Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. Is Xavier worthy of an early-round pick? Late-round stashes who could shine in 2026. Up-and-coming Chase Brown. Running back dominating drafts early. And more.
Question 1
Why are you high on Worthy? A lot of experts have been saying that last year was his "best case scenario" with Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown being hurt. People keep throwing around the phrase "don't draft Worthy at his ceiling" a lot and it does worry me. Sure, Rice will miss the first month or so, but long term over the season I think Worthy could easily become the 2nd, if not 3rd target on the team. What's your thought process for his high value?
Tom Fini (Manhasset, NY)
Worthy averaged top-15 numbers in his final 11 games last year – 5.2 catches for 62 receiving yards, plus another 7 rushing, and 7 TDs in 11 games. He got a lot more comfortable as the year progressed. I am comfortable offering a money-back guarantee that he will be significantly more productive than Hollywood Brown. As for Rice, we’ll see. With his size, he’s their best pass catcher on physical routes in the middle of the field. He averaged top-10 numbers in his final 10 games of the 2023 season. But the suspension needs to be factored in. Could be two games, could be 10 games. I don’t know.
Question 2
Thanks for your help, as always. I was wondering if you have any insight on possible late round picks in redrafter leagues who could have keeper value for the following season, such as a running back who isn't starting this year but is projected to start next season. I was able to keep Bucky Irving with a 13th round pick this season and would love to throw some late round darts at players with potentially high ceilings.
Alex Konop (Northport, NY)
Tory Horton, the receiver the Seahawks selected in the fifth round, looks like he’s for real. I don’t know that he’ll be helping teams all that much this year, but I’m confident he’ll be one of their top 2 pass catchers in 2026. KeAndre Lambert-Smith had a similar vibe, but now the Chargers have Keenan Allen coming back for another season, which lowers him into another class – it won’t happen as quickly for KLS. Isaac TeSlaa (for the Lions) looks good; he would make sense as a last-round kind of guy. If we’re looking for high ceilings, probably the best option would be to throw a handful of picks at the better backup running backs. Blake Corum, Ray Davis, Isaac Guerendo, Trey Benson, Sean Tucker, Bhaysul Tuten, Quinshon Judkins. Take 3 or 4 of those guys and you should get a hit. (With his off-field issues, Judkins will slide in drafts, but he potentially could enter 2026 as their starter.)
Question 3
Hello First let me say I love your site. I have been using it for about 15 years and have won many a championship. What happened to the podcasts? I thought they were informative and enjoyable.
Richard Spinella (North Providence, RI)
We are not doing a podcast this year. We have pressed pause on that product. Note, however, that we are giving Luke Wilson (the former podcast host) more opportunities to contribute on the site. You’re still get Luke’s fantasy takes, but in written rather than verbal form.
Question 4
I’m in a 10 team PPR league and have the 8th overall pick. On draft night, the draft is in person and the FFI draft cheat sheet is used by everyone to follow along with the selections, and this has been the case for the past 3-4 years. It’s a home league, so everyone doesn’t always come fully prepared and there are a few “reach” picks. In general, I would say about half of the league blindly follows the FFI cheat sheet rankings, and the other half may take player a few spots lower or higher if they like that specific player. My question is with taking this info into consideration, what would you consider the most optimal way to start the first few rounds (let’s approximate 7 rounds to fill out QB-RB-RB-WR-WR-TE-FLEX). Since it’s a 10-team league, I think having a premier QB or TE may give an advantage relative to a larger league. With this 8th overall pick, who are the ideal players you’re looking to get in each round to build out a team?
Bill Copestick (Philadelphia, PA)
The option of waiting at quarterback can be appealing. I noticed that in a couple of mock drafts, a few teams were able to wait until the late, late rounds and still pick guys like Brock Purdy and Bo Nix. The running back and wide receiver positions were simply picked over at that time. So that can be a good way to go. If you’re picking a QB early, it should be a guy you like and at a price you like. In setting the supply-demand numbers for your league (which can be done in the custom rankings area) I would be inclined to focus on the first 10 rounds. That’s seven starters for each team, plus three high-value backups (guys who’ll definitely be starting some games). Ten teams and 10 rounds, that’s 100 players. Probably something like 5 QB, 36 RB, 10 TE and 48 WR in that group. If we go that route, it’s Chase #1 overall, then a dozen running backs dominating the action before it swings back to the WR position.
Question 5
I am in a league where we keep 7 players, dynasty lite I call it. My 7th is between Tee Higgins or Chase Brown. What are your thoughts?
Ryan Holland (Churchville, PA)
Brown looks awfully strong to me. He put up top-5 numbers in the second half of last year, averaging 79 rushing and 37 receiving yards in his final eight games, with 6 TDs. He averaged almost 5 catches in those weeks. They had him on the field briefly in their preseason opener, and he looks the same guy. I’m very comfortable with him. His right up there with the top tier running backs, in my opinion. Barkley, Jacobs, Henry, Taylor, Irving, McCaffrey, Kyren – Chase Brown easily could outperform a bunch of those guys. He’s in a great offense.
Question 6
My 12-team league allows a Keeper for the following year if the player is drafted in the 8th round or later and stays on your roster the entire year. My Keeper this year is Brian Thomas in the 10th round. My question is who are some players you would target in order to try to replicate what I did last year?
Brian Boyd (Maple Grove, MN)
Travis Hunter and Tetairoa McMillan were top-10 picks, so I don’t think they’ll be around in the eighth round. Too much hype. McMillan had a really nice long catch in his first preseason game, looking like he’ll be Carolina’s leading receiver. Maybe Matthew Golden, but I doubt it. I’ve generally been cool on Golden for the last three months, thinking he’d have trouble separating from Green Bay’s other players at the position. But Jordan Love was talking up Golden last week, and I liked the look of him in his preseason debut – elite speed, and he fearlessly ran two routes into crowded areas. The guys in the broadcast were raving about his hands being better than the other receivers on the team. With Christian Watson out for the year and Jayden Reed having foot problems, I could see Golden putting up top-30 numbers this year. But I will guess not. I’m in a draft that’s in progress, and Golden went at 8.01. The other first-round receiver (Emeka Egbuka) also lands in a crowded receiving room, but Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are older guys.
