Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings: Isaiah Likely Pushes His Way Towards The TE1s

Our 2026 fantasy football tight end rankings.

Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely (80) reacts after scoring a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the second half at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Fantasy football owners take many different approaches when it comes to drafting a tight end. Being that you generally only have to start one, and in most cases they don't score as many fantasy points as other positions, you have to be tactical when drafting them.

A stud tight end can give you a huge positional advantage, while waiting on a tight end can allow you to find value and fill out the roster with more valuable positions. Streaming tight ends is even an option.

Regardless, you have to be able to identify and find the value at the position, and this is one of the deepest, most talented groups of fantasy tight ends we have ever seen. These are our 2026 fantasy football tight end rankings.

TE1s

These are your stud tight ends. You can start them every week, and hopefully you won't have to worry about the position again other than your guys' bye week. The top six tight ends have massive talent, and all hold TE1 overall upside.

1. Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals
2. Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders
3. Tyler Warren, Indianapolis Colts
4. Harold Fannin Jr, Cleveland Browns
5. Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears
6. Tucker Kraft, Green Bay Packers
7. Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons
8. Dallas Goedert, Philadelphia Eagles
9. Chig Okonkwo, Washington Commanders
10. Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
11. Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys
12. Brenton Strange, Jacksonville Jaguars

TE2s

You can find a ton of upside here and plenty of tight ends who could finish as a fantasy TE1. Most years, a lot of these stars would be TE1s, but this is a deep group in 2026. We'd have no issue waiting a while and grabbing some of these players to be your starters if you want to wait on the position.

13. Isaiah Likely, New York Giants
14. Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills
15. Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions
16. George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
17. Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints
18. Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens
19. Hunter Henry, New England Patriots
20. AJ Barner, Seattle Seahawks
21. Gunnar Helm, Tennessee Titans
22. Oronde Gadsden II, Los Angeles Chargers
23. Greg Dulcich, Miami Dolphins
24. Dalton Schultz, Houston Texans

TE3s

There is still value here; nevertheless, you don't want to head into the season with one of these tight ends as your locked-in starter. You can find some interesting bench stashes in deeper leagues, but we wouldn't advise viewing any of these players as more than that.

25. Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers
26. Kenyon Sadiq, New York Jets
27. Darren Waller, Carolina Panthers
28. Cade Otton, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
29. David Njoku, Los Angeles Chargers
30. Evan Engram, Denver Broncos
31. Terrance Ferguson, Los Angeles Rams
32. Jake Tonges, San Francisco 49ers
33. Colby Parkinson, Los Angeles Rams
34. Theo Johnson, New York Giants
35. Elijah Arroyo, Seattle Seahawks
36. Eli Stowers, Philadelphia Eagles

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