Shortly after graduating from college, with no immediate prospects in my chosen field of journalism, I took a job selling cars. I hated it and was terrible at it. I was never a big car guy, so I had no real interest in the products I was trying to sell. The guy who owned the dealership was a jerk. I lasted two weeks. Hopefully, my sales pitches on players are better than my sales pitches on Mazdas. Here are my favorite targets in 2026 fantasy football drafts.
It took Trevor Lawrence a while to digest the scheme implemented by first-year Jaguars head coach Liam Coen, but once Lawrence got it down, the results were dazzling.
Shortly after graduating from college, with no immediate prospects in my chosen field of journalism, I took a job selling cars. I hated it and was terrible at it. I was never a big car guy, so I had no real interest in the products I was trying to sell. The guy who owned the dealership was a jerk. I lasted two weeks. Hopefully, my sales pitches on players are better than my sales pitches on Mazdas. Here are my favorite targets in 2026 fantasy football drafts.
It took Trevor Lawrence a while to digest the scheme implemented by first-year Jaguars head coach Liam Coen, but once Lawrence got it down, the results were dazzling.
Over his first 10 games of 2025, Lawrence averaged 215.1 passing yards, 1.1 touchdown passes and 16.7 fantasy points per game. He averaged 6.4 yards per pass attempt over that span, and his passer rating was 79.4.
Over his last seven regular-season games, Lawrence averaged 265.1 passing yards, 2.6 touchdown passes and 26.3 fantasy points per game. He averaged 8.4 yards per pass attempt over those seven games, and his passer rating was 108.6. Lawrence was the fantasy QB1 over that span.
Lawrence also had his best season as a runner, establishing career highs in attempts (82), yards (359) and touchdowns (nine).
It took Lawrence a while to fully arrive, but with Coen’s help, the splendidly long-haired quarterback has finally become a top-10 quarterback. There’s high-end QB1 potential here — as we saw late last season — and yet Lawrence is being drafted as a low-end QB1, according to average draft position (ADP).
Fantasy football enthusiasts are often beholden to draft capital. Perhaps that’s why Brock Purdy, the “Mr. Irrelevant” of the 2022 NFL Draft as the 262nd and final player selected, hasn’t fully charmed all fantasy managers.
Purdy has averaged 19.2 fantasy points over 45 career regular-season starts. His finishes in fantasy points per game the last three seasons (among quarterbacks who played at least six games): QB6, QB10, QB5.
It’s reasonable to be concerned that star tight end George Kittle might miss part of the season and/or be less effective than usual in 2026 after tearing his Achilles in last season’s playoffs.
But the 49ers have upgraded one wide receiver spot by replacing Jauan Jennings with Mike Evans. Ricky Pearsall could enjoy better health after missing 14 games in his first two NFL seasons. And Purdy still has running back Christian McCaffrey, perhaps the best pass-catching back of all time. Also, Kittle has vowed to be ready for Week 1.
Purdy is a fine value for those who wait until the middle rounds to draft a quarterback — and I think waiting to draft a quarterback is the right move this year.
Those eight running backs averaged 1,474 yards from scrimmage and 10.9 touchdowns in their rookie seasons. The worst statistical output of any of those rookies came from McCaffrey, who had 1,086 scrimmage yards and seven touchdowns for the Panthers in 2017. McCaffrey was the RB11 in half-PPR scoring that year.
Well, the winning percentage of the teams that drafted those eight rookie running backs in the seasons before they were drafted was .320. Those teams were mostly terrible, too.
There is a universal fear of the unknown. Some people are reluctant to draft rookies simply because they’ve never played in the NFL before. Drafting Love is a great way to capitalize on an irrational fear.
It seems as if everyone in the fantasy community is fading Bucky Irving.
I’m buying.
After a terrific rookie season in 2024, Irving sustained foot and shoulder injuries in 2025 and played only 10 games. When he was able to play, he was far less effective than he had been as a rookie.
