The Lineup Fantasy Football Show · Mitch Anderson & Justin Mello

Top 12 Tight Ends Rankings & Tiers 2026 Fantasy Football

·45 min·3 clips

Trey McBride broke the tight end receptions record with 126 and still finished as a volume king.

1. The Lineup Fantasy Football Show ranks and tiers the top 12 tight ends for the 2026 fantasy football season. 2. Mitch Anderson and Justin Mello host the episode, and both matter because they split rankings on several players while explaining their draft logic. 3. The episode asks which tight ends are worth paying up for in redraft and best ball, especially when positional advantage matters. 4. Trey McBride opens at number one because he was the tight end one last year and broke the single-season tight end reception record with 126 catches. 5. The hosts note that McBride has 237 receptions over the last two years and 11 touchdowns after finally getting over the end-zone issue. 6. Brock Bowers lands in the same top tier because the hosts treat his 2025 season as injury-affected and not representative of his talent. 7. They point to Bowers being 23 years old and to his 12-catch, 127-yard, three-touchdown game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 8. Colson Loveland comes in at number three, and the hosts frame him as the player with the biggest upside after McBride and Bowers. 9. They cite Loveland's last four games, including the playoffs, where he averaged 12 targets and became the focal point of the offense. 10. Tucker Kraft is placed fourth, and the hosts say his ACL injury is the only major reason he is not higher. 11. They remind listeners that Kraft was the tight end one in half-point PPR through Weeks 1-8 and compare his style to George Kittle. 12. Sam LaPorta is ranked fifth or sixth, and the hosts treat him as the start of a dead-zone tier they mostly want to avoid. 13. They note that LaPorta was a top-four tight end in three of his last four full games and averaged about six targets per game. 14. Tyler Warren follows as a higher-variance play, with the hosts disagreeing more on his floor than his talent. 15. They discuss Daniel Jones' injury and free-agency uncertainty, plus Shane Steichen's role in deciding whether Warren can deliver on his high draft capital. 16. Harold Fannin Jr. is discussed as a player whose ranking depends heavily on Cleveland's quarterback and coaching situation. 17. The hosts mention that Fannin was the tight end six as a third-round rookie and benefited from Kevin Stefanski's manufactured touches. 18. Kyle Pitts becomes the most polarizing name in the episode, with one host willing to draft him more than consensus and the other refusing to trust him. 19. The tone stays conversational and ranking-driven, with back-and-forth debate, repeated references to ADP, and several best ball stack examples. 20. Listeners who draft fantasy football, especially tight ends and QB stacks, will get the most value, while anyone avoiding fantasy roster talk may skip it.

As heard by us

A top-heavy tight end board that turns into a practical pay up versus punt draft debate.

The episode lays out the top 12 tight ends for the 2026 fantasy football season and puts Trey McBride and Brock Bowers in the same top tier. McBride gets the cleanest case: he was the TE1 last year, broke the single-season tight end reception record with 126, and finished with…

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Why you'd press play

You want a clean tight-end tier map before your draft board gets messy.

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