Dalton Schultz Fantasy 2026: Is the Texans TE a Value at His TE18 Price?

Dalton Schultz does one thing that fantasy managers chronically underpay for at tight end: he catches a lot of passes every single week. In 2025 he drew 106 targets and turned them into 82 receptions for 777 yards across a full 17-game season, and he did it as the clear every-down tight end in Houston at a 71% snap share. For 2026 he is going off boards at a TE18 price, which is the last tier where you draft a starter and hope. The gap between a 106-target tight end and a back-end-TE1 cost is the reason to look.

The case starts with role security. Schultz is not splitting his job. Behind him, Cade Stover drew just 16 targets in nine games and Foster Moreau, who arrived from New Orleans, is a 10-target depth piece. There is no ascending young tight end waiting to take snaps, no committee to worry about. What Schultz caught last year is a fair baseline for what the role can produce again.

The reception volume is the whole bull case

Eighty-two catches is genuine TE1 volume. Only a handful of tight ends clear it, and most of them cost a top-six-at-the-position pick. Schultz gets there on a full season of steady work rather than a few touchdown-fueled spikes, which is exactly the profile that travels well in PPR. If you wait on the position and want a floor instead of a lottery ticket, a target count in the triple digits at a late price is the efficient way to buy it.

But three touchdowns and a short aDOT cap the ceiling

Here is what the price is pointing at. Schultz scored just three touchdowns on those 106 targets, and his 6.2-yard average depth of target is a short-area, move-the-chains profile rather than a downfield one. He caught 82 balls for only 777 yards, which is a modest 9.5 yards per catch. That is a real floor, but it is a low ceiling: without more red-zone luck, a possession tight end who lives underneath is a steady TE1-or-so, not a league-winner. His graded weekly record backs this up, with the start-week calls hitting far less often than the sit-week calls.

The Texans passing game shapes his share

Schultz's target volume also came inside a specific context. C.J. Stroud missed time and threw to a moderate 8.1-yard average depth in 2025, and the Houston receiver room spent stretches banged up. Nico Collins is the clear alpha when healthy, carrying a team-leading 33.3% air-yards share on 120 targets. When Collins and the rest of the wideout room are on the field, more of the passing pie flows to them and Schultz's share can thin from where it sat in 2025. The bull needs Stroud healthy enough to sustain volume; the bear is a fuller receiver room pulling looks away from the middle of the field.

Where TE18 lands

At a TE18 price the math is friendly. The bull case is that a locked-in, no-competition every-down tight end who just caught 82 passes is a stable weekly starter you can draft late and forget. The bear case is that a three-touchdown, short-aDOT profile has a hard ceiling, and a healthier Houston receiver room can trim his share. You are buying floor, not upside, and paying a floor price for it.