Every year I walk into drafts with a shortlist of names I refuse to leave the room without. Some are priced below what I expect them to return and others I am simply happy to pay full retail for. What ties them together is conviction. Based on current ADP, these are my top fantasy football targets for 2026. These are “my guys.”
QB Targets: Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders
ADP: QB3
Two years ago, Jayden Daniels was the single best value at quarterback in fantasy football. Last year, he was one of the worst clicks you could make. The truth sits much closer to the rookie.
As a first-year starter, he averaged 20.93 PPG, one of only four quarterbacks since 2011 to clear 20.0 as a rookie, joining Cam Newton, Justin Herbert, and Robert Griffin III. That is the company he keeps at his ceiling.
The sophomore dip was real, but it was almost entirely injury-driven. Daniels averaged 16.8 PPG in 2025, a number that climbs to 18.9 once you strip out a Week 14 game he never should have played. He fought through a sprained knee, a strained hamstring, and a dislocated elbow. None of those ailments reads as chronic, so there is no reason to treat him as injury-prone going forward.
The rushing is what makes him a set-it-and-forget-it QB1. Daniels averages 48.7 rushing yards per game for the Washington Commanders, which is roughly a touchdown’s worth of production on the ground before he throws a single pass. Joe Burrow cannot offer that kind of floor. It is the same reason I spent a bust column fading Burrow at a comparable price. A quarterback who can post a quiet passing line and still hand you a usable number is the safest bet at the position.
Here is the honest part. His QB3 ADP sits a hair above my QB4 ranking, so this is not a discount. Quarterback is also deep enough that you can find QB1 upside several rounds later. I still want him. Paying near cost for a 25-year-old with proven top-five upside and a rushing floor that travels every week is a trade I am glad to make. Bet on the rookie-year version, not the injury-wrecked one.
Kyler Murray, Minnesota Vikings
ADP: QB17
The idea that Kyler Murray is washed has hardened into consensus. I cannot make it make sense. Walking away made sense for the Arizona Cardinals after a 38-48-1 run and one playoff appearance in seven years. There is a wide gap, though, between failing to live up to a No. 1 overall pick and being a bad quarterback. Murray is one of the 32 best passers alive. I expect him to win the Minnesota Vikings job over JJ McCarthy and start all 17 games, health permitting.
That last part matters more than it sounds, because the last thing you want in a fantasy quarterback is bench risk. That’s how 2025 Justin Fields burned people.
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When Murray starts, he produces. His five-game 2025 was a career-worst 15.6 PPG, torpedoed by injury and a Cardinals team that quietly moved on from him midseason. In each of the six seasons before that, he finished as a QB1. His floor across that span was a perfectly usable 17.5 PPG in 2024.
The ceiling is real, too. Murray averaged 23.7 PPG in 2020 and 21.5 in 2021. So the elite range is not hypothetical. He now walks into Kevin O’Connell’s quarterback-friendly system with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and Jauan Jennings to target. Remember, this is the coach who took Sam Darnold from the scrap heap to a Super Bowl-winning season.
The rushing keeps it all afloat. Murray averages 36.7 rushing yards per game and can chip in another four to six scores on the ground. That floor is exactly why his QB17 ADP makes no sense, because a healthy Murray has never once finished that low. I have him at QB15. A top-12 finish is very much on the table. Let the room pay up at the position while I wait.
RB Targets: Ashton Jeanty, Las Vegas Raiders
ADP: RB5
Let me guess. You spent a premium pick on Ashton Jeanty at the turn last year, watched him limp to an RB15 finish, and told yourself never again. I understand the reflex. Bailing now would be a mistake. Jeanty averaged 14.4 PPG and still piled up 1,321 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns as a rookie, which is a long way from the bust label people slapped on him.
Blame the situation, not the player. The Las Vegas Raiders were a disaster up front. A banged-up Brock Bowers gave defenses no reason to respect anything but the run. Jeanty still created on his own. A staggering 83.6% of his rushing yards came after contact, third-best in the league against a back average of 70.1%, which is exactly how you survive when the blocking does not show up.
