Our fantasy football experts share their draft advice to help you win your league. While you can check out all of the players our experts target and avoid in our 2026 Fantasy Football Draft Kit, here is the general strategy they follow to dominate drafts.
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2026 Fantasy Football Draft Advice: Expert Strategy to Win
Early-Round Strategy
Fitz shares his early-round fantasy football draft advice.
The ‘Onesie’ Positions
Before we get into first-round strategy, a word about the so-called “onesie” positions, quarterback and tight end, labeled as such because you’re only required to start one of each in typical 1QB leagues.
Under no circumstances will I draft a quarterback in the first four rounds of a 1QB league. Josh Allen is terrific, but the QB position is deep. There are at least 14 quarterbacks I’d be willing to have as my starter in a 1QB league. I will not sacrifice an early-round pick for the luxury of rostering Allen when there’s such good quarterback value in the middle rounds.
There are three tight ends guaranteed to land in the first four rounds: Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, and Colston Loveland. I’m willing to draft Bowers and Loveland at cost, but not McBride. More on that later.
Bijan vs. Gibbs
Regardless of my league’s lineup configuration, if I draw either the 1.01 or 1.02 spot, I’m drafting Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs. They are the John Lennon and Paul McCartney of running backs.
But should we favor John or Paul?
Bijan has been the slightly better yardage producer. Gibbs has been the better touchdown scorer. Gibbs plays in the better offense.
I slightly prefer Bijan. Why? It’s mostly about body type. Bijan is a muscular 215 pounds. Gibbs is a sleek 202 pounds. Every NFL play is basically a car crash, and I value the NASCAR build over the IndyCar build. But it’s a close enough call that if I draw the 1.01 pick in two leagues, I’ll take Bijan in one and Gibbs in the other.
If I get Bijan or Gibbs in a league where I have to start three WRs, it’s assured that I’ll go with a Hero RB strategy and won’t draft another running back in the first four rounds.
The Big Three at WR
Picks 1.03, 1.04, and 1.05 are where the Big Three at wide receiver dwell: Ja’Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, and Jaxson Smith-Njigba. Those three are my third, fourth, and fifth picks in start-3WR leagues. I might go that way in start-2WR leagues, too, although I would probably slide Christian McCaffrey ahead of Smith-Njigba in such leagues.
Chase has led the league in targets each of the last two years. He’s averaged 6.7 catches and 87.7 yards per game over his five-year career. Chase also gets to play with Joe Burrow, one of the best pure passers in the game.
Nacua led the league in receptions (129) and receiving yards per game (107.7) in 2025. He averaged an outrageous 3.57 yards per route run last season and has averaged 3.16 YPRR for his career.
Smith-Njigba had a league-high 1,793 receiving yards in 2025 and commanded an outrageous 35.8% target share.
Check out all of Fitz’s early-round draft strategy
Mid-Round Strategy
Fitz shares his mid-round fantasy football draft advice.
Build a Robust Roster
You need to do more than fill out your starting lineup in the middle rounds. This is the part of your draft where you build a roster that can withstand the harsh realities of the fantasy season.
Injuries will find you. They always do. Bye weeks will keep you from fielding your best possible lineup in the middle of the fantasy season.
Your goal should be to build a team that can better withstand injuries and byes than the other teams in your league.
As I mentioned in my Perfect Draft article, when I’m in the middle rounds of a draft, I’ll think about what my starting lineup would look like without my top running back, my top wide receiver, or both. Do I have a team that could survive that kind of a hit? It’s worth putting yourself through this thought exercise when you get to the seventh or eighth round.
In the first four rounds, you’ve laid a base at RB and WR. In the middle rounds, you need to fortify that base.
Don’t Scrimp on Wide Receivers
Fortification is especially important at wide receiver.
Some fantasy managers believe the WR position is deep. They are wrong. While there may indeed be many receivers who play a lot of snaps and run a lot of routes, there are not many receivers who consistently put up worthwhile fantasy numbers.
And at wide receiver, what you pay for is generally what you get.
Running backs occasionally emerge from the late-round ether to become high-level performers. It happens because they fall into opportunities due to injuries. That sort of thing rarely happens at wide receiver. When one receiver is injured, his vacated targets typically don’t go to just one or two other players. They’re scattered among several pass catchers. Late-round hits at the WR position are rare.
By the time your draft reaches the double-digit rounds, the supply of bankable veterans and high-upside youngsters at the WR position will have mostly dried up. You owe it to yourself to build a sturdy WR corps before the supply of credible wide receivers runs out.
Tackle the QB and TE positions
If you haven’t drafted a quarterback or tight end in the first four rounds of your draft, you’ll probably want to address those positions in the middle rounds.
And I sincerely hope you won’t draft a quarterback in the first four rounds. The talent pool is so deep that it’s not worth sacrificing the chance to draft a top-20 running back or receiver for the chance to take Josh Allen, the consensus QB1.
Allen has a late-third-round ADP. He’s being drafted just ahead of Ladd McConkey.
Brock Purdy has a late-eighth-round ADP. He’s being drafted just ahead of Michael Wilson.
I don’t know about you, but I would rather have a Brock Purdy/Ladd McConkey combo than a Josh Allen/Michael Wilson combo. I can start both Purdy and McConkey every week. Wilson probably isn’t an every-week starter on a good fantasy team.
