4 Fantasy Football Rebound Candidates: Last Year's Busts to Draft (2026)

July 12, 2026

Aidin Ebrahimi's fantasy football rebound candidates for 2026. Players such as Baker Mayfield who are set to bounce back from disappointing 2025 campaigns.

It's so heartbreaking when you draft a fantasy football player highly, convinced that they will produce like their usual selves, and then they go on to have an extremely disappointing season.

But there's always the potential for a glorious rebound. Naturally, whenever a player is coming off a down year, their fantasy value goes down, which creates a perfect opportunity to draft (or in dynasty leagues, trade for) these players at a much more favorable price. In 2025, plenty of players such as Christian McCaffrey and Nico Collins bounced back from down years, helping fantasy managers who took a gamble on them win big.

Without further ado, let's look at four players (one from each position) who could be set for a bounce-back season in 2026. Players who spent more than half the season injured, such as Bucky Irving and Kyler Murray, will not feature.

Baker Mayfield - QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Baker Mayfield's career has been a roller coaster so far. From the Browns' savior to a bust to a career renaissance and two Pro Bowl nods with the Buccaneers. Mayfield's 2025 campaign felt like an extremely condensed version of that roller coaster.

Baker has been working on his dance moves all offseason 🕺

🎥 Watch more highlights on NFL+ pic.twitter.com/RR9leSFDiA

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) July 5, 2026

He started the year on fire, receiving notable MVP consideration from major media outlets. However, he slowly watched his supporting cast suffer injury after injury, and the injury bug eventually caught up to him as well.

Mayfield suffered foot and bicep injuries ahead of Week 4, before suffering knee and oblique injuries sometime before the team's Week 9 bye. Mayfield kept playing through all those injuries before being struck down with a torn labrum in Week 12.

That was the only injury that kept him off the field, as he didn't return for the second half of that game but returned in Week 13 and didn't miss any starts all season long.

Mayfield is known for his grit and toughness; he plays through injuries that most players would miss significant time for. Of course, this was to the detriment of his performances (though the team clearly didn't have any better options), as they lost seven of their last nine games and missed the playoffs.

Simply put, that injury stretch was nothing more than some unprecedented bad luck. Mayfield and the Bucs have now fully recovered from that injury crisis, and even though the loss of Mike Evans hurts, he still has a plethora of talented players to play with in 2026.

Bucky Irving, Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin Jr., and Jalen McMillan all dealt with injuries in 2025, but are all great weapons and have solid chemistry. Tez Johnson showed flashes of potential as a rookie, and Cade Otton has averaged 542.3 yards per game over the last three seasons.

Also, new addition Kenneth Gainwell became one of Aaron Rodgers' favorite checkdown targets in Pittsburgh (73 catches for 486 yards) and could build a similar connection with Mayfield.

Individually, the Buccaneers offensive line lacks star power apart from Tristan Wirfs, which is why they weren't able to play well consistently in 2025 due to injuries. However, they play brilliantly as a five-man unit.

The return of Cody Mauch will help Graham Barton and Ben Bredeson tremendously. These players, alongside returning right tackle Luke Goedeke, all started on the team's offensive line in 2024, which ranked third in the league, per PFF.

Mayfield will play under his 10th offensive coordinator in 2026, but he knows Zac Robinson very well. Robinson previously worked with Mayfield on the 2022 Rams, where he (alongside Sean McVay and Liam Coen) helped save Mayfield's then-unraveling career.

The last time Mayfield played under an OC whom he had known previously was in 2024, when he reunited with Coen and had the best season of his career.

From Week 1 of 2023 to Week 6 of 2025, a 40-game span, Mayfield racked up 765.2 fantasy points, which ranked him as the overall QB4 only behind Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen.

Mayfield is an elite fantasy QB when he's healthy and on his game, and that looks to be the case in 2026, as he gets ready to earn a big-money contract extension.

