The offseason is where dynasty fantasy football takes center stage. Dynasty startup drafts are happening all the time. As important as your first pick is in a typical redraft league, it’s magnified in dynasty. You can’t get this wrong.
Ja’Marr Chase
Cincinnati Bengals
The cornerstone of every strong dynasty roster is the wide receivers. With longer careers and longer primes than running backs, WRs give fantasy managers that solid foundation that can last for a decade. It should come as no surprise that the top candidates to go No. 1 overall are wide receivers.
We’ll start with Ja’Marr Chase. The Bengals’ WR1 is coming off what many perceive to be an underwhelming season. The man still averaged 19.6 fantasy points per game. That speaks volumes about how elite he is. The expectations are sky high every year.
Chase has been in the NFL for five years. He’s finished as a WR1 in all of them, never averaging lower than 16.4 PPG. Outside of that injury-shortened 2023 season, Chase has finished inside the top five every other year.
Chase is going to remain in Cincinnati tethered to Joe Burrow for the duration of his prime, which should last at least another five years.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Seattle Seahawks
Jaxon Smith-Njigba graded out second amongst all wide receivers with a 94.4 PFSN WR Impact Score. That tells us this wasn’t a case of a player who wasn’t that good happening to be great for fantasy.
JSN averaged 21.2 PPG, finishing as the overall WR2 behind only the next guy on this list. He led the league with a 35.9% target share and was second with a 33.8% targets per route run rate.
The volume was elite. The efficiency was elite, even more impressive given the volume. The secondary options in Seattle’s offense all complement Smith-Njigba while serving as no real threat to his target volume.
At 24 years old, JSN is tied for the youngest player on this list. More important than his specific age, though, is the fact that he very likely has the most fantasy-relevant years in front of him. When splitting hairs at the top of dynasty drafts, things like that matter.
The most amazing part of Smith-Njigba’s 2025 season is that he was on a low-volume passing offense. The Seahawks only attempted 481 passes.
JSN has a lot of years in front of him. It stands to reason that, at some point in the next half-decade, he’ll find himself on a roster that isn’t elite on the defensive side of the ball. Imagine what he could do with 180+ targets.
Puka Nacua
Los Angeles Rams
Puka Nacua was my pick to finish as the overall WR1 in 2025. He did just that, averaging 23.4 PPG. That includes two games he left early due to injury. His season could’ve been even more incredible.
If you wanted to take Nacua No. 1 overall, it’s hard to argue against it. He’s averaged at least 17.6 PPG in each of his three seasons. He’s gotten better every year.
Despite running only a route on 77.2% of pass plays, Nacua still posted elite numbers because, when on the field, Matthew Stafford throws him the ball. Nacua was sixth with a 30.3% target share and led the league with a 36.6% targets per route run rate.
The Rams scheme the ball to Nacua, who wins at every level. He gets open at will. He’s great on screens and in the short game. He can win downfield. He also excels at contested catches, which, if anything, might be a negative because of how he’s willing to put his body at risk to make the catch.
Bijan Robinson
Atlanta Falcons
The only running back on this list, Bijan Robinson, may very well be worth taking even though, in theory, he doesn’t have as much time in front of him.
At 24 years old, though, fantasy managers should not be concerned about age. Robinson should be elite for at least five more years, as many as we can confidently project for Chase. We’ve also seen truly transcendent running back talents maintain a high level of production in their age-29 and age-30 seasons.
Robinson is one of the most gifted runners in the history of football. He takes immense care of his body and has never been injured in his three NFL seasons. Robinson has finished as a top-three running back in two straight years, doing so on a losing team with suspect quarterback play.
It stands to reason that Robinson will eventually find himself on a good, if not great offense. He just had 2,298 total yards. He’s a legitimate receiver out of the backfield, averaging 1.86 yards per route run on a 19.8% target share. Both of those numbers ranked third.
Simply put, it’s hard to imagine Robinson not averaging at least 20 PPG for the majority of his prime. And despite a 70% opportunity share, it may very well grow in 2026 as Tyler Allgeier knows he’s good enough to start somewhere and won’t be returning to Atlanta.
Who Is the Pick at No. 1 Overall?
Now that we’ve laid out the cases for each of our four candidates. It’s time to decide who the pick should be. That means considering the downsides. For this, let’s go in reverse order of the above.
The case against Robinson is that he plays running back. Sure, he could be different. But outside of Derrick Henry, what running backs have been at the top of their game past age 30?
Of course, my counter would be that we should not care about 2030 at all. But when we’re talking about four players who should be at 20+ PPG for the foreseeable future, if one guy can theoretically do it for 6-8 years while another is capped at 5-6, maybe that moves the needle for someone.
Nacua is a megastar. He would be a WR1 regardless of quarterback. However, we cannot ignore the fact that Stafford is 38 years old. Any season could be his last. If Nacua went from overall WR1 contender to merely a mid-WR1, that’s not going to bury your fantasy team. But if Stafford retired tomorrow, Nacua would probably fall out of the first round in redraft leagues.
Additionally, Nacua is 25 years old. That’s obviously not old at all. But it is worth noting he’s mentioned in the past that he doesn’t intend to play past 30. That could change. But it’s at least something to be mindful of.
Typically, we want to take a sure thing with the first pick in a dynasty startup. Smith-Njigba looks like a sure thing based on what we saw in 2025. However, it’s important to remember that he’s only done this once. Everyone else on this list has had multiple super elite seasons.
I firmly believe JSN is going to remain an elite WR1 for years to come. But how many of you remember who the overall WR1 was in dynasty ahead of the 2019 season? The answer was a 23-year-old JuJu Smith-Schuster, who was coming off one elite season (plus Antonio Brown leaving Pittsburgh).
JSN is way more talented than Smith-Schuster ever was. But the cautionary tale of the guy who’s only done it once remains.
Finally, we have Chase. At 26 years old, he’s the oldest player on this list. That is the extent of the argument against him…which is why he’s my pick to go No. 1 overall in a dynasty startup draft.
