Lineup Fantasy Football Show - Ranking The Top-50 Fantasy Football Players In Under 30 Minutes

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

The only Top-50 fantasy football rankings cheat sheet you need for the 2026 NFL season. Mitch and Mello rank, tier, and break down all 50 players so you know exactly who to draft and who to avoid. Consider this your complete fantasy football draft strategy in under 30 minutes. Play $5 and Get $50 in Bonus Entries on Underdog with code LINEUP: https://play.underdogsports.com/vgwg/p-lineup Use code LINEUP50 for 50% off Smash Accept Subscriptions for a limited time: https://www.smashacceptff.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Top-50 Fantasy Football Rankings For 2026 0:30 - Jahmyr Gibbs 0:59 - Bijan Robinson 1:19 - Ja'Marr Chase 1:50 - Puka Nacua 2:14 - Jaxon Smith-Njigba 2:43 - Christian McCaffrey 3:19 - Amon-Ra St. Brown 3:55 - Justin Jefferson 4:21 - Ashton Jeanty 5:10 - James Cook III 5:40 - CeeDee Lamb 6:10 - Jonathan Taylor 6:40 - Saquon Barkley 7:19 - Brock Bowers 7:54 - A.J. Brown 8:34 - Derrick Henry 9:07 - De'Von Achane 9:48 - Drake London 10:15 - Kenneth Walker III 10:56 - Malik Nabers 11:29 - Trey McBride 12:08 - Nico Collins 12:32 - Chase Brown 13:21 - Josh Allen 13:40 - Rashee Rice 14:24 - Omarion Hampton 15:09 - George Pickens 15:47 - Ladd McConkey 16:24 - DeVonta Smith 17:03 - Jeremiyah Love 17:33 - Kyren Williams 18:03 - Tetairoa McMillan 18:29 - Emeka Egbuka 19:10 - Zay Flowers 19:52 - Javonte Williams 20:29 - Chris Olave 21:33 - Colston Loveland 22:23 - Tee Higgins 23:00 - Garrett Wilson 23:43 - Breece Hall 24:17 - Mike Evans 24:45 - Lamar Jackson 25:24 - David Montgomery 26:06 - Jaylen Waddle 26:35 - Carnell Tate 27:16 - Luther Burden III 27:45 - Josh Jacobs 28:21 - Terry McLaurin 28:53 - Quinshon Judkins 29:30 - Travis Etienne Jr. / Parker Washington Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go. Welcome into the line of fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello, let's break down and give our analysis on our top 50 players, including some of our favorite league winners in under 30 minutes for everybody who has their fantasy drafts coming up. We're not wasting any time. So Mello, you kick it off with our preferred first overall pick. 1.1. No surprise is here.

I think most people are in on Jameer Gibbs, as are we here. you look at how phenomenal he's been while sharing a backfield with David Montgomery. Now he gets this whole backfield to himself. The Lions have the highest implied point total on the entire season. Jumeir Gibbs has the highest touchdown line of any running back in the NFL. You look at everything coming together. All the stars are aligned for this young elite running back. It's really hard to pass up on him at 1.1.

And if he goes at 1.1, our 1.2 is so obvious. It's Bejohn Robinson. The situation's kind of mirror themselves. You look at Gibbs, no more David Montgomery in the backfield. You look at Bejohn, no more Tyler Al Jir in the background. We already saw Bejohn as the highest percentage player on championship teams last year. You absolutely cannot go wrong with him at number two. If you do miss out, though, you can still get the best receiver on the board here at number three,

where we would take Jamar Chase. We saw Jamar Chase's floor last season when he was the wide receiver four, and it seemed like nothing was going right with Joe Burroughs health and the team as a whole. We saw the ceiling two years ago, though, which is one of the greatest seasons of all time. I think we see something closer to that here in 2026. When you look at how elite of a player, Jamar is, how elite of a quarterback he has, this whole situation,

the Bengals' great offense, bad defense, everything is there, everything you could want out of Jamar Chase. He's always open, the most targeted player in the NFL last year. But this next guy was the overall wide receiver one in all of fantasy football. And number four is Puka Nakua.

