From time immemorial, young tight ends have been dismissed along the fantasy landscape. But now, that mindset has all but disappeared. Rookie tight ends have dominated the positional attention span in the past several years. From Kyle Pitts’ 1000-yard season to Sam LaPorta’s overall excellence to Brock Bowers’ historic domination to Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland, and Harold Fannin all showing they had the goods to be included in the discussion of the elites for the next decade.
Last season, Tucker Kraft (before he got hurt) demonstrated that non-rookies can have breakouts, too. All the way back in 2019 P.C. (pre-COVID), Darren Waller had the OG fourth-year breakout, going from a career line of 18/178/2 to a season line of 90/1145/3. Could there be a similar breakout brewing in our nation’s capital of Landover, Maryland? Let me reintroduce you to Chig Okonkwo!
Chig Okonkwo Might Finally Break Out in Fantasy Football
2025 Review
The Commanders’ regression to the mean was so predictable that it should be used as shorthand for the term going forward. That Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin played only three games together only exacerbated the inevitable.
Daniels struggled to replicate his rookie-season excellence and was limited to seven games by injuries of varying levels of gruesomeness. McLaurin also struggled with injuries, as well, and was limited to a career-worst season. It was the kind of season you flush, move on from, and make sure you hit on the high draft pick you earned.
2026 Brings A New Offense
The biggest change to the Commanders’ offense will be the addition of offensive coordinator David Blough. Kliff Kingsbury is gone. Whether Terry McLaurin is allowed to line up at a position other than wide left is TBD, but we do expect Jayden Daniels to play (significantly) more from under center. This will allow the offense to utilize such concepts as “play action” and “pre-snap motion”. I’m given to understand that these are good things. It will be an adjustment for Daniels, but I’m confident he can execute the position like they did in yonder times.
Targets Vacated
The second-biggest change to the offense will be the addition of free-agent tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo. Incumbent tight end Zach Ertz is recovering from a torn ACL, suffered in Week 14. He’s also old enough to be elected President of the United States of America. Considering he was the Commanders’ second leading receiver last season, and the leading receiver, Deebo Samuel, is no longer with the team, there are going to be targets available in this offense.
Be sure to check our fantasy football preview of Chig Okonkwo and the 2026 Commanders!
The long-anticipated acquisition of Daniels’ college teammate Brandon Aiyuk has yet to materialize, and Aiyuk doesn’t seem particularly stable or interested in playing professional football. As of this writing, the Commanders have made no other additions to their receiving room, so it stands to reason they expect Okonkwo to absorb a significant number of the available pass targets in this offense. Surely, a healthy McLaurin will reclaim his position as the team’s alpha dog receiver, but as of now, Chig looks like the number two. This is a good place to expect fantasy production.
In the Commanders’ breakout 2024 season, rookie QB Daniels made a healthy Zach Ertz unexpectedly fantasy relevant. Ertz looked washed at age 34 coming off an injury-plagued 27-187-1 season in Arizona. Re-united with Kliff Kingsbury and rejuvenated playing with rookie sensation Daniels, Ertz surged to a 66-654-7 receiving line. Why not look to the athletically similar Okonkwo to try to add to those numbers? Here are their RAS Comps.
Okonkwo is smaller than Ertz, but he tested athletically like a wide receiver. Hmm, which tight end who broke out in their fourth season was drafted as a wide receiver and converted to tight end? Oh, right, the aforementioned Darren Waller.
2026 Fantasy Football Outlook
Okonkwo’s fourth season could not be called a breakout by even the most charitable definition. Along with the entire Titans offense, the first dozen or so weeks of the season were a slog. But starting in Week 15, something changed. Six targets in San Francisco, eight the next week against Kansas City, then seven against New Orleans. Okonkwo turned those 21 targets into a 13/132/2 line. (It’s probably not mathematically significant that his yardage totals in those three games were ascending multiples of 11, but I’m not a numerologist, so feel free to draw your own conclusion.)
Three games do not a breakout make, but if the way he finished last season is predictive of what’s to come, given his new situation, we may be looking at this season’s breakout tight end. At least one of them. The way teams were plucking tight ends like drunken sailors from the draft, the era of the tight end may be upon us.
Looking for your favorite team? This link will take you to the rest of our 2026 Look Inside team previews.
A Look Inside the Washington Commanders
Editor’s Note: While this article focused on Chigoziem Okonkwo in fantasy football, we don’t want to leave you hanging on the rest of the team. Here is a quick look at the other fantasy-relevant Commanders.
This is a binary outcome season for him. Either he stays healthy and regains his rookie form, or he struggles to stay healthy again and becomes the Keenan Allen of quarterbacks (unfairly dismissed as injury-prone)
Scored eight touchdowns as a seventh-round rookie, but still couldn’t shake Chris Rodriguez for control of the Commanders’ backfield. Or Jeremy McNichols.
Kaytron Allen
The sixth-round rookie is trying to displace the seventh-round sophomore running back.
An underrated runner and perfectly cromulent pass-down back. That may be RB1 on this team.
He’ll turn 31 during the season, but if healthy, there’s no reason he can’t duplicate his transcendent 2024 season.
Third-round rookie slot receiver. Deebo Samuel ran 54.5% of his routes from the slot, so there’s an opportunity here if he’s up to it.
QB turned WR turned punt returner with a famous name.
I’ve been telling whoever would listen that he was an H-Back since the 2024 pre-draft process. A career receiving line of 16/142/2 suggests that the assessment was accurate.
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You can also see where Chig Okonkwo and the rest of the Commanders fall in our 2026 Fantasy Rankings here!