tennessee,
5:37where they are, I mean, obviously the Titans not the greatest wide receiver room, but they, obviously the Commanders paid so much for Chigo Okonkwo, made him
5:46a primary target for now a play caller that wants to incorporate more traditional stuff, more some heavier bodies, more under center work, and you
5:54know, worked and played under someone like Ben Johnson who has kind of managed albeit a lesser version than Sam LaPorta in this style
6:02to really get him going and accentuate his strengths.
6:04>> Yeah, this one just comes down to you like is Brandon Aiyuk for real or not?
6:07Is Stefon Diggs for real or not? If >> Well, we know Brandon Aiyuk is not like for real.
6:11>> He's not for real, but he might like for real be a commander in a couple of years.
6:14>> But I think that would be a more interesting conversation. I think in the status quo right now, I think Chigoquonco is a totally fine pick and
6:21if one of the veterans comes in, obviously that's going to take a pretty big hit cuz we're just kind of expecting
6:26him, hey, like somebody's got to catch passes, might as well be him because he is the actual number two right now.
6:31>> It's so fitting to me though he's right next to Aronde Gadsden who like somewhat profiles are similar albeit Aronde Gadsden is now on a team with three
6:41tight ends on it and you know, multiple wide receivers. And while Aronde Gadsden has had much better spike weeks than Chigoquonco has in their early careers,
6:52uh I just the the pathway and sure I'm maybe banking on some perceived volume here and that can totally change by week
6:59one or week seven and all that rolls around. But uh if Chigoquonco goes up like two rounds, then I'm probably out
7:06on that price. But where he's going right now again is tight end 17 over on Underdog, I'm highly intrigued.
7:11>> Yep, if Brandon Aiyuk doesn't wind up there, I think it's going to be a totally fine pick right here.
7:15>> I think he's I think he's going to be a tight end two, um but where he's being drafted, that's where
7:19he that's where he is.
7:20>> Okay, we've talked a lot about you know, this new wave of tight end blood and how that's kind of changed the position and
7:26all these guys are drafted earlier. That means that the olds, the uncs of the group are now like dropping further and
7:33further and actually qualify here. So, I know I have one and you brought one here as well.
7:38>> Yep, Mark Andrews and he's just right on the you don't have to know about the sleeper with Mark Andrews. Just the
7:43reality is beyond Zay Flowers, there's nobody. Like obviously they lose Isaiah Likely, it's pretty much like Bateman who's really hasn't done anything for a couple years
7:53now, and then a couple like fringe day two rookie wide receivers. So, if Lamar Jackson turns back to an MVP, it'll be
8:00hard for Mark Andrews to not matter.
8:02Now, last year on a per route basis, per target basis, it was easily the worst of his career. That is very, you know,
8:11that's probably the reason why his ADP is dropping and there's right reasons for that. This is just like blindly Lamar Jackson, there's nobody else
8:18beyond Zay Flowers. Like he's just going to be out there. I would not be surprised if he had seven, eight touchdowns this year, even if he's not
8:26the same player. And just going back and watching him, he's not the same player.
8:28Like we shouldn't expect that. This is just a pure great quarterback volume play and just we'll figure out the rest later.
8:34>> Yeah, I mean, you talked about the wide receiver room and the status of that.
8:38What also gave us frustration is any given game or any given series, we didn't know how much Mark Andrews was going to play based on the Charlie
8:44Kolar's, the Patrick Ricard's, and the Isaiah Likely's of the world.
8:47Every single one of those players are gone. They have brought in Durham Smythe and Matt Hibner, and then someone I there almost said Scott Lucas, but
8:55apparently it's it's Lucas Scott is his name. So, it's always it's always a a dangerous task when you have two first
9:01names as your name. Um yeah, I mean, one of the craziest stats with Mark Andrews was back in 2024 when he had 15 red zone
9:09targets and 11 touchdowns. I mean, that is the hottest of hot streaks you can ever run because he actually had 14
9:15targets inside the red zone last year and ended up with three touchdowns. I mean, that is such a gigantic and seismic difference of how you're going
9:23to even if the targets are in the same area, how effective and successful you're going to be um as a fancy asset. And sure, you know,
9:29some of that was without Lamar Jackson, but also just the high variance-ness of this position that reminds and relies so much on on touchdowns. But, he's out
9:38there all the time, and that's what we want.
