0:00I've done hundreds of hours of research
0:01and I found five tight ends outside of
0:03the top 100 picks in fantasy football
0:05who are going to destroy their draft
0:07position. And we are going to begin with
0:09basically the most boring answer, but it
0:11is going to be one Mr. Travis Kelce who
0:13is going in the 11th or 12th round
0:15depending on where you're drafting.
0:17Look, it's not very fun and I don't
0:18think Travis Kelce can finish, you know,
0:20top one, two, or three at the position
0:22this upcoming year, but I do think we
0:24are sort of overstating how bad he
0:27looked last season. He finishes the
0:28tight end nine overall, the tight end
0:30three if you don't do fantasy points per
0:32game, 193 fantasy points per game. And
0:35actually, if you look at the games that
0:37he played with Mahomes before Chris
0:38Olave was playing, this guy was
0:40basically the most dependable asset in
0:42fantasy football. Looking at the Kansas
0:44City Chiefs offense this upcoming
0:46season, you've got Rashee Rice who is
0:47currently in county lockup, Xavier
0:49Worthy who I think is good but is 175
0:52lbs and played through all of last
0:54season with a torn labrum. He's actually
0:56wearing a non-contact jersey at practice
0:58right now. My estimation is that you're
1:00going to get a lot of the seven for 61
1:03games out of Travis Kelce. If he ends up
1:05with four touchdowns, you'll be fine
1:07taking him, but you're not going to feel
1:08that happy about it. If he scores eight
1:10touchdowns, nine touchdowns, 10
1:12touchdowns, something that he has done
1:13multiple times in his career, then you
1:15are going to feel very happy. Obviously,
1:17part of that is how do you feel about
1:19Patrick Mahomes? How do you feel about
1:21Eric Bieniemy being rehired as the
1:23offensive coordinator for the Kansas
1:24City Chiefs? The last time that we saw
1:26Travis Kelce with Eric Bieniemy, by the
1:28way, finished as the overall tight end
1:30one with 316
1:33PPR points. I think Kelce can easily get
1:35to 200 PPR points and because he's
1:37boring, no one really cares about Kelce
1:39anymore, he can be had in the later
1:41stages of your fantasy football drafts.
1:44After Travis Kelce, we are going to head
1:45to one Mr. Chig Okonkwo who has been a
1:48part-time player for every year of his
1:51career, has never topped seven fantasy
1:53points per game.
1:54You might be saying, Davis, why would
1:56you highlight this as a guy who's being
1:58drafted in the 150s? How could Chigoziem
1:59Okonkwo possibly be a sleeper? So, I've
2:02got two things for you guys. The first
2:03being, Chigoziem Okonkwo is a great
2:06athlete. He was a very, very high
2:08production guy at Maryland, which is
2:10kind of funny to think of him being that
2:12way. He has never been able to play a
2:14full-time role, basically, with the
2:16Tennessee Titans. And he actually had to
2:18split time with the guy we're going to
2:19talk about a little bit later in this
2:20video, one Mr. Gunnar Helm. That is not
2:23going to be the case with the Washington
2:25Commanders. Jayden Daniels said about
2:26Brandon Aiyuk, "Brandon Aiyuk is my
2:28brother, but I have no sense of his
2:29footballing future." Brandon Aiyuk's
2:31most recent news item is that there is a
2:33warrant out for his arrest due to a
2:35traffic misdemeanor. I don't think
2:37anything is probably going to come of
2:38that, but the chances that Brandon Aiyuk
2:40is active and healthy for the 2026
2:43Commanders, seems like those chances
2:44are, you know, they're they're getting a
2:46lot lower. And the Commanders wide
2:47receiver room is an absolute mess. Terry
2:49McLaurin is heading into his age-30
2:51season. Then you just have a bunch of
2:53guys. I mean, it's just it we got
2:55Antonio Williams. We have Jalen Lane. We
2:57have Dyami Brown. We have Luke
2:58McCaffrey. It It It's just a list of
3:01guys upon guys. And I think what we'll
3:03see is the Commanders are going to play
3:04a ton of 12 personnel. This will
3:06probably be the most snaps per game and
3:07most routes per game that Chigoziem
3:09Okonkwo has ever played. I'm a believer
3:12in Jayden Daniels' passing efficiency. I
3:13mean, we've seen this with Terry
3:15McLaurin. McLaurin was the most
3:16replaceable, boring wide receiver
3:18two-style guy in fantasy football
3:19forever. In a full season with Jayden
3:21Daniels, he scored 13 touchdowns and
3:23finished as a wide receiver one. That is
3:25what I think we're going to see happen
3:26with Chigoziem Okonkwo. My projection
3:28for him has him getting about 85% of the
3:30snaps and in between 75 and 85% of the
3:33routes. Ben Sinnott has just not been
3:35able to develop at all since being
3:37drafted by the Commanders. I don't think
3:39the team will resign Zach Ertz, and even
3:41if they do, we are talking about a
3:4236-year-old guy coming back from a torn
3:44ACL. It's It's definitely possible
3:47that Ertz ends up being a fly in the
3:49ointment here, but Chigoziem Okonkwo is
3:50one of my favorite later round tight
3:53ends to target. And I think you probably
3:55can, by the way, get away with just
3:57planning on starting Chig Okonkwo. I I
3:59mean, in a 12-team league, I think that
4:01he probably has the ceiling. Like, it
4:03would not surprise me at all if Chig
4:05just straight up beats Harold Landry Jr.