Question 7
Hey guys I’m a big fan of your work. I’m in a 12-man ESPN PPR league where we get our draft order a month before the draft. What strategies do you have for picking at the 8th position? Are there certain positions I should focus on early?
Kenneth Slota (Perrysburg, OH)
After Ja’Marr Chase, I see a lot of parity at wide receiver. I see lots of good ones. So if I were sitting at 8th, I would expect I’d be picking running backs with my first two picks, then turning my attention to the wide receiver position. If you went into a draft locked into taking 2 RBs and 2 WRs with your first four picks, the RB-RB-WR-WR ordering would grade out substantially higher than the WR-WR-RB-RB mix.
Question 8
Other than the original magazine rankings, what resources do you offer for dynasty leagues? I bought the super fanatic updates, but don't see anything new for dynasty drafts.
Kevin McCloud (Hartland, WI)
We publish revised dynasty rankings every Thursday. There’s a lot of stuff flying around on the weekend, with dozens of revisions to the stat projections, so at that time we focus on the 2025 rankings. But in the Mon-Tue-Wed window, I audit and adjust all of the dynasty rankings (first looking at each of the 32 team, then giving a careful push-pull to the player list at QB, RB, WR and TE. The dynasty rankings aren’t published in the Monday version, but they show up in the Thursday version. Every week. When applicable, we’ll also mention dynasty dynamics in the text. As examples, Tory Horton, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Jack Bech and Tre Harris. We should probably have a few more of those, but we’ve had some. I’ll let the guys know that Kevin McCloud would like more dynasty in the text.
Question 9
Was surprised not to see the results and commentary of the annual auction style draft. Always looked forward to that. Is it anywhere on website, couldn’t find it.
Eric Feingold (Garden City, NY)
We did a 12-team auction about two weeks ago. Ben Prator has been working on a recap article. I am told it will be posted soon.
Question 10
What would you recommend as the best ways to determine who the best "upside" or "league winning upside" guys might be, aside from handcuff RBs? What are the important considerations/identifiers/qualities to look for (e.g. good offenses, coaching, new coaching staff, offensive schemes, team dynamics, specific data/stats, increased workload, volume, injuries, eyeball test)? I've recently heard YAC for TE's, speed for RBs, and Air Yards for WR.
MICHAEL TRAMONTE (Melrose, MA)
I’m partial to scheme. There are coaches who run more fantasy-friendly schemes, spreading the ball around less or consistently using the same players around the goal line. I have more confidence in an unknown or up-and-coming player when he’s getting plugged into that kind of an offense. I also like to look at the per-game stats and see what pops up. There are many players who were a lot better (or worse) in the second half of the season. It’s usually useful to figure out why that occur? Did the schedule get easier? Did the team start using him differently? Was he playing hurt?
Question 11
I'm in a two-QB league, but have to fill 5 flex spots (along with 1 RB and 2 WR/TE). Is it unwise to pass up on a top tier QB in the 1st/2nd round in order to load up on other positions? Usually the first QB's don't come off the board until the beginning to mid 2nd round.
Ryan Klein (Tinley Park, IL)
In a 10-team league, you would have 20 quarterbacks starting every week, and another 70 starters that my numbers suggest would be 38 WR, 6 TE and 26 RB. Teams will want to have a good third quarterback, of course, and they’ll also prioritize have 2-3 good backup players. If we call it an even 3 per team, I think what the teams are fighting over is about 26 quarterbacks, 15 tight ends, 33 running backs and 52 wide receivers. Those are the relevant players. (Numbers would be slightly higher for a 12-team league). The last of those players will be picked in the 13th round. I would start there. If you assembled your entire team in the 13th round, you’d have an idea of what it would be worth. Then look at the guys at each position who would provide the most additional pop beyond what you would get in the 13th round. (Those are the numbers I would plug into the auction setup area of the custom scoring.)
Question 12
I have the 4th pick in a 12 team 1/2point PPR pretty standard scoring league. In our league history says running backs will be drafted first (last year first 9 picks were running backs). If this holds true this year, would you advise going against grain and taking Chase? I'm assuming Robinson, Barkley and Gibbs will be the first 3. If not Chase, then which RB?
Patrick LaMendola (Penfield, NY)
I’m in an on-going half-PPR draft. In our first round, it was split 6-6 between running backs and wide receivers. I’m of the school of thought it should be more like what you’re expecting in your league, with more running backs. But if Chase is there at #4, he’s the pick.
Question 13
Auction Keeper League $200 cap… who do I hold, Derrick Henry $45 or Chase Brown $22?
Zachary Townsend (La Marque, TX)
Brown looks like a top-10 back to me. I would keep him and pick up the extra $23.
Question 14
In my league, we play all 18 weeks of the regular season and then have separate redrafts for the fantasy playoffs. You can keep a player or players from your regular season roster if their NFL teams advance to the playoffs. Do you think this wrinkle makes Derrick Henry, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Saquon Barkley and other top players on likely playoff teams more valuable in my upcoming draft?
Paul Owers (Boynton Beach, FL)
I would think so. I see Burrow, Josh Allen and Lamar as similar in value. I’ve had Burrow a little higher for most of the postseason. But if we’re factoring in the postseason, it would be reasonable to say Allen and Jackson are more likely to play in multiple playoff games, lifting them higher than Burrow.