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    Tom Strachan | Tue, Jun 16th 2026, 10:23am EDT

Fantasy Football Players to Avoid in Every Round (2026)

With a little over a month until training camp and preseason get underway, fantasy football average draft position (ADP) is slowly coming into shape.

Plenty will change over the coming months in good and bad ways, and no two drafts are the same, but based on early fantasy football rankings, here are the players you might want to avoid in the first 12 rounds.

Fantasy Football Players to Avoid

Round 1: Christian McCaffrey (RB – SF)

There’s plenty of danger in fading last year’s RB1 overall, who scored 2.5 more PPR points per game than Bijan Robinson, but if we have to choose one player to avoid, there is a case to be made for fading Christian McCaffrey.

McCaffrey is coming off one of his worst rushing performances of his career, averaging 3.9 yards per carry, his lowest mark since 2020 in Carolina. This ranked 48th among running backs with 50+ rush attempts. He also ranked 47th in yards after contact per attempt and 29th in missed tackles forced.

McCaffrey recently turned 30, and while he can maintain his value in the receiving game, the cliff edge can come fast for running backs. If you can get McCaffrey in the back third of round one, he’s a good pick, but in picks five through seven, it’s a little tougher.

Round 2: Rashee Rice (WR – KC)

It’s hard to ignore that Rashee Rice was the WR8 in PPR points per game in Weeks 7-15 last season, the only time that he was on the field, but it’s also hard not to consider the things that stack up against him. Rice is currently in jail, rehabbing his knee that he had surgery on.

Rice elected to have surgery at a time when it would mean he’d miss organized team activities (OTAs), even if he hadn’t been in jail. That time would have been useful, considering the Chiefs are switching back to Eric Bieniemy’s offense.

Xavier Worthy was banged up early in the season, but this year, the Chiefs and their beat reporters are talking up his chances to make a significant leap forward and be more involved. If that happens and Rice faces a tricky offseason off the field yet again, he might struggle to justify his cost. He’d be a fine pick in round three, but the risk here feels significant.

Round 3: Josh Allen (RB – BUF)

By round three, we recommend fading both the RB1 and the QB1 from 2025. Obviously, that might ruffle a few feathers, but there is an argument for it.

Josh Allen is coming off his lowest passing yardage since 2019 (3,668), and for the past three seasons, he’s not broken the 30 passing touchdown barrier.

Allen sustains his value purely through rushing touchdowns with 41 in the last three seasons. We just saw Jalen Hurts regress in that category, and his value absolutely plummeted. Allen is a better quarterback than Hurts, but he’s still susceptible to the same issue, and Joe Brady’s offensive scheme hardly inspires confidence.

The opportunity cost of drafting Allen is simply too high when you can take another stud player and draft one of Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye in the coming rounds. You can also punt the position until much later and get Brock Purdy or Matthew Stafford.

Round 4: Joe Burrow (QB – CIN)

After Josh Allen is drafted, a cluster of quarterbacks follow at the top of the fourth round, with Lamar Jackson and Drake Maye, then a slight gap to Joe Burrow, who goes towards the back end. Simply put, Burrow doesn’t belong here, having finished QB15 in points per game last season, after finishing QB3 in 2024 and QB27 in 2023.

Burrow is an elite quarterback by NFL standards, but the way fantasy football works heavily favors dual threats, and Burrow adds nothing there. In order to pay off his cost, he’ll need to throw for over 260 yards per game and average over 2.5 passing touchdowns.

It’s not that he can’t perform at that level, but the path is much harder, and the Bengals have invested in their defense this year, which could potentially limit how aggressive the passing game needs to be. It would also be fair to point out that over the last three years, Burrow has played a full season only once.

How much better is Burrow than Matthew Stafford, who is available in round 12?

Round 5: Michael Wilson (WR – ARI)

From Week 11 through fantasy championship week, Michael Wilson was the WR2 in points per game, only trailing Puka Nacua. He led all wide receivers in targets (79) and was second in receiving yards (676).

The majority of this production occurred without Marvin Harrison Jr. on the field, as he played only 61% of snaps in Week 13 and 51% in Week 16. Harrison still has plenty to prove himself, but it’s noteworthy that Wilson’s breakout happened largely when he was the de facto No. 1 WR.

The Cardinals passed at the highest rate in the league last year, averaging 38.2 passes per game. Across that period of Week 11 to Week 17, Jacoby Brissett passed 35 times more than the next nearest quarterback, which is the equivalent of a full game extra of pass attempts.

With Brissett’s situation murky, and the Cardinals spending a top-three pick on a running back, they seem unlikely to repeat that type of pass volume under new leadership. That’s bad news for Wilson’s fantasy value.

