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Patrick's must-have value players to draft for 2026 fantasy football leagues. His league-winning draft picks and player outlooks, including Cam Skattebo, Alec Pierce, and more.
Some carrots are just bent. Not bad, just bent. And yet, for generations, these bent carrots sat on produce shelves unwanted and unloved. Then, studies began to show that consumers were more willing to purchase even the wonkiest of fruits and vegetables after simply being told that they are just as nutritious as their prettier counterparts and that buying them helps to reduce food waste. And up sprang companies like Imperfect Foods and Misfits Market, along with the growing movement to rescue ugly produce.
This article is my attempt to do the same for fantasy football. Every year, drafters pass over perfectly good players because of injuries, depth chart concerns, or sometimes simple fatigue. But just as the finest ratatouille can be made from ingredients that look like they once lost a bar fight, players don't need to be pretty to provide value.
This year, for one reason or another, there are players at every position going well beyond where they probably should be. Here are four guys you should be targeting in 2026 drafts, and when you’re hoisting your league’s trophy in January, nobody is going to remember that they were each slapped with a clearance sticker in July.
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Running Back - Cam Skattebo, New York Giants (ADP: RB19)
Cam Skattebo started and finished six complete games in 2025, and over that stretch, he was the fantasy RB6. Generally, that sort of thing gets a guy a bit of recognition, but Skattebo is somehow slipping into the middle rounds of drafts as the RB19.
While something about those numbers seems a little fishy, in this particular case, it’s probably best to simply chalk it up to market inefficiency and move on without demanding a recount.
From Weeks 2 through 7, Skattebo averaged 17.4 half-PPR points per game while doubling the rest of the Giants backfield in carries. Before the pads have even come on in 2026, his tenacity has already drawn the praise of a guy not shy about running a little smashmouth football.
In his final four seasons in Baltimore, new head coach John Harbaugh’s offenses ranked first, second, first, and third in rushing rate. Granted, having Lamar Jackson under center and Derrick Henry around for the past two seasons probably didn’t hurt the cause, but honestly, when the lights are off, is there really any difference between Lamar/Henry and Jaxson Dart with Skattebo?
Don’t answer that. For a variety of reasons. One being that yes, there is one glaring difference between Henry and Skattebo. Henry has eclipsed 30 targets just three times in 10 NFL seasons. Skattebo cleared that mark before his rookie campaign was halfway over, and his 14.8% target share across his six full games would have ranked seventh among all running backs last season.
With a 23-year-old quarterback still learning how to protect himself on an NFL field, and the Week 1 availability of Malik Nabers growing murkier every time Harbaugh speaks of his injury recovery, fantasy-friendly checkdowns could be coming in droves.
John Harbaugh updates the status of Cam Skattebo & Malik Nabers
"Malik will be working his way into practice as camp gets started in one way or another"
"You'll see a lot of those guys this season... Skatt's 'further ahead..' but Malik is not far behind"
Clip via @FoxworthShow pic.twitter.com/1m2LcFiaE9
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) July 14, 2026
Skattebo's own gruesome leg injury ended his rookie season, but reports on his recovery have been overwhelmingly positive. And while his violent play style, resembling some sort of ill-planned, cross-promotional Four Loko Kool-Aid Man, raises obvious durability concerns, that risk is already reflected in his RB19 price tag. For some reason, the upside is not.
Wide Receiver - Alec Pierce, Indianapolis Colts (ADP: WR38)
Alec Pierce has scored nearly two fantasy points per target over the past two seasons, led the NFL in yards per reception in both years, and finished as the WR24 in 2025 despite missing two games.
Since then, the Colts have handed him a four-year, $114 million contract, traded away Michael Pittman Jr., and hung a banner of him on the side of the stadium. All just to see his ADP fall to WR38.
Alec Pierce has replaced Kenny Moore II on the side of Lucas Oil Stadium.
Pierce joins Quenton Nelson, DeForest Buckner and Jonathan Taylor. pic.twitter.com/61eawHrudk
— Kevin Bowen (@KBowen1070) July 14, 2026
I can’t even get a photo into the middle third of my mother’s mantle, and this is a literal banner. What more do the Colts need to do to tell us who their favorite son is?
