8 Fantasy Football Sleepers Experts Target: Tight Ends (2026)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football sleepers below. And check out all of the fantasy football sleepers experts love in our consensus sleeper rankings.

Fantasy Football Sleepers Experts Draft: Tight Ends

Here are fantasy football sleepers the experts love to target in drafts.

Who are Fantasy Football Sleepers?

Fantasy football sleepers are players who have a strong chance to exceed expectations and become surprise difference-makers for fantasy managers.

Fantasy Football Sleepers: Tight Ends

Rank	Tight Ends	Team	Bye	Num Experts	ECR	ADP
1	Juwan Johnson	NO	8	6	16	16
2	Greg Dulcich	MIA	6	4	29	28
3	Chig Okonkwo	WAS	7	5	18	18
4	T.J. Hockenson	MIN	6	3	23	22
5	Oronde Gadsden II	LAC	7	2	21	19
6	Terrance Ferguson	LAR	11	3	26	26
7	Brenton Strange	JAC	7	2	17	20
8	Hunter Henry	NE	11	2	19	17

Juwan Johnson quietly put together the best season of his career in 2025, finishing with 77 catches, 889 yards and three touchdowns. That added up to a TE10 finish in half-point PPR scoring despite the relatively low TD count. It appeared that the arrival of rookie WR Jordan Tyson, the eighth overall pick in this year’s draft, might cut into Johnson’s target total. But Tyson is dealing with a hamstring injury that could keep him out for the first half of the season. Veteran Saints WR Chris Olave has had health issues as well. Johnson should continue to play a prominent role in head coach Kellen Moore’s offense. The fast pace at which Moore operates his offense is another thing working in Johnson’s favor.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Chig Okonkwo is back on the intriguing late-round tight end radar again for 2026. The signing of Stefon Diggs definitely puts a damper on his upside, but Okonkwo is still an interesting dice roll. Last year, among 54 qualifying tight ends, he was 24th in target share, 23rd in receiving yards per game, 28th in yards per route run, and 37th in first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). Okonkwo has been a per-route metric darling in previous seasons, so with better quarterback play in 2026 tied to Jayden Daniels, I wouldn’t be surprised if he recaptures some of that magic. I still don’t know if he’ll have enough volume this season to be anything more than a streaming option when the matchup is right.
– Derek Brown

Greg Dulcich could emerge as the 2026 fantasy football sleeper. Flashed with Miami in the second half of the season (second in YPPR among TEs from Week 9 onward), posting his best statistical season after battling injuries since his rookie campaign. The impending free agent finished second among all TEs in YAC/catch – trailing only Tucker Kraft. Worth monitoring now that he is officially returning to Miami, given his rookie year breakout coincided with former Broncos TE coach and current Cardinals TE coach, Jake Moreland, who has previously coached under new Dolphins OC, Bobby Slowik (Miami’s passing game coordinator in 2025). Not to mention, the Dolphins’ new HC just came from GB, so he clearly knows what a YAC tight end can offer for an offense.
– Andrew Erickson

Terrance Ferguson, a second-round pick in last year’s NFL Draft, drew only 25 targets as a rookie and caught only 11 of them, but he averaged 21 yards per catch and 9.2 yards per target. Ferguson is an extraordinary physical specimen who ran a 4.63 and had a 39-inch vertical jump at last year’s combine at 6-foot-51/2, 247 pounds. But the Rams are log-jammed at tight end. They rotated four TEs last year – Ferguson, Colby Parkinson, Tyler Higbee and Davis Allen – and Ferguson averaged fewer snaps per game than the other three. The Rams have also added another TE, selecting Max Klare of Ohio State in the second round of this year’s draft. On the bright side, Rams head coach Sean McVay used 13 personnel, with three TEs on the field at once, on 30.5% of the Rams’ offensive snaps last season. No other team used 13 personnel on more than 14% of its plays. Rams tight ends combined for 150 targets, 103 catches, 1,128 yards and 17 touchdowns last season. Role ambiguity makes Ferguson undraftable in all but the deepest fantasy leagues, but his athleticism and the possibility that he earns a bigger role in a TE-friendly offense make him worth monitoring.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Last year, Brenton Strange had a breakout season as the TE17 in fantasy points per game setting career highs in targets (only in 12 games), receiving yards, yards per reception, and fantasy points per game. Among 54 qualifying tight ends, he was 21st in target share, 14th in receiving yards per game, ninth in yards per route run, 23rd in first-read share, and 11th in first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). Strange’s per-route metrics display the talent that he has to surpass last year’s numbers if he ever got a featured role in the Jags’ passing attack, but as the depth chart currently stands, he’s likely the fourth or fifth option in the target hierarchy. Strange is a nice stash or pickup in season if injuries strike the depth chart because he could see his numbers boom, but as it currently sits, he’s an intriguing TE2 with upside.
– Derek Brown