Fantasy Football Tight End Acquisition | Is Texans’ Dalton Schultz Worth a Roster Spot?

Finding a consistent and even somewhat reliable tight end has been a tough proposition for fantasy football owners again this season. 

While digging into some numbers, I came across Houston Texans’ Dalton Schultz. He’s owned in 73% of leagues according to our charts and hasn’t been started over 30% of the time dating back to the middle of September. 

Let’s find out why he’s a solid fantasy asset, determine if he’s worth a roster spot and then finally find some possible trade targets if you need to acquire him that way.

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Schultz Starting to Deliver

Schultz is playing in his first year with the Texans after spending the first five years of his career with the Dallas Cowboys. He didn’t accomplish much in his first two years in the league, but was a solid fantasy player the past three.

Over his last three years in Dallas, Schultz finished between 577-808 receiving yards, 4-8 touchdowns and 57-78 catches. His best season was in 2021, when he caught 78 passes for 808 yards and eight touchdowns.

This season, Schultz started slow, but has found his footing the past three weeks. He’s up to 21 catches on 34 targets, going for 215 yards and three touchdowns.

Schultz totaled just seven catches for 47 yards across the first three weeks of action. He was targeted 14 times over that stretch and did not score. He played between 68-81% of the team’s offensive plays.

Schultz hasn’t reached 68% of the team’s offensive plays in the past three weeks, but has produced his best three games. He tallied three catches on as many targets in week 4 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Schultz grabbed seven of his 10 targets for 65 yards against the Atlanta Falcons in week 5 before catching four of his seven targets for 61 yards in week 6 against the New Orleans Saints. Schultz had a touchdown reception in each contest.

Despite the lower amount of snaps played, Schultz has seemingly started to develop a better connection with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud. It’d be great if Schultz started playing over 65% of the team’s offensive snaps consistently, but he’s shown three straight weeks that he can make the most of his opportunities and be a starting-caliber fantasy tight end.

Should You Add Schultz?

Even though the Texans are on a bye week, I’d suggest adding Schultz if he’s still on your league’s waiver wire. I’d guess his own percentage will be closer to 85% by this time next week.

The Texans are going to continue to rely on their passing game in the weeks to come, and Schultz will be a big part of that. He might not continue to score a touchdown a week, but he’s getting enough catches and yardage to make him start worthy at the inconsistent fantasy position.

Following the bye week, Houston will play the Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cincinnati Bengals. Carolina and Tampa Bay are above-average defenses against tight ends, while Cincinnati is among the worst in the league. Facing tough defenses hasn’t stopped Schultz lately, as the Steelers and Saints had been better at stopping TEs than the Panthers or Buccaneers.

That should mean Schultz is at least in the starting conversation until his production might say otherwise. I’d be comfortable starting him against the next three defenses, even if he hadn’t been scoring a touchdown a game the past three weeks.

Should You Trade for Schultz

Being as he started the year slow and is not at a premium position, Schultz’ trade value isn’t all that high. If you’ve struggled to find consistent players at the position, I’d suggest going after Schultz in a trade.

He’s ranked 121st in our player ratings as of this publication. That puts him around players like Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson, Cincinnati Bengals’ Tyler Boyd, Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield, Denver Broncos’ Jerry Jeudy and Baltimore Ravens’ Gus Edwards. 

My suggestion would be to identify what position you are set at and have some depth just sitting on the bench, pick out a couple players that you’d be willing to trade and then find them in the rankings. If they are still too valuable for Schultz, maybe you’d be better off packaging a couple of depth pieces you rarely start for Schultz.

I wouldn’t wait too much longer on making a deal for Schultz as another strong game or two will vault him way up the ratings and make him much more difficult to acquire. Get him now while his stock is still pretty reasonable.