De’Zhaun Stribling leads off round twoAs they tend to do, the 49ers went off the board with their Day Two skill position picks, the first of whom was Ole Miss’s De'Zhaun Stribling at No. 33 overall. The former Rebel bounced around a few schools with modest production before landing at Ole Miss for his fifth season of college ball. Stribling led his team with 811 yards and six scores. He wasn't particularly efficient, averaging a measly 2.15 yards per route, bringing his career mark to 1.69. Stribling got more love from the film-watchers, with his crisp intermediate routes leading many to believe he would work well in a Kyle Shanahan offense. I, however, am skeptical that Shanny even knows what he wants in skill position players.
Every skill position the 49ers have drafted on Day 2 in the Shanahan era WR De'Zhaun Stribling TE Cameron Latu RB Tyrion-Davis-Price WR Danny Gray RB Trey Sermon WR Deebo Samuel WR Jalen Hurd WR Dante Pettis
Strilbing has more than impressive physical traits. He ran a 4.36 40 at 6’2/207, and that speed shows up on tape. Still, his weak production profile and Shanahan’s mercurial relationship with the players he hand-selects in the draft have me taking a cautious approach with Strilbing in my upcoming rookie rankings.
The Browns made a great pick in Round 1 with Texas A&M wideout KC Concepcion. He is a dynamic wideout who can win at any level, even if his money is made on short and intermediate throws. They made a complete 180 at pick 39, going for Washington’s No. 1 boundary wideout in Denzel Boston. Boston was one of eight receivers in the country last year to catch over 70 percent of their contested targets (min. 10 opportunities). He is more than capable of earning separation, though. Only 13.7 percent of his targets were contested. Between Boston, Concepcion, Harold Fannin Jr., and Quinshon Judkins, the Browns could have a top-flight skill position corps this year. We may never know, given how bad the quarterback play is expected to be. That will make Concepcion and Boston tough bets from a fantasy perspective, but Browns fans should be happy with this haul.
Bernard is a Steeler to his core. He’s not overly impressive at any one thing. He averaged a solid 6.4 YAC for his career with an aDOT of 10.5. Bernard logged over 500 career routes from both out wide and in the slot. He’s a rugged wideout with 36 career carries and a mean streak as a run blocker. All of that being said, a career mark of 1.9 yards per route is below-average and he never earned a College Dominator (combined yardage and touchdown shares) over 23 percent. Bernard has some Robert Woods in his game and NFL teams are going to love that until the day he retires. For now, he looks like a distant WR3 on a Steelers team that may or may not have Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback.
Vanderbilt’s No. 1 pass-catcher was billed as somewhat of a WR/TE hybrid after his impressive 2025 season. He posted a 62-769-4 receiving line but did so at just 6’4/239. He wasn’t asked to do much of the dirty work as a blocker didn't look the part when he did have to put his hand in the ground. With a career YPRR of 2.34 and a final-season mark of 2.55, Stowers was always going to be a favorite of the spreadsheet nerds. There was, however, a real risk that the NFL viewed him as a positionless tweener. That is at least untrue for one franchise: the Philadelphia Eagles. Philly used the No. 54 pick on him a day after trading up for USC receiver Makai Lemon. The Eagles have also not been shy about moving Dallas Goedert — a 2027 free agent — around the formation either. He ran 49 percent of his routes from the slot and 14 percent from out wide in 2025. Stowers had a 66 percent slot rate and an eight percent wide rate in 2025. He will undoubtedly need to get more comfortable as an inline tight end, but there is a path for him to be drafted as a breakout TE1 bet next year if he flashes as a rookie.
As was the case with our Day One Draft Recap, this article is largely focused on the fantasy fallout of the picks. There were plenty of blocking tight ends taken in the second and third rounds. Not all of them need a lengthy write-up, but I’ll give them all some love here.
Boerkircher played five years of college football and never hit 200 yards in a season. He averaged under one yard per route for his career. There’s almost no receiving profile here, but PFF graded him as their No. 22 run-blocking tight end in 2025. Despite having an offensive guru head coach, the Jags couldn’t get anything going outside of 11-personnel.
This graphic comes from Ray Carpenter’s site, loaded with cool dataviz tools.
Adding a physical TE2 could help them solve this issue.
This is another blocking pick… for now. Klein grew up in Germany for and didn’t pick up football until later in his youth, as far as future professional football players go. He spent most of his time at Michigan as a backup and the team didn’t throw much even when he was on the field. Klein ran an impressive 4.61 40 and earned a 9.05 RAS, giving him the athletic profile of a productive tight end. It will likely take multiple years for him to hone his skills as a pass-catcher, but he could be something down the road.
