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Juwan Johnson sits atop the depth chart at tight end in New Orleans, and the five games of 2026 so far back that up. He has played in all five, started two, and carried a snap share of 70.6%, which places him firmly in the game plan rather than on the fringe of it. The volume is real: thirty-two targets through five games, twenty-five catches, a catch rate of 78.1%. That is a target every week regardless of score or script, and it is coming from an offense led by Tyler Shough, a first-year starter at quarterback who has leaned on Johnson as a security blanket underneath. Six of his targets have come in the red zone, and three have turned into touchdowns, so the scoring is not incidental — it is a function of where he lines up when the field shrinks. Chris Olave remains the outside receiver Shough looks to first on downfield shots, but that has not come at Johnson's expense; if anything the two have coexisted, with Johnson working the middle of the field while Olave stretches it. Johnson's 248 receiving yards and 9.9 yards per reception this year tell the story of a possession option rather than an explosive one, but in a scoring format that rewards catches and short touchdowns, that profile still produces.
The case for Johnson starts with target volume and finishes with the red zone. A tight end earning thirty-two targets in five games, catching twenty-five of them, and scoring three touchdowns on just eight red zone looks is operating as a focal point of the passing game, not a complementary piece. His 2026 pace of 13.2 PPR points per game is up from his full-season 2025 average of 10.6, and his position finish so far this year (seventh) is better than his final 2025 rank (eighth). For a tight end whose value lives and dies on target share, a snap share of 70.6% alongside a career-high level of trust from Tyler Shough is the foundation a manager wants to see. The case against him is just as straightforward. Yards per reception of 9.9 this season, down from 11.5 in 2025, says the receptions are shallow, and shallow receptions depend heavily on touchdowns to produce points — three scores on six red zone targets is an efficient rate that is unlikely to sustain itself across a full season at that pace. Strip away the scores and the yardage total of 248 through five games does not support a consistent floor; this is a player whose weekly output can swing hard based on whether the ball happens to find him near the goal line. His 102 targets across all of 2025 did produce 889 yards and 179.9 PPR points, which is a solid full-season return, but it also came with just three touchdowns across the entire year — meaning last year his scoring rate was far lower than what he has shown through five games of 2026. That is the central tension: either the touchdown rate from this year is a sign of a bigger role in the passing game near the goal line, or it is a small sample that will regress toward the modest scoring rate of a year ago. The honest answer sits between those two readings. The snap share and target totals are consistent across both samples, which argues for a stable role rather than a fluke. The touchdown rate is the variable to watch. If Johnson keeps seeing red zone opportunities at anything close to the current rate, the touchdowns should keep coming, because a catch rate of 78.1% shows he is doing his part when the ball is thrown his way. If Tyler Shough's red zone looks spread back out to other targets as the season matures, Johnson's floor reverts to what his yardage figures suggest — a tight end who catches a lot of short passes but does not do much with them after the catch.
Treat Juwan Johnson as a starting tight end in most formats right now, not a bench stash. The snap share of 70.6% and a target total of thirty-two across five games are not matchup-dependent inputs; they are a function of his standing as the top tight end on the depth chart in an offense that keeps throwing him the ball. In points-per-reception leagues especially, a catch rate of 78.1% on that much volume provides a dependable floor even in weeks when the touchdowns do not arrive. The flag to watch is scoring concentration. Three touchdowns on eight red zone targets in 2025 and three touchdowns on six red zone targets so far in 2026 is a small number of opportunities producing a large share of his fantasy value. A manager leaning on him for points should track whether his red zone looks continue at this rate or whether they begin drying up as Tyler Shough's offense matures and other weapons, including Chris Olave, see more of the goal-line work. If the touchdowns stop while the yardage total stays modest, Johnson becomes more of a flex-caliber option than a true starter. Until that shift shows up in the numbers, keep him in the lineup and let the target share do the work.}}
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