Tight End Prospects for 2026 NFL Draft Complete Position Rankings is supposed to be clean work. Watch the tape. Stack the traits. Circle the numbers. Pretend the position still lives in the same old job description.
Then you remember what happened in Austin.
Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers kept bending Texas down the seam, again and again, until the middle of the field looked like a place the defense had simply stopped patrolling. It was not a cute little safety valve afternoon. It was a tight end dictating terms, forcing safeties to widen, forcing linebackers to chase, forcing the whole structure to admit what the modern NFL already knows.
If you do not have one of these guys, you build your offense with one hand tied up. If you do have one, you can cheat the math. You can live in personnel groupings that look predictable and still create a problem on every third down.
That is why this class matters. Not because “tight ends decide Sundays,” but because the best ones change how defenses call a game, and how coordinators sleep the night before it.
Why the position value keeps climbing
Ask a defensive coordinator what actually scares him and you will get an honest answer if you catch him at the right moment. Not the deep ball. Not the gadget motion. The tight end who can line up attached, then detach, then run a route that forces a safety to choose between embarrassment and a touchdown.
NFL defenses have spent years building lighter boxes and faster second levels to survive spread formations. Offenses responded by finding the one body type that makes all of that speed feel pointless. A tight end who moves like a big receiver but plays with enough edge to keep the run game honest is the skeleton key.
The NFL scouting combine measurements matter here, but only as a starting point. The better question is simpler: can he win the same route twice when the defense knows it is coming. Can he take a real block, reset his feet, and still catch through contact. Can he turn a five yard throw into a first down without needing the quarterback to be perfect.
This is also a transfer portal era class, which changes the evaluation. More of these players have lived in multiple systems, played with multiple quarterbacks, and had to re earn their targets. That can be noise. It can also be a clue that they already understand the professional part of the job.
And unlike some positions where production can be inflated, tight end tells the truth eventually. If a coaching staff trusts you to run option routes on money downs, it means something. If a quarterback keeps coming back to you in the red zone, it means even more.
What scouts are really buying in this class
Do not just watch the highlights. The highlight reel will give you the circus catches and the clean seams. The evaluation happens in the in between snaps.
First, separation that holds up under stress. Not wide receiver separation. Tight end separation. Getting open when a linebacker sits on the inside, when a safety shades over the top, when the defense shows its hand and still cannot erase you.
Second, functional violence. You do not need to be a sixth offensive lineman, but you cannot be a decoration. The best prospects in this group at least fight in the run game, and some of them can actually move people.
Third, alignment flexibility. In the NFL, your tight end earns his money by letting you disguise intent. Attached, slot, wide, motion, backfield. If he can do more than one thing, you force the defense to declare early.
With that in mind, here is the countdown. The order is projection first, not just raw box score. Production still matters. So does what it looks like, and what it will become.
The 2026 tight end rankings
10. Oscar Delp, Georgia
Delp’s season did not scream at you every week, but Georgia tight ends rarely need to. They just keep showing up at the exact moment the defense forgets they exist. Against Mississippi State, Georgia hit him for a score in the middle of a drive that felt like the offense finally tightening the screws.
The numbers land in a tidy line: 19 catches, 245 yards, 1 touchdown. That is not dominant volume. It is functional. It is a reminder that he can play within a crowded room and still find daylight.
The legacy piece is not “Georgia itself” as a slogan. It is the reality that Georgia has turned tight end into a factory position. If you have taken live reps in that environment, you have already lived inside the kind of weekly pressure that breaks a lot of prospects.
9. Jack Endries, Texas
Endries arrived with portal hype, and Texas used him early like a new toy. In the opener against San Jose State, he caught two touchdowns, including a chunk play that showed what his game can be when the quarterback trusts the window.
His 2025 totals at Texas settled at 28 catches, 311 yards, 2 touchdowns. That dip from the loudest expectations is part of his story now. So is how he handled it, because the league loves a player who can survive a season where the offense does not revolve around him.
