The Case For Harold Fannin Jr. In 2026
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Conviction means possessing a firm, unwavering belief in something. In fantasy football, it is sometimes counterproductive to have a take so firmly held because of the ever-changing landscape of fantasy football and the real-life NFL as a whole. That is what makes this game so much fun: having an evolving sandbox of 17 (or 18 if you play in Week 18) different weeks in which to play this game within a game that we love.
Through the years, I have been fortunate in my career to nail some of my convictions on players like Robert Woods, Tee Higgins and Christian Watson. Of course, there have also been duds like Laviska Shenault Jr., Elijah Moore and Chase Claypool. While I love wide receivers, tight ends are starting to matter much more in fantasy, as the depth at the position for fantasy football increases by the season.
Gone are the days of just Travis Kelce and George Kittle at the top of the tight end rankings and good luck to everybody else scraping by at the position. Those days are in the dust as we have a youthful infusion of elite tight end production that has been tearing up the NFL with Brock Bowers and Trey McBride leading the charge, plus Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren ready to break into that elite tier. A name that is not talked about enough: Harold Fannin Jr.
Recapping Fannin's 2025 Rookie Season
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Fannin's 2025 started on a high note, with a team-leading nine targets against the Cincinnati Bengals. Even more importantly, he ran a route on almost 65% of drop-backs in his debut. That was alongside David Njoku (85% routes), so it showed clear intent for the Browns to get a talented player like Fannin on the field immediately.
Typically, with rookies, we see a slow burn of getting them on the field in specific situations and then ramping up their on-field involvement until they are full-time starters. That was not the case with Fannin, as he ran quite a few routes when Njoku was healthy. When Njoku missed time in Week 7, Fannin saw routes at an 87% clip. He also enjoyed a stretch from (Week 12 through Week 16) where he never dipped below 80% before succumbing to a groin injury in Week 17 that ended his season.
As the dust settled on 2025 and after completing some full-season accounting, Fannin finished as fantasy TE6 in overall fantasy points. A stat line of 72 receptions, 731 yards and six touchdowns will certainly do that; all fine numbers for any tight end, much less a rookie on a putrid Cleveland Browns team that was held back by their quarterbacking for most of the season.
The fact that Fannin earned heavy volume as a second tight end for much of the season really speaks to his talent in terms of catching the ball and earning targets. Fannin delivered his rookie season production after posting a 117-catch, 1,555-yard junior season at Bowling Green in 2024 before declaring for the NFL Draft, after all.
Fannin's 2025 season put him in some rare air among tight ends, as he led all NFL tight ends in targets per route run (TPRR) last season, drawing a target on one of almost every four routes he ran (23.9%). Among 818 individual tight end seasons since 2006 where a tight end ran at least 200 routes, Fannin's TPRR was in the 93rd percentile. He trailed only Trey McBride in first-read target rate as well, so plays were being drawn up with him in mind as the first target in the offense.
To perform that well with the quarterback he received is honestly incredible. Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel were the second- and third-worst quarterbacks in the NFL last season in adjusted EPA per play out of 45 qualifying quarterbacks with at least 150 snaps.
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What can Fannin do in 2026?
To stay with the quarterbacks, expecting quarterback improvement in 2026, even if it comes in-house in the form of *gulp* Deshaun Watson, is a tough sell. The bar is INCREDIBLY low here for whatever combination of Watson, Sanders, Gabriel, rookie Taylen Green or whoever else starts football games for Cleveland. Not being a bottom-three worst quarterback in the league represents at least SOME kind of upgrade.
The fact that Fannin was able to have the season he had with that putrid level of quarterback represents a borderline miracle, but what about the surroundings Fannin finds himself in in 2026?
Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman entered the summer as the top wide receivers for Cleveland (at least in theory), but for how long? The Browns drafted Texas A&M receiver KC Concepcion in the first round and Washington's Denzel Boston in the second round. Clearly, they are not happy with the production they received from their veteran wideouts. Jeudy only caught 53-of 103 targets last season with just a 17.4% TPRR and a yards per route run (YPRR) barely above 1.00, which is well below average for a wide receiver.
Also incredibly important: David Njoku is gone, as he signed with the Los Angeles Chargers. Fannin will have the tight end room to himself, which should be a boon for his counting stats and if he can keep his efficiency as a rookie intact, we will be looking at a tight end that we will have to draft in the first few rounds of fantasy football drafts in 2027.
Looking at the current makeup of the roster, Concepcion siphoning targets is the main worry for a player like Fannin. Concepcion was primarily a slot player in his first two seasons at NC State - with 93% and 82% of his snaps in that alignment. He found himself more on the outside in 2025 at Texas A&M, lining up wide on 65% of snaps. Concepcion could find himself in the slot again to start his pro career. He has been an excellent target earner with 95, 88, and 101 targets earned in three seasons, good for a 26.6% TPRR in his college career.
Fellow rookie Denzel Boston is more of your typical "X" receiver, with a 6-foot-4, 209-pound frame. Boston's two seasons as a Washington starter produced 60-807-9 and 56-755-10, showing red-zone and downfield prowess. He feels more like a player who could get worked in more slowly behind Tillman than as a Day 1 starter for the Browns, but we still have training camp and preseason to sort that out, so things could change!
Thus, this is what we are looking at for Fannin in 2026:
- The tight end room is now more consolidated, so he can run 85%+ routes each week;
- Target competition with Jeudy remains, but other rookie receivers are pushing things from a target-earning perspective, depending on when they earn time on the field;
- The quarterback issues from 2025 persist in 2026, but are no worse than last season (and they could actually be a bit better if Watson performs at even a mildly competent level).
All of those factors really give Fannin the runway to build on his rookie season and the chance to deliver a true breakout season. Fantasy managers have a right to be a little worried about the Browns' ability to score, as they are expected to be certainly in the bottom half of the NFL in points and touchdowns. With that said, even the worst NFL teams still have to score touchdowns, and there will be a solid opportunity for Fannin to at least match his six receiving scores from last season and also to provide meaningful improvements in targets, receptions and yards after the catch, where Fannin was seventh in the NFL among tight ends last season.
That confluence of factors should (and likely will) propel Fannin to produce well above his TE6 average draft position and make him a potential league winner in 2026. There are a ton of variables with the Browns, but if the rookie receivers aren't ready and Jeudy is his inefficient self as he's shown in recent seasons, why can't this Browns offense run everything through Fannin this season?
We started by talking about conviction, and there are plenty of questions with each tight end above Fannin in ADP. The difference is that Fannin comes at a very reasonable price in drafts. When combined with his lofty upside plus his trajectory for a second-year breakout, it is a combination that makes him somebody to target in fantasy drafts. For me, fantasy football conviction has Fannin's picture next to it.
This article originally appeared on The Huddle: The Case For Harold Fannin Jr. In 2026