Fantasy Football Draft Guide 2026: Tight End Battle Royale

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  • By Jon Mosales

    Last Updated on July 15, 2026 12:07 pm by Jon Mosales | Published: July 15, 2026

    If you have been following me for a day, a week or a year you know I don’t just love going TE early, it’s like a natural law.  I get why people punt the position because the difference from TE5 to the TE13 was only 1.9 FPPG.  I get it even further if you want to go QB early and ignore one of the “onesie” positions, but I would argue that if you are going to pick which position to shot gun, it’s clear as night and day that it should be QB.  The difference between Trey McBride aka the TE1 and the TE12 Juwan Johnson was eight FPPG.  Players can make the leap at most positions as we saw with WR last season, JSN and George Pickens in the top-five.  RBs can be even more volatile and while the top-10 TE is a revolving the door, the upper echelon is much harder to crack.

    The question is which of the top-three do you go after because they are all have reasons why they could finish as the TE1, but it’s all about value and getting the TE2 in round three can be more valuable than getting the TE1 in round 2.  Brock Bowers is leading the pack with an ADP of 16, with Trey McBride climbing to 21 and Colston Loveland at 43.  If all things were equal, it’s still almost impossible to make any declarative statements, but we are going to try nonetheless and see if ADP is the deal-breaker when establishing the hierarchy or is there is a more analytical approach to breaking them down.

     

    Brock Bowers  –

    It’s hard to nitpick drafting Bowers, considering the Raiders got a franchise QB, a rebuilt o-line and a brand new coaching staff that just helped SEA win the Super Bowl.  Everything is trending up for Bowers who had a nightmare sophomore season, getting hurt in Week 1, gutting through his injury and finishing as the TE11.  Trey McBride was the TE1 last season with an absurd 26.5 TS%.  Bowers had a meager 17.2, but the problems on LV were systemic and had nothing to do with Bowers aside from his PCL injury.  Bowers had 25.9 TS% as a rookie and honestly that might be the floor this season.  The Raiders didn’t do anything to address the empty WR room, so Bowers will be the clear and away number-one target and it might not be close.  It’s a clear two horse race for TE between Bowers and McBride, but it’s not a lock that only one of them finishes as the top dog.  The only question with Bowers is who is throwing him the ball.  Is it Kirk Cousins or Fernando Mendoza.  Clearly Mendoza has the future, but rookie QBs can struggle to get elite fantasy seasons from their supporting parts.  Cousins is on his last legs and will have no problem feeding Bowers all day and it’s not like Bowers will be running go routes all game.  New head coach Klint Kubiak is fresh of getting JSN a 36% TS, so expect something similar out of Bowers.  The Raiders are going to bounce-back in a major way after being dead last in scoring a season ago, but how can they go? They will be need to be a top-15 offense to get the maximum production from Bowers.

    Trey McBride  –


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    July 15, 2026, 12:07 pm