Fantasy Football Player Outlooks for The 2026-26 Season

For the fourth time in the last six seasons, Allen was the top fantasy quarterback in 2025, and that was with playing just one snap in Week 18 to (cheaply) extend his consecutive-starts streak. His on-target and completion percentages bounced back to career highs, but those were inflated by throwing short more than ever. Allen's 7.1-yard average target depth was a career low as a career-high 65.0 percent of his attempts went less than 10 yards downfield and a career-low 10.4 percent traveled 20-plus yards. The Bills lacked quality downfield options, and outside of Khalil Shakir lacked any better-than-decent WRs. Allen, of course, made up for middling passing production (215.8 yards per game, 20th), with elite rushing production. He led QBs with 579 rushing yards last season, making him the only QB with at least 500 yards in each of the last five years. He also led the position in rushing touchdowns, with his 14 scores five clear of second place, his third consecutive season with at least a dozen scores. A league-high eight of his 14 TDs last season came on QB sneaks, of which he should again get a healthy dose. With offensive coordinator Joe Brady now head coach, the offensive structure won’t change much, and as long as Allen’s pass attempts are in the neighborhood of 500, his rushing should do the rest. The Bills traded for WR DJ Moore, and while he won’t necessarily take the top off defenses, he’ll at least give Allen another reliable pass catcher alongside Shakir and tight end Dalton Kincaid. Even if Allen's pass catchers disappoint again, he's healthy after offseason foot surgery and hasn’t finished lower than QB2 in fantasy since 2019.

Mahomes’ 2025 campaign was cut short by a Week 15 ACL/LCL tear that ended a major bounce back in fantasy. After finishing 2024 as QB12, he was QB11 last year even though he played only 14 games, ranking QB4 in per-game scoring. His was a two-pronged improvement. First, Mahomes rushed for 422 yards and five touchdowns, both career highs. Second, he threw deep more often than he had in recent years -- a five-year-high 11.4 percent of his attempts went at least 20 yards downfield (8th). His average target depth rose to 7.8 yards, also a five-year high, resulting in 7.1 YPA, a three-year high. The rushing production already figured to regress this year, and that's now a near-guarantee after Mahomes injured his knee and the Chiefs signed RB Kenneth Walker. With fewer rush attempts and extra risk for missed games, Mahomes will need to stretch the field even more often (and more successfully) in order to outperform even his reduced ADP. The dink-and-dunk approach might work fine for Kansas City, but it won't add up for fantasy managers when Mahomes isn't scrambling and doesn't have an elite group of pass catchers. It's also not certain he'll be ready for Week 1, though both Mahomes and the Chiefs have made it clear that's the goal. To the surprise of many, the Chiefs haven't upgraded Mahomes' receiving weapons, instead focusing on their backfield and defense this offseason. Rashee Rice is highly effective on screens and other short passes, but he still hasn't been used much downfield -- an area where Xavier Worthy's 4.22 speed was supposed to help (still waiting). The Chiefs otherwise retained TE Travis Kelce and part-time deep threat Tyquan Thornton, ensuring that they have pass catchers with varied skillsets, if nothing else. Betting against Mahomes in real life has never been wise, but fantasy has been more of a mixed bag in recent years, even without the challenge of an ACL rehab.

For the second time in three years, Burrow’s season was cut short because of injury as he missed nine games last year, Weeks 3-12, with turf toe. He returned to throw 15 TD passes in the last six games (2nd in the league in that span), averaging about 37 attempts per game, a 630-attempt pace over 17 games. He'll need all of that for a shot at a top-5 fantasy season, because he doesn't add much rushing production and doesn't always stretch the field. Last year, Burrow at least reversed a three-year trend of not throwing downfield, with 10.4 percent of his attempts (15th) going at least 20 yards -- his first time in double digits since 2021. He still didn’t light it up downfield, though. His average target depth was only 7.6 yards (22nd), leaving him with a mediocre mark of 7.0 YPA (19th). Coach Zac Taylor’s offense should continue to give Burrow copious attempts -- no team has passed more often since Taylor took over the Bengals in 2019 (62.4%). The receiving weapons help, namely WRs Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and RB Chase Brown, while the TE room may again be a committee led by Mike Gesicki. Better health alone returns Burrow to QB1 status for fantasy, but probably as a mid-range starter rather than a top option in leagues where passing TDs count for only four points. Even in 2024 when he led the league with nearly 5,000 yards and 43 touchdowns, Burrow topped out at QB3 because of the lack of rushing.

After missing nine games in 2024, Prescott stayed healthy last season and finished QB6 in fantasy, topping 4,500 passing yards for the third time in his career and hitting 30 TD passes for the fourth time. It wasn’t just good health that propelled Prescott, though. It was also capitalizing on hefty volume. Prescott was second in the league with a career-high 600 pass attempts, posting a 72.7 on-target percentage (13th) and 67.3 completion percentage (12th) while also throwing downfield at a solid rate, including 11.0 percent of his attempts going at least 20 yards (11th). Pairing George Pickens with CeeDee Lamb gave Prescott two playmaker wideouts, and both cleared 1,000 yards while ranking top six in receiving yards per game. Prescott often needed pinpoint passes to find his star wideouts, as Dallas pass catchers surprisingly ranked 32nd in open percentage (40.2), 28th in separation (3.2 yards) and 29th in dropped passes (26). Prescott finished the season with an 8.3-yard average target depth and 7.6 YPA, both 10th. The WR duo is back this year, as are quality tight end Jake Ferguson, 1,200-yard rusher Javonte Williams and No. 3 receiver Ryan Flournoy. The offensive line did a good job to keep pressure off Prescott (14th in QB pressure rate) and returns intact. Prescott looks set up for another productive season, but because he runs so little (10.4 yards per game), he'll probably need another 600-plus attempts just to approach the top 5 of fantasy QBs.

Injuries and the Ravens’ general offensive regression spelled doom for Jackson last season. He missed four games with hamstring, toe, ankle and back injuries, and played hurt through at least a few other games, averaging just 23.2 pass attempts, a career low as a starter. Jackson’s passing efficiency was relatively stable, and he was still an effective downfield thrower (6:0 TD:INT on throws of 20-plus yards) but didn't get as many chances. The biggest drop-off, though, was in his running, where he averaged career lows in attempts (5.2) and yards per game (26.8) as the leg injuries deflated his wheels. The Ravens offense had its own problems, continually stalling in the red zone (47.5 TD%, 27th), among other issues. The team cleared out the coaching staff, hiring defensive-minded head coach Jesse Minter and offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who helped turn around the Bears last year as offensive coordinator (though he didn’t call plays). Doyle promises more pre-snap motion and play action, which would seem to suit Jackson. The Ravens lost Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum but addressed offensive line concerns in the draft with first-round pick Olaivavega Ioane. They also drafted wide receivers Ja’Kobi Lane (3rd round) and Elijah Sarratt (4th round) to provide some badly needed size alongside returning veterans Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman. RB Derrick Henry and TE Mark Andrews return as well, but TE Isaiah Likely and FB Patrick Ricard followed John Harbaugh to the Giants and don't have obvious replacements back in Baltimore. Assuming Doyle doesn’t wilt as a first-time play-caller and good health all around, Jackson looks primed for a bounce-back season.