This one's obvious. You look at the situation and not much has changed. Obviously, we have all the off-the-field stuff with Puka Nakua, but on the field, there's no reason to believe that he can't repeat as the wide receiver one overall, or at the very least give you a very safe floor in the top three to four receivers as long as he's healthy. Very similar to this next guy, honestly. Very similar to the guy who was a wide receiver two last year. That's Jackson Smith and Jigua we have here at 5. He did lose Clint Kubiak, but besides that, we're going into basically the same exact situation here in 2026.

He's still with Darnold, who he has a great rapport with. He had not only the highest target share in the NFL last year, but one of the highest target chairs really of all time, there's no reason to believe it's going to come down significantly, even if it does come down somewhat. He is such a safe bet here in the top five. All right, let's get a little bit interesting here. Let's talk about this next guy, Christian McCaffrey. We just talked about him with Austin Echler last week. I think that he is basically the biggest gamble you can take here in the first round, because you're either drafting a guy that almost has a floor as the RB2 overall, but also has a floor as the RB200 if he just doesn't play. play at all. And so basically, you've got to test yourself on how you feel about the philosophy

of playing fantasy football. If you're a guy who just swings for the fences and is okay striking out, Chris McCaffrey is your guy and should debatably be going higher than this. But this is kind of a hedge your bet spot putting him at the number six just because of the health risks. And if you are concerned and if you are risk averse, you might prefer number seven here, Amunraa St. Brown, who's actually one of the safest picks you can make. He's been the wide receiver three, three years in a row. From that lens, it seems like maybe we should even going to have them a spot or two higher here. He is just such a safe bet in this lion's offense. We talked about earlier how good they are, how trustworthy they are. Highest point total on this

season. He's still the number one receiver. The offense is going to run through him at least in the passing game. So there's no reason to believe Aminara is going to see it dip after three straight years as the wide receiver three. Yeah. And then at number eight, we've got a guy that going into last year we thought was entirely quarterback proof that proved not to be true with Justin Jefferson. And of course, our good friend, nine, J.J. McCarthy. But we're seeing, a big shake up here in Minnesota this year. We have Kyler Murray coming in. And so far, reports seem good about the rapport between the two. We've seen Kyler Murray. Pepper is wide receiver ones in the past. Just look back to that 2020 season with DeAndre Hopkins. So Justin Jefferson is a lot safer, I think,

than people want to believe here at the number eight spot. If you know me, you know I believe in a Justin Jefferson bounce back. And I also believe in the Ashton Gentie breakout. We have Ashton Gentie here coming in at 9th overall. Yes, last year was a disaster for the Raiders. but everything seems to be trending in the right direction now. We saw the talent of Gentian College. We even saw it in his rookie year, despite him being met in the backfield way too often. They've paid big money to fix this offensive line,

new coaching staff. The Raiders players will be the first ones to tell you that the offensive line coaching was horrible last year. And most importantly, Clint Kubiak is there now, who is going to fix this offense schematically. Now all of a sudden we're in a situation where Genti's talent is going to shine through. That's perfectly put.

Talent was always there. The situation was an issue last year, and we've seen so many improvements, so I absolutely love him there at 9. At number 10, we've got a guy who back in 2024 led the NFL in rushing touchdowns. Just last year, led the NFL in rushing yards. And that's James Cook, who is still a part of this explosive Buffalo Bills offense. We also have a lot of rumors going around right now that he might get a little bit more receiving work, which we've talked about this on our show, would completely unlock James Cook as a potential top three to four running back in fantasy football. But even if he doesn't get it, hear what I just said. He was the leader in rushing touchdowns two years ago.

The leader in rushing yards last year, still attached to Josh Allen and the bills. James Cook is a slam dunk safe running back pick. Switching gears to a receiver here at 11, we have C.D. Lamb, who was the wide receiver one overall just a few years ago. Obviously, if you dropped from last year, you were disappointed. A lot of that had to do with George Pickens, who in his own right is an absolutely phenomenal player. But make no mistake, if C.D. Lamb is healthy.

