In mid-January, RotoWire's football staff took our first crack at 2026 fantasy football rankings, each listing a Top 10 at QB/TE and Top 15 at RB/WR. I'm now doing a deeper dive after completing the first run of RotoWire's 2026 NFL projections.
Below you'll find my top 300 fantasy football rankings for PPR redraft leagues in 2026. I'm including the top kickers and defenses, though only a handful or so of each are in a range where you'd consider drafting them before the final round in most leagues.
Kickers matter more than ever, but there are enough promising options that it's still perfectly fine to wait until the final round and/or stream from week to week. For defenses, I always favor streaming, but I've still ranked some of the top units for those who prefer to target them a few rounds before the end of a draft.
In the far-right column, you'll see projected PPR points for each player, which should mostly align with RW's projections posted after the Super Bowl. However, you may also notice that my rankings and my projections don't necessarily align, especially once we get into the middle and late rounds. I'll discuss the various reasons for that in a separate article accompanying the release of our projections.
For now, I want to mention a few players that I've ranked very high/low relative to early best-ball ADPs on Underdog. Some of the differences are due to strategic differences between best ball and traditional redraft, but I still think those drafts with money on the line are the best way to estimate redraft valuations for 2026. At this early stage, it's only natural that I disagree with the overall market by wide margins on a number of players. A lot of those gaps close as the offseason progresses, especially after the main free-agent period in mid-March and then the NFL Draft in late April.
Let's look at how things stack up right now, in early February:
Ranked Ahead of Underdog ADP
- WR Carnell Tate - (My Rank: 35 / UD ADP: 56.9)
- WR Jordyn Tyson - (My Rank: 36 / UD ADP: 55.7)
I tend to have rookies ranked way higher than where they're currently going on Underdog. Perhaps I'm a bit too optimistic here, but a Round 4 ADP seems reasonable for WRs projected as top-15 picks, no? Tetairoa McMillan ended up in Round 4 last year, after going eighth overall to Carolina.
In any case, my projections/rankings for rookies will change a ton throughout the offseason. For the first run of the year, I'm usually just trying to put them in the right approximate range.
WR Brian Thomas - (My Rank: 52 / UD ADP: 65.0)- WR Parker Washington - (My Rank: 55 / UD ADP: 72.9)
I'm a big believer in Trevor Lawrence and Liam Coen, which has a downwind impact on some of the other rankings. Jakobi Meyers is also a nice player, but he's been around forever and maxes out in low-end WR2 range even when things are going well. Washington, and especially Thomas, offer much higher ceilings.
RB Rhamondre Stevenson - (My Rank: 54 / UD ADP: 69.1)
Stevenson flat-out outplayed TreVeyon Henderson down the stretch this season. I think the market is too optimistic about Henderson (see below) while not giving Stevenson enough credit.
WR Jordan Addison - (My Rank: 64 / UD ADP: 101.1)
Given Addison's talent, his early ADP feels almost like an assumption that Minnesota's 2026 QB situation will be no better than 2025. I disagree, with the team likely pushing to bring in someone like Aaron Rodgers or Mac Jones. If not a veteran, it could be Ty Simpson. And there's also some chance J.J. McCarthy improves if/when he ends up playing again. Addison is too good to be drafted this late when the offseason could play out so many different ways.
WR Josh Downs - (My Rank: 95.0 / UD ADP: 152.9)
Downs may not be a great player, but he's definitely a good one, and there's a good chance either Alec Pierce (free agent) or Michael Pittman (no guarantees remaining) will leave Indianapolis this offseason.
- RB Jonah Coleman - (My Rank: 74 / UD ADP: 116.0)
- WR Elijah Sarratt - (My Rank: 99 / UD ADP: 155.5)
- WR Chris Bell - (My Rank: 101.0 / UD ADP: 214.6)
I don't claim to be a college/draft expert, but much of what I've seen suggests guys like Coleman and Sarratt should be Day 3 picks, and potentially in Round 2 rather than Round 3. I may move them down some, but not a ton, when I update my rankings.
Ranked Behind Underdog ADP
RB Bucky Irving - (My Rank: 39 / UD ADP: 29.2)
WR Tee Higgins - (My Rank: 42.0 / UD ADP: 31.8)
These two are good plays, but not quite elite ones, with disproportionate downside risk. Higgins has a bad medical track record in his own right, and then his value also plummets whenever Joe Burrow gets hurt. In Irving's case, I worry about his small frame and Tampa Bay's late-season collapse. The offensive line took a huge step back, and both Irving and Baker Mayfield missed Coen.
RB RJ Harvey - (My Rank: 84.0 / UD ADP: 48.5)- RB TreVeyon Henderson - (My Rank: 86.0 / UD ADP: 44.9)
I liked both of these guys as prospects, and both had some big moments in 2025, but the overall body of work was disappointing. There's significant risk of both being timeshare backs in 2026, and not necessarily in the more favorable half of such an arrangement. Perhaps my intial rank is too harsh, but the early ADPs here are definitely too optimistic. The 4/5 turn will be reasonable for Harvey if Denver doesn't add much backfield help this offseason... but we need to see that first, not assume it. The team won't necessarily agree with my assessment that the running-game struggles are a schematic problem rather than a personnel one.
RB Cam Skattebo - (My Rank: 79 / UD ADP: 42.3)
RB Quinshon Judkins - (My Rank: 80 / UD ADP: 50.9)
I really like both Skattebo and Judkins from a talent standpoint, but year-after results have generally been poor for players that suffer the combination of a leg fracture, a dislocated ankle and ligament damage. Reports a couple of months ago suggested Judkins didn't suffer any knee ligament damage, but he may have still damaged ankle ligaments. That said, he broke his fibula, which usually isn't as bad as breaking the tibia (like Skattebo did). I'll probably move Judkins up a bit on my next run of projections and rankings. Skattebo, however, is someone I'm really trying to avoid.
I think both will fare better in the rehab process than Chris Godwin this past season, FWIW, but it might not be until late 2026 or 2027 that the young RBs fully regain their explosiveness.
