Week 1 Fantasy TE Rankings 2026: Why Colston Loveland Is a Smash Start and Travis Kelce Isn’t

Week 1 fantasy football tight end decisions can get volatile quickly, especially at a position where a handful of targets or one red-zone look can swing an entire matchup. Our Week 1 TE rankings sort through the full starting landscape, from elite options like Brock Bowers and Trey McBride to more aggressive calls involving Colston Loveland, Tyler Warren, Travis Kelce, and Cade Otton. Below, we break down the tight ends you should feel best about starting and the players whose Week 1 roles or matchups make them tougher bets.

1) Brock Bowers | LV vs MIA 2) Trey McBride | ARI @ LAC 3) Colston Loveland | CHI @ CAR 4) Tyler Warren | IND vs BAL 5) Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL @ PIT 6) Sam LaPorta | DET vs NO 7) Tucker Kraft | GB @ MIN 8) Juwan Johnson | NO @ DET 9) Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE @ JAC 10) Jake Ferguson | DAL @ NYG 11) Isaiah Likely | NYG vs DAL 12) Hunter Henry | NE @ SEA 13) Travis Kelce | KC vs DEN 14) Dallas Goedert | PHI vs WAS 15) George Kittle | SF @ LAR 16) Chig Okonkwo | WAS @ PHI 17) Mark Andrews | BAL @ IND 18) Dalton Kincaid | BUF @ HOU 19) Brenton Strange | JAC vs CLE 20) Dalton Schultz | HOU vs BUF 21) Oronde Gadsden II | LAC vs ARI 22) Jake Tonges | SF @ LAR 23) Terrance Ferguson | LAR vs SF 24) Pat Freiermuth | PIT vs ATL 25) Cade Otton | TB @ CIN

Which TEs Should You Start In Fantasy Football This Week?

I'm not a fan of Cardio Cade for our game. He's never cleared 600 yards in a season and has scored just 11 times across 63 career games. He's really only ever seen his number called when the WR room is limping along, and while that holds value in specific spots, I've always been of the belief that if the Bucs thought he was more than that, they'd give him the chance to be.

Maybe he sees north of five targets on a regular basis, and given the efficient nature of them, that's enough to slide him into the top-12 at the position on a reasonably consistent basis. It could happen, but I need to see it. This is a player with one game of 5+ receptions over the past 11 months, and the QB sneak stuff has yet to really be weaponized in a way that matters for us.

Keep an eye. If the route count is high and he adds some depth to his route tree, there will be a streaming situation where he makes sense or a DFS paydown strategy checks out. We could get there … I'm just not opening the season with that as my default setting.

22nd in PPR points last season among TEs

I say that to discount your excitement should he hang a decent number this week. Life without Mike Evans is going to take some getting used to, and given that this Bengals defense allowed a TE to crack double digits in terms of PPR points 14 times last season, Otton has a chance to return back-end TE1 numbers this week.

I still think he's nothing more than a streamer. A viable stream this week, sure, but don't get over your skis should he help you get a win in Week 1.

This game has a sleeper tight end in it that I don't like this week and a 2026 fade that I do.

The 2026 outlook for Okonkwo is largely positive. The target distribution behind Terry McLaurin is ambiguous at best, and his athletic profile works well with what this Jayden Daniels-led offense wants to do.

In his first game with the team, asking him to light the world on fire against a defense that was top-10 in both red zone trips allowed and the conversion of those trips into TDs is a bit much.

Give them four quarters to warm up to one another before diving in. Washington heads to Dallas next week, and I'll have Okonkwo ranked favorably relative to the rest of the industry barring disaster this weekend. As long as he's on the field with regularity against the Birds, it's a win for those of us who invested.

You can lose the Week 1 battle and win the 2026 war.

These strong offenses are going to burn you some weeks.

We see the Baltimore offense elevate the pass game or the run game. The Jags have four receivers that can have a big week and leave their teammates underachieving.

I think we see that at some level in Chicago, but Loveland should be immune to the duds, especially when you consider the low bar that it takes to be viable at the TE position.

Luther Burden, Rome Odunze, and D'Andre Swift are all players we like and drafted as weekly assets this summer. I think that was the right call, but if you're asking me which skill player leads the team in startable weeks, it's Loveland, and it's not close.

If you asked me which of them would lead them in Tier 1 weeks (define it however you'd like), it's Loveland.

I don't think he needs to be facing the Panthers (second most yards allowed per target to tight ends last season) to establish himself as the clear alpha in this offense, but it doesn't hurt. This is a great pay-up option in the DFS space: he's in the mix to lead the position in scoring when all is said and done this week.