He should continue to be the wide receiver one and this explosive offense with a great pocket pass your quarterback. We call the Cowboys the Bengals Light for a reason. It is such a great fantasy friendly environment. So we think CD Lam's going to bounce back and be just fine here. Next up, we've got at number 12, Jonathan Taylor, who were a little bit lower on than consensus. We're a bit worried about the workload we saw last year. We're a little bit worried about how this offense is going to look with Daniel Jones coming pretty immediately off of the Achilles tear. Mello, you had a great stat about back in 2021 when we saw Jonathan Taylor get so much work, finished as the RB one, a lot of people drafting him as the running back one overall,

and then it completely flopped. And I think we have a lot of the same concerns here with Taylor, which is why we've still got him in the first round, just a little bit lower than a lot of people do. And that's the perfect transition to Sequan Barkley, who we have here in Axe. He kind of was the Jonathan Taylor of last year, at least what we project Jonathan Taylor to be in 2026,

because Sequan was coming off this season with so many carries, and the offense wasn't very good, the offensive line was hurt, Jalen Hertz wasn't playing well, the play calling was horrible, but now all of a sudden he gets a full off season arrest, not coming off a season where he led the NFL and touches. The offensive line should be healthy. There's a new play caller in town.

Everything is trending towards Sequan being much better here in 2026 than he was in 2025. And if you think Clint Kubiak is going to help Ashton Genti, you should be so unbelievably fired up for who we have at number 14. Brock Bowers, who to me is in a league of his own at tight end. I think we differ a little bit on that, but we both agree he, is the tight end won this year. Brock Bowers should be unleashed by Clint Kubiak, who described him as a football robot sent from heaven. We already saw the talent as rookie year. It was absolutely record-breaking. Throw away the tape from last year. It was injury riddled. And when he was healthy,

he was the tight end four in points per game. I think Brock Bowers is an absolute smash. And part of me feels like 14 is even too low for what he could do this year. It is certainly possible. And now a guy I love Mitch cut me off if I'm dragging on here because I could yap all day about A.J. Brown, who we have coming in here at 15. I'm a biased Patriots fan, but bias aside, I don't think that matters because I truly think A.J. Brown is a value. He is being overthought because of some of the negative vibes coming out of Philly. But when you look at it, he still was very effective last year. He still was a worthwhile pick in fantasy, even though it didn't really feel like it. Now all of a sudden he goes to New England, Drake May, one of the best deep ball throwers, one of the most efficient passers in

the NFL. A.J. Brown, his skill set fits this off and so well. He's going to be the alpha. He's going to be spammed in the passing game, and it's going to work. Here at number 16, we've got a lineup favorite. In fact, one of Mello's My Guys. We're talking about Derek Henry, who I think a lot of people because of the stink around the Ravens season last year, don't realize how good he was. Derek Henry was third in the entire NFL and yards per carry among qualified running backs, 5.7 a carry.

We have not seen this efficiency cliff that a lot of people were expecting at his age. Now you bring back a healthy Lamar Jackson. You bring in Declan Doyle from the Ben Johnson coach. coaching Trey as the offensive coordinator, I think it absolutely builds up for Henry, who, to me, is in line to have a better season than last year. Completely agreed. And going from a running back, we're higher on then consensus to when we're lower on. We have Devon A. Chan coming in here next.

We do have cold feet a little bit just because of Tua not being there. He used to check the ball down so much. And also Mike McDaniel, who loved using Devon A. Chan so much in the passing game. Now all of a sudden it's Malik Willis. Now all of a sudden is Jeff Hadley. That is reason for concern. but the flip side of the coin is Hadley has been very vocal that Achan is going to be the centerpiece of this offense, and the talent has never been in question. He is so explosive, so electric. As long as he's getting the usage and the dolphins are staying on the field long enough for that usage to be and the elite caliber it has been, he could end up being a steel and drafts.