9:41>> note is Declan Doyle. He's a 30-year-old offensive coordinator. This is our first real look at him. What if he's Ben
9:48Johnson? What if he's Liam Coen? We just don't know. Like, there is at least some upside with It's not just like Greg
9:52Roman again here. Like, there's some upside where like, "Hey, we have a boy genius play caller for Lamar Jackson."
9:59So, a little upset there.
10:01>> I do think that Todd Monken was pretty good for Mark Andrews in that he built the red zone passing offense around him.
10:08And if you ran the ball, it was Lamar and and Derrick Henry.
10:11>> Yeah. I saw Lamar's won MVP uh his first two times with new offensive coordinators. This is to be the third one. So, you know, if you want
10:17to believe in that whatever trends, go for it.
10:20>> go. And Mark Andrews does fit this list.
10:22I mean, he's 125 overall on Underdog.
10:25That is tight end 11. But, in your home leagues on Yahoo, he's uh tight end 15.
10:29Okay.
10:30My old man is Dallas Goedert, tight end 15 on Underdog in the 12th round. He's going even earlier in your home leagues,
10:36obviously, as as tight end 12 on Yahoo.
10:38Um 11 touchdowns last year. But, that replaced, you know, an average of just four catches for 40 yards per game, which is really low. I think it's lowest
10:49since 2021. Again, I'll continue to say it, the easy math here is that we want to target tight ends who have a chance
10:55of being top two pass catchers within their offense. Without A.J. Brown on this offense, that is more possible than ever for Dallas Goedert as a member of
11:04the Philadelphia Eagles. Uh and then with Sean Mannion, who is coming from the Green Bay Packers coaching staff, that highlighted the
11:11strengths of Tucker Kraft, the yards after the catch, like, that is a possibility. Now, Dallas Goedert now is 31. We know the contract saga that went
11:20on at the beginning of this offseason. He certainly does not move like he used to.
11:25But, you know, after DeVonta Smith, it is Quez Watkins, who's a rookie that we love, but a rookie, and Dontayvion Wicks, who is certainly not Mr. Reliable
11:34out there. So, if we get some changes and some positive ones, we've not only seen Dallas Goedert be in like the RPO short screen game,
11:43that can generate some stuff, and then especially in the red zone, but down the seams, he works vertically there, too.
11:49And so, this is the cheapest it feels like we can get Dallas Goedert on on really an offense that we still want pieces
11:55from.
11:55>> Yeah, he's tight end seven in expected points, finished as a tight end five. A lot of those touchdowns were like
12:00there's a lot of attention on the tush push. What if you just threw the ball to Dallas Goedert real quick? Like, maybe
12:04we continue some of that. Like, that's could be three free touchdowns for us.
12:08Uh maybe it's not going to be six of those, but maybe it's two or three of them. We'll we'll take those, and then
12:11yeah, obviously, when you have you're losing A.J. Brown, like the targets are going to go somewhere. I think there's like obviously the other players you
12:17just named are going to soak up some of it, but yeah, I think Dallas Goedert's totally totally fine pick here. He also
12:22averaged, you know, 40 yards per game.
12:24That's not nothing um at this position.
12:26So, he's not only touchdown reliant. I think he's going to be a fringe tight end one, too. I don't view him that
12:31dissimilar to a lot of the tight ends that go, you know, just a couple picks before him.
12:35>> Okay. Before we reveal our final two names, uh hit subscribe. Join us here on the channel. We hit 173,000.