Round 6: Harold Fannin Jr. (TE – CLE)

Do you like betting on absolutely awful quarterback play? Then perhaps this is the situation for you. If not, then it might be best to approach Harold Fannin Jr. with caution. Fannin finished as the TE8 in points per game and has been elevated to the TE6 in ADP, ahead of Sam LaPorta and Kyle Pitts.

Fannin seems likely to field passes from both Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson, and both are responsible for some of the worst quarterback play we’ve seen in the league over the last five years.

The Browns have also added interesting wide receiver options in Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion to complement Jerry Jeudy, giving them more mouths to feed than in 2025.

Fannin is likely an OK pick, but if you’re taking a tight end ranked this highly, you’d like them to have a path to a top-three finish. It’s hard to imagine that for anyone in Cleveland right now.

From must-have players to players to avoid, and everything in between, our Fantasy Football Draft Guide delivers the insight you need to build a championship roster.

Round 7: Courtland Sutton (WR – DEN)

The Broncos needed a second option behind Courtland Sutton in the wide receiver room, after average results from Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant and Marvin Mims.

Instead, though, they elected to put substantial draft capital into trading for Jaylen Waddle, who arguably is their No. 1 WR moving forward. Sutton has largely kept himself fantasy-relevant through touchdowns over the last few years, with 25 over the last three seasons, the sixth-most in that period.

Should Waddle eat into those opportunities, it could prove tricky for Sutton to return value at this price.

Round 8: Kyle Monangai (RB – CHI)

D’Andre Swift was widely considered to be a player Ben Johnson wouldn’t want heading up his backfield a year ago, but ended up being a good value bet with a 57.8% snap share compared to Kyle Monangai’s 41.3%.

Swift was ultimately by far the better option, with a higher explosive run rate (5.4% vs. 4.1%), a better missed-tackle forced rate (0.17 vs. 0.10) and more yards before contact. He was also the better receiver. Monangai can potentially take a second-year leap, but his eighth-round ADP feels like a high price to pay for a clear backup.

Round 9: Jonathon Brooks (RB – CAR)

Another clear backup is Jonathon Brooks, who has had plenty of positive coachspeak this offseason but remains a complete lottery ticket. Brooks is entering his third year in the league, and despite multiple ACL injuries, he’s managed just 12 touches for 45 yards.

Brooks was an interesting prospect when he arrived in the league with bags of talent, but having spent much of his collegiate career backing up Bijan Robinson, we never saw much production. He’s only 22 years old, which is young enough to still turn things around, but the team is still invested in Chuba Hubbard.

Despite a miserable opening to the year and a complete lack of explosivity, Hubbard did regain his No. 1 RB role as Rico Dowdle tailed off at times, and the team has also talked him up this year. Brooks will have an opportunity here, but round nine feels too high.

Round 10: Matthew Golden (WR – GB)

Despite being Green Bay’s highest drafted wide receiver in the last 20 years, draft capital couldn’t turn into production for Matthew Golden, who managed only 361 yards on 29 receptions and finished the season without finding the end zone.

There is a clearer path this year with Dontayvion Wicks and Romeo Doubs both no longer in Green Bay. However, Golden will still be vying for targets with Tucker Kraft, Christian Watson and Jayden Reed.

To add to that, the Packers threw the ball at the fourth-lowest rate last season and ranked 31st the year prior. This is not a pass-heavy offense, and Golden will likely sit on your bench. You’ll never feel comfortable starting him.

Round 11: Alvin Kamara (RB – NO)

For much of this offseason, it seemed unlikely that Alvin Kamara would even be on the Saints roster at this point, yet here we are in the middle of June, and he’s still there. The Saints do seem ready to move on, but contractually, it’s difficult to get away from Kamara without his willingness to tweak his terms.

It would cost the Saints $10 million to cut Kamara, or $7 million to trade him. At age 31, there aren’t many teams queuing up for him as he comes off career lows in rushing yards, yards per carry, targets and receptions.

The Saints invested significant money in Travis Etienne Jr. to be their bell-cow back, a player well-suited to Kellen Moore’s scheme. Even if Kamara stays on the roster, he feels unlikely to be a fantasy-relevant part of this offense.

Round 12: Dallas Goedert (TE – PHI)

Through eight years in the NFL, Dallas Goedert had never scored more than five touchdowns in a season until last year, when he scored 11. That venture into double-digits was actually more than the eight scores Goedert managed in the three previous seasons combined.

The Eagles tilted away from the tush push and instead gave Goedert multiple touchdowns through shovel passes at the goal line. As teams become wise to that play, it might become harder for Goedert to claim those gimme passes.

The Eagles also brought in Makai Lemon and Eli Stowers, two players who will compete for middle-of-the-field snaps, and both will offer more juice than Goedert at this point in his career. Goedert is a better target in best ball.

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