At number 18, we have another guy where the talent is not in question. It's all the situation. We've got Drake London, who has been tearing up camp and to a Tungaveloa who's dancing on the sideline. mine for some reason, and it really feels like the perfect dichotomy there. We know Drake London's unbelievably talented. Our question mark is, how is this going to look at whether it's two at quarterback, whether it's Michael Pennix at quarterback? Mello's shared a bunch of really, really good stats about how much better Drake London is with Michael Pennix. So we'll continue to watch this quarterback battle, but it's seeming to lean to a tongue of a loa, which is why we have him here at 18. At 19, we have Kenneth Walker, who I'll address the elephant in the room. It's a little weird that we're ranking a guy this high whose highest career fantasy finish was running back 18 way back in

his rookie year. But with that said, everything has changed around him. And that is why he is now in this Kansas City offense. Just a couple years ago, we would give an arm and a leg for the starting running back here in Kansas City. Now all of a sudden, it's guy who's talented enough to win Super Bowl MVP. He's going to likely be the three down back. He's going to be a huge part of this offense. As long as he can stay healthy, it seems like a lock that he will have his best career finish here in fantasy. And now on to number 20. who is a guy who seems to have risen from the dead this offseason, and I have had fly up my own rankings.

That's Malik Neighbors. I mean, we saw it back in 2024. He had an absolutely ridiculous rookie season, the wide receiver six overall. Last year before the injury, he was the wide receiver too. I think we all remember that game against Dallas, has a 39-point explosion. It ends up being the sixth highest scoring performance

of any wide receiver in fantasy last year in just two real games played. And so if Malik Neighbors is on the field paired this time with Jackson Dart, rather than a combination of Daniel Jones, Russell Wilson, and Tommy DeVito from the two years before. He's an absolute smash pick here at 20. At 21, we have our second tight end, Trey McBride. Last year, the Cardinals threw the ball more than anyone in the NFL. Trey McBride's target share was astronomical.

He went from not scoring any touchdowns, basically, in 2024, to a very high touchdown rate in 2025. He is due for regression, but it doesn't really matter. He can take some regression. He can take a cut on his stats. and still be an elite fantasy tight end. That's how elite he was last year. Tighten three of all time last season.

He's still going to be the number one tight end in this offense. He's still worth a premium pick. Here at number 22, we've got a guy that I think to both of us doesn't quite have the ceiling of some of the guys before him, but he does have a sensational floor, and that's Nico Collins. At the time of recording this, we just got the news that Jaden Higgins just towards ACL, which we may have to move Nico around these rankings, but to me, that probably affects Dalton Schultz more than it would Nico.

this is a guy that I think while he's out there, he is going to be a very safe wide receiver one. I just think because of the passing volume in Houston, he doesn't have the same upside as some of the guys going before him. And that brings us to 23. One of the most polarizing running backs there is Chase Brown. I will be the first to say I think he is by far the least talented running back of any guy we have talked about to this point. But you can also make the argument he is in the single best situation of any running back we talk about to this point. He is on this Cincinnati Bengals offense, which lends itself so well to scoring fantasy points, scoring real-life points. And he supposedly has this backfield to himself, which I think is why a lot of

people are interested in drafting Chase Brown. We have them a little bit lower than consensus just because we like to bet on talent, which we don't necessarily believe in with Chase Brown. But when you look at how good he's been in fantasy when Joe Burrow is on the field, he is a guy who is an elite fantasy football running back, so he's not a bad guy to grab in the first couple rounds. And then here, at 24, we have got a guy who is just a phenomenal pick every single year. The past six years, he has been the QB1 four times and the QB2 twice. That's Josh Allen. He hasn't missed a game in those six years. There's not a ton of say about Josh Allen. This is just the time in the draft that we think you should attack quarterback is right at the end of your second round.

And he obviously should be the first quarterback off the board. Something not so obvious is Rishi Rice here at 25. This is our biggest discrepancy in our rankings. I have him at 18 Mitch at 31. So we split the difference here at 25. So let me be the pro Rishi Rice guy here. He is absolutely a target hog when he is on the field with Patrick Mahomes. Obviously between suspensions and injuries, we haven't really seen it season long. But on a per game basis, he has been an elite fantasy receiver. We are getting Cyrus Allen hype, which is well warranted. But for the time being Rishie Rice is still the number one receiver and a Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid offense. And in my mind, that is worth a whole lot. Shaquille O'Neal, time out meme. If you're still sticking with us,

Make sure to hit that subscribe button so that you can get fantasy advice all off season long, all the way through the season. We'll be doing this show three times a week. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters.

