Fantasy Football Player Outlooks for The 2026-26 Season

A perennial first-round fantasy pick, Chase was the popular 1.01 selection last year and mostly lived up to it, becoming the third player ever with 125-plus receptions in back-to-back seasons. He finished 2025 with a career-high and league-leading 185 targets, yet his fantasy production (19.5 PPR points) didn't quite match the 2024 level (23.7 PPR), with Chase dropping from 9.8 YPT to 7.6, including just 7.9 YPT on his 78 targets from Joe Burrow. In five games with Joe Flacco under center, Chase averaged an absurd 14.4 targets, producing 21.5 PPR points despite 6.8 YPT. With Burrow now healthy and Flacco re-signed, Chase is as close to a sure thing as there is in fantasy football, having played at least 16 games in four of five seasons. He's averaged at least 16.4 PPR points and 76 receiving yards each year, piling up short catches for easy points while also doing damage downfield. The only possible criticism is that he relies on massive route volume rather than pacing the league in per-route stats, but it doesn't much matter for fantasy when he's once again positioned for an every-down role in a pass-heavy offense.

Famously just a fifth-round pick, Nacua came out of the gate in 2023 with a rookie record of 1,486 receiving yards. He then led the NFL in yards per route run (3.70) in 2024, but a knee injury limited him to 487 snaps over 11 regular-season games. Healthier last year, Nacua again led the league in YPRR (3.80), only this time across 16 regular-season games (727 snaps), averaging a WR-leading 23.5 PPR points. His route share (75.1 percent) was still low relative to other top wideouts, but that helped him stay fresh and sustain absurd per-route usage, similar to Tyreek Hill's 2022-23 peak in Miami. Targeted on a league-high 36.1 percent of routes last year, Nacua did damage at every level, even catching 13 passes (t-3rd) 20-plus yards downfield (to equal his combined total from 2023-24). The lone disappointment? Nacua's 17.0 percent target share in the red zone, where Davante Adams (34.8 percent) took precedence. Nacua nonetheless scored 12 times in 19 total games, putting up 129-1,715-10 during the regular season and 24-332-2 across three playoff outings. Epic campaign aside, Nacua's unusual off-field behavior became a repeated source of public interest throughout the winter, culminating in a March trip to a holistic treatment facility. The Rams reportedly discussed trading Adams and acquiring A.J. Brown around that same time, but stability is otherwise the story in Los Angeles, with every 2025 starter on offense under contract for 2026. Continued off-field problems are the only thing that would prevent Nacua from being a consensus top-five pick in fantasy.

At this time last year, Smith-Njigba was facing questions about his transition from full-time slot work to a more perimeter-oriented role under new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. A year later, Smith-Njigba has an OPOY award and a Super Bowl ring, plus a spot on the top 10 of the single-season receiving list. He even led the NFL in receiving yards from the perimeter (1,366), after leading in slot yardage (956) the year before. Smith-Njigba did all that in an offense ranked 29th in pass attempts, accounting for 44.1 percent of Seattle's receiving yards and a 32.6 percent target share (both league highs) during the regular season. He led the league in receptions (16) and yardage (614) on passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield, and he also had the most catches (43) and yards (712) on throws in the range of 10-19 yards. His mark of 3.85 yards per route run was second best over the past decade, slightly ahead of Puka Nacua's 3.80 YPRR. The magnitude of Smith-Njigba's third-year breakout -- on the heels of a strong second season -- places him safely among the real-life elite at his position. There is some risk Seattle's offense takes a step back in the absence of Kubiak and RB Kenneth Walker, but that might also be a scenario in which QB Sam Darnold has to throw more passes and Smith-Njigba thus adds route volume to offset the high likelihood of efficiency regression.

Disappointing as 2025 was for the Lions, it proved to be another fruitful year for St. Brown's fantasy managers. He ripped off a third straight season in the range of 115-119 catches and 10-12 touchdowns, sacrificing some efficiency (8.1 YPT) while piling up a career-high 172 targets. Wan'Dale Robinson was the only WR with more slot yardage, and St. Brown also finished a respectable 16th in yards from the perimeter. Ben Johnson's departure for Chicago may have shifted the balance of power in the NFC North, but ARSB's fantasy value escaped unscathed, with Detroit's mediocrity leading to more deficits, more pass attempts and more targets. As much as the Lions hope that changes in 2026, they no longer have the elite offensive line that defined their team in 2023 and 2024. It should still be a good offense, with QB Jared Goff throwing to St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta, but we shouldn't assume a return to the elite team-level efficiency from 2024. How much that matters for St. Brown in fantasy is up for debate, given his remarkable consistency and durability through five pro seasons. He's typically the fourth WR drafted for fantasy this year, after Puka Nacua, Ja'Marr Chase and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Jefferson topped 87 yards per game in each of his first five NFL seasons, displaying an unmatched degree of consistency for a downfield-oriented receiver in this era of short-passing attacks. He survived a transition from Kirk Cousins to Sam Darnold, putting up 103-1,533-10 in 2024, but even Jefferson couldn't stay afloat in 2025 when young quarterback J.J. McCarthy sank Kevin O'Connell's once-steady longship. On paper, Jefferson was left with one of the worst 1,000-yard seasons ever, barely getting there on 144 targets and scoring just two TDs in the process. In reality, he wasn't to blame, held back by the same league-worst QB play that made talented teammates T.J. Hockenson and Jordan Addison irrelevant for fantasy. The Vikings have a new plan for 2026, at least at QB, where they're banking on Kyler Murray to revive O'Connell's offense and rejuvenate his own career in the process. Murray helped WR DeAndre Hopkins put up some big numbers in Arizona under Kliff Kingsbury, but that was largely a product of numerous quick targets in an offense drastically different from O'Connell's. While there's no doubt about Murray being a major real-life upgrade on the quarterbacks that Jefferson dealt with last year, it might not be the best style of QB play for a wideout who does the bulk of his damage on deep and intermediate throws.