The Only 7 TE Sleepers You Should Consider Drafting
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
21 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Jul 3, 2026
Published
Fri, July 3, 2026
0
Player insights
0
Players mentioned
Player analysis
Player insights
No player insights have been extracted for this episode yet.
Full transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Heat up your 4th of July at the Home Depot with our wide variety of grills under $300 and make every gathering one to remember.
0:07Give your outdoor space a glow up, whatever your budget is, with savings on seasonal plants starting at $5.
0:13With the grill fired up and your backyard set to perfection, you'll be able to invite friends and family over to kick off the party.
0:20Start celebrating with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot.
0:23Prices may vary by store, exclusions apply. See Home Depot dot com slash price match for details.
0:28Of course, I want to leave every single draft this year with, I don't know, one of Brock Bowers, Colson Loveland, Tyler Warren.
0:35They are probably my most drafted tight ends if I'm in a position to select them.
0:39But Hayden, what we have learned over the last few years, if you are able to either Dr.
0:45Frankenstein the tight end position in the later rounds or find that one late round tight end gem, i.e.
0:50Tucker Craft, who was on this episode last year, then you have just a massive advantage versus the top two, three, four
0:57draft capital that your opponents spend on this position that can be quite a graveyard week to week.
1:02So with that in mind, these are our favorite tight end sleepers for 2026 fantasy football drafted either on Yahoo or underdog pick 120 plus.
1:09And Hayden, I don't want you to give me one of these washed veterans.
1:13I want you to give me your spiciest take who is maybe an off the beaten path tight end that you want people to know about this year.
1:22Maybe too deep. I don't love UCLA Bruins, but Greg Dulcich is my first answer here.
1:26This one's pretty straightforward. If you look at the highest drafted pass catcher on teams and fantasy, there's only a handful of
1:33tight ends who are the number one in ADP on their teams.
1:36Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, Tyler Warren, that all makes sense.
1:39Harold Fannin makes sense. The last one is Greg Dulcich.
1:42He's the first Dolphins pass catcher to be drafted at 183.
1:45Long story short, somebody is catching passes on the Dolphins.
1:48They might not score many touchdowns, but Greg Dulcich at the very end of the season mattered.
1:53There's no competition at tight end or at wide receiver.
1:56And I'll leave you with this. He was second in yards per route run last year, only behind Dalton Kincaid.
2:02So like this PPR scam, I think there's going to be limitations here, but in the deepest of sicko leagues that I
2:08know you guys are in, I do think that Greg Dulcich has a pretty good chance of being better than tight end 26.
2:15If you weren't going to bring him up, I was.
2:18And I don't know what that says about me and you if we're absolute sickos.
2:22But in this case, we are. And this is not like a boy who cried wolf situation.
2:27I've been doing this show with you for over five years at this point.
2:32You and I have never been like pro Greg Dulcich people.
2:35We haven't suggested him in this show or much throughout all seasons like other shows have.
2:39But in this case, in this environment, it does make the most sense.
2:43Like as you talked about, we want to find these tight ends that have a chance of being top two pass catchers,
2:50even if the offense isn't projected for a lot of points and just going through like the hour lads depth chart at wide receivers.
2:57And especially at tight ends, Greg Dulcich is right there.
3:00And then you go deeper. You go look at the beat writers, right?
3:03Marcel Lewis jock over at ESPN, right? Greg Dulcich quote continues to be massively underrated and was quote, one of the primary
3:10targets for Malik Willis in spring practices. They added Will Kazmeric out of Ohio state, who is a pure blocker.
3:16And that is it. That frees up our guy this year, Greg Dulcich to just catch passes.
3:21And think back to what Bobby Slogue did at the Houston Texans, multiple tight end sets, multiple heavy bodies, and that allowed
3:27Dalton Schultz to be the tight end 11 in points per game with him in 2023.
3:32So I love this like home run swing that also has a chance of being a massive zero.
3:37And if he is a zero, then you just drop him and move on.
3:41And I think he's just like a waiver wire guy.
3:44I think in like your basic, you know, 12 person Yahoo league, you don't have to draft Greg Dulcich.
3:50Just don't be surprised when the first waiver wire show comes up and he's out there for 80% of the snaps and caught five passes.
3:57If we have some, I would say he's PPR only like half PPR.
4:01I mean, this is going to be disgusting, but I do think there's a lot of things going right for him.
