Brenton Strange is rostered in 27.2% of ESPN leagues and carries a recommended waiver cost of 1% of FAB. RotoBaller had him at 32% ahead of Week 6. That is the price of a replacement-level streamer, a name you pick up for a bye week and drop the following Monday. It is not the price of a tight end who has led his team in receptions in back-to-back games and posted a 26.2% target share over that stretch — a number that would rank among the better marks at the position if it held for a full season rather than two weeks.
The gap is real, but so is the hedge. Strange's season-long averages through five games — 10.1 PPR points per game, a 19% target share, just three red-zone opportunities — describe a mid-range TE2, not a locked top-eight asset. The question this article has to answer is whether the last two weeks are the new baseline or a hot stretch layered on top of an otherwise unremarkable season. The price says the market has not decided. The usage says it should start leaning one way.
Who Else Eats in Jacksonville's Passing Game
Strange's quarterback is still Trevor Lawrence, and that matters because nothing about the thrower has changed — the variable is scheme and competition for targets. Jacksonville enters 2026 with a new coaching staff: Liam Coen replaced Doug Pederson as head coach, and Grant Udinski took over as offensive coordinator and play-caller. The early-season personnel usage under Udinski has leaned on three-wide-receiver, one-tight-end sets, which puts Strange on the field for the large majority of snaps rather than rotating him through heavy-personnel packages.
The receiver room he competes with for targets is Parker Washington at WR1 on the depth chart, Jakobi Meyers at WR2, and Brian Thomas Jr. at WR3. All three were productive early in the season, which is exactly why a tight end posting a 26.2% target share in that same stretch is notable — he was out-targeting a crowded receiver corps, not sneaking into volume on a thin one. Behind Strange at tight end, Jacksonville drafted Nate Boerkircher in the second round and Tanner Koziol in the fifth round in April. Both are projected for specialized or multiple-tight-end packages rather than snaps that would cut into Strange's role this season.
Engram's Exit Cleared the Lane
The single biggest structural change in this offense is who is no longer in it. Evan Engram left Jacksonville in free agency and signed with Denver. Engram had been the established pass-catching tight end in this building for years, and his departure is the clearest explanation for why Strange's role has room to expand rather than get capped by a timeshare. Jacksonville also signed Strange to a three-year extension in June, reportedly worth up to $48 million with $25 million guaranteed — a deal that size does not get handed to a committee piece the front office expects to rotate off the field.
Eight Targets in Back-to-Back Weeks
The on-field evidence backs up the money. In Week 4 against Cincinnati, Strange caught 7 of 8 targets for 95 yards. In Week 5 against Philadelphia, in a 19-17 win, he again caught 7 of 8 targets, this time for 68 yards. That is eight targets in consecutive games, and he led Jacksonville in receptions both weeks. Compare that to Weeks 1 through 3, when he caught just 7 passes on 10 targets for 72 yards across three full games. The NFL's own Week 6 waiver analysis flagged the shift directly, describing Strange as having "come alive in the Jacksonville offense" over the two-week stretch. Sports Illustrated's John Shipley went further, calling him "maybe the most underrated tight end in the entire NFL" and suggesting he could become a "key piece of everything the Jaguars do on offense."
“come alive in the Jacksonville offense”
— The NFL
The Sample-Size Objection
The strongest case against buying in is simple: two weeks is two weeks. Strange's 26.2% target share over Weeks 4-5 sits well above his 19% season-long mark, which means the three-week average before the spike was closer to 10% of team targets. His red-zone involvement has been thin all year — three opportunities through five games and only one touchdown, which came in that earlier, lower-volume stretch. He has not scored during the two-week surge itself. A tight end who wins on volume but not on scoring chances is more fragile than one who does both, and if Washington, Meyers, or Thomas start pulling more of Udinski's called targets, Strange's share could regress toward where it sat in September.
That case is fair, and the fact-pattern behind it is accurate. But it proves too much if it's used to dismiss the role change entirely. Engram's departure was not a one-week event — it is a permanent subtraction from the target pool that existed in previous seasons, and it does not reverse itself if Strange has one quiet week. The extension signals the front office's own view of his role going forward, not just a reaction to two good games. And a tight end playing 79% of Jacksonville's offensive snaps, as Strange has all season, is positioned to keep seeing volume even if the exact share dips from 26% back toward the low twenties. The counter-argument correctly flags volatility in the number. It does not explain away the structural reason the number moved.
Streaming Starter, Not Yet a Top-Eight Lock
The tiebreaker here is opportunity cost. Strange costs almost nothing to roster — 1% of FAB by ESPN's own recommendation — against a tight end position where true difference-makers are scarce. Even if his target share settles somewhere between the 10% of his first three weeks and the 26% of his last two, the midpoint is still a meaningful weekly role in an offense that has kept him on the field at a 79% snap rate all season. The data does not support drafting him as a locked top-eight finisher for the rest of the year, and that distinction matters if you're deciding whether to trade an asset to get him. But it fully supports adding him now, starting him as a streaming TE1/TE2 while the expanded role persists, and reassessing if his snap share or target share drops in back-to-back weeks. Treat him as a priority waiver claim with real weekly upside — not as a top-eight lock to build a roster around.