Roush could have been an interesting fantasy bet on another team, but he isn’t usurping Colston Loveland anytime soon. Roush is a true Y tight end who posted a solid 49-545-2 receiving line as a senior. Rush is a good blocker and logged an elite 9.94 RAS at the NFL Combine. The bad news is that he is likely the Cole Kmet replacement plan for Ben Johnson’s offense. Kmet’s role as the versatile TE2 could be vacated if Chicago cuts him for cap purposes next year, but it’s not a job we should expect to produce a fantasy-relevant player.
Delp is a film-watcher's dream tight end. He’s a tenacious blocker whose highlight reel features loads of YAC. He went for 509 yards over the past two years and 309 of them came after the catch. Delp then crushed the Underwear Olympics with a 4.49 40 and a 9.82 RAS.
Oscar Delp is a TE prospect in the 2026 draft class. He scored a 9.82 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 26 out of 1388 TE from 1987 to 2026.https://t.co/BSHyixQrAs pic.twitter.com/WSdtfCbba2
The spreadsheets tell a different story. Delp averaged a pitiful 1.23 career YPRR and clocked a final season College Dominator of eight percent. A player with this little production turning into a TE1 fantasy option would be extremely rare. With Juwan Johnson occupying a receiver-first tight end role for the Saints, Delp’s path to playing time in 2026 will be as a blocking No. 2 tight end.
Kacmarek was a backup to Max Klare in his final season, serving almost exclusively as a blocking tight end. He caught just 15 passes and only reeled in eight the previous year. Pro Football Focus graded him as a solid blocker in both run and pass pro, but that’s all we’re getting from him in the NFL.
Moving on to a slightly more interesting tight end, the Rams just keep adding them. They signed Colby Parkinson two years ago and brought Tyler Higbee back in free agency this offseason. LA drafted Terrance Ferguson out of Oregon last year and even has Davis Allen as a nice depth piece. Sean McVay, of course, reinvented his offense around multi-TE sets in 2025, meaning he needs a stable of players who can fill the various facets of that role. He kept adding this year with Ohio State’s Max Klare. Klare dominated Purdue’s offense in 2024, operating as a de facto WR1. He then transferred to OSU where Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith comfortably outshone him. Klare put on some weight and got extra reps as a blocker with the Buckeyes, rounding out his skill set ahead of the draft, even if his counting stats (43-448-2) were hurt by the move. He should be the favorite to take over Parkinson’s role as the top snap-earner on LA’s roster in 2027 when the latter hits free agency. For now, fantasy managers will have to wait.
The Cardinals were comfortable favorites to land Ty Simpson heading into Round One, but the Rams blew that plan up with the 13th pick. Instead, Arizona pivoted to Miami’s Carson Beck with the first pick of the third round. The Cardinals have Jacoby Brissett penciled in as their Week 1 starter, but he went 1-11 in that role last year. He may have the approval of first-year head coach Matt LaFleur right now, but will that hold up when the team is 2-9 coming out of the bye? I doubt it. Beck has NFL size at 6’5/233 and is coming off a run to the National Title game. He looks the part of a pro passer, but neither the data nor the film are buying it. His efficiency was middling in 2025 and scouts aren’t awfully impressed by his arm or his decision-making. Beck will make some starts this year, and that has some value in Superflex leagues. Beyond that, this is simply a flyer for the Cardinals as they bide their time until the 2027 draft.
Washington needed a layup target for Jayden Daniels. They passed on receiver in the first round and circled back at pick No. 71. Williams was a solid producer at Clemson who did most of his damage out of the slot. He ran 93 percent of his routes from the slot in 2025 and went for 604 yards in 10 games, missing a handful of contests due to injury. Williams also excelled on manufactured touches, scoring a rushing touchdown in each of his final two games with a pair of passing scores to boot. Williams’ YAC production was just average at 5.3 per catch and he stalled out at a 26 percent College Dominator as a junior. This is a high-floor pick for a team that needs more easy-button looks on offense, but I don’t know if Williams has much of a ceiling for fantasy purposes.
New York lost Wan’Dale Robinson in free agency and has Malik Nabers recovering from a torn ACL. Receiver wasn’t their top need heading into the draft, but it was on the list. At 6’5/218, Fields has true alpha size. He ran nearly 90 percent of his routes from the boundary at Notre Dame and Virginia while bringing in just shy of half of his contested targets. Fields is also a willing blocker in the run game. He wasn’t particularly efficient in college, averaging 1.94 YPRR for his career, though that did rise to 2.0 in 2024 and 2.2 in 2025. A 4.61 40-yard dash means he doesn’t have the speed to separate from NFL defenders, but he could operate as a full-time X receiver, freeing Nabers up to move around the formation more often.