Oronde Gadsden is entering his second season with the Los Angeles Chargers. His draft price has moved considerably since the spring. The tight end room around him looks nothing like it did in January. Should fantasy managers be drafting Gadsden in 2026?
Should You Draft Oronde Gadsden in Fantasy Football?
Gadsden’s ADP sits at 181.4 in PFN’s Free Fantasy Mock Draft Simulator. He checks in as our TE25 with a projection of 7.69 fantasy points per game, and I must admit that projection feels quite high.
Start with what Gadsden did last year. As a rookie, there’s no denying that 664 receiving yards for any tight end is pretty impressive, let alone a 5th-round rookie. However, it was buoyed purely by a four-week stretch of elite production. From Weeks 6 through 9, Gadsden posted 11.8, 29.4, 18.7, and 11.8 fantasy points. Over that span, he had a 164-yard receiving game. He also had 68, 77, and 68. That’s a lot of receiving yards over a short stretch. Other than that, he hit double digits just twice the rest of the season, and he had several games with sub-5 fantasy points. It feels like that was a moment in time, a flash in the pan, and Gadsden isn’t really that good, which is what you should expect from a 5th-round tight end.
Generally, I don’t like to bet on historical outliers. It’s not my thing. Fifth-round tight ends have a really poor history in the NFL and fantasy football. Since 2000, there have been 11 seasons of a 5th-round tight end posting 10-plus fantasy points per game. Eight of them were George Kittle. If Gadsden is the next Kittle, then I’ll tip my cap and eat it, and I was wrong. That means there were 3 tight ends who weren’t Kittle and hit 10-plus fantasy points per game in a season, and that is purely tight end streaming numbers. I don’t see that happening at all for Gadsden this year.
I really don’t think there’s a particularly special player here. Everything we’ve seen from the Chargers this offseason, this summer, and this August, most importantly, tells us that Gadsden is not part of the offense. They brought in Charlie Kolar. They signed David Njoku. Why would they do those two things if they were that confident in Gadsden?
Most importantly, when we’ve seen the Chargers play starters, it’s not Gadsden. When the starters, Justin Herbert and crew, come out, Gadsden stays in the game. He’s played in the preseason deep into games far more than Kolar and Njoku, who have not at all.
It’s pretty clear to me that Gadsden is the TE3 on the Chargers. You are not drafting the TE3 on any team. You’re not really drafting the TE2 on any team. There is absolutely no fantasy value here. Gadsden should be off your draft board entirely.
FANTASY RANKINGS: PFN’s FREE Fantasy PPR, Half-PPR, and Non-PPR Rankings
Oronde Gadsden’s Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
Analysis provided by PFN Analyst Kyle Soppe.
This is where you run into issues.
The Chargers opened their preseason with Gadsden seemingly buried a bit on this depth chart, and we don’t have time in our lives for committees at this position.
Gadsden had his moments last season, and the raw athleticism is certainly interesting. The Cards allowed the second-most completions to tight ends a season ago (107, only the Bengals coughed up more), and I do think that weakness is real; I’m just not sold that it is actionable this week with us not overly confident in the snap distribution at the position in this offense.
I’m going to need multiple weeks until I consider getting Gadsden to even sniff fantasy rosters. A big game to open the season would be nice, but if he’s splitting reps, that’ll drive my thoughts moving forward far more than any shiny counting numbers that occur this weekend against a defense that is vulnerable to this specific position.
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Where Gadsden Ranks Among 2026 Tight Ends
- Dalton Schultz | HOU
- AJ Barner | SEA
- Greg Dulcich | MIA
- Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
- Terrance Ferguson | LAR
- Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
- T.J. Hockenson | MIN
- Pat Freiermuth | PIT
- Gunnar Helm | TEN
- Evan Engram | DEN
- Cade Otton | TB
More rankings can be found in PFN's PPR Tight End Rankings.
