Titans draft Carnell Tate: Fantasy outlook for Titans offense, Dynasty value for Tennessee's new receiver
Brian Daboll gets his new No. 1 target for Cam Ward, and here's our first thoughts for Dynasty and redraft leagues
The Tennessee Titans made the NFL's first surprising draft pick when they selected Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Despite coming in as the No. 1 wide receiver overall in our Beyond The Box Score rankings -- for both myself and Jacob Gibbs -- we weren't as certain about the Fantasy outlook. Tate earned the seventh-best grade against man coverage ever since Matt Harmon began charting wide receiver routes for Reception Perception, and now he has a quarterback with explosive arm talent to take advantage of Tate's ability to win on out-breaking intermediate routes and Tate's specialty -- the vertical routes.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this Tate-to-the-Titans fit is that he joins Brian Daboll's offense. Daboll's offensive scheme stresses the intermediate in-breaking and out-breaking areas of the field and over the top in the vertical pass game. We saw this finally come to fruition in 2025 at times with Jaxson Dart but even more so when Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson were at the helm. The Giants ran a top-down scheme and I expect Daboll to do the same with Ward and now Tate on the outside.
Tate joins a Titans receiver room that kept Calvin Ridley, signed Wan'Dale Robinson to play the slot in Brian Daboll's offense. Tate could immediately emerge as the No. 1 target for Ward both in the red zone and down the field. Tate immediately profiles as a high-upside WR2 in redraft leagues and could move all the way up to the third overall pick in Dynasty drafts based on the landing spot. If the Titans offense takes a big jump with Ward in Year 2, Tate's upside as a vertical big play thread and touchdown threat in the red zone could move him into the high-upside WR 2 range.
Ward profiles as another wait-on-quarterback late-round strategy target after getting a boost from the Titans drafting Tate and the Robinson signing. Ward is worth targeting in the QB15 range -- an area that landed Trevor Lawrence and Drake Maye breakouts last draft season. It will require Ward to run more in 2026. Ward ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns in 2025. If he can get that number up to 500 -- and that's certainly possible in Daboll's offense -- he can make the jump. Under Daboll, all Giants quarterbacks -- even Tommy DeVito -- were used on designed runs both in the red zone and between the 20s.
Ridley falls into the WR4/5 range after Tate's arrival and some disappointing seasons -- plus he is on the wrong side of 30. Robinson sees his Fantasy value drop but should still provide WR3 value or better in PPR leagues. The Titans offense just became more explosive for 2026.
