Fantasy Football: 25 Late-Round Draft Picks Experts Love (2026)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and which to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s look at players our community of experts love to target in the late rounds of 2026 fantasy football drafts based on ECR vs. ADP.

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2026 Fantasy Football Draft Advice: Late-Round Picks to Target

The Carolina passing attack will flow through Tetairoa McMillan and Jalen Coker this season, especially with Chris Brazzell now missing up to eight weeks with a torn LCL. Last year, when Coker was at his healthiest (quad injury early in the year) during Weeks 13-19, he was challenging Tetairoa McMillan for the top spot in Carolina’s aerial attack. During that stretch, Coker had a 20% target share (McMillan 18.3%), 2.30 yards per route run (McMillan 1.78), four red zone targets (McMillan, one), and a 28.3% first-read share (McMillan 26.1% per Fantasy Points Data). In those six games played, Coker finished with at least 14 PPR points four times. Coker is a late-round priority for me this season. The massive divide between McMillan and Coker in ADP should not exist. Enjoy the value.
– Derek Brown

Khalil Shakir once again provided stability without much ceiling, finishing as a WR3/4 despite operating as one of Josh Allen’s most trusted targets. His short-area role created a reliable weekly floor, but limited downfield and red-zone usage continued to cap his fantasy upside. The addition of DJ Moore adds even more competition for targets, making it difficult to project meaningful volume growth in 2026. Shakir still profiles as Buffalo’s safest receiver from a consistency standpoint, but fantasy managers should view him more as a floor-based depth option than a breakout candidate.
– Andrew Erickson

Tank Bigsby is one of the best handcuffs in the NFL, and he won’t get mentioned at the top of the conversation many times. Last year, among 65 qualifying backs, he ranked fourth in explosive run rate, second in missed tackle rate, and first in yards after contact per attempt (per Fantasy Points Data). In the one game that he played more than 40% of the snaps (Week 18), we got to see what his fantasy value could be if Saquon Barkley missed any time. He logged 17 touches with 106 total yards as the RB9 for the week in PPR scoring. If you’re looking for handcuffs to stash, Bigsby is one of the best.
– Derek Brown

Dalton Schultz had 82 catches for 777 yards and three touchdowns in 2025 to finish TE11 in half-point PPR fantasy scoring. The modest TD total limited his fantasy impact, but Schultz finished tied with Jake Ferguson for third among tight ends in receptions behind only Trey McBride and Kyle Pitts. Schultz finished sixth among TEs in receiving yards. With the Texans’ good young corps, it initially seemed as if Schultz might be hard-pressed to match the career-high 106 targets he saw last season. But with Jayden Higgins, Houston’s No. 2 receiver, tearing his ACL in mid-August, Schultz figures to once again be an important cog in the Texans’ passing game. Consider Schultz a midrange TE2 for fantasy.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Tre’ Harris has to be one of the best WR sleepers to take in 2026. The second-year WR is being grouped into the “elite” Chargers WR conversation alongside Ladd McConkey and Quentin Johnston by HC John Harbaugh. And even though his rookie year didn’t feature a ton of highlight-reel plays or counting stats, his playing time increased because of his contributions as a run-blocker. That suggests he could see much more playing time (and targets) than his bottom-dwelling ADP would indicate in 2026. Harris can create big plays and is versatile enough to line up all over the formation. He also averaged 5.5 targets in the last two games that QJ missed in the second half of the season. If the Chargers lean into the run game more with their new OC, Mike McDaniel, Harris could be a major benefactor in terms of snaps/routes based on how well he does the dirty work.
– Andrew Erickson

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Fantasy Football Draft Rankings

Check out the consensus 2026 fantasy football draft rankings from our experts.