Breece Hall - RB, New York Jets

Breece Hall's 2025 season was bittersweet. On one hand, he finally managed to run for over 1,000 yards for the first time in his career. On the other hand, he only scored five touchdowns, which tanked his fantasy production compared to previous seasons.

He also saw his close friends Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams get traded, and his social media activity made it seem like he was looking to request a trade. However, a last-second trade to the Chiefs never materialized, and he signed a three-year, $45.75 million extension with the Jets in the offseason.

Now that he's fully settled, Hall is looking to get back to his best as the face of the Jets franchise. He scored 531.4 PPR points in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, a tally only bettered by Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Bijan Robinson, and Jahmyr Gibbs during that span.

Hall will be under new OC Frank Reich, who helped mold Jonathan Taylor into a superstar during his stint with the Colts. The QB upgrade also cannot be overstated; Geno Smith didn't have a good 2025, but he is still an upgrade over Justin Fields, who averaged a league-worst 4.62 net yards per attempt and 11.69 sack percentage. Hall is certainly excited about playing with a veteran like Smith.

"Just the fact that they [GM Darren Mougey and HC Aaron Glenn] brought a proven veteran like [QB] Geno Smith and then we drafted some really good guys," Hall said in his first press conference since his contract extension, per Jets reporter Jack Bell. "God willing, we stay healthy, and everything goes as planned. I feel like this could be my best season."

Brian Thomas Jr. - WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

Brian Thomas Jr. had a rookie season for the ages in 2024, as he averaged 16.7 PPR points per game on a disastrous Jaguars team that had to start Mac Jones at quarterback in the second half of the season.

Lawrence to Thomas Jr. for 33 yards!

KCvsJAX on ESPN/ABC
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN App pic.twitter.com/v0Sj6ufjvO

— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2025

Many thought Thomas would leap to superstar status in 2025 with a healthy Trevor Lawrence under center.

Unfortunately, while the Jaguars improved tremendously and won the AFC South title, the man known as BTJ took a huge step back; he averaged just 9.9 PPR points per game and missed three games due to an ankle sprain.

The rise of Parker Washington and the arrival of Jakobi Meyers at last season's trade deadline have made many people hesitant to draft Thomas again, and he was even involved in trade rumors.

However, the LSU product has been in top form this offseason, developing chemistry with Lawrence and is healthier than ever. Apart from the aforementioned ankle injury, Thomas also suffered a shoulder injury during the Jaguars' 2025 minicamp practices.

That injury affected his ability to run and lingered for the rest of the season, but now it seems to have fully healed.

"It doesn't hurt to run," Thomas told Jaguars reporter Brent Martineau when asked if he felt a difference this season. "As close to 100% as possible."

The Jaguars also view Thomas as their main vertical threat and will use him as such in 2026.

"Look for Brian Thomas to be used a lot down the field on vertical routes," said NFL Network's Cameron Wolfe. "They think that's where he can really take that next step."

Sam LaPorta - TE, Detroit Lions

Another player who took the fantasy football world by storm as a rookie only to have struggled with injuries since then, Sam LaPorta, shocked everyone by finishing as the overall PPR TE1 in his rookie campaign.

LaPorta's numbers did take a slight dip in 2024, when he finished as the PPR TE8. He kept that ranking in the first 10 weeks of the 2025 season before suffering a herniated disc in his back, which ended his season.

Overall, from his NFL debut all the way to Week 10 of 2025, only Trey McBride (588.6) and Travis Kelce (529.8) had put up more tight end PPR points than LaPorta (520.8).

LaPorta is now focused on his recovery, as HC Dan Campbell has expressed optimism that he'll be back for training camp.

"We like where he’s going," Campbell told Lions reporters during mincamp. "He’s trending the right way."

LaPorta has produced great numbers whenever he's been healthy and is still held in high regard by the Lions organization, with NFL Network's Ian Rapoport claiming that he could sign a "big" contract extension this summer.

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