4:07The part that you mentioned, the off season stuff has been really promising for Greg Dulcich.
4:12This is about the window when you enter the prime of your career.
4:15Third round pick always been a receiving type. And then when I went back and watched him, I mean, this is Mike McDonald for you.
4:23They were doing cheat motions for Greg Dulcich, sprinting toward the sideline, cutting back up field and dig patterns.
4:28Like the stuff that you would typically see with Tyreek Hill, Greg Dulcich was doing that.
4:33He has some yards after the catch moment. He's an athletic receiving type.
4:37So like if you were into Chico Quantico last year, that type of profile here.
4:41I'm just hoping that like, because there's nobody else to throw the ball to, this can be like one of the more
4:48higher end outcomes for like a pure receiving type.
4:50You just said, if you were into Chico Quantico last year, Peyton, I got news for you.
4:55What if you're into Chico Quantico this year? I got bad news for you.
4:59For the third time this summer, I'm bringing him up on this program.
5:03Not the only one. Ian was, I think, on the show with his five favorite players.
5:08And Ian brought up now new Washington commander Chico Quantico, who's going as the Titan 17 over an underdog Titan 21 in your home leagues over on Yahoo.
5:16My simple pitch for this is, you know, I think he really can be David Blouse, Sam Laporta in that Sam Laporta,
5:22certainly not the biggest of the Titans. And Ben Johnson does, I think, a great job of kind of masking that in
5:29Detroit's offense, where he was kind of doing those same cheat motions.
5:32He was working into stacks. He would be lined up as a wide receiver and motion inside.
5:37And it's just on this same path of, at least right now, it's Terry McLaurin and a whole bunch of questions.
5:43And so, sure, can a pure blocker like John Bates throw a wrench and finally Chico Quantico getting over, you know, 70%
5:50of a route run rate on this team? Potentially.
5:52But I also think, like, this is a much different environment than the one he was with in Tennessee, where they are,
5:59I mean, obviously the Titans, not the greatest wide receiver room, but they, obviously the commanders paid so much for Chico Quantico,
6:05made him a primary target for now a play caller that wants to incorporate more traditional stuff, more some heavier bodies, more
6:12under center work, and, you know, worked and played under someone like Ben Johnson, who has kind of managed, albeit a lesser
6:18version than Sam Laporta, in this style, to really get him going and accentuate his strengths.
6:23Yeah, I think this one just comes down to, like, is Brandon Ayuk for real or not?
6:28Is Steph Diggs for real or not? Well, we know Brandon Ayuk is not, like, for real.
6:33Well, he's not for real, but he might, like, for real be a commander in a couple weeks.
6:38And I think that would be a more interesting conversation.
6:41I think in the status quo right now, I think Chico Quantico is a totally fine pick, and if one of the
6:47veterans comes in, obviously that's going to take a pretty big hit, because we're just kind of expecting him, hey, like, somebody's
6:54got to catch passes, might as well beat him, because he is the actual number two right now.
6:59It's so fitting to me, though, he's right next to Aranda Gadsden, who, like, somewhat profiles are similar, albeit Aranda Gadsden is
7:06now on a team with three tight ends on it, and, you know, multiple wide receivers.
7:10And while Aranda Gadsden has had much better spike weeks than Chico Quantico has in their early careers, I just see the
7:17pathway, and sure, I'm maybe banking on some perceived volume here, and that can totally change by week one or week seven, and all that rolls around.
7:25But if Chico Quantico goes up, like, two rounds, then I'm probably out on that price.
7:29But where he's going right now, again, is tight end 17 over an underdog.
7:33I am highly intrigued. Yep. If Brandon Ayoub doesn't wind up there, I think it's going to be a totally fine pick right here.
7:40I think he's going to be a tight end, too.
7:43But where he's being drafted, that's where he is.
7:46Okay, we've talked a lot about, you know, this new wave of tight end blood, and how that's kind of changed the
7:52position, and all these guys are drafted earlier. That means that the olds, the unks of the group, are now, like, dropping
7:59further and further, and actually qualify here. So I know I have one, and you brought one here as well.
8:05Yeah, Mark Andrews, I mean, he's just right on the, you don't have to know about the sleeper with Mark Andrews.
8:11Just the reality is, beyond Zay Flowers, it's nobody.
8:13Like, obviously, they lose Isaiah Lightley. It's pretty much, like, Bateman, who really hasn't done anything for a couple years now, and
8:20then a couple, like, fringe day two rookie wide receivers.
