Rankings
Top 20 Tight Ends: Dynasty Value Score
Trey McBride leads the position outright, and three rookie-contract tight ends crack the top 10. That's a real shift from a position that used to reward track record above almost everything else.
By Kenny Flermoen · August 3, 2026
This is the companion to our 2026 TE season projections — same idea, re-ranked by Dynasty Value Score (DVS) instead of next year's point total. DVS blends trailing production, age, NFL draft capital, and the 2026 projection into one 0–10,000 score, weighted differently depending on how many seasons a player has played.
Top 20 TE by Dynasty Value Score
| Rank | Player | Team | DVS | Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trey McBride | ARI | 7,687 | 26 |
| 2 | Brock Bowers | LV | 7,028 | 23 |
| 3 | Sam LaPorta | DET | 6,393 | 25 |
| 4 | George Kittle | SF | 5,980 | 32 |
| 5 | Tucker Kraft | GB | 5,461 | 25 |
| 6 | T.J. Hockenson | MIN | 5,381 | 29 |
| 7 | Colston Loveland | CHI | 4,739 | 22 |
| 8 | Kyle Pitts | ATL | 4,729 | 25 |
| 9 | Tyler Warren | IND | 4,559 | 24 |
| 10 | Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE | 3,935 | 22 |
| 11 | Mark Andrews | BAL | 3,846 | 30 |
| 12 | Jake Ferguson | DAL | 3,405 | 27 |
| 13 | Dalton Kincaid | BUF | 3,391 | 26 |
| 14 | Travis Kelce | KC | 3,366 | 36 |
| 15 | Dallas Goedert | PHI | 3,336 | 31 |
| 16 | Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ | 3,208 | 21 |
| 17 | Juwan Johnson | NO | 3,169 | 29 |
| 18 | Hunter Henry | NE | 3,166 | 31 |
| 19 | Dalton Schultz | HOU | 3,130 | 30 |
| 20 | Cade Otton | TB | 2,907 | 27 |
Base dynasty format — no Superflex or TE Premium adjustment. DVS is a trade-value score, not a 2026 scoring projection.
McBride leads the position outright now
Trey McBride was a Day 2 pick, and a full season of top-end production has caught his score up to and past the two first-round tight ends who used to sit ahead of him, Brock Bowers and Sam LaPorta. Draft capital still matters in this model, but it no longer guarantees the top spot once a Day 2 pick has banked enough production to make the case on its own.
Tucker Kraft and Harold Fannin Jr. tell a similar story lower on the board. Both are mid-round or rookie-contract names — Kraft a third-rounder, Fannin a third-round rookie with one accrued season — and both still crack the top 10 on production and role rather than draft pedigree. That would have been unusual on this board a year ago.
Two veterans still holding value on track record
T.J. Hockenson sits 6th here even after a genuinely rough 2025 on the surface — 51 catches, 438 yards, three touchdowns, and a shoulder injury that ended his season two games early, on top of a Vikings passing attack that got some of the worst quarterback play in the league. He's still the No. 8 overall pick from a real 95-catch peak season, and DVS credits some of that track record over one bad offensive environment. A healthier situation around him in 2026 — Kyler Murray now at quarterback — is exactly the kind of thing that could make this ranking look conservative in hindsight.
Mark Andrews shows a smaller version of the same pattern at 11th. He fractured his fibula in Week 11 last season and finished with career-low efficiency even before the injury. He signed a three-year extension with Baltimore this offseason, locking in his role beyond just 2026, and his production score still reflects several seasons of real TE1 output before last year's decline, even if it no longer carries him into the top five the way it once did.
Established veterans still round out this board
Dalton Kincaid, Travis Kelce, Dallas Goedert, Dalton Schultz, Jake Ferguson, and Cade Otton fill out the back half of this top 20 on multiple seasons of established, if not spectacular, production. None of them project as a clear top-tier scorer for 2026, but a real track record still holds some dynasty value even without a breakout role in front of it — including a 36-year-old Kelce, still hanging on with real draft capital and career production behind him.
Model any of these players against your own roster on the Dynasty Trade Calculator — toggle Superflex and TE Premium to see how the format changes the board.
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FAQ
- How is Dynasty Value Score different from the season-projection rankings?
- Season projections rank who scores the most points in 2026. DVS ranks who's worth the most in a trade — it blends trailing production, age, draft capital, and next year's projection into one score, weighted differently depending on how many NFL seasons a player has played.
- Why do some tight ends rank here without appearing in the season-projection top 20?
- A player doesn't need a clear path to a huge 2026 role to have real dynasty value. Draft capital and a track record of established production carry weight in DVS even when a player's immediate target competition caps his projected points.
- Why does one down year not sink Hockenson or Andrews further?
- DVS weighs trailing production across multiple seasons, not just the most recent one. A single rough or injury-shortened year matters less than a broader body of work, especially for players with strong draft pedigree behind them.