12:43We need 175,000 subscribers. It's totally free to all of you, and we'll have uh plenty more content this summer to help you win
12:50your fantasy football league. All right.
12:51I think we these two names we also discussed on this very program last year, and they had really strong seasons, and yet you can still draft them very,
13:00very late. So, who's next for you?
13:02>> So, this would be like my favorite like true sleeper of the three. I think this is somebody that could like is a true
13:07sleeper that can finish potentially as a low-end tight end one.
13:11That's A.J. Barner. He's 24. He plays for the Seahawks. By the way, in that Super Bowl, he played 95% snaps and then
13:1790% snaps in the Super Bowl and the uh conference championship. So, when everything's on the line, he's a full-time player. He's definitely
13:25athletic enough. He's a kick-ass blocker. I think he's one of the most underrated tight ends in the league, period. And this is one of those teams
13:33where I like Rashid Shaheed, who's one of my wide receiver sleepers, but the number two pass catcher on the Seahawks is wide open. It's a race between Dissly
13:41and Shaheed and maybe Cooper Kupp. And then what happens if JSN moves out of the way? So historically, we're looking for the first or second pass catchers on
13:51NFL teams. That's your starting fantasy tight end options. I do think there's a chance AJ Barner could qualify as that.
14:00He's just a totally fun player, and when it mattered, he was he was useful for the Seahawks.
14:04>> You have to score more touchdowns to be fantasy relevant. He scored quite a few last year. It does concern me that, you
14:12know, he wasn't even, I think, in the top 25 in yards per game among tight ends last year, but, you know, the
14:18Seahawks were seventh in number of red zone drives per game. He scored five of six touchdowns in the red zone. And then
14:25I believe you just said this, in three wide receiver sets, they only ran that 42% of the time. This is very much a 21
14:31and 12 personnel team. And when they let go of Noah Fant, everyone wanted to say Elijah Arroyo, and you and I were
14:38sitting here saying, "Actually, it's AJ Barner. He's going to be out there on the field all the time." And that's the
14:43case. It's going to be Barner and Arroyo or Barner and Oots. And that's it. And uh Barner's a really good player, and he's
14:51one of these guys who already had a really strong skill set coming to league as a run blocker.
14:57That's like a sixth offensive lineman.
14:59And then you can just see with his athleticism, the receiving game growing each and every year. And what, now in year three? Maybe it's taking another
15:07leap.
15:07>> Uh the new Seahawks OC, obviously they they lost uh Clint Kubiak, comes from the San Francisco 49ers. They might know
15:14a thing or two about these tight ends.
15:16Um so >> And 12 and 21 with like the Kyle Youchecks and the George Kittles and the Tongas and all the of the world.
15:21>> Maybe he turns into George Kittle, you never know.
15:23>> My name that I love last summer is Evan Engram. I'm actually stunned that we can get him as tight end 19 on Underdog and
15:29tight end 17 on Yahoo. That probably speaks to the position a little bit, but I also also think it speaks to him
15:35missing a chunk of time last year, but when he returned from injury, five of the final seven weeks, he scored as a tight end five, five, 10, 19, and
15:47five per game.
15:49Um I know you can look at it on paper and say, "Well, the Jaguars just invested, you know, two draft picks on tight ends
15:58and also added Quinton Morris, I believe, from the Buffalo Bills.
16:02To me, that's all a sign that we can get even more like receiving work here from Evan Engram. That is to free him up
16:09because when he went down, they could not run 12 personnel at all, and it kind of stalled their offense for periods of
16:15time.
16:16John Shipley, our buddy, ranked Evan Engram as the fourth most important Jaguar of the 2026 season.
16:23>> Wow.
16:24>> Jaguars agreed. They just paid him, you know, a nice contract. Uh the reason Shipley said that amongst all receivers with at least 20 targets last year,
16:33Engram ranked number one with both total receiving EPA and receiving EPA per target. So, he's a weapon in the run game, and I think he's a growing weapon
16:42in the pass game along the same lines that I said that he started off as an athlete that could block and now is
16:48growing as an athlete who can be has some receiving chops.
