Never a bad choice, but never a sexy choice either: vanilla ice cream and Dalton Schultz.
Has anybody heard a word about this guy since he signed in Houston? Schultz might be the most vanilla fantasy pick there is right now, but style points haven’t been his MO his entire career and that’s not about to change now.
His production has come in an offense where he was consistently the safety valve for Dak Prescott, overshadowed by better receiving options in Ceedee Lamb and Amari Cooper over the past two years. Despite that, he’s put up an average of 17% target share and 17% air yards share in that span, proving that he can compete for targets even with quality competition.
Sure, Schultz has never been an explosive after-the-catch tight end… he put up the 7th-lowest yards after the catch per reception in 2022. But this is Dalton Schultz we’re talking about, Mr. Vanilla himself. With that nickname, of course he’s going to be the tight end to get it done in fantasy with targets.
The offense won’t be nearly as good in Houston as it was in Dallas – but he’s moving from an environment with plenty of competition to an offense with little to no competition at all. And Schultz’s body of work in the target share department bears consideration: according to FantasyLife’s Dwain MacFarland, the target share and air yards share that he’s accumulated over the past two seasons is consistent with overall TE7-TE9 finishes over the last 12 years.
If you don’t want to take a TE early in your draft, but you also don’t want to pay the mid-round price tag of other guys in questionable situations (ala David Njoku and Chig Okonkwo), Dalton Schultz at the TE14 price tag is extremely affordable and presents the chance to be highly productive – you just won’t have the rest of your league oohing and ahhing on draft day.