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The back half of the season is the tell. After a dead-quiet start, Jeanty ripped off three top-five weeks down the stretch, including 188 yards and two scores against the Houston Texans.
He also led the league in opportunity share at 84.3% and posted a 14.8% target share, the kind of receiving involvement that raises a floor. Over the past four seasons, only three rookie backs have earned five-plus targets in four straight games: Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, and Jeanty. That is the exact company you want to be keeping.
This is Robinson’s rookie year all over again: a generational talent buried by a broken situation for one season before it all turned. The fix is already here.
Klint Kubiak is one of the sharpest offensive minds in the league. His roster’s only real weapons are Jeanty and Bowers, so both are going to feast. Kirk Cousins opens the year as a clear upgrade, a statue who will happily dump it off to his back. Fernando Mendoza offers another bump whenever he takes over. Jeanty is my RB6. If last year scared you off, that is exactly why he is a target and not a bust.
Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals
ADP: RB10
Chase Brown is the pick I keep circling back to. He has posted RB1 numbers in back-to-back seasons, going for 15.9 PPG and then 16.6. Somehow he is still available in the back half of Round 2 as the RB10. That is a market inefficiency I am happy to exploit.
Do not let a slow start fool you. Brown averaged just 10.1 PPG from Weeks 1 through 7 while splitting snaps with Samaje Perine. Anyone who spent a second-round pick on him was sweating. Then the switch flipped. From Weeks 8 through 18, Brown averaged 21.2 PPG, which would have paced out to the overall RB5 across a full season. Even when Perine’s return trimmed his snap share to the 60-to-65% range down the stretch, the production never blinked.
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The full-season profile is loaded. Brown finished with a 72% opportunity share, a 14.5% target share that ranked seventh among running backs, and 11 touchdowns. He does all of this for the Cincinnati Bengals, next to Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins, so defenses cannot key on him. A three-down back with that kind of volume and passing-game role is exactly the archetype I chase.
Here is what I cannot wrap my head around. Brown belongs at the 1/2 turn alongside Ashton Jeanty, Saquon Barkley, and James Cook. Yet he is going nearly a full round later. He is also going behind Omarion Hampton and Kenneth Walker III, two backs I am fading, whose prices demand a level of play we have never actually seen from them. All Brown has to do to smash his ADP is repeat what he has done for two straight years. He is my RB8 and my favorite target in the second round of 2026 drafts.
Kenny Gainwell, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
ADP: RB37
Kenny Gainwell never averaged more than 7.7 PPG across his first four seasons. Then 2025 happened. Pressed into the Pittsburgh Steelers’ passing-down role, Gainwell posted a career year built on a 16.3% target share that ranked fifth among all running backs.
None of it was empty volume. Gainwell averaged 1.59 yards per route run, seventh in the league, and 4.32 yards created per touch, which ranked fourth. We even glimpsed the ceiling in a Week 11 spot start with Jaylen Warren out, when he played 64% of the snaps, racked up 105 yards and two scores, and dropped 29.5 fantasy points.
The move to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers only helps. Gainwell profiles a lot like the departed Rachaad White, except he is better at just about everything. Sean Tucker figures to keep the short-yardage and goal-line work, which caps the ceiling, but Bucky Irving was dreadful in 2025 and is reportedly still dealing with his shoulder injury after offseason surgery. That leaves real early-down snaps on the table.
Gainwell’s RB37 ADP opened near RB40 and has climbed all summer for a reason. I have him at RB31 as one of the best RB3s you can draft.
Rachaad White, Washington Commanders
ADP: RB38
There is nothing pretty about the way Rachaad White scores fantasy points. He is the running back version of death by a thousand cuts. The 60-yard house call is not coming, but the volume tells a different story. Back in 2023, White grinded his way to 15.8 PPG and an RB1 finish on a 75.3% opportunity share, seventh in the league, despite a pedestrian 3.6 yards per carry.
