Nikola Kalinic

Kalinic has been on IR since before week 3 of 2026, and the board ranks him below every available tight end while he sits there. Even before that, weeks 1 through 5 of 2026 came and went without him playing. There is no comeback date and no headline, just a season already gone.

The usage record is what decides this. In 2025 he played two games, both healthy weeks he happened to be active for, and ran routes on 0.0% of Chicago's snaps. Zero targets. He did not clear the position's weekly median in either game. That was not injury, it was a coach choosing not to use him, and Ben Johnson is still the coach calling plays. The 2025 target picture tells you where the passes go: Rome Odunze took 24% and Colston Loveland took 17%, 40% between them before a fourth tight end sees one.

This is not a new story either. He played 0 of 17 games in 2024 and 0 of 17 in 2023, and in both seasons those were healthy weeks the staff simply never used him. His first appearance of 2025 did not come until week 12 of 2025. Three years of sitting behind Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet, fourth on the depth chart, with no path here even if he gets healthy.

We had him for 3 points all season, our pace expectation was 1.5 a game over the 2 games we thought he might survive, and he has delivered nothing through five weeks. Every week he holds a spot is a week you carry a tight end who cannot take the field. Cut him and spend the spot on someone who can play for you in week 6 of 2026.