Mitchell Evans

The case starts with the targets: seven in four games of 2026, six catches, no scores, 3.2 points a game. That is a hair under the 3.8 pace our preseason number of 57 points rested on, and it is coming off a 2025 where he topped 3.4 a game but never once cleared 15 points in a week. His best week last year was 11.3 in week 4 of 2025. A tight end whose ceiling week is that low does not win you anything even when he plays.

The role is the problem, not the health. He has been on the field every week this season and never showed up on an injury report, but he is listed second among Carolina tight ends behind Tommy Tremble, with Darren Waller and Ja'Tavion Sanders also in the building. In 2025 he played 37% of the snaps and pulled 5.2% of the targets while Tetairoa McMillan and Xavier Legette combined for 41%. Brad Idzik and Dave Canales are both back, so nothing in the scheme suggests a new lane for him. His average depth of target was 3.6 yards, TE94 among 125 qualifying tight ends, and he touched the ball inside the ten just three times all last year.

If the low tail of our range, 29 points, is where this lands, injuries are what pull it there, and he has avoided them so far. Even so, the range bottoms out at a season like his last one, and that is what he is giving you again. We would drop him and use the spot on a tight end with a weekly path to touches.