Would you take Ashton Jeanty No. 1 overall this season? Well, we know at least one guy who would. Chaos erupted during a live fantasy football draft when one member put the Las Vegas Raiders’ sticker on the board with the first overall pick. As great as the moment was, is the theatrics worth it?
What Ashton Jeanty’s 2026 ADP Says About the 1.01
Jeanty is the RB6 by ADP and typically comes off the board at the back of the first, around picks 10 through 12. Yahoo’s own board has him at 14.1, which puts him in the early second on that platform. Depending on where you look, this manager reached somewhere between nine and 13 picks.
This guy drafted Ashton Jeanty first overall and the whole league started crashing out ðŸ˜
(via _acbarrios/TT) pic.twitter.com/v3jvYTwfEz
— Yahoo Fantasy Sports (@YahooFantasy) August 20, 2026
Understand that we are bullish on Jeanty. Last season was an indictment of the building, not the tenant. The Raiders offensive line finished dead last in PFN Impact Score in 2025.
Chip Kelly was so overmatched that despite making him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in NFL history, Las Vegas fired him after 11 games. Pete Carroll lasted one year. The offense finished last in the league in scoring, and Jeanty still turned 321 touches into 1,321 scrimmage yards, 10 total touchdowns and 14.3 PPG.
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Everything around him got better. Klint Kubiak takes over as head coach after coordinating a Super Bowl winner in Seattle. Kirk Cousins opens as the starter with Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, waiting behind him. Tyler Linderbaum arrives as the highest-paid center in football, and Kolton Miller is back at left tackle after a high-ankle sprain wrecked his season. There is a real world where this offense climbs into the league’s middle third, and Jeanty is a top-three pick next August. He might even be the 1.01.
That world is 2027. We are drafting for 2026.
Why Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson Own the Top of Every 2026 Board
Fantasy is a probability exercise. The question is never whether an outcome is possible. The question is what happens most often. And the answer at the top of this draft has not moved since February: Jahmyr Gibbs or Bijan Robinson finishes as the overall RB1.
They are 1 and 2 on essentially every published board in the industry. Gibbs leads the NFL with 38 total touchdowns over the past two seasons and now has Detroit’s backfield to himself with David Montgomery in Houston. Robinson led all running backs in receptions and receiving yards last year and has not missed a game in three seasons. Neither carries a projection question worth agonizing over.
Jeanty does, and the industry disagreement is the tell. ESPN’s Mike Clay ranks him seventh overall. ESPN’s Field Yates ranks him 23rd. Two analysts at the same outlet, 16 spots apart, on the same player. Nobody has that argument about Gibbs. Nobody has it about Robinson. Jeanty is the least settled name inside the top 24, which is a fine reason to draft him in the back half of Round 1 and a terrible reason to spend the most valuable pick in the draft on him.
He is No. 9 overall in PFN’s consensus rankings. We would not even consider him before pick No. 6. And, to be clear, neither I nor Kyle Soppe is taking Jeanty at No. 6.
The counter deserves its due. Kubiak’s staff has floated Christian McCaffrey’s snap share as the benchmark role for Jeanty, and McCaffrey played 83% of San Francisco’s offensive snaps in 2025. If Jeanty gets there, the 1.01 argument stops being funny. Running back is also the thinnest position on the board, and a healthy three-down back with goal-line work is the most valuable asset in the format.
Take him at 10. Take him at eight if you love the setup. Just do not confuse a bet you like with the safest pick available, because the 1.01 is a gift, one you shouldn’t squander for shock value.