8:23So if Lamar Jackson turns back to an MVP, it'll be hard for Mark Andrews to not matter.
8:28Now, last year, on a per-route basis, per-target basis, it was easily the worst of his career.
8:33That is very, you know, that's probably the reason why Zadp is dropping, and there's right reasons for that.
8:39This is just, like, blindly Lamar Jackson. There's nobody else beyond Zay Flowers.
8:42Like, he's just going to be out there. I would not be surprised if he had seven, eight touchdowns this year, even if he's not the same player.
8:51And just going back and watching him, he's not the same player.
8:54Like, we shouldn't expect that. This is just a pure great quarterback volume play, and just we'll figure out the rest later.
9:01Yeah, I mean, you talked about the wide receiver room and the status of that.
9:05What also gave us frustration is any given game or any given series, we didn't know how much Mark Andrews was going
9:11to play based on the Charlie Colars, the Patrick Ricards, and the Isaiah Likelies of the world.
9:16Every single one of those players are gone. They have brought in Durham Smythe and Matt Hibner, and then someone either almost
9:23said Scott Lucas, but apparently it's Lucas Scott is his name, so it's always a dangerous task when you have two first names as your name.
9:30Yeah, I mean, one of the craziest stats with Mark Andrews was back in 2024 when he had 15 red zone targets and 11 touchdowns.
9:38I mean, that is the hottest of hot streaks you can ever run because he actually had 14 targets inside the red
9:44zone last year and ended up with three touchdowns.
9:47I mean, that is such a gigantic and seismic difference of how you're going to, even if the targets are in the
9:53same area, how effective and successful you're going to be as a fancy asset.
9:57And sure, you know, some of that was without Lamar Jackson, but also just the high variance-ness of this position that relies so much on touchdowns.
10:05But he's out there all the time, and that's what we want.
10:08My last note is Declan Doyle, he's a 30-year-old offensive coordinator.
10:12This is their first real look at him. What if he's Ben Johnson?
10:15What if he's Liam Cohn? We just don't know.
10:18Like, there is at least some upside where it's not just like Greg Roman again here.
10:23Like, there's some upside where, hey, we have a boy genius play caller for Lamar Jackson, so a little upside there.
10:29I do think that Todd Monken was pretty good for Mark Andrews in that he built the red zone passing offense around
10:35him, and if he ran the ball, it was Lamar and Derek Henry.
10:39Yeah, I saw Lamar's one MVP his first two times with new offensive coordinators just to be the third one.
10:45So, you know, if you want to believe in that, whatever trend, go for it.
10:49There you go. And Mark Andrews does fit this list.
10:52I mean, he's 125 overall on underdog. That is tight end 11.
10:56But in your home leagues on Yahoo, he's a tight end 15.
10:59Okay, my old man is Dallas Goddard, tight end 15 on underdog in the 12th round.
11:04He's going even earlier in your home leagues, obviously, as tight end 12 on Yahoo.
11:0811 touchdowns last year, but that replaced, you know, an average of just four catches for 40 yards per game, which is really low.
11:15I think it's lowest since 2021. Again, I'll continue to say the easy math here is that we want to target tight
11:22ends who have a chance of being top two pass catchers within their offense.
11:26Without A.J. Brown on this offense, that is more possible than ever for Dallas Goddard as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.
11:32Uh, and then with Sean Mannion, who was coming from the Green Bay Packers coaching staff that highlighted the strengths of Tucker craft, the yards of the catch.
11:41Like that is a possibility. Now Dallas Goddard now is 31.
11:44We know the contract saga that went on at the beginning of this off season.
11:48He certainly does not move like he used to, but you know, after Devante Smith, it is Makai Lemon.
11:54Who's a rookie that we love, but a rookie and Dontavian Wicks, who is certainly not Mr.
11:59Reliable out there. So if we get some changes and some positive ones, we've not only seen Dallas Goddard be in like
12:05the RPO short screen game that can generate some stuff.
12:08And especially in the red zone, but down the seams, he works vertically there too.
12:12And, uh, so this is the cheapest. It feels like we can get Dallas Goddard on, on really an offense that we still want pieces from.
12:20Yeah. He's tied in seven and expected points, finishes the tight end five.
12:24A lot of those touchdowns were like, there a lot of attention on the tush push.