The cultural note here is Texas tight ends living in the shadow of quarterback gravity. When the room is full of big name targets, a tight end who still wins in the red zone and still blocks with intent becomes the adult in the formation.
8. Joe Royer, Cincinnati
Royer looks like what NFL coaches still want on their roster even as the position evolves. He is not trying to be a slot receiver in a tight end body. He plays like a tight end who understands leverage.
He finished 2025 with 29 catches, 416 yards, 4 touchdowns. The yards per catch number tells the real story. When Cincinnati pushed the ball, Royer did not just catch and fall. He threatened seams and crossers, the routes that make linebackers turn and panic.
The legacy note is local and practical. Cincinnati has built an identity on development and toughness. Royer reads like a player who will not melt when the NFL turns the game into weekly survival.
7. Justin Joly, NC State
Joly’s season is the kind tight end coaches love because it answers the red zone question. Who do you trust when the field shrinks and the defense stops pretending.
He posted 47 catches, 468 yards, 7 touchdowns in 2025, and that touchdown total is not a fluke. It is usage. It is a quarterback looking at a coverage and deciding, “I can live with that matchup.”
The cultural thread is the steady ACC tight end who keeps becoming more relevant as defenses chase speed. Joly feels like the prospect who earns snaps early because he does the boring work and still gives you points.
6. Terrance Carter Jr, Texas Tech
Carter is the name that forces you to do the homework, which is exactly why he matters. He has been a real piece in a real offense, and his production shows it.
His 2025 line: 46 catches, 552 yards, 5 touchdowns. That is not “nice for a tight end.” That is a featured receiving option, especially in an environment where defenses came in expecting Texas Tech to live on wide receiver spacing.
His signature moment is the kind that wakes scouts up: a ten catch game against West Virginia that looked less like a tight end stat line and more like a receiver’s workload.
The legacy angle here is Texas Tech quietly changing what “Air Raid” means. When a program with that history starts feeding a tight end like this, it is usually because the player can win in space, not just sit down in zones.
5. Tanner Koziol, Houston
Koziol is a walking reminder that transfer portal movement can produce real stars, not just one year rentals. Houston leaned on him like a No. 1 target.
He finished 2025 with 65 catches, 651 yards, 5 touchdowns, and those numbers came with the kind of consistency NFL staffs crave: receptions almost every week, yards without needing gimmicks, and enough contested work to show he is not just freelancing uncovered.
There is a specific game that captures the vibe: Houston fed him for seven catches and 100 yards against Arizona State, the sort of day that makes a defense feel like it is defending a power forward.
The cultural note is about value. A tight end who can carry that many targets becomes the cheap solution to problems other teams try to buy with expensive wide receivers.
4. Michael Trigg, Baylor
Trigg’s evaluation starts with the moment that made everyone sit up. Against Kansas State, he went eight for 155 and turned routine throws into chunk plays, including a one handed sideline catch that looked like it belonged in a draft montage.
Then you zoom out and see the season: 50 catches, 694 yards, 6 touchdowns, plus All America honors and national tight end award finalist treatment. That is not projection. That is dominance inside his ecosystem.
The legacy note is Baylor finally having a tight end season that reads like modern football. Not a helper. Not a decoy. A focal point. When a player rewrites a program’s tight end record book, it becomes part of how scouts talk about him in rooms.
3. Max Klare, Ohio State
Klare’s story is not complicated, but it is revealing. He was Purdue’s best receiving option, then walked into Ohio State’s galaxy of talent and still carved out a real role.
His 2025 totals with the Buckeyes: 43 catches, 448 yards, 2 touchdowns. The touchdowns do not pop. The usage does. The league loves tight ends who can survive in an offense where targets are not guaranteed.
The game that explains him is Rutgers, where he went for seven catches and 105 yards in a performance that felt like a quarterback leaning on the most reliable outlet in the room.
