Let’s dive into some tight ends that could offer high upside going outside of the first 12 players drafted at the position in 2026 fantasy football drafts.
Fantasy Football Draft Values: Tight Ends
As always seems to be the case, the tight end position is in flux for fantasy football heading into 2026. Aside from Trey McBride‘s 252.9, no TE scored reached even 170 half-PPR points in 2025. Other theoretically elite fantasy tight ends either underperformed, missed time, or both. The fantasy tight end wasteland was as barren as ever. On the bright side, this lack of consistent top-tier options (McBride notwithstanding) opens up room for savvy drafters to find value.
Last season, Kyle Pitts (TE2) and Dallas Goedert (TE4) finished as top-five options at the tight end position despite both having ADPs outside the top-12 TEs and first 10 rounds of fantasy drafts. Today, our goal is to identify players who have a chance to follow in their footsteps. Without further ado, here are three TE2s with top-5 upside heading into the 2026 fantasy football season.
Kenyon Sadiq (TE – Rookie) | ADP: TE15
Since we’re looking for late-round upside, it just makes sense that this list includes at least one rookie. No one offers more variance — both good and bad — than first-year players. And this year, the top tight end prospect is Sadiq, coming off a productive season for the Oregon Ducks.
There are obvious green flags in Sadiq’s profile, most notably his all-but-guaranteed first-round draft capital and a speed/size combination that screams “matchup nightmare.” Tight end is traditionally thought of as a position where players take a while to make a fantasy impact, but that has changed in recent years. Harold Fannin Jr. and Tyler Warren both finished as fantasy TE1s last season, with Colston Loveland just missing out. Sam LaPorta was the TE1 overall in his debut 2023 season.
With that said, there’s a reason Sadiq’s ADP is this low even among the notoriously rookie-happy drafters on Underdog. He is not a Brock Bowers-level prospect, or even as highly thought of as Warren was last season. His top-five upside is offset by the downside of an unusable fantasy season if he lands in a crowded offense and/or isn’t able to earn a full-time role right away. Still, while we’re looking for upside, we can’t look past an athletic freak who won’t even be able to legally drink until two weeks from now.
AJ Barner (TE – SEA) | ADP: TE20
Did you know that AJ Barner received an All-Pro vote in 2025? That’s an overstatement of the second-year tight end’s impact, but he did have an impressive season. Barner ranked 12th among qualified tight ends in PFF Receiving Grade, finishing with six TDs and 519 yards on 52 receptions. He was also the Seahawks’ designated tush pusher (technically tush pushee, I guess), recording 14 yards and a TD on his 10 carries.
Barner does have competition as he isn’t even the highest-pedigree young TE on Seattle’s roster, with 2025 second-rounder Elijah Arroyo looming. However, if he can hold off Arroyo to be the Seahawks’ top tight end, his upside is sneaky high. The reigning Super Bowl champions are lacking a number-two option behind reigning Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who served as essentially their entire passing offense in 2025. Perhaps their new OC, former 49ers tight end coach Brian Fleury, will turn to Barner, who is also a solid blocker in the run game a la George Kittle (okay, this one is a bit of a stretch).
At the end of the day, Barner is young, coming off a solid season, and on an excellent offense without a clear second target. We may have to squint a bit to get the rest of his profile to say “top-five tight end,” but those factors can go a long way. Especially if he maintains his short-yardage rushing role and happens to score a few extra TDs, Barner has a shot to be this year’s breakout fantasy TE.
Terrance Ferguson (TE – LAR) | ADP: TE26
The upside case for Ferguson is incredibly exciting. In 2025, Rams tight ends combined to score 264.3 half-PPR points. That was more than any individual TE, Trey McBride included, and second to only McBride’s Cardinals in total team points. Obviously, Ferguson won’t consolidate all of those points, but it won’t be too shocking if the Rams choose to lean more heavily on the young second-round pick with elite athleticism (94th percentile burst and a 4.63 40-yard dash at 6’5″) instead of a rotating cast of journeymen.
On the other hand, Ferguson is currently a long way from being a top target in Sean McVay’s offense. Tyler Higbee is a free agent, but that still leaves Colby Parkinson and Davis Allen on LA’s roster, both of whom outproduced Ferguson in his rookie year. Even with the Rams leading the league in three-TE sets by a massive margin, Ferguson’s 34% route participation rate ranked 44th at the position in 2025 (min. 10 games).
None of that is promising, and I haven’t even mentioned the Rams’ duo of elite receivers in Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. The path to top-tier TE production normally relies on being one of your team’s top two targets in the passing game, and Ferguson’s chances of checking that box without help from an injury are essentially nil. Still, with an ADP outside the top 24 options, Ferguson is technically too cheap to even fit the parameters of this article (he’s a TE3 by ADP, not a TE2). The sophomore’s upside is massive compared to the options around him, even if the likelihood he hits his ceiling is very slim.
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Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter and Bluesky @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.
