Fantasy Football: 5 Second-Year Tight Ends to Watch (2026)

Tight end is famously a slow-developing position for rookies, but the 2025 class broke that mold in a big way, with several first-year tight ends producing real fantasy football value ahead of schedule. Here’s where each of them stands heading into Year 2.

2026 Fantasy Football Draft Advice: Second-Year Tight Ends to Watch

Let’s dive into a few notable second-year tight ends along with their fantasy football outlook.

Colston Loveland (CHI) — RK3

Sure, Colston Loveland disappointed last season if you only look at his overall stats as the TE15 in fantasy points per game, but that was because he was languishing in a part-time role for most of the season. It wasn’t until after Week 15 that Loveland was consistently featured as a full-time member of the offense. In Weeks 16-20, he exploded as the Bears’ WR1 with a 25.6% target share, 81.6 receiving yards per game, 2.49 yards per route run, a 34% first-read share, 0.116 first downs per route run, and 17.2 PPR points per game (per Fantasy Points Data). If Loveland had produced like that over the course of the entire season, he would have given Trey McBride a run for his money as the TE1 in fantasy. Last year, those numbers, among all tight ends with at least 20 targets, would have ranked first, first, fourth, first, fourth, and second. If you compare those numbers against Trey McBride‘s 2025 season and Brock Bowers‘ 2024 campaign, Loveland would have beaten both players in every single category except for fantasy points per game with McBride’s 2025 season. Loveland could easily pick up right where he left off this season and compete with Brock Bowers and Trey McBride for the TE1 crown. With D.J. Moore gone, Loveland has only Rome Odunze and Luther Burden to compete with for the top spot in the target pecking order in Chicago.
– Derek Brown

Tyler Warren (IND) — RK4

Tyler Warren’s rookie season got off to a fast start, but his production slowed down markedly late in the season, leaving us with a challenging evaluation for 2026. Over his first 10 games of 2025, Warren averaged 5.0 catches, 61.7 receiving yards and 11.1 half-point PPR fantasy points per game, with four touchdowns. Over his last seven games, Warren averaged 3.7 catches, 28.6 receiving yards and 5.6 half-point PPR fantasy points per game, with one touchdown. The net result: 76 catches for 817 yards and four touchdowns (plus one TD run) and a TE5 fantasy finish. Daniel Jones’ late-season injuries might partly account for Warren’s late-season slowdown, and Jones’ health status might still be an issue early in the 2026 season. But the Colts traded away WR Michael Pittman in the offseason and didn’t make any significant pass-catching acquisitions in free agency or the draft, bolstering Warren’s 2026 target outlook. Warren might not be one of the elite fantasy TEs in 2026, but he should still be one of the first five tight ends off the board in this year’s drafts.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Harold Fannin Jr. (CLE) — RK6

A third-round pick in last year’s NFL Draft, Harold Fannin was surprisingly impactful as a rookie, racking up 72 catches for 731 yards and six touchdowns to finish TE6 in half-point PPR fantasy scoring. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised by Fannin’s first-year success. He had 117 catches for 1,555 yards in his final college season at Bowling Green, leading all FBS pass catchers in both categories. The Browns have an unappealing QB situation, and the arrival of rookie WRs KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston could cut into Fannin’s target share. But the Browns’ new head coach, Todd Monken, has historically been a very TE-friendly playcaller. Fannin should be regarded as a midrange TE1 in 2026 fantasy drafts.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Gunnar Helm (TEN) — RK24

Second-year man Gunnar Helm sits atop the Titans’ depth chart at tight end now that veteran Chig Okonkwo has moved on to Washington via free agency. A fourth-round pick out of the University Of Texas, Helm turned in a solid if unspectacular rookie season, catching 44 passes for 357 yards and two touchdown in an offense that struggled for much of the season. Helm caught 80% of his targets and averaged a respectable 1.45 yards per route run. Titans QB Cam Ward had a rough rookie season overall but played much better late in the season. If Ward can continue to make strides, Helm could become a fantasy-viable TE option in 2026.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Terrance Ferguson (LAR) — RK28

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

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