On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire. and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca. This episode is brought to you by Accenture.

When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result?

Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. But let's time back in and let's jump to number 26 and talk about Amari and Hampton, who we are way low around the consensus. You're probably sitting there wondering when we were going to talk about him. We just have a lot of concerns about what we saw last year with Amari and Hampton the efficiency.

And yes, I know he was hurt. But we also didn't see any sample size of him being efficient when he was healthy. We have other concerns about the playing time and how many snaps he. going to get when you're also working in a guy like Keaton Mitchell, which I know it seems like you shouldn't be threatened by Keaton Mitchell, but Mike McDaniel is hanging up wanted posters in the locker room asking for this guy. We saw Keaton Mitchell be incredibly efficient last year. And so maybe this is a bit of a thunder and lightning thing. I just think maybe the lightning might dig into the thunder more than people think. I'm glad you could be the anti-hampton guy on this episode because it's been me

on most of our shows. Every time. But I'll move on to number 27, George Pickens. We talked about CD Lamb earlier. George Pickens, the other elite receiver in this offense, one of the other very obvious regression candidates when you look at just how past happy the Cowboys were and CD Lamb wasn't active the whole season. When he was active, he wasn't at full health. So that's where we have George Pickens a good bit lower than what his finish last year would suggest. But the good news is he's still on a pass happy offense and he still has DAC at quarterback. And even if he's playing second fiddle to C.D. Lamb, the pie should be big enough where he can get a nice big slice of it. So he's still worth a relatively high pick. All right. Now we've got a daily double here. We've got two of our

favorite wide receivers in all of fancy football this year. At number 28, let's first off talk about Lab McConkey. I could talk about this guy all day. We saw this situation last year be the real issue. They brought in Keenan Allen. He gets 122 targets, completely cannibalizing Lad's production. The issue being you drafted the guy basically at the end of the first round, early second round, because he was the wide receiver 12, his rookie year. And so we see a situation now where you bring in Mike McDaniel, Joe Alt and Roshan Slater are back healthy. Obviously, the offensive line is having other issues. But Justin Herbert is, as Jim Harbaugh said, locked, cocked, and ready to rock.

I, Ladd McConkey's a smash pick here. I absolutely love Ladd McConkey. And we also love Devante Smith here on this show we have coming in at 29. Devante Smith has been very, very good with AJ Brown, and he has been absolutely elite without AJ Brown in a limited sample. He now gets a full season without AJ Brown. Devonza Smith is going to be the alpha of this offense. The offense we expect to take a step forward compared to last year, as we referred to earlier

when we were talking about Sequin Barkley. Some people think Mikea Lemon is going to cut into that workload. He is a rookie and the early reports have been he may not even be a week one starter. We still like a guy like Lemon long term, but here in 2026, DeFontas Smith is going to absolutely eat. And then at number 30, Mello, pour one out. This is a guy we've been so excited about all offseason. Jeremiah Love and obviously the high ankle sprain injury.

in the other day. That is just such a hit. We just do not like messing with injuries, especially for a guy who had enough situational issues going on, being in Arizona, sharing time with Tyler Alger. And so 30, I think, is around the spot where I feel comfortable taking Jeremiah Love. I just, I have so many concerns now with the injury that a high ankle tends to linger. Yeah, the injury really hurt Jeremiah loves draft prospects. But someone who's always healthy is Kairn Williams here at 31. He does not miss time. And he's so reliable in this Fram's offense. Obviously, Blake Corum is a part of this offense, too, which scares some people away from Kyron, but it really shouldn't because Kyron is just that