What makes White work is the passing game. He is one of the best receiving backs in the league, with a 64-catch season already on his ledger. Even in a lost 2025, where a healthy Bucky Irving buried him until an injury reopened the door, White returned value relative to his cost by voluming his way through the games Irving missed.
Now he lands in a wide-open Washington Commanders backfield. The team would like Jacory Croskey-Merritt to lead the way, with White in the passing-down role he played behind Irving in 2024. Even that limited role justifies an RB38 tag. Washington has no obvious second target in the passing game behind Terry McLaurin, so a 50-catch season is well within reach.
The upside is where it gets fun. Croskey-Merritt could not run away with the lead job last year even when it was gift-wrapped, to the point that Chris Rodriguez took it from him. If Croskey-Merritt stalls again, White is far more trusted than rookie Kaytron Allen and could handle 15-plus opportunities a game. A 250-touch season would make him a screaming value at an RB3 price. I have him at RB33, a plug-and-play RB3 I am targeting aggressively while the cost stays this low.
WR Targets: DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles
ADP: WR12
DeVonta Smith has spent his whole career a a WR1 talent playing second fiddle. He simply could not fully break out while sharing targets with A.J. Brown. With Brown shipped to New England, the WR1 job in the Philadelphia Eagles’ receiver room is finally his.
The split tells the whole story. Since 2022, Smith has averaged 13.8 PPG with Brown on the field and 16.2 without him. That is the difference between a fine WR2 and a genuine WR1.
Brown is now gone for good. Even in a miserable 2025, when the entire Eagles offense fell apart under Kevin Patullo, Smith still posted 1.98 yards per route run and a 24.3% target share while deferring to Brown.
There is a real leap available here. Smith’s first-read target share sat at just 28.2%, 22nd in the league, next to Brown’s 36.6%, which ranked seventh. Handing that first-read role to Smith alone is a major usage bump. New coordinator Sean Mannion should help, too, bringing motion and formation variety that somehow eluded the Eagles a year ago.
The price is up, as it should be. Smith carries a WR12 ADP, higher than he has ever finished. So, this is not a hide-in-plain-sight bargain. Instead, it’s a clean bet on the Jaxon Smith-Njigba blueprint: first-round production from a receiver who does not cost a first-round pick. Smith is going right around where Smith-Njigba went last year. An 18-PPG ceiling sits within his range. I have him at WR11 as a player I want in every format.
Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens
ADP: WR14
Zay Flowers is proof that talent and efficiency mean nothing without volume. Through three seasons, his yardage has climbed every year, from 858 as a rookie to 1,059 and then 1,211. His target share pushed all the way to 29.1% in 2025.
The efficiency is elite. Flowers averaged 2.62 yards per route run last season, fifth in the league, and landed inside the top 15 in both fantasy points per route run and fantasy points per target.
The catch has been the offense. Lamar Jackson is a gift, but the Baltimore Ravens throw it less than almost anyone, posting a 46.4% neutral pass rate that only the Jets undercut. That near-30% target share netted Flowers a mere 118 targets. For context, Emeka Egbuka commanded a smaller 23.6% share and still out-targeted him, which is the entire difference an offense makes.
The path to a leap is obvious. Jackson averaged just 23.2 attempts per game last year, well below his 27.2-to-28.6 range from 2022 through 2024. So, simple regression to his own mean adds targets. That bump alone could push Flowers from the 14.3 PPG he posted last season past the 16.0 WR1 threshold.
Then there are the touchdowns. Flowers has never scored more than five in a season. Yet, his yardage points to an expected seven or eight. Even a couple extra would carry him over 15.0 PPG.
Here is the part that matters for your draft. Flowers is the undisputed alpha in Baltimore, with only Rashod Bateman, a washed Mark Andrews, and two rookies in his way. He finished as the WR13 last season and is going right around WR14, which means the market is pricing him near his floor rather than his top-8 ceiling. My WR15 rank sits a hair below his ADP on paper, but do not mistake that for a lukewarm take. This is a conviction buy on a 26-year-old alpha whose best season is still ahead of him.