Irving had shoulder surgery in February, and Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles recently said Irving would be back on the field “sometime in the summer or fall.”
Irving doesn’t have to play tackle football next week. By the time training camp arrives, he’ll have had about five months to recover. If Bowles’ curious choice of the word “fall” is causing panic… good. It’s creating a buying opportunity.
In 2024, from Week 10 through the Buccaneers’ playoff loss to the Commanders, Irving averaged 111.6 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns over nine games. That stretch included a game in which Irving played only 10 offensive snaps because he got banged up. Otherwise, he played at least 44% of the offensive snaps in all of those games.
Irving hit a 44% snap share in only one of his first nine games that year, but the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator at the time, Liam Coen, realized the offense was better with Irving on the field than with Rachaad White.
Irving finished his rookie season with 1,514 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry. He averaged 3.93 yards after contact per carry (tops among all backs with at least 60 carries).
In his injury-plagued 2025 season, Irving averaged 3.4 yards per carry. He averaged only 2.33 yards after contact per carry. His percentage of breakaway runs went from 34.9% as a rookie to 13.4%.
Not only was Irving banged up last year, but the Buccaneers’ offensive line was hit hard by injuries. It impacted Tampa Bay’s offensive line performance. The Buccaneers ranked second in adjusted line yards in 2024. They ranked 22nd in adjusted line yards in 2025.
A lot of people are convinced Irving will be a committee back this season.
Yes, Sean Tucker might get goal-line carries because he’s bigger than Irving. Yes, Kenneth Gainwell might play on third-and-long because he’s a better pass blocker than Irving.
Tucker got the goal-line work last season, and Rachaad White got the third-down work, but Irving still averaged 20.3 touches per game. That’s workhorse usage by modern standards.
Gainwell averaged 6.7 carries a game for the Steelers last year — and that was a career high. The numbers suggest that Irving is a better pass-catcher than Gainwell. Irving has averaged 1.56 yards per route run in the NFL. Gainwell has averaged 1.19 yards per route run. Irving had more receptions in his best college season than Gainwell did against better competition.
It’s odd that so many people are forgetting just how good Irving was over a fairly large sample size of games over the second half of his rookie season.
One of my favorite maxims for fantasy drafts is, “miss small, hit big.”
At worst, Blake Corum will be the backup to Kyren Williams all season in what should be an outstanding Rams offense. Corum won’t catch many passes — he had only eight catches in 2025 — and it’s possible he’ll be less efficient after a season in which he averaged 5.1 yards per carry.
A down season for Corum in 2026 would be a small miss, since his ADP as of this writing is RB34 (96th overall).
But what if Williams were to go down? Corum would become the lead back for the Rams, who are the current championship favorites and are likely to have a season full of run-friendly game scripts. In any week Williams misses, Corum would likely be ranked as a top-10 fantasy back.
You’d have hit big on a mid-round pick. This is a bet worth making.
Jonathon Brooks tore his right ACL in his final college season at Texas and then tore the same ACL in December 2024, in his third NFL game.
The Panthers reportedly had a highly regarded surgeon repair the second tear using a double-bundle technique that improves the knee’s rotational stability and yields a stronger reconstruction.
And the Panthers have been very deliberate with Brooks’ recovery from the second ACL tear. They shut down Brooks for 2025. By the time training camp opens, it will have been 20 months since the injury.
The Panthers didn’t take another running back in this year’s draft. The projected starter is Chuba Hubbard, who had a big season in 2024 but has been an average running back for the rest of his five-year career.
Brooks is likely to be inexpensive in drafts because of that terrifying injury history. But the potential payoff could be sweet if the talented Brooks stays healthy.
Don’t go into your draft blind—unlock expert rankings, mock drafts, and cheat sheets in our Fantasy Football Draft Guide.
In 2024, Terry McLaurin and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels made beautiful music together. McLaurin had 82 catches for 1,096 yards and a career-high 13 touchdowns. He was the fantasy WR6 in half-PPR scoring.
