Welcome to a brand new series I’m rolling out this offseason, titled Welcome to Underdog Best Balls. The goal of this series is to dig into the new faces in the P4 that we’ll need to educate ourselves on as the best ball season draws nearer. The transfer portal has given us a plethora of options, some good, some bad. Let’s look at which is which here with our second group of players new to the P4 in 2026…
Brody Foley, TE, Louisville
Let’s start it off with one of the best fantasy G5 tight ends in 2025. Brody Foley finished fourth in terms of FPPG (13.18) after catching 37 passes for 528 yards and 7 touchdowns for Tulsa. He also added two rushing touchdowns on the ground.
Right off the bat, I see two immediate red flags: unlikely rushing production at Louisville and a lack of tight ends for Louisville in 2025. Last year’s top tight end for the Cardinals finished as the TE65 with 3.77 FPPG. In 2024, Mark Redman finished the year with just 37 targets, turning that usage into a 24/256/3 stat line. It really doesn’t get better in prior years either, with Marshon Ford really being the top tight end in this offense, generating a 33/434/3 stat line in 2022.
Could there be a talent deficiency outside of the tight end position that allows for Foley to be a bigger target than normal? At wideout, Tre Richardson, Treyshun Hurry, and Lawayne McCoy figure to be the top 3 targets. And while they don’t inflict fear on opposing defenses immediately, there is enough juice there, combined with a great running back room, to think Foley could make his mark here. He was originally an Indiana Hoosier before transferring to Tulsa. With Indiana, he recorded just seven pass snaps played in two seasons.
In an early full FBS draft this offseason, Foley was drafted as the TE12. Foley was productive and a big-time asset last season, but I can’t get behind this cost considering the lack of system production and skill group around him. He would need to be a late-round tight end target where you’re hoping for some unique usage that has a low likelihood of happening.
Dorian Thomas, TE, California
Cal had one of the best on-field transfer-portal offseasons, if you ask me. Adding Ian Strong, Chase Hendricks, and Dorian Thomas to an offense led by Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is quite intriguing. The issue here for Thomas is that the offense already has Mason Mini, a top 15 tight end in 2025, on the roster. From a fantasy points per game perspective, there wasn’t one example of a team generating two inside the top 25 (removing Utah due to Hunter Andrews’s limited games played).
When looking back at Thomas’s 2025 campaign, I’m curious what we’d think of him if we removed his big game against Michigan in the opener. He would have ended the year with 46 receptions for 489 yards and a pair of touchdowns, good for TE19 in Underdog best ball leagues. With that big game, he finishes as the TE9. Removing a spike week isn’t normally something I like doing, but it’s hard to ignore the drop when looking at G5 data compared to P4 players.
Touchdown equity is pivotal for Underdog best-ball teams, especially at the tight end position. When you’re only catching 40-50 passes, you either have to be a big play threat or a touchdown threat to finish top 25. Every tight end in the top 15 scored at least 4 touchdowns, with 14 of them scoring 5+ times. In total, just 2 tight ends in the top 25 scored less than 4 times (Jeremiah Franklin, TE20, and Carsen Ryan, TE21). With the unknowns in the Cal offensive system, new to the new staff, and an offense that has a quality core of skill guys to throw to.
Jayvontay Conner, TE, Vanderbilt
Conner is different from Dorian Thomas and Brody Foley in that he hasn’t done much in college football, but he heads to a system that has been great for Eli Stowers over the past 3 seasons. Conner isn’t all that athletic, but he’s more athletic than Cole Spence, the tight end with the most returning production at Vanderbilt. Spence has a larger frame than Conner and is considered more of a blocker. The other threat to Conner is Brycen Coleman, the third-year tight end with three career receptions.
With Jared Curtis in at quarterback, Tre Richardson and Eli Stowers heading to Louisville and the NFL, what will this offense look like? Spence was on the field more than Stowers last season, but that was with one more game and a heavy emphasis on run blocking. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if Conner took the majority of receiving snaps and plugged himself into a top 3-4 receiving option for Curtis. This likely isn’t anything to write home about from a production standpoint, though.
The Commodores were great in 2025 because of Diego Pavia’s efficiency and big-play ability in the passing game. This offense has run 62 and 60 plays per game with 31 and 23 passing attempts per game. If Jared Curtis goes Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele on the SEC in 2026 then Conner has a chance at relevancy, otherwise it’s quite likely this transfer means very little.
