Richard Janvrin | Tue, Jun 9th 2026, 7:15am EDT

4 Fantasy Football Busts to Avoid (2026)

While we still have plenty of time before the season, we pretty much know what rosters will look like come Week 1. With that, we can begin to assess which players will and won’t be fantasy football busts.

Below, I have picked a bust from the quarterback, running back, wide receiver and tight end positions. Let’s examine.

Fantasy Football Busts

Jalen Hurts (QB – PHI) | ADP: 67.7 (QB7)

Last season, Jalen Hurts finished as the overall fantasy QB8 and was tied for that spot in points per game (19.1). Additionally, he had nearly 100 more pass attempts but managed just over 300 more passing yards than the season prior. While he did have seven more touchdown passes, he threw an additional interception.

As for Hurts’ rushing numbers, they were his worst since becoming the starter, running 105 times for 421 yards and eight touchdowns. He ran 45 times fewer, which helped contribute to that. But he’ll still have Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby in the backfield, who will continue to eat into his rushing attempts.

As for the passing game, the Eagles traded away wide receiver A.J. Brown to the New England Patriots. The writing was on the wall when they drafted Makai Lemon in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Hurts’ top weapons include Lemon and DeVonta Smith.

While I’m a big fan of Lemon’s game, it’s fair to acknowledge that he is a rookie, and I don’t believe he’s a 1:1 replacement for Brown.

Something else to consider is that the offensive line is aging. Last season, Hurts was under pressure on 193 dropbacks. When pressured, he completed 51.1% of his passes for 819 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions.

To play devil’s advocate, yes, the Eagles do have a new offensive coordinator in Sean Mannion. His only previous coaching roles were as an offensive assistant in 2024 and as the quarterbacks coach for the Green Bay Packers last season.

Could he be an upgrade from the recent offensive coordinators Hurts dealt with? Sure, but it’s also fair not to jump to that conclusion.

There are a lot of things working against Hurts, and I’m a bit concerned about his ability to meet his QB7 average draft position (ADP).

Kyren Williams (RB – LAR) | ADP: 31 (RB14)

While Kyren Williams ran 259 times for 1,252 yards and 10 touchdowns, and caught 36 passes for 281 yards and three more scores, I believe he’s in for a down season.

Last season, Williams finished as the RB9 in PPR leagues. In points per game, he was two slots lower at RB11, averaging 15.5 points per outing. Williams does add a bit of production in the pass-catching game, which is a plus because Blake Corum doesn’t catch the ball.

However, when it comes to running the ball, Corum looked like the better option many times. Across 18 regular-season games, Williams finished with a yards-per-carry average of fewer than four yards five times. In the playoffs, he finished with 4.1 yards per carry on 22 carries against the Chicago Bears and had just 10 carries for 39 yards in the loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

As for Corum, he recorded 145 carries for 746 yards (5.1 yards per carry) and scored six times. He was given double-digit carries in seven regular-season games. In those games, he accumulated 88 total carries for 457 yards (5.2 yards per carry) and four touchdowns.

Williams logged 290 rushing snaps compared to 153 for Corum. This was basically a 65/35 rushing split. In 2026, we could see that it gets much closer to 50/50, which means Williams will lose touches and opportunities for points.

Ladd McConkey (WR – LAC) | ADP: 46.3 (WR20)

After a down 2025 season, Laddy McConkey’s current ADP has him as the WR17 in PPR leagues, and I believe that might still be a bit too high.

While the Chargers didn’t make too many moves on offense, they did draft the speedster Brenen Thompson, bring in David Njoku to help the tight end room and add an explosive running back in Keaton Mitchell to back up Omarion Hampton.

Last season, when Hampton was on the field, McConkey had a 17.7% target share, which was third on the team. From Weeks 10 to 17, his target share was just 12.2%, which was tied with Keenan Allen for fourth on the team behind Hampton, Quentin Johnston and Oronde Gadsden II.

The Chargers did bring in Mike McDaniel to call plays, an excellent boost to this offense, but there are also a lot of mouths to feed. The addition of McDaniel, along with an improved, healthy offensive line, could help McConkey immensely. However, he was the overall fantasy WR27 last season, and WR36 in points per game.

Something else to consider is that this means another year of Johnston, plus Hampton will be healthy and Tre’ Harris could also become more of a playmaker. I think McConkey should be ranked closer to WR24 than WR12 this season.

Travis Kelce (TE – KC) | ADP: 104.3 (TE10)

While Travis Kelce is a bit of low-hanging fruit at this point in his career, his current ADP is TE10, so players are interested in him. Last season, he caught 76 passes on 108 targets for 851 yards and five touchdowns. Kelce’s catches went down, but his yardage and touchdowns did go up.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes did get injured late in the season, but when Mahomes was on the field, Kelce was firmly behind Rashee Rice in target share — 28.7% to 18.8%.

Another thing to consider is that the Chiefs had no run game. They signed Kenneth Walker III to a big-money deal and drafted Emmett Johnson to back him up.

Kelce will turn 37 years old this season. Additionally, Mahomes is coming off a torn ACL, their No. 1 WR will be on the field all season and they paid big money for a running back to take some pressure off Mahomes and the passing game.

I’m expecting the worst season yet for Kelce in what has been an incredible, first-ballot Hall of Fame caliber career.

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