Chig Okonkwo arrives in Washington after four seasons of waiting for a breakout that never came. Now, the Stefon Diggs signing has pushed him down the pecking order before he has played a snap. With his draft price falling further than expected, should fantasy managers be drafting Okonkwo in 2026?
Should I Draft Chig Okonkwo in Fantasy Football?
Evidently, Okonkwo’s ADP took a much larger hit following the Diggs signing than I anticipated.
Of course, going from the presumptive second option in the passing game to definitively third is not a good thing. Nobody should pretend otherwise. But he remains the unquestioned TE1 in that building with no real threat to his role, and he should set career highs in both snap share and route participation rate this season.
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The genuine concern with Okonkwo is that he is all projection. He has been in the league four years and never averaged more than 7.3 fantasy points per game. His career-best target share was 16.2% back in 2023. He managed just 1.47 yards per route run last season.
That last number is mostly a player stat, though there is a team element to it as well. Cam Ward struggled mightily as a rookie and Tennessee was not a particularly proficient offense. What did we really expect Okonkwo to do in that environment?
So why might things be different now? Jayden Daniels. David Blough. A Washington offense that is only a year removed from being good enough to reach the NFC Championship Game. That is a dramatic upgrade in circumstance for a player who has never had one.
Every season, there are a bunch of tight ends capable of streamer-level production. Maybe that is all Okonkwo ends up being. Maybe he is not even that good, and four years of evidence is exactly what it appears to be.
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Here is why I am still interested. I think Okonkwo has a better chance of reaching 12-plus PPG than most of the players going around him. He also has a better chance of being completely useless. That is precisely the shape of outcome I want this late at the position.
Okonkwo is my TE18 against a TE21 ADP. If I completely punt tight end, he is a name I would consider. Worst case, you drop him after Week 2 and find 10 PPG on the waiver wire like everyone else does.
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
