Kevin Szafraniec provides a team-by-team breakdown of every AFC tight end depth chart to find the most advantageous landing spots for 2026’s incoming rookies.
Having a star tight end can be an extreme luxury for NFL teams, but it is far from a necessity. The TE position is not often mentioned among the NFL’s devalued positions, yet there are 86 players whose contracts average a higher annual salary than top-paid TE George Kittle’s $19.1M per year. This makes Kittle the lowest-paid top player at any position in the league, with running back Saquon Barkley ($20.6M) and guard Chris Lindstrom ($20.5M) being the only players in the cohort to come within $6.0M of Kittle’s yearly salary.
Given this market trend, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the upcoming rookie TE class isn’t garnering much attention apart from the top few prospects. However, the 2026 class is deeper than many people realize and features some intriguing talents that are flying under the radar. Not only that, but there are also some pretty appealing landing spots that could turn one of this year’s Day 3 rookies into a difference maker in a hurry.
Two factors to look for in an ideal landing spot are a wealth of vacated opportunities and a lack of high-end talent. The former is easy to calculate now that nearly all of the big-name free agents have settled. As for the latter, Sports Info Solutions helps us out with their points above average (PAA) metric, which isolates individual player performance on each play and compares it to a baseline outcome. Like most metrics, PAA is not perfect. But it still gives us a decent understanding of whether a player is more likely to help or hurt their team on any given play. Since we’re talking TEs, blocking and receiving skills are both important. Therefore, I have included data for each player’s run- and pass-blocking snaps, as well as our normal receiving metrics.
After working through the AFC backfields in Part 1 and Part 2 of the series, something that became apparent is the lack of balance between the two conferences when it comes to 2026 draft capital. Six AFC teams own 10 or more selections, while not a single NFC team’s total gets out of the single digits. Ten of the 16 AFC franchises have at least nine picks versus only three NFC clubs. Meanwhile, four NFC teams have fewer than seven picks compared to only one AFC team falling below that threshold. This makes me believe AFC teams may be more apt to take shots on the TE position in the 2026 draft, which could yield some promising returns for fantasy managers who have a deeper understanding of what each team has to offer an incoming rookie.
Do you want to predict which rookies could land on your favorite team? Volume 2 of the 2026 RotoViz Rookie Draft Guide is the perfect way to get to know this year’s incoming draft class!
Jam-packed with comprehensive player profiles, advanced stats, player comps, strategies, and rankings from the RotoViz staff, it is a must-have for every fantasy manager who wants to crush their best ball, dynasty, and redraft leagues in 2026! Keep an eye out for Volume 3, which will drop after the 2026 NFL Draft!
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens
Draft Picks (11): 14, 45, 80, 115, 154, 162, 173, 174, 211, 250, 253