16:51>> And the downside here, and I'm sure you're going to bring it up, lots of receiving competition here for the Jaguars.
16:55>> Yeah, the the receiving competition is is the big one. From week 12 on though, including the the the post season, he
17:01was tight end 11 in expected points, and he's a good football player, so uh there's a pathway despite a bunch of
17:07competition that he still kind of holds the line. I do think an injury to one of the receivers would certainly help him
17:13out, but if they are going to pivot to 12 personnel, he's going to be on the field for those snaps while one of the
17:19wide receivers he's technically competing with is standing on the sideline. So, I think this is about right for him. I I
17:26if there was Parker Washington or Jacob Myers didn't exist, I think this would be like a wheel it in home run pick. Um
17:33I kind of understand the ADP, but I'm not ignoring him. He's He's too good of a player like you and Shipley are are uh
17:39forecasting.
17:40>> All right. I've got two quick names.
17:42Just cuz I have to throw them out there just in case they hit so I can bring it up.
17:45>> Okay.
17:46>> Uh that [laughter] we did.
17:48You know how this job works. And we already talked about them in the second-year tight end show, right? Uh Gunner Helm and and Terrance Ferguson.
17:55Just quickly with Gunner Helm, this is the Tennessee Titans. Obviously, they brought in and drafted wide receivers and he might be, you know, the third or
18:01fourth pass catcher. And only ran a route on 38% of dropbacks last year. And he's not one of these types that I
18:06absolutely love because his testing athleticism wasn't great. He also had a tennis ball attached to his ankle that he rolled in his 40-yard dash. So, I
18:14will say we'll never know his true athletic profile. But he does make tight window catches. He does snatch the ball away from his frame. I think he sits in
18:21zone pretty well um and makes himself pass-friendly. And I think he's going to be the tight end one for the Titans. And
18:27then quickly with Terrance Ferguson, just because he's unique. He's almost a unicorn at the tight end position with how he's used. Again, so much 13
18:35personnel for that Rams team and he was Tutu Atwell in that 13 personnel. Like 15 of his 31 targets were 20-plus yards
18:43down the field. There is no other tight end in the league that does that. And so, I think there is a chance that
18:50somehow he is the most talented tight end in the Rams room by the end of the season. The season is very long. Uh and
18:56I'm just a big T Ferg guy.
18:57>> Yeah, I think T Ferg and Colby Parkinson are both totally fine picks in Best Ball. I think like week one, week two
19:03rolls around and he's finally getting the snap shares and we'll obviously talk about that in our recap and stats versus film. We'll have better answers, but
19:08those are great dart throws. The the one, he didn't technically qualify.
19:13Isaiah Likely is, you know, the punt tight end in redraft that you can start in week one and week two. If you don't
19:20want to spend a premium pick, you miss out on the Kyle Pitts tier and you just like punting this thing off.
19:25If Malik Nabers isn't going to be out there for week one, he is by far the number one Giants pass catcher and like
19:31that's all it takes. And there's untapped ceiling with him in a semi full-time role. So, I think Isaiah Likely didn't qualify this, but like
19:40punt tight end sleeper, could he finish as the tight end eight this year? I think like absolutely, especially in the month of September, which is what we're
19:46focused on, at least in in redraft initially.
19:49>> All right.
19:50That does it.
19:52We're actually going to post running back rankings early next week. Not running back rankings, running back sleepers early next week. We just didn't
19:57fit it in in time for the fourth. We want to take some time off, you know, for you so you can watch our other
20:03programs from the summer and uh, you know, draft some more teams this weekend on top of it. All right. That is going to
20:10do it. Shout out to all of you who hit subscribe. Leave a thumbs up on this video, too, before you get out of here
20:14and we'll see you in the next program.