good. He's still going to be the leadback and one of the best, if not the best offense in the NFL. He's trusted in passing downs. He's trusted by the goal line. Sean McVeigh can never say enough good things about Kyron Williams, so neither can we, and that's why we want him in fantasy. Mello, we got another daily double right here. We've got two second year receivers that we're both excited about. The first one being T-Mack, Tederoa, McMillan. I think we just are both expecting that a guy who outperformed his ADP last year looked the part. Now this offense is looking to take another step. I think he's going to continue ascending. And I think he's going to be one of the top wide receivers in the NFL, at least from a talent perspective. The reason we have him

this low is because he's got a Bryce Young problem. And I feel like we can just leave it at that. That is the issue. I still think he'll be a really great receiver long term, though, and here in 26. Same as Emeka Abuka, the other second year receiver that we have here. Obviously, the health concerns are starting to creep up a little bit, and that's pushing him down our rankings a little bit. That'll be something to monitor deeper into August. But if he's healthy and he's on the field, he is going to have the full season breakout. Like we thought he would have last year based on the first month of the half of the season. But then when you look at what happened, he got hurt, Baker Mayfield got hurt, the Buccaneers imploded. You get everyone back healthy. You get Mike Evans out

of town. All of a Sondameka, Abuka is the clear number one receiver. And this Tampa Bay offense that people were dying for pieces of last year and the year before. As long as they can stay healthy, this is going to be a beautiful fantasy situation. Oh, shoot, one sec. Okay, yeah, Zay Flowers just got paid another $15 million, by the way, and we've got him here at number 34. Look, Zay Flowers last year, I think a lot of people underestimate the fact that he was the wide receiver seven. I mean, a large portion that came from the fact that availability is the best ability. And I don't think he's going to repeat that good of a season, but in so many ways, it feels disrespectful to put him here at 34.

Just because of the fact that, and you've said this before, he almost feels like a lock to outperform his ADP. He just lacks a very true ceiling unless we can start seeing him get in the end zone, his career high being five touchdowns. And, you know, now he got more mouths of feet here with Elijah Surat and with Jacoby Lane and all these guys very excited about. So I think he's properly put here at number 34. I think you just made me realize that the Zayflowers of running backs is Javante Williams,

who we have here at 35. very safe floor, maybe won't give you a top five finish, but he's going to be a great RB2, maybe even a low-end RB1, because of the environment that he is in in Dallas. I already talked about with CD and George Pickens, how I want pieces of this Cowboys offense, this explosive offense. And Javante Williams is going to be the workhorse just like he was last year. He's probably going to be a three down back as long as he can stay healthy.

And similar to what I said about Chase Brown, too, how can you not want the clear number one running back on a good offense? Next up we've got the guy that I think might be one of the hardest players to rank on this entire list, and that's Chris Alave. I would almost argue after the Jordan Tyson injury, which is probably going to keep him out about eight weeks, that we probably have a lave a little bit too low here. I just have so many fears, one around Alave's health and two around the fact that he was so, so volume dependent last year. And granted, he had an unbelievable finish. I had him on my team, and I was so happy to have him, but at the same time,

like, I kind of knew that what was going on wasn't sustainable in a year-over-year basis. What's going on, guys? We are officially partnered with underdog here in August for fantasy football draft season. If you've never used Underdog before and you want to do some fantasy drafts with me and Mello, you can actually sign up right now with a brand new promo using the code lineup, L-I-N-E-U-P. Basically, just deposit and play with $5, and Underdog is going to give you $50 in bonus entries that you can use on picks, drafts, or anything in the Underdog app.

So you can either go into the description, hit the card above, or just download the underdog app and use the code lineup, deposit, and play $5, and you will get $50 in bonus entries. from underdog. But guys, let's get back to the video. Speaking of sustainability questions, let's talk about Colston Loveland here at 37, one of the riskiest and friskiest picks on the board here. But we did see after a good two or three months of nothing out of Colston Loveland, the type of upside he had in December and then in the playoffs in January where he was a target machine. To me, he is the only tight end that gives you tight in one overall upside aside from Brock Bowers and Trey McBride.

and he is cheaper. Obviously, he's cheaper because of the risk. We haven't seen it on a season-long basis before. But I'm really starting to buy in myself. You hear Ben Johnson talking about how he wants to be the highest scoring offense of all time, not just a winning team. Colston Loveland probably is going to be the number one receiver on this team.