The middle rounds are loaded with quality fantasy quarterbacks.
Justin Herbert has an ADP of QB9 and is going in the back half of the seventh round. Herbert was the QB10 last season despite playing behind a shabby, injury-riddled offensive line that allowed him to be sacked 54 times. His offensive line should be healthier and better, and the arrival of offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel could help unlock the sort of big passing numbers that Herbert produced in his first three seasons.
Trevor Lawrence has an ADP of QB10 and is coming off the board around the seventh-round/eighth-round turn. Over his last seven regular-season games, Lawrence averaged 265 passing yards, 2.6 TD passes, and 26.6 fantasy points per game. He also ran for nine touchdowns last season.
The aforementioned Brock Purdy has finished QB6, QB10, and QB5 in fantasy points per game among quarterbacks who made at least six starts.
The middle rounds, not the early rounds, are where you should do your QB shopping.
Likewise, there are some gems to be mined at tight end in the middle rounds.
Tucker Kraft has a sixth-round ADP. Kraft was TE2 in fantasy scoring when he tore his ACL midway through the 2025 season. He reportedly expects to be ready for Week 1 and should be a key contributor to the Green Bay passing game.
Harold Fannin is coming off the board around the sixth-round/seventh-round turn. He had 72 catches for 731 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie and has a chance to lead the Browns in targets this season.
The much-maligned Kyle Pitts is being drafted in the seventh round. Pitts had 88 catches for 928 yards and five touchdowns last season to finish TE2 in half-point PPR fantasy scoring. Kevin Stefanski is the Falcons’ new head coach, and the tight ends in Stefanski’s Cleveland offenses averaged 164.3 targets over the last three seasons.
Check out all of Fitz’s mid-round draft strategy
Late-Round Strategy
Fitz shares his late-round fantasy football draft advice.
Continue to Build RB/WR Depth
It’s hard to find waiver-wire help at running back and (especially) wide receiver during the season. It’s imperative to build depth at these positions in your draft.
It’s not enough to draft a good starting lineup. Injuries come in waves once the regular season begins, and chances are you’re going to lose one or more of your top players for multiple weeks.
Build a team that can better withstand injuries and byes than the other teams in your league.
The sure things will have run out by the time your draft reaches Round 10, but there will be plenty of promising young players and established veterans who are just one injury away from becoming useful contributors.
Draft High-Upside Players
This might seem self-evident – until you’re in the late rounds of your draft and one of your competitors selects Jerry Jeudy.
Jeudy was considered a disappointment for most of his career, but he popped over the second half of the 2024 season when the Browns inserted hyper-aggressive passer Joe Flacco at QB, and then Jeudy went back to being disappointing in 2025.
Mea culpa: I was Jeudy-curious last year and drafted him in a couple of leagues. But there is no reason to draft Jeudy in 2026. The Browns just spent early-round draft picks on WRs KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston. They’re telling us how they feel about Jeudy. The Browns are also expected to have a bottom-rung passing game this season – another reason not to draft Jeudy.
So, what sort of players make worthwhile bets in the late rounds?
- Players who have been productive but are being faded because they’re considered injury-prone
- Rookies with a plausible path to playing time – the higher-drafted, the better
- Hyper-athletic players with a plausible path to playing time
- Players who in training camp have generated a drumbeat of positive reports from team beat writers
- Players who have posted impressive efficiency numbers (yards per route run, yards after contact per carry, etc.) over small sample sizes
- Unsigned veterans who have been stars
Draft Players in Good Offenses
Fantasy managers like to chase touch volume and the possibility of touch volume. In the late rounds, it’s difficult to find players who are assured of decent touch volume, so we pursue players who could get decent touch volume. Often, those players are in bad offenses, which might make it easier for them to ascend the depth chart.
What makes it easy for a player to ascend a depth chart is injuries to players above him, and injuries hit good and bad offenses alike. When in doubt, favor backups in top offenses, because strong offenses will increase the odds of success for those players if they fall into meaningful playing time.
Resist the Urge to Handcuff RBs
Dedicating two roster spots to the RB position on a single NFL team – a practice known as handcuffing – is a suboptimal draft strategy. You’re better off spreading your RB bets and trying to strike gold in a different backfield.
Let’s say you spend an early draft pick on Chase Brown. Some fantasy managers believe that if you draft Brown, you should also draft his primary backup, Samaje Perine. But Perine has no stand-alone value and would be nothing more than an insurance policy – and probably a bad one, since Perine would have a hard time matching Brown’s numbers even if he inherited Brown’s volume.
Drafting Perine robs you of a chance to find the next Kyren Williams – a late-round pick in 2023 who ran for 1,144 yards and scored 15 touchdowns that year. Imagine pairing Chase Brown with a player as impactful as Kyren Williams was in 2023. The odds of striking gold with late-round RBs aren’t great, but it’s important that you give yourself that chance.
Thanksgiving is the right time to consider handcuffing your starting RBs. August is not.
Check out all of Fitz’s late-round draft strategy
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Fantasy Football Draft Rankings
Check out the consensus 2026 fantasy football draft rankings from our experts.
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