Last year, McLaurin missed seven games with a quad injury. Daniels missed 10 games.
Both players are healthy now, and McLaurin should command a big target share in 2026. It’s hard to tell who’s No. 2 in the Commanders’ pecking order for targets. Rookie Antonio Williams? Tight end Chig Okonkwo? New offensive coordinator David Blough said he feels obligated to find a way to get McLaurin 10 targets a game.
McLaurin rattled off five straight 1,000-yard seasons before the injury-plagued 2026. campaign. He averaged 80 catches, 1,092 receiving yards and 6.2 touchdowns over that five-year stretch.
For his career, McLaurin has averaged 8.9 yards per target and 1.89 yards per route run — outstanding numbers when you factor in some of the quarterbacks he played with early in his career.
McLaurin is a good value at his mid-range WR2 price.
Through the first five weeks of the 2025 season, Emeka Egbuka had 25 catches for 445 yards and five touchdowns and was the WR3 in half-PPR scoring.
Then, Egbuka tweaked his hamstring in Week 6. He played through it, but his production crashed. Quarterback Baker Mayfield‘s season took a bad turn, too.
Over the first five weeks of the season, Egbuka averaged caught 65.8% of his targets and averaged 11.7 yards per target. From Week 6 on, Egbuka caught 42.7% of his targets and averaged 5.5 yards per target.
Perhaps injuries to other receivers sort of left the door ajar for Egbuka early last season. Chris Godwin didn’t play the first three games of the season for Tampa Bay, and Mike Evans missed the Buccaneers’ fourth and fifth games.
Evans is gone, and Godwin might not be the same player he was earlier in his career. Godwin is 30 now and has had a major leg injury.
Egbuka was a first-round draft pick; he’s already had five weeks of high-end WR1 production, and let’s not forget all the buzz Egbuka generated in his first training camp. The hamstring injury probably played a big role in the sharp downturn in his rookie season.
There’s a good chance we get a full Egbuka breakout in 2026.
Some people will dismiss Christian Watson out of hand because of his injury history. He’s missed 20 games in his four NFL seasons.
But Watson was excellent last season after coming back from an ACL tear at the end of the 2024 season. In 10 regular-season games last season, Watson averaged 17.5 yards per catch, 11.1 yards per target and 2.28 yards per route run. He produced at a 1,000-yard, 10-touchdown pace.
There should be increased target opportunities for Watson in 2026. The Packers have rotated four or five receivers in recent years. This year, it looks like it’s going to be a core three of Watson, Jayden Reed and Matthew Golden. Tucker Kraft could be a major player in this offense, too, but he’s coming off a torn ACL.
Watson is 6-foot-4, 208 pounds, and has 4.36 speed. He has a high-quality quarterback in Jordan Love.
The Packers have been run-heavy the last two years, ranking 31st and 22nd in pass rate over expected. What if Green Bay throws more this season and the targets are more concentrated among fewer receivers?
Watson has the potential to be special. And his current cost assumes he’ll miss a few games. With a season of good health, Watson investors could reap handsome rewards.
The Colts signed Alex Pierce to a four-year, $114 million deal in March, then traded away Michael Pittman Jr. soon after.
Pierce had 1,003 receiving yards last season despite averaging only 5.6 targets a game. It seems inevitable that Pierce will earn more targets in 2026 with Pittman gone. The Colts made no significant receiver additions in the offseason, unless you consider free-agent addition Nick Westbrook-Ikhine or seventh-round draft pick Deion Burks significant additions.
Pierce has led the league in yards per catch the last two years, with 22.3 in 2024 and 21.3 in 2025. Pierce’s average depth of target (aDOT) last season was 18.9 yards.
It stands to reason that Pierce will run a more complete route tree this year and not just be a go-route guy.
