Dalton Schultz has been a fixture in the Houston offense since arriving in 2023. Now, an injury to a young teammate has cleared out some of the competition around him. With Houston still committed to running the football and winning with its defense, should fantasy managers be drafting Schultz in 2026?
Should I Draft Dalton Schultz in Fantasy Football?
Schultz will probably be useful in fantasy this season. I want to say that up front, because everything that follows might read like a hit piece otherwise.
He finished as the TE14 last season, averaging 10.5 fantasy points per game. Those are standard back-end TE1 numbers. He was perfectly replacement level.
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That is precisely the issue with his profile. There is no reason to ever draft this guy. You can find a Schultz on the waiver wire every single week of the season.
I have him ranked below where he will finish, and I am quite confident in that. It does not bother me one bit. In fantasy drafts, I am never trying to draft 10 PPG. I am trying to find a tight end who can get to at least 12. If I miss on that, I will simply pick up the 10 PPG streamer off waivers in October.
That philosophy is why I have more volatile tight ends with wider ranges of outcomes ranked ahead of Schultz. A player with a chance at 15 PPR and a chance at 6 PPG is worth more to me than a player who will reliably give me 10 PPG. The reliable option is available for free. The upside is not.
The underlying numbers explain why the ceiling does not exist. Schultz averaged 1.56 yards per route run and 0.079 first downs per route run last season. He was not an efficient player by any measure.
He was a volume beneficiary. Schultz ran the sixth-most routes at the position and earned a 19.2% target share. Take away the sheer number of opportunities, and there is not much left. If he can replicate that workload, more power to him.
Obviously, the Jayden Higgins season-ending injury increases the chances Schultz remains an important piece of this passing attack. That is a real development, and it helps his floor.
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We are still talking about a low-volume passing offense that wants to run the football and win with its dominant defense, though. There is only so much production available here regardless of who is absorbing the targets.
Schultz is my TE26 against a TE22 ADP. There is no reason anyone should be digging this far down the tight end rankings to draft him when this exact production is available for nothing in-season.
Katz’s TE Fantasy Rankings 2026
- Brock Bowers | LV
- Trey McBride | ARI
- Colston Loveland | CHI
- Tyler Warren | IND
- Sam LaPorta | DET
- Tucker Kraft | GB
- Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
- George Kittle | SF
- Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Travis Kelce | KC
- Dallas Goedert | PHI
- Brenton Strange | JAX
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
- Mark Andrews | BAL
- Jake Ferguson | DAL
- Chig Okonkwo | WAS
- Juwan Johnson | NO
- Hunter Henry | NE
- T.J. Hockenson | MIN
- AJ Barner | SEA
- Greg Dulcich | MIA
- Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
- Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
- Gunnar Helm | TEN
- Dalton Schultz | HOU
- Pat Freiermuth | PIT
- Colby Parkinson | LAR
- Terrance Ferguson | LAR
- Cade Otton | TB