The cultural legacy note is the transfer portal becoming the new tight end pipeline. Klare is the example NFL people point to when they talk about immediate adaptation, about a prospect who understands spacing, timing, and trust.
2. Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt
Stowers is the easy answer if you are hunting production and legitimacy in the same frame. He won the John Mackey Award for a reason. The tape matches the resume.
He finished 2025 at 62 catches, 769 yards, 4 touchdowns. Those are wide receiver numbers in a tight end body, and they came without needing a stacked supporting cast to hide him.
The defining snapshot is still Texas. Seven catches, 146 yards, two touchdowns, and the kind of presence that makes a crowd go quiet because it is not supposed to look that simple.
The legacy note is Vanderbilt, yes, but not as a punchline. It is Vanderbilt putting a tight end on the national stage in a way that forces NFL people to talk about him without qualifiers. That matters. It changes how a program is perceived. It changes how a player carries himself into the Senior Bowl rooms.
1. Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon
Sadiq is the prospect who makes evaluators start talking with their hands. He does not just get open. He changes angles. He turns defensive rules into guesses.
His 2025 stat line is exactly what you want from the top of the board: 40 catches, 490 yards, 8 touchdowns. The touchdown number jumps because it reflects role, not luck. Oregon treated him like a weapon near the goal line, and he repaid it.
If you want the single game flash, it is USC. Six catches, 72 yards, two touchdowns. Nothing fancy in the description, and that is the point. He won routes, won space, and won leverage. The defense had answers on the call sheet. He made them feel like lies.
The cultural note is Oregon’s offense continuing to evolve into an NFL prototype factory. The tight end in that system is not a side character. He is part of the stress package. Sadiq looks like the player who will show up at the NFL scouting combine, test well enough, then make teams argue late into the night about how high a tight end can go when he creates problems like a receiver and still blocks like he cares.
What this class becomes once the NFL touches it
Rankings feel neat until you remember what the draft actually is. It is not a reward ceremony for college production. It is a bet on how a player will survive in a league where every defender runs, every coordinator has a plan, and every weakness gets hunted in public.
This tight end group gives teams different answers. Kenyon Sadiq gives you the explosive ceiling. Eli Stowers gives you a proven weekly engine who already handled being the center of attention. Max Klare gives you the pro ready adaptability that often separates tight ends who play early from tight ends who take three years.
Then you have the depth that changes a draft weekend. Michael Trigg looks like a featured piece who can bend a game script, and Tanner Koziol brings real target volume credibility. Terrance Carter Jr and Justin Joly offer red zone and chain moving value that keeps coordinators from getting stuck on third down. Even the lower end of this list includes players with a clear entry point role.
The temptation is to force one clean label on the whole group. “Strong class.” “Weak class.” “Two stars and the rest.” That is not how this one reads.
This is a class of different kinds of problems. And when tight end prospects for 2026 NFL Draft Complete Position Rankings stop being words on a screen and start being matchups on Sundays, the real question is not who lands first.
It is which defensive coordinator ends up building his weekly plan around stopping a tight end, and still cannot.
Read more: https://sportsorca.com/nhl/nfl-teams-2026-playoffs-surprise-ranking/
FAQs
- Who is the No. 1 tight end prospect in these 2026 rankings?
Kenyon Sadiq sits at No. 1. He scored often and won leverage in the red zone. - Why is Eli Stowers ranked so high for the 2026 NFL Draft?
He paired production with legitimacy. He also won the John Mackey Award. - What are scouts looking for most in this tight end class?
They want separation under stress, real effort as a blocker, and alignment flexibility. - How many players are ranked in this tight end prospects list?
This article ranks 10 tight end prospects, counting down from 10 to 1. - Why does the transfer portal matter for tight end scouting now?
Players learn new systems fast. That can signal they will handle the professional side sooner.
I’m a sports and pop culture junkie who loves the buzz of a big match and the comfort of a great story on screen. When I’m not chasing highlights and hot takes, I’m planning the next trip, hunting for underrated films or debating the best clutch moments with anyone who will listen.