So if they're putting up historic numbers, Colston Loveland's going to smash ADP. My favorite phrase is, is it Luther Burden or is it Roma Dunzee? The answer is it's Colson Loveland. Definitely. But here at number 38, we're talking T. Higgins, which I can't believe we've gotten this point

the T. Higgins is kind of a boring pick because he's part of such an explosive, exciting Bengals offense. But to me, the issue is that when you're playing with Jemar Chase, who I mentioned had the most targets in the NFL last year, you've got to be incredibly efficient on the targets you do get. And so for me, if you're betting on T. Higgins here, you're betting on the entire Bengals offense having an explosive season, in which case, I've been finding myself specifically in best ball, pairing him with Joe Burrow as often as possible. But he lacks the ceiling that I think a lot of these guys in this range have, and so that's why we have him at 38. And at 39, another receiver, Garrett Wilson.

If I didn't like the sound of my voice so much, I'd say moment of silence for Garrett Wilson, who still doesn't have a quarterback and has never had a good quarterback his whole career. The other downside of Garrett Wilson is that he's relied on heavy, heavy target shares, and all of a sudden the jets go out. They invest two first round picks on pass catchers. The deadline last year they traded for A.D. Mitchell. So it's fair to wonder if he's going to get that same type of target share here in 2026, which is why I think we have a little bit lower than consensus.

The good news is Kenyon Sadiq cannot stay healthy. The early Omar Cooper Jr. reports had not been favorable. So this might be the last year we actually do see Garrett Wilson still just be a clear undisputed alpha in the offense. It's just a little bit less certain than it was in previous years. Let's get our jets out of the way here. And let's talk about Breeze Hall, who you've mentioned so many times,

a guy who was a former RB2 overall. We're closer in our ranking now after the injury than we were before. And so that's obviously something you have to monitor heading into the season. But I mean, I don't think the question for Breeze Hall is how talented he is. I just think it's a question of like, how effective can this team be? How many points can this team score? Because we've seen Breeze Hall not have the touchdown upside. And that's really what's limited in years past. And so if you think the Jets have a stronger season overall offensively, I think Breeze Hall is a great pick. I just don't personally see it. Well, another guy with injury

concerns here in camp, we have Mike Evans at 41, who's a guy we like a lot as long as that substation stays the hell away from him. But if he can stay healthy, he is going to be the number one receiver in a Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan offense. He likely will be used a ton by the goal line similarly to how the Rams used Devante Adams last year. Look at the tape when he actually was on the field and healthy last year. He still has gas left in the tank. And as long as he can stay healthy, he's in a phenomenal situation. On number 42, Humello, we actually have him ranked in the exact same spot. Lamar Jackson quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens. I just talked about this the other day, but he was the literal quarterback one in the history of fantasy football just two years ago.

Obviously, he had the injuries last year, but then they go out, they pay Zay Flowers to secure his wide receiver one. They go out and draft Jacoby Lane, Elijah Surat, who have been tearing up training camp right now. I think Lamar Jackson's in a real weapons, weapons everywhere situation, and he's a guy that we've seen have the incredibly high passing touchdown upside. And if he can repeat that this year. There's no question in my mind that like his floor went healthy is the QB2. 100% agreed. And another guy we like at 43, David Montgomery. Love him. I'm mad you have him higher than me because I want to be the David Montgomery guy. Austin Echler, also a David Montgomery guy. He's one of his my guys when we had him on the show. Look, we talk about how excited we are about

Jamir Gibbs having a backfield to himself. And I know David Montgomery isn't as good as Jamir Gibbs. And I know his situation isn't as good as Jamir Gibbs. But he also has a backfield to himself. Now, Woody Marks is not a real threat. All of a sudden, he's the lead back on this Texan's team with a good defense. They're probably going to run the ball a lot. We could see the offense as a whole bounce back after some disappointments last year. They've invested a little bit in the offensive line. Look at Joe Nixon just a couple years ago when he went to Houston.