12:29What if he just threw the ball to Dallas Goddard real quick?
12:32Like maybe we continue some of that, like that's could be three free touchdowns for us.
12:37Maybe it's not going to be six of those, but maybe it's two or three of them.
12:42We'll, we'll take those. And then the, obviously when you have, you're losing AG Brown, like the targets are going to go somewhere.
12:48I think there's like, obviously the other players you just named are going to soak up some of it, but yeah, I
12:55think Dallas Goddard is totally, totally fine pick here.
12:57Also average, you know, 40 yards per game. That's not nothing at this position.
13:02So he's not only touchdown reliant. I think he's going to be a fringe tight end one, two.
13:07I don't view him that dissimilar to a lot of the tight ends that go, you know, just a couple of picks before him.
13:14Okay. Before we reveal our final two names, hit subscribe, join us here on the channel.
13:19We hit 173,000. We need 175,000 subscribers. It's totally free to all of you.
13:23And we'll have plenty more content this summer to help you win your fantasy football league.
13:27All right. I think we, these two names, we also discussed on this very program last year and they had really strong
13:34seasons and yet you can still draft them very, very late.
13:37So who's next for you? So this would be like my favorite, like true sleeper of the three.
13:42I think this is someone that could like, is a true sleeper that can finish potentially as a low end tight end one.
13:49That's AJ Barner. He's 24. He plays for the Seahawks, by the way, in that Superbowl, he played 95% snaps and then
13:5590% snaps in the Superbowl and the conference championship.
13:58So when everything's on the line, he's a full-time player.
14:01He's definitely athletic enough. He's a kick-ass blocker. I think he's one of the most underrated tight ends in the league period.
14:07And this is one of those teams where I like Rashid Shaheed.
14:11He's one of my wide receiver sleepers, but the number two pass catcher on the Seahawks is wide open.
14:16It's a race between Barner and Shaheed and maybe Cooper cup.
14:20And then what happens if JSN moves out of the way?
14:23So historically we're looking for the first or second pass catchers on NFL teams.
14:27That's your starting fantasy tight end options. I do think there's a chance AJ Barner could qualify as that.
14:33He's just a totally fun player. And when it mattered, he was useful for the Seahawks.
14:37You have to score more touchdowns to be fancy relevant.
14:40He scored quite a few last year. It does concern me that, you know, he wasn't even, I think in the top
14:4725 in yards per game among tight ends last year.
14:49But, you know, the Seahawks were seventh in number of red zone drives per game.
14:54He scored five of six touchdowns in the red zone.
14:57And then I believe you just said this in three wide receiver sets.
15:01They only ran that 42% of the time. This is very much a 21 and 12 personnel team.
15:06And when they let go of Noah Fant, everyone wanted to say Elijah Arroyo.
15:10And you and I were sitting here saying, actually, it's AJ Barner.
15:13He's going to be out there on the field all the time.
15:17And that's the case. It's going to be Barner and Arroyo or Barner and Oots.
15:21And that's it. And Barner's a really good player.
15:24And he's one of these guys who already had a really strong skill set coming to league as a run blocker.
15:30That's like a sixth offensive lineman. And then you can just see with his athleticism, the receiving game growing each and every year.
15:37And what now in year three, maybe it's taking another league.
15:40The new Seahawks OC, obviously they lost. Clint Kubiak comes from the San Francisco 49ers.
15:44They might know a thing or two about these tight ends.
15:48And 12 and 21 with like the Kyle Juszczyk and the George Kittles and the Tongjes and all of the world.
15:54Yeah. Maybe he turns into George Kittle. You never know.
15:57My name that I love last summer is Brenton Strange.
16:00I'm actually stunned that we can get him as tight end 19 on underdog and tight end 17 on Yahoo.
16:06That probably speaks to the position a little bit.
16:08But I also think it speaks to him missing a chunk of time last year.
16:13But when he returned from injury, five of the final seven weeks, he scored as a tight end five, five, 10, 19 and five per game.
16:20I know you can look at it on paper and say, well, the Jaguars just invested, you know, two draft picks on
16:27tight ends and also added Quentin Morris, I believe from the Buffalo Bills.
16:30To me, that's all the sign that we can get even more like receiving work here from Brenton Strange.
16:36That is to free him up because when he went down, they could not run 12 personnel at all.
16:42And it kind of stalled their offense for periods of time.
