Story by
Dalton Schultz Fantasy Prediction 2026: Only a Streamer Unless Houston Throws
- Story by
- Dalton Schultz Fantasy Prediction 2026: Only a Streamer Unless Houston Throws
Dalton Schultz Fantasy Prediction 2026:
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 You Draft Dalton Schultz in Fantasy Football?
We'll start with Schultz's ADP, which sits at 195.4 in PFN's Free Fantasy Mock Draft Simulator . We have him as our TE20 in our consensus ranks, which are a combination of me and my colleague Kyle Soppe. That projects him at around 8.32 fantasy points per game.
Advertisement
Schultz has been more useful than he gets credit for throughout his entire career. Since his breakout in 2020, he's averaged at least 9.2 fantasy points per game in all but one season, which was a down 2024. Nine to 10 fantasy points per game is not moving the needle. It's not really a difference maker. But he's a streamable, backend tight end. He's a guy you can plug in who won't get you zero.
Schultz's usage throughout his career has been pretty consistent. He's averaged between 9.5 and 10.8 yards per reception every year of his career since that aforementioned 2020 breakout. He's consistently around 600 to 700 receiving yards. You know what you're getting from Schultz, and it's probably not a lot of touchdowns: 3 last year, 2 the year before. He had 5 and 5 before that, of course, in better offenses. That's what Schultz is.
Last season, Schultz earned a 19.2% target share, just 10th in the league. He was targeted on just 21.3% of his routes run, though, which is 17th in the league. That's not great, but usable, and certainly better than what his rank suggests. He only averaged 1.56 yards per route run. But we're talking about a guy who we have ranked at TE20. That was 19th in that stat. That's right around where he should be.
Schultz is not going to blow anybody away. He's just a guy. But if you look at the state of the Texans offense, he could find himself in a situation where they need him once again. Nico Collins is locked in as the number one target in that passing attack. We just saw Jayden Higgins tear his ACL. He's done for the season. It's pretty clear the team doesn't necessarily trust Jaylin Noel. That's why they traded for Kayshon Boutte.
Then there's Xavier Hutchinson. I don't know why this guy is even on the field. I guess maybe because he blocks pretty well, but he's not a real receiver. He should not be getting more than 1 to 2 targets a game at most. Then, of course, we have Tank Dell, who we're all rooting for, but by all accounts there's a real chance this guy's career just may be over. He suffered a knee injury almost two years ago, and reportedly he is not ready to play in Week 1.
Advertisement
That means we could be looking at Schultz entering Week 1 as the number two option in the Texans passing game. We want our tight ends to be at least the number two option in their passing games. We may get that with Schultz. We could see some nice early-season production from him.
If you punt the tight end position and you really wait, Schultz is a guy you can plug in. You only get 8 points, and you can live with that. Schultz is a fine late-round guy to throw a dart on. In standard-size leagues, you probably don't need to take him.
FANTASY RANKINGS: PFN's FREE Fantasy PPR, Half-PPR, and Non-PPR Rankings
Dalton Schultz's Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
Analysis provided by PFN Analyst Kyle Soppe .
Advertisement
If I have to pick a tight end named Dalton to start in this game, this is the one. Schultz had 7 TE1 finishes a season ago, but much like Kincaid, I don't really see the upside case.
In 2025, the majority of his targets (53.9%) came on the wrong side of the field, and while the career-high numbers in catches and targets were good to see, I'm not sold that the Texans view him as much more than a bandaid.
They drafted a pair of WRs last year and brought in David Montgomery this offseason: this is about building around Nico Collins and asking Schultz to simply keep the sticks moving when his number is called.
In the right spot, that role will hold PPR scam value. This isn't that with Buffalo finishing last season as a top-5 defense when opponents checked down in passer rating, completion percentage, and yards per attempt.
Advertisement
You could make a flimsy case to punt in this direction for a specific DFS build with the argument being that Houston is rarely going to be in a negative game script due to the nature of its defense and that Josh Allen is a QB that can flip that, but the best case isn't enticing enough for me to go this direction.
START PREPARING: PFN's FREE Fantasy Draft Simulator
Where Schultz Ranks Among 2026 Tight Ends
-
Travis Kelce | KC
-
Mark Andrews | BAL
-
Chig Okonkwo | WAS
-
Hunter Henry | NE
-
Brenton Strange | JAX
-
Dalton Schultz | HOU
-
AJ Barner | SEA
-
Greg Dulcich | MIA
-
Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
-
Terrance Ferguson | LAR
-
Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
Know the position inside and out with every TE, ranked, on PFN's 2026 PPR Board .
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