Terry McLaurin, Washington Commanders
ADP: WR22
Terry McLaurin is the guy at the very top of my list this year. Yes, I know how that sounds. I had McLaurin as one of my top fades in 2025, correctly so. His 2024 breakout to 15.8 PPG rode a touchdown spike to 13, after he had scored just four or five in each of the four prior seasons. Regression was coming. It came.
The 2025 season was a full-blown nightmare. McLaurin cratered to 11.4 PPG and, for the first time in his career, could not stay on the field, missing seven games and exiting two others early.
His quarterback went down too, as a knee, hamstring, and elbow gauntlet limited Jayden Daniels to seven games. Here is the twist, though. McLaurin did not decline. He got hurt.
The metrics from that lost year are the tell. Even while banged up, McLaurin posted a 2.29 yards per route run that ranked 13th, a 9.7 yards per target that ranked 16th, and a 0.13 first downs per route run that ranked fifth. That last mark is one of the most predictive metrics for a receiver. It says McLaurin was arguably better than ever. He is 31, but nothing about his profile says decline.
The setup for 2026 could not be cleaner. McLaurin is the undisputed WR1 for the Commanders, with nothing but journeymen and a rookie behind him. His target share has sat at 23.3% each of the past two years, with clear room to climb into the 25-to-28% range of a true alpha.
McLaurin does not need another 13 touchdowns to smash. Landing somewhere in the 8-to-10 range with the best quarterback of his career gets him to a 14.0 PPG floor. Scary Terry is my WR17 against a WR22 ADP. He is spearheading “my guys” for 2026. I genuinely want him in every league.
Jaylen Waddle, Denver Broncos
ADP: WR23
I have been a Jaylen Waddle believer for a while. Last season did nothing to change that. He finished as the WR25 at 12.1 PPG, his second straight sub-1,000-yard year with just eight scores across those 31 games. His catches per game slid from 5.3 across his first three seasons to 3.9 over the last two. That is a usage collapse, not a talent one.
Do not lose sight of what this player has already done. Waddle owns a 100-catch season, an 18-yard-per-catch season, and a year averaging north of 2.2 PPR points per target, each of which puts him in rare company. His career highs of 104 catches, 1,356 yards, and eight touchdowns are the ceiling of a clear WR1. At 27, that version is not gone.
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The situation finally breaks his way. Waddle was buried with the Miami Dolphins, an offense that ranked 24th in points per drive and 26th in offensive EPA over the past two years. Now he joins the Denver Broncos, who led the NFL in pass attempts last season, with Sean Payton so bought in that he shipped three 2026 picks to Miami to get him. Bo Nix is a legitimate upgrade under center and trending up.
The target competition is thinner than it looks. Courtland Sutton is a fine complementary piece, but at 31, his efficiency dipped in Year 2 of the Nix experience. He profiles as a clear WR2 rather than a co-alpha. Sean Payton has said there is no true WR1 in Denver. I think Waddle walks in and claims exactly that title. He is my WR18 against a WR23 ADP. I am as bullish on this bounce-back as any I have.
TE Targets: Brenton Strange, Jacksonville Jaguars
ADP: TE19
Tight end is a barbell. You either pay up for one of the few difference-makers, or you punt the position entirely and swing late. Brenton Strange is my swing. My TE13 ranking against a TE19 ADP tells you how strongly I feel.
Strange averaged 9.8 PPG and finished as the TE18 last season, which sounds like nothing until you realize it is roughly the going rate for a dozen tight ends every year.
he peripherals are what sell me. Strange’s 1.81 yards per route run ranked eighth at the position, with top-10 finishes in both yards per target and first downs per route run despite being no better than the fourth read in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ passing game.
Here is the part that excites me most: the touchdowns. Strange is a 6’4″, 250-pound red zone target who somehow found the end zone just three times in 12 games. Trevor Lawrence threw 29 scores for the sixth-best offense in football. If even two or three more of those find Strange, he is flirting with 11 PPG and a top-12 finish.
Strange is also the only Jacksonville pass catcher with a truly locked-in role, north of 80% of the snaps. Punt the position and take him at a TE19 price that makes him essentially free.
