RELATED: See 4 ADP Steals at TE
In fantasy football, tight ends can be extremely volatile week to week. Very few tight ends have a high weekly floor and ceiling in fantasy, as they require high target volume as a top target for their respective teams. Beyond that, tight ends are extremely reliant upon touchdown production. With that in mind, who are some best ball traps to avoid at the tight end position who may not meet those criteria in 2026?
Colston Loveland (Underdog ADP: TE3, 46.5 overall)
As a Bears supporter, I'm thrilled with what we saw from Colston Loveland as a rookie. Many questioned the Bears' decision to draft him over Tyler Warren last year, but team management cited Loveland's fit in Ben Johnson's scheme, and we saw that vision come to fruition in the postseason. Loveland was the primary engine of the offense in the Bears' two playoff games, especially with a 137-yard effort in the comeback win against the Packers.
But, as I recently delved into why Luther Burden III may be among the best ball traps at wide receiver this year, Loveland could also be a trap for the same reason: we haven't seen what Chicago's offense will look like with a healthy Rome Odunze. Even with DJ Moore now in Buffalo, can Loveland sustain double-digit targets per week, as we saw toward the end of last season?
While Odunze returned in the playoffs, he didn't look 100 percent. And though he didn't technically miss time until Week 14, the first report of Odunze's injury, initially classified as a heel injury, was in practice leading up to Week 9. While unconfirmed, there's reason to believe that Odunze's stress fracture was already affecting him in Weeks 9 to 13 before getting shut down. Coincidentally, Loveland's first big performance came in Week 9, in a 47-42 shootout win over Cincinnati, where Odunze suspiciously had no catches on just 3 targets...
Prior to Odunze's first mention on the injury report last season, Loveland averaged just 1.8 receptions for 19 yards on 3.0 targets per game. Then, from Week 9 through the postseason with an ailing Odunze, Loveland averaged an incredible 4.9 receptions for 66 yards on 7.4 targets per game. And from Weeks 14 to 18, when Odunze was officially inactive, Loveland's per-game averages spiked to 5.8 receptions for 70 yards on 8.3 targets per game!
Now, of course, the Bears can't stuff the genie back into the bottle. Loveland should play a major role after Chicago saw how critical his contributions were late last year. Still, there was also a clear correlation between Loveland's target volume with and without Odunze on the field in 2025. It's also worth mentioning that even as a priority target in those games without Odunze, Loveland still scored just 0.5 touchdowns per game and was the TE7 in 0.5 PPR points per game (PPG). Those are both somewhat concerning metrics if that's the ceiling outcome we're chasing.
I've made my stance clear on Odunze as a potential league winner, as I project him to be the No. 1 target in Chicago now healthy heading into 2026. Loveland has a tremendous fantasy ceiling, and I actually have no issue with his positional ADP as the TE3. That said, he's being drafted close to his ceiling at his current overall ADP in the late fourth round. At 46.5 overall, names like Lamar Jackson, Davante Adams, and Loveland's teammate, Odunze, are available. As we've seen, Loveland has elite fantasy potential, but it may not be quite as high as his ADP suggests, assuming Odunze is healthy for all of 2026.
