Evan Tarracciano | Thu, Apr 16th 2026, 7:11am EDT

4 Must-Have Tight Ends (2026 Fantasy Football)

After several grueling months away from my keyboard following the conclusion of Week 17 last season, I was overjoyed to sit down at my desk and share my thoughts with each of you. So much has happened during that time span – the NFL Combine, free agency at the beginning of March, and a plethora of trades with significant fantasy football impact on the offensive side of the ball.

The NFL is truly a year-round league with very few breaks in the action, and catching up on everything is a daunting task for most. Here at FantasyPros, we pride ourselves on providing our readers with plenty of content to satisfy the itch to actually play, creating positional primers and NFL Draft analysis that are unmatched in the industry.

I’m happy to share with everyone my “Must-Have Tight Ends” (you read that correctly – their title, not mine) for 2026, featuring a solid mix of returning veterans and rookies alike, primed to make a difference come draft season. Which players am I looking to target, and what sort of projections do I have for them this year? Here are some of my favorite selections:

Must-Have Tight Ends (Fantasy Football)

Tyler Warren (TE – IND)

Warren’s 76/817/4 final stat line might be rather pedestrian at first glance, but managers would do well to remember what sort of pace he was on prior to Daniel Jones suffering an Achilles injury back in Week 14. While Jones was on the field healthy, Warren finished as a top-nine tight end in eight of the twelve weeks, providing his managers with remarkable consistency. Things took a significant turn with Riley Leonard under center, as the Colts attempted to keep themselves in playoff contention. During Leonard’s start, Warren was continually asked to chip block edge rushers and pass protect, with Indianapolis struggling to put points on the board. All reports out of Indy have Jones expecting to return for the start of the season, barring any sudden setbacks. Jones’ mobility initially being limited would only serve to boost Warren’s value even further, especially since the team did little during free agency to make changes on the offensive side of the ball – their main moves came in the form of players re-signing with the team instead. Warren is currently projected as our TE5, but I have a sneaky suspicion that he will outperform both Brock Bowers and Tucker Kraft (our TE2 and TE3), with Las Vegas and Green Bay set to focus early on the offensive side of the ball during the NFL Draft next week.

Dallas Goedert (TE – PHI)

Want to take a wild guess who finished as the TE3 in total points last season? You’re looking at him. Fantasy managers finally had the lingering question answered of “What would happen if Dallas Goedert could somehow stay healthy for at least 15 games again?” last year. Goedert finished with career-highs in both receptions (60) and touchdown catches (11), despite competing for targets with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith all season long. So is his listing here simply a knee-jerk reaction to what happened in 2025? Not at all. Rumors are swirling out of Philadelphia that Brown is on the trade block, after the diva wideout spent the majority of last year throwing his pacifier on the ground and whining like a toddler at a lack of targets in the passing game. On multiple occasions, Brown was spotted in verbal sparring matches with members of the coaching staff on the sidelines, and even though he managed to get the “squeaky wheel” treatment often, it felt like the final straw. Baking touchdown regression into Goedert’s projections for 2026 is nigh-mandatory (his prior season-high was just five, back in 2019), but I think that the coaching staff saw that he can be a major asset in the chain-moving department for quarterback Jalen Hurts when necessary. Goedert is in the back-half of his career as he enters this season at 31 years old, but his presence on a potent offense should make him a top-eight selection, and he is being drafted as an upside TE2 instead.

Isaiah Likely (TE – NYG)

Is Likely’s inclusion on this list a homer pick? Sure, to some degree – but hear me out before you scroll past his name being mentioned. Mired on the depth chart behind Mark Andrews in Baltimore since 2022, Likely hit the open market after the Ravens failed to ink him to an extension. Head coach John Harbaugh, now with the New York Giants, made it a priority to sign him with Big Blue, where he will look to soak up the majority of Wan’Dale Robinson’s 140 targets from 2025. New York is lacking offensive weapons in the passing game outside of Malik Nabers – anyone convinced that Darnell Mooney or Theo Johnson will be a breakout second-fiddle to Nabers shouldn’t hold their breath. The Giants will look to run plenty of two-tight-end sets in offensive coordinator Matt Nagy’s scheme, calling upon Likely to provide quarterback Jaxson Dart with a massive target to involve early and often. Borrowing a statistic from my colleague Andrew Erickson, when Mark Andrews missed time last year, and Likely was featured under Harbaugh, he finished as the TE5 in PPG last season. Taking a flier on him as a TE2 with outstanding upside (or for managers who simply prefer to punt the position instead) is a risk worth taking.

Kenyon Sadiq (TE – Oregon)

As of this moment, I have no idea which team Sadiq will suit up for in 2026, but I’m not letting that stop me from conducting his hype train. Similar to Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren from last year, occasionally, rookies come along at the position who are simply too talented to contain, and they quickly become a focal point for their offense. Sadiq was a first-team All-Big Ten player in 2025 for Oregon and led the Ducks with 51 receptions and eight touchdowns. Analysts pegging him as “an oversized receiver” are providing you with a lazy take and haven’t watched enough of his film. Sadiq is a former defensive standout in high school and prides himself on routinely putting defenders on the ground in pass protection. With Oregon, he was used all over the field, operating both from the slot and in-line, with an occasional carry to boot (akin to Tyler Warren, but to a lesser degree). He did have the occasional drop on film, but his sub-4.40 forty time while playing at 241 pounds is utterly absurd, and watching him move around reminded me of a leaner Brock Bowers with more speed. I’ll let those words sink in for a moment. If Sadiq falls to the middle of the first round and winds up on a team like Tampa Bay, Carolina, or Dallas, the sky is the limit for his freshman season.

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