4:07in fantasy points. If he just straight
4:09up beats Sam LaPorta in fantasy points.
4:11It It would obviously be an upset based
4:12on their ADPs, but it would not be that
4:14surprising to me. Next up, we are going
4:17to move to my guy, Mr. Mr. Thumbnail
4:19himself, Gunner Helm. We look at his
4:22prospect profile and you'd be, "Davis,
4:23why why do you like this guy? 49 yards
4:26per game in college? 4.32 RAS?" I mean,
4:28you guys know as well as I do, the RAS
4:30is completely fake. When Gunner Helm
4:32went to the 2025 Scouting Combine, on
4:34his very first drill, he ran a 40. He
4:37sprained his ankle. I do not know why. I
4:40It still is a mystery to me, but his
4:41agents and the people around him let him
4:43do all the drills. So, all his combine
4:45numbers are fake. The other thing you
4:47have to realize is that Gunner Helm
4:48played with nothing but NFL players when
4:51he was in college. I mean, every single
4:53player, this is actually true, every
4:55single player on the 2024
4:58Texas Longhorns is a starting NFL
5:00player. Even Even Jordan Whittington,
5:02who is the wide receiver three, started
5:04multiple games for a very good Los
5:06Angeles Rams team at So, I I'm big on
5:08Gunner Helm. I think he is very
5:10underrated as a prospect. The thing that
5:12I liked about Gunner Helm was that he
5:14immediately got on the field as a
5:15rookie. It's very hard for day three
5:17tight ends to do that. He played 40% of
5:19the snaps in his very first NFL game.
5:21Started really coming on down the
5:23stretch, playing 65, 51, 70, and 58% of
5:26the snaps. We have seen the tight ends,
5:28the move tight end be a big part of
5:30Brian Daboll offenses. He is the new
5:32play-caller for the Tennessee Titans.
5:34This is also somewhat of a bet on Gunner
5:37Helm. It's It's somewhat of a bet on Cam
5:39Ward. It's somewhat of a bet on just the
5:42whole Tennessee revitalization working,
5:45that this is a good passing offense that
5:47we want to be invested in.
5:49In a lot of leagues, Gunner Helm is not
5:51even going to be drafted, but I think
5:53that he probably should be. It is not
5:55going to surprise me at all when when,
5:57you know, the cover of everyone's week
5:59three fantasy football waiver wire
6:01article is, "Oh my gosh, Gunner Helm is
6:03running 87% of the routes for the
6:05Tennessee Titans. He has a 19% target
6:07share, and he has two touchdowns through
6:09three weeks." This is the profile to me
6:11of a guy who can kind of just put up one
6:13of those random Gary Barnidge style
6:16seasons. And I'm not saying Gunner Helm
6:17is this super special Travis Kelce style
6:20player because I don't think that's
6:21true, but I do think he is very well
6:23positioned to have like a 60 catch
6:25season for a guy who is straight up not
6:27being drafted in a ton of fantasy
6:29leagues. After Gunner Helm, you knew the
6:32guy we were going to be going to. We
6:33were going to go to one Mr. Terrance
6:35Ferguson, who led all tight ends in
6:37football in his rookie season
6:40in A dot. And I think that is the
6:41absolute key. I think having an 18 and
6:431/2 average depth of target is the
6:46secret for why Terrance Ferguson is
6:48different than Colby Parkinson, why I
6:50don't care that they drafted Max Claire
6:52in round two, why I don't care that they
6:53re-signed Tyler Higbee. First off, he is
6:55a legit 9.31
6:57RAS guy. He actually shared tight end
6:59position eligibility, by the way, at the
7:01University of Oregon with first round
7:03pick Kanyon Ricks. The 1.5 yards per
7:06route run is not great. It's actually
7:08the same that Kanyon Ricks had before he
7:10was drafted in the first round. 3.6
7:13receptions per game is 40th percentile
7:16overall. At tight end, it's actually not
7:18nearly as bad as you might think. In a
7:20lot of the research I did, I basically
7:22found that the cutoff for tight ends is
7:24about three. And then if we look at what
7:26he did last year, you see
7:29the floor was not there, and he was
7:31hardly playing at the beginning of the
7:32season. He spiked to 47% of the snaps,
7:34scored a 31-yard touchdown in basically
7:37like the first game where he got
7:38meaningful action. And then, as the
7:40games got more important, as things were
7:43very relevant for the Los Angeles Rams,
7:46Ferguson's role actually started to
7:47spark down the end of the season, and I
7:49think that is the total key to what Sean
7:52McVay is doing with this 12 and 13
7:54personnel. No team played more 12
7:55personnel, and no team played more 13
7:58personnel than the Los Angeles Rams in
8:002025.