Of course, we’re still going to get big plays from Pierce, who’s 6-foot-3 and runs like a gazelle. But we might also see more consistent target volume. Pierce has played 64 career games, and he’s had five or more receptions in only six of them.
There’s ample room for statistical improvement here.
The Amon-Ra St. Brown comparisons that accompany Makai Lemon as he transitions from USC to the NFL are not far-fetched. Lemon is an electric slot receiver who shakes defenders with remarkable quickness off the snap, makes tough catches and is tough to bring down once he has the ball in his hands.
A.J. Brown has left Philadelphia. DeVonta Smith is a terrific receiver, but it might be a mistake to assume that Smith’s 2026 numbers will dwarf those of Lemon, the 20th overall pick in this year’s draft.
This is another “miss small, hit big” proposition. At worst, Lemon will make modest contributions as a rookie. At best, he’s a star from the get-go.
With an ADP of WR39 (92nd overall) as of this writing, Lemon is a bet worth making.
I think it’s worth paying up at tight end this year, and I’m willing to take Brock Bowers anywhere in the back half of the second round in 12-team drafts.
Widely regarded as one of the best tight end prospects of all time, Bowers had 112 catches for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns on 153 targets as a rookie.
Last season, Bowers had five catches for 103 yards in Week 1, but he sustained a PCL injury and a bone bruise to his left knee in that game. He clearly was not himself over his next three games and was then shut down for three weeks.
When he returned, Bowers scored seven touchdowns in eight games before the Raiders, looking to protect their star and to secure the No. 1 pick in the draft, placed Bowers on injured reserve (IR) for the last two weeks of the season.
The Raiders have an anemic wide receiver corps, so Bowers should be awash in targets this season.
New head coach Klint Kubiak has been entrusted with repairing the Las Vegas offense, and his track record suggests he can right the ship. No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza offers hope, and the Raiders also have tight end-friendly quarterback Kirk Cousins, who was quarterbacking the Falcons last year in Week 15, when Kyle Pitts had 11 catches for 166 yards and three scores.
Bowers could produce the sort of 2026 numbers that Trey McBride produced for the Cardinals in 2025.
Colston Loveland was the TE12 in half-PPR scoring as a rookie with 58 catches for 713 yards and six touchdowns. However, the 10th overall pick in last year’s draft started the season slowly and had become a monster by the time the Bears were ousted from the playoffs in January.
From Week 9 through the end of the regular season, Loveland was the TE2 in fantasy scoring behind only Trey McBride. And at the very end of the season, Bears head coach Ben Johnson fully unleashed Loveland.
The rookie had 10+ targets in each of his last four games (playoffs included), averaging 12 targets, seven catches and 94.5 yards over that stretch, with a pair of touchdowns. In the Bears’ playoff win over the Packers, Loveland had 15 targets, eight catches and 137 yards.
The 6-foot-6, 241-pound Loveland is a matchup nightmare. Most defensive backs can’t physically handle him. Most linebackers can’t run with him.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams seems to be getting better as he continues to learn Johnson’s offense. And with DJ Moore now in Buffalo, Loveland’s target competition has been lessened.
If you miss out on Bowers in the second round, target Loveland in the fourth round.
The Falcons don’t have a lot of firepower at wide receiver beyond Drake London, so Kyle Pitts could very well be Atlanta’s No. 2 target-earner this season.
Pitts tried to dispel his reputation of being a perennial fantasy tease with a strong 2025 performance. The former No. 3 overall draft pick had 88 catches for 928 yards and five touchdowns, finishing as the TE2 in half-PPR fantasy scoring. It was Pitts’ best season since his 1,026-yard rookie campaign in 2021.
The Falcons’ quarterback duo of Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. doesn’t seem appealing, but it’s worth remembering that Mike Gesicki and Jonnu Smith had the best fantasy seasons of their careers with Tagovailoa as their primary quarterback.
If you miss out on Bowers and Loveland, grab Pitts before the sharp drop-off at the tight end position beyond the top eight.
