The passing game in Dallas these days is full of opportunity for fantasy football production, and their tight end is a key cog in that machine.
Jake Ferguson is coming off a career year in both catches (82) and touchdowns (eight), though managers are left unsure of what to think of him as he prepares for his fifth professional season.
Should You Draft Jake Ferguson in Fantasy Football?
The Cowboys didn’t have much of a need for Ferguson in his rookie season, with Dalton Schultz still in town and ranking second on the team in receptions, receiving yards, and TD receptions. That said, when they did decide to give him the keys to the position, he rewarded them.
In 2023, he stepped into the featured role to the tune of a 71-761-5 stat line. Ferguson didn’t post eye-popping numbers while at Wisconsin, but he showed that the skills were in place for him to be a reliable volume option at this level in his first opportunity.
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He, however, left fantasy managers wanting more in 2024, a season in which he missed three games, failed to score, and saw his yards per catch decline by 21.5%. Was 2023 a fluke? And with Dallas bringing in George Pickens to complement CeeDee Lamb, would there be anywhere close to enough volume for Ferguson to produce top-15 numbers at the position?
Those concerns decimated his ADP this time last season, and they were misguided. Kind of. Sort of.
Weeks 1-7 vs Weeks 8-17
- 27.6% target rate vs 15.5% target rate
- 1.59 yards per route vs. 0.96 yards per route
The Ferguson chain-moving bonanza took place in the early going, and he offered this offense a nice change of pace in their aerial attack.
That said, once Javonte Williams found his way on the ground and the team optimized Pickens, Ferguson was an afterthought, something that was even more damning in our world because of the confidence he earned from us after the hot start.
Here we are in 2026, wondering which version of Ferguson we will get and whether we can count on him as a TE1 for the duration of this season.
From a macro sense, it’s more likely than not that we land roughly in the same spot as last season. Dallas ranked fourth in dropbacks, third in pass attempts, and second in completions in 2025, marks that they should flirt with again this year with a very similar core returning both on the field and on the sidelines.
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The “how” behind the stat line this season should be a little flatter. There was a learning curve entering the season with the new additions, and potentially an overcorrection in their favor late in the season. There weren’t a lot of 5-for-60 games last season, but I think that’s more the norm this year due to familiarity with his role in this version of this offense.
That lands him as a low-end TE1. Dallas Goedert and Mark Andrews are two others in this discussion as stable options on strong offenses. Of that trio, I do have Ferguson ranked the highest: I worry about Father Time with Mark Andrews and the fact that the Eagles drafted Eli Stowers with the 54th overall pick in April.
Preseason Fantasy TE Rankings
- Brock Bowers | LV
- Trey McBride | ARI
- Colston Loveland | CHI
- Tyler Warren | IND
- Tucker Kraft | GB
- Sam LaPorta | DET
- George Kittle | SF
- Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
- Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
- Travis Kelce | KC
- Dallas Goedert | PHI
- Jake Ferguson | DAL
- Mark Andrews | BAL
- Juwan Johnson | NO
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Chig Okonkwo | WAS
- Brenton Strange | JAX
- Hunter Henry | NE
- Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
- Dalton Schultz | HOU
- Greg Dulcich | MIA
- AJ Barner | SEA
- T.J. Hockenson | MIN
- Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