8:02They to some degree actually went away
8:03from that in one of their playoff games.
8:05I don't think there's much to learn
8:07there. I think what there is to learn
8:08for the Rams moving forward is that
8:10McVay has a plan for Terrance Ferguson
8:12to be able to be multiple out of 13
8:15personnel, to be able to efficiently
8:17throw the ball when there are three
8:19tight ends on the field. You have to
8:20have tight ends who can win at all
8:22depths of the field, and Terrance
8:24Ferguson can do that. Obviously, the
8:26cost is so low that if I'm wrong about
8:28Terrance Ferguson, hey man, no harm, no
8:31foul. We're just going to cut him. We're
8:32going to move on, but I feel very, very
8:34good about him potentially having like I
8:36I really honestly believe this in my
8:38heart of hearts. I think that Terrance
8:40Ferguson can have a 10 touchdown season.
8:42I think that Terrance Ferguson can
8:43finish as a top 10 tight end. It would
8:45require unbelievable luck in terms of
8:48efficiency, but if you have an 18 and a
8:50half average depth of target, and you're
8:52running 60% of the routes in the
8:53boundary for what constitutes a really
8:56fantasy relevant tight end is is pretty
8:58low, I I think it can be done. So, there
9:01is my hot take here for this video. And
9:03then our final tight end, who I think is
9:05just going way, way under drafted.
9:07Somehow this everyone is kind of missing
9:09this, but Dulcich, who I actually quite
9:11liked as a prospect at UCLA, the 8.5
9:14RAS, 73 yards per game, 3.7 receptions
9:18per game. By the way, 2.04 yards per
9:20route run as a real weapon in that UCLA
9:23passing offense, I think has him being a
9:25little bit underrated by the market. But
9:28when I look at the Miami Dolphins, I go,
9:29"Okay, what did they do this offseason?"
9:31They signed Malik Willis to a 3-year $67
9:34million dollar That's quite nice, right?
9:36So, you got stability there.
9:38All the receivers are bad. They trade
9:40away Jaylen Waddle. Their wide receiver
9:41group right now are guys like, you know,
9:44Malik Washington, Jaylen Tolbert, Ty Ty
9:46Walwell, just total flameouts, zeros.
9:49The consistent reporting from OTAs for
9:51the Dolphins has been that it looks like
9:53Dulcich is going to be the top target.
9:55Does not look like Darren Waller is
9:56going to be returning to the team. Not
9:58only that, but blocking tight end Julian
10:00Hill also left the team. So, you
10:02basically have Dulcich as the incumbent.
10:05You're looking at a bunch of guys who
10:06cannot take routes away from him. You're
10:08looking at a wide receiver room that
10:09cannot earn any targets. This actually
10:12maybe is more like what that Gary
10:14Barnidge season would be. When I kind of
10:15think about
10:17anomalous tight end seasons, I I want to
10:19see two things. The first thing I want
10:21to see is a group of wide receivers that
10:23cannot out earn the tight end because
10:25the group of wide receivers is so poor.
10:27That is a big time check mark here with
10:29the Miami Dolphins. And then the second
10:30thing I want to see is the guy a
10:32receiving tight end or is he more a
10:34blocking style tight end? And I think
10:36it's very clear with Greg Dulcich, this
10:38guy is a receiving tight end. He
10:41actually did score 8.61 fantasy points
10:43per game his first season back then for
10:45the Denver Broncos. He's been injured.
10:47He's Honestly, like I mean, let's just
10:49be real about it. Greg Dulcich has not
10:50been that good in the NFL, frankly,
10:52because he can't block, right? I mean,
10:54Greg Dulcich sort of is in the old Mike
10:56Gesicki mold of a guy who is tight end
10:59size, but does not have tight end
11:00skills. He has receiver skills, but he
11:03doesn't have a receiver's body. 2.53
11:05yards per route run in 10 games for the
11:07Miami Dolphins last year to me is not
11:09nothing. So, I I quite like Greg
11:12Dulcich, but the point of highlighting
11:14these five guys is that if you are not
11:16an elite tight end drafter, you don't
11:18want to take Bowers, McBride, Loveland,
11:19Warring. You don't want to take one of
11:21those guys. There are plenty of options
11:22here for us at the tight end position
11:24for us to potentially win leagues with
11:25Travis Kelce, Chigoziem Okonkwo, Gunnar
11:28Helm, Terrance Ferguson, and Greg
11:30Dulcich. Uh if you want to get my
11:31rankings, you want to get team advice
11:33from me, start sit trade questions,
11:34anything like that, you can get that
11:36over at flockfantasy.com. Link to that
11:38is down in the description. Sign up with
11:39code Davis and make sure to like this
11:41video. Subscribe, please, to the Maddock
11:44Fantasy Football channel and I'll be
11:45back with you guys very soon.