He was a RB1 in points per game. David Montgomery could absolutely do the same thing here. At 44, we've got Jalen Waddle, a favorite of our good friend Derek Brown from Fantasy Pros. He continues to bring up the stat, but the issue with Jalen Waddle simply has not been his talent. It has been the quarterback situation, which is exactly why we're worried about Drake London. But last year in so many per route metrics, he was top 12 in yards per route run, targets per route run, first downs per route run.

Like, this guy is a certified monster and now you put him in the offense that was fourth in passing rate last year. I just, I think this is a match made in having between Jalen Waddle and Bowdox. And another receiver we love here, Carnell Tate at 45. It's astounding to me how late his ADP is given he has top four draft capital. We've really, in recent history, never seen a receiver taking this high, go this late in fantasy drafts. So from that lens, it really looks like he is a value. He's going to be the number one receiver on this team.

That's probably going to have to throw the ball quite a bit, given their bad defense and their hard schedule. And you look at the fact they have Cam Ward, who I know wasn't the best of quarterbacks or success stories last year, but he is a first overall pick quarterback. You can bet on the bounceback for him for this offense as a whole. and Cardinal Tate's going to be the biggest beneficiary. Here at 46, he probably heard his name earlier, Luther Burton of the Bears. One of the hardest players for us to rank, just because going into the offseason,

we saw him as a little bit of an overrated player, but we saw such an explosion last season in his rookie year. We now see Roma Dunzey's dealing with this foot injury that he's describing as his new normal. And so you mentioned it. Ben Johnson wants to see this be the highest scoring offense in NFL history. If that's the case, you want to get a good piece of it. We're a little bit lower on Luther burden than consensus, but we can absolutely see the upside in

this guy. Next is Josh Jacobs at 47. One of the murkiest and muddiest situations there is, one just for his health concerns, we're not sure how healthy he is right now. And two, the legal issues, we're not sure he could get suspended. That makes him really difficult to rank. That's why I'm personally fading him in most drafts I'm doing. But I will say this, if he ends up playing a full season, if he's healthy and not suspended,

he's an incredible value because he's a good running back and he's on one of the most run heavy teams in the league. He's been a consistent high-end RB2 for years on years now. He could end up being a steal. Thank God we have this next guy in Tier 6 and not in the fifth tier because it's Jaden Daniels number one wide receiver, Terry McLaurin. I just look at this situation in Washington as one of the most obvious bouncebacks. I think a lot of people are concerned about Terry McClorin because of Diggs' arrival here in Washington. To me, I just think he complements that offense so well. I don't think that they're going to cannibalize a bunch of targets from each other. And so maybe if you want to talk Terry down a little bit because of the dig signing. But to me, it just improves this offense

that I want a piece of. And Terry McCloran feels like he's going way too late, and we probably have him a little too late too. An offense I don't want to tell him pieces of is the Browns, but we do have Quinn Shaw Judkins here at 49. The two negatives are what I just mentioned, he's on the Browns, who are not a good team. And also, he doesn't catch a ton of passes. They're probably going to use Dylan Samson on third down quite a bit. But aside from those negatives, it's pretty much exclusively positive because he's one of the best downhill runners in the league. He's going to get heavy usage on early downs on what should probably be a run heavy team with a good defense, sneaky, good offensive line, or at least decent offensive line. So there's a lot of downside, but also this late

in drafts where running back starts drying up. He's a guy I'm more than willing to take some shots on. And since we're running out of time, let's go quickly here. On number 50, we've got Travis E.T.N. Jr., the newest running back of the New Orleans Saints. Actually, some news coming out. The Alvin Kamara is a little bit banged up, which is you'd some more opportunity for ETN. We are not as high on him as consensus, but we still see the path to him having a very good season if he gets enough volume.

I'm also going to throw Parker Washington here at 51, just to be safe. Those were our top 50 players for the fancy football season. Mello, before we let everyone get out of here, did we miss anything? Think we got it all. All right, make sure hit that subscribe button for fancy football advice three days a week,

and we'll catch you guys next time. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar rate matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca.ca.