16:45John Shipley, our buddy, ranked Brenton Strange as the fourth most important Jaguar of the 2026 season.
16:50Wow. Jaguars agreed. They just paid him, you know, a nice contract.
16:53The reason Shipley said that amongst all receivers with at least 20 targets last year, Strange ranked number one with both total
17:00receiving EPA and receiving EPA per target. So he's a weapon in the run game.
17:04And I think he's a growing weapon in the past game along the same lines that I said that he started off
17:10as an athlete that could block and now is growing as an athlete who can have some receiving chops.
17:16Then the downside here, and I'm sure you're going to bring it up, lots of receiving competition here with Jack.
17:22Yeah, the receiving competition is the big one from week 12 on though, including the postseason.
17:27He was tight end 11 and expected points and he's a good football player.
17:31So there's a pathway despite a bunch of competition that he still kind of holds the line.
17:36I do think an injury to one of the receivers would certainly help him out.
17:40But if they are going to pivot to 12 personnel, he's going to be on the field for those snaps while one
17:46of the wide receivers he's technically competing with is standing on the sideline.
17:50So I think this is about right for him.
17:53If there was Parker Washington or Jacoby Myers didn't exist, I think this would be like a wheel it in home run pick.
18:00I kind of understand the ADP, but I'm not ignoring him.
18:03He's too good of a player like you and Shipley are forecasting.
18:06All right. I've got two quick names just because I have to throw them out there just in case they hit so I can bring it up.
18:14That we did. You know how this job works.
18:17And we already talked about them in the second year tight end show, right?
18:21Gunner Helm and Terrence Ferguson. Just quickly with Gunner Helm, this intensity Titans.
18:25Obviously, they brought in and drafted wide receivers and he might be, you know, the third or fourth pass catcher.
18:31And only ran a route on 38% of dropbacks last year.
18:34And he's not one of these types that I absolutely love because his testing athleticism wasn't great.
18:39He also had a tennis ball attached to his ankle that he rolled in his 40-yard dash.
18:44So I will say we'll never know his true athletic profile.
18:47But he does make tight window catches. He does snatch the ball away from his frame.
18:52I think he sits in zone pretty well and makes himself pass friendly.
18:55And I think he's going to be the tight end one for the Titans.
19:00And then quickly with Terrence Ferguson, just because he's unique.
19:03He's almost a unicorn in the Titan position with how he's used.
19:06Again, so much 13 personnel for that Rams team.
19:09And he was 2-2 Atwell in that personnel. Like 15 of his 31 targets were 20 plus yards down the field.
19:15There is no other Titan in the league that does that.
19:18And so I think there is a chance that somehow he is the most talented Titan in the Rams room by the end of the season.
19:26The season is very long. And I'm just a big T-Ferg guy.
19:29Yeah, I think T-Ferg and Colby Parkinson are both totally fine picks in best ball.
19:34I think like week one, week two rolls around.
19:36We finally get the snap shares. And we'll obviously talk about that in our recap and stats versus film.
19:42We'll have better answers. But those are great dart throws.
19:45The other one, he didn't technically qualify. Isaiah likely is, you know, the punt Titan and redraft that you can start in week one and week two.
19:53If you don't want to spend a premium pick, you miss out on the Kyle Pitts tier and you're just like punting this thing off.
20:00If Malik Neighbors isn't going to be out there for week one, he is by far the number one Giants pass catcher.
20:06And like, that's all it takes. And there's untapped ceiling with him in a semi full-time role.
20:11So I think Isaiah likely didn't qualify this. But like punt Titan sleeper, could he finish at the Titan eight this year?
20:18I think like absolutely, especially in the month of September, which is what we're focused on at least in redraft initially.
20:24All right. That does it. We're actually going to post running back rankings early next week.
20:29Not running back rankings, running back sleepers early next week.
20:31We just didn't fit it in in time for the fourth.
20:35We want to take some time off, you know, for you.
20:38So you can watch our other programs from the summer and, you know, draft some more teams this weekend on top of it.
20:45All right. That is going to do it. Shout out to all of you who hit subscribe.
20:50Leave a thumbs up on this video, too, before you get out of here.
20:54And we'll see you in the next program.
More episodes from Underdog Fantasy Football Show
These 8 WRs Will Decide Your Fantasy Season
Jul 27, 2026
Our 7 Favorite Fantasy Football RB Sleepers
Jul 6, 2026