Top-10 NFL Draft Prospects To Watch For Fantasy Football 2026
In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Xfinity, these top-10 prospects are must watch in fantasy, NFL mock draft and Risers/Fallers after free agency.
In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Xfinity:
We're now through the bulk of free agency, which means it's time for me to update my 2026 NFL mock draft.
The Titans have RB Tony Pollard, but he's a prime cut candidate and not good enough anyway to keep the team from selecting one of the draft's best players.
Jeremiyah Love is just 20 years old. He won the 2025 Doak Walker Award as the top RB in college football, and over the past two seasons he put up 3,014 yards and 40 TDs from scrimmage in 28 games.
With a three-down skill set, workhorse frame (6-0, 212 pounds), and home run speed (4.36, 40-yard dash), Love could be one of the NFL's top backs as a rookie.
I currently have him as my No. 7 RB for fantasy, and that feels as if it could be low.
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Here are the RBs over the past decade to go in the top half of Round 1 of the NFL Draft and finish their rookie seasons at 21 years old.
2016: Ezekiel Elliott (No. 4)
2017: Christian McCaffrey (No. 8)
2018: Saquon Barkley (No. 2)
2023: Bijan Robinson (No. 8)
2023: Jahmyr Gibbs (No. 12)
I put Love firmly in the tier of these players as a prospect.
If he lands in a functional offense—unlike Ashton Jeanty this past year—he could draw Round 1 investment in fantasy drafts for season-long, best ball and Guillotine Leagues™️.
No. 8: Saints—WR Carnell Tate (Ohio State)
As I've mentioned on the Fantasy Life Show, when it comes to Carnell Tate, I'm a little skeptical.
He was never the No. 1 WR at Ohio State. His junior breakout was rather modest (51-875-9 receiving, 11 games).
He measured in at the combine smaller than listed in college (6-foot-2, 192 pounds vs. 6-foot-3, 195 pounds). And his speed (4.53, 40-yard dash, 1.61, 10-yard split) is subpar for his size.
But his relative lack of size/speed dynamism is concerning. It's easy to look at other guys with NFL success and suboptimal 40 times and say that Tate is like them … but literally all of them (CeeDee Lamb, Tee Higgins, Keenan Allen, Cooper Kupp, Davante Adams, DeAndre Hopkins) were significantly bigger and more productive than Tate in college.
Also, I'd argue that all of them were more physical than Tate as collegiate pass catchers.
I still like Tate and expect him to have NFL success. He's the No. 1 WR in the 2026 Rookie Super Model.
But before the combine, I thought No. 8 was his draft capital floor. Now I think it's probably his ceiling.
Still, Tate will pair well alongside No. 1 WR Chris Olave.
No. 9: Chiefs—TE Kenyon Sadiq (Oregon)
Eventually the Chiefs will need a successor to TE Travis Kelce, and in the meantime they could use more playmakers on offense.
With Kenyon Sadiq, they get both.
He's undersized for the position (6-foot-3, 241 pounds), but he's fast (4.39, 40-yard dash, 1.54, 10-yard split) and explosive (43.5-inch vertical jump, 11-1 broad jump).
Now … onto another mock draft from someone you may be familiar with 👀 … after this break!
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If you’ve had Josh Allen in fantasy any year since 2020, you’ve been more than happy. He’s been the QB1 five times in that span, the only year he didn’t finish up top being 2022 when he fell all the way to QB2. He just finished his followup to his 2024 NFL MVP season with 3,668 passing yards and 25 TDs, adding 579 rushing yards and 14 more scores on the ground. Betting against him continuing his fantasy dominance for another five years would be ill-advised.
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Thor Nystrom’s Guest Mock Draft: Tate Stays in Ohio
It’s great to welcome back our dear friend and former colleague Thor Nystrom to do a guest mock draft. He’s over at SKOR North wearing a variety of hats, including a show covering Minnesota sports. He’s also on a weekday show on the Vikings and, of course, a show where he breaks down all things NFL Draft. Speaking of the draft, he got back in the saddle for Fantasy Life and dropped a mock draft, just like old times. Before you click below for the full first round of the mock draft, here’s where Thor is sending a player who has been getting plenty hype this cycle:
6. Cleveland Browns: WR Carnell Tate
Cleveland shops local, tabbing Tate from nearby Columbus. The Browns simply cannot enter training camp with a starting WR trio of Jerry Jeudy, Cedric Tillman and Isaiah Bond. Tate taking over as Cleveland’s alpha boundary WR1 would kick Jeudy back inside to the slot, giving the Browns a legitimate receiving corps again. Tate is a big-bodied chain-mover in the vein of a George Pickens or Tee Higgins.
It’s been a whirlwind first week of free agency. While the Maxx Crosby to the Ravens fiasco has garnered most of the headlines, there have also been a bunch of moves that have impacted the fantasy landscape.
Pete Overzet did a great job of highlighting some of the biggest winners who stayed put in a recent newsletter, but we want to focus on some of the biggest risers and fallers who changed teams. Let’s dive right in.
📈 Kenneth Walker (RB8)
It’s tempting to dream about the idea of placing Walker into the prime Chiefs’ offense. That said, it’s important to remember that the current version of the Chiefs isn’t the same one that dominated during the early Patrick Mahomes years. They were 20th in yards and points per game last season, and they were among the worst running teams in the league. They were 24th in rushing yards per game, while their offensive line was 25th in ESPN’s Run Block Win Rate.
Still, the idea of Walker getting a bell cow role has to be considered an upgrade for fantasy purposes. Walker is an elite talent at the position, earning the No. 1 Pro Football Focus grade in 2025-26. We got a glimpse of what he could do with a bell cow role in the playoffs last season. He averaged 104 rushing yards in his three playoff contests, and he added 3.0 receptions and 34.7 receiving yards per game. He also scored 4 total touchdowns.
The change of scenery is enough to vault him into the top 10 in the RB rankings for the upcoming season. Hopefully, Mahomes will be ready for the start of the season, and the addition of Walker helps the Chiefs’ offense return to prominence.
📉 Michael Pittman (WR43)
It felt like the Colts had too many pass catchers at times last season, so it’s not surprising that they’ve thinned the herd a bit for 2026-27. They brought back Alec Pierce for nearly $30M a year across the next four seasons, and to help offset that cost, they shipped Pittman to the Steelers.
Pittman quietly finished as WR18 last year in terms of PPR scoring, despite slumping down the stretch with Daniel Jones on the sidelines. He racked up 80 catches, 724 yards, 7 touchdowns and led the Colts with a 21% target share.
It’s hard to imagine him getting back to that threshold with the Steelers. DK Metcalf figures to be the team’s No. 1 option, and he led their receiving corps with a 22% mark last season. No other receiver was above 13%, so he should be looking at a downgrade in volume.
The quality of those targets could also be lacking. It’s still unclear who will be under center for the Steelers next season, but Aaron Rodgers remains the odds-on favorite. Rodgers is a shell of his former self at this point. He got rid of the ball faster than any QB in football last season, and he averaged just 5.79 intended air yards per attempt. It’s hard to imagine Rodgers being able to support two fantasy-relevant receivers, so Pittman is likely looking at some serious regression.
How high is too high for Kenneth Walker after he landed with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs? Is Malik Willis the new late-round QB that your favorite fantasy analysts are targeting? Free Agency changed things in the NFL landscape, and Ian Hartitz ran through how his rankings changed after all the player movement on this episode of the Fantasy Life Show.