The departures of Pittman and Adonai Mitchell via trade have vacated 125 targets, but perhaps more importantly, have forced the Colts to answer a pretty uncomfortable question about their personnel. Indianapolis was one of just 12 teams to run 11 personnel on more than 62% of its offensive snaps last season, but what in the world would possess it to keep that up in 2026?
Who would that third receiver even be? Raylen Sharpe? Eli Pancol? Floyd Farmer?
The fact that only one of those is a completely made-up name and not an actual player currently on the Colts roster should tell you everything you need to know about the state of the depth chart.
The obvious alternative is a heavier reliance on more two-receiver sets, with targets funneled entirely through Pierce, Josh Downs, and Tyler Warren, but Downs saw fewer than 30 snaps in such sets in 2025.
The Colts reportedly experimented with him on the outside during minicamp while Pierce recovered from ankle surgery, but regardless of how HC Shane Steichen elects to piece together his offense, the most attractive option in the passing game is almost always going to be the guy who's averaged over 21 yards per catch in consecutive seasons.
Perhaps that number drops as he sees more regular involvement, but it’s not as if Pierce requires 50-yard moon balls to succeed for fantasy. It’s not a novel concept to think that more opportunity could lead to higher fantasy production, but just how good Pierce has been in his handful of high-volume games is actually a little shocking.
Across the last eight games in which he saw at least seven targets, Pierce has scored 18.7 fantasy points per game, which is more than the overall WR2 averaged in each of the past two seasons.
Yes, the surgery to repair an ankle issue that has been bothering him since 2024 was a little unexpected, and quarterback Daniel Jones is still recovering from his own season-ending Achilles tear, but the newest banner hanging outside Lucas Oil Stadium should tell you everything you need to know about how the team views Pierce’s prospects for 2026.
Quarterback - Jared Goff, Detroit Lions (ADP: QB16)
Since the start of the 2022 season, Jared Goff has averaged fewer than half a fantasy point per game with his legs. During that same stretch, only Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, and Lamar Jackson have scored more fantasy points overall.
Goff has basically become fantasy royalty without ever threatening anyone with his athleticism. He simply stands in one place and throws the absolute heck out of the ball.
NFL Top 100 Players of 2025:@Lions QB Jared Goff comes in at No. 15! @NFLFilms pic.twitter.com/0qqRPmPNmw
— NFL (@NFL) August 27, 2025
In fact, finding another passer who's even been in the same zip code over the past four seasons is almost impossible, as he leads the NFL by 1,258 passing yards and 13 touchdowns over that span. Yet, because fantasy managers remain understandably infatuated with rushing production, he is currently being drafted as the QB16 after rattling off four consecutive top-10 finishes.
And if anything, the environment around him has gotten even better this offseason. The meaningful step backward projected by Ben Johnson's departure saw Detroit's offense tumble all the way to the bottom … of the top five. In both total offense and scoring.
Now, the keys have been handed to Drew Petzing, whose first season in Detroit comes on the heels of helping Jacoby Brissett pace as the QB6 across his 12 starts in 2025.
Goff’s supporting cast remains as loaded as ever with Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams, and a healthy Sam LaPorta. In fact, the Lions' biggest offensive loss might be the guy who played the largest role in keeping Goff from ever throwing 40 touchdowns.
Over his three seasons in Detroit, David Montgomery handled 89 opportunities from inside the opponent's 10-yard line. Exactly one of them was a target. Uncaught.
Gibbs is every bit as dangerous near the goal line, but almost 14% of his career opportunities in that same area have come through the air. Replacing a pure battering ram with one of the league's most dynamic receiving backs creates far more opportunities for Detroit's touchdowns to come attached to Goff's stat line.
There are understandable reasons for fantasy managers to chase the upside of a rushing quarterback in the later rounds of drafts, but exactly how many 4,500-yard, 30-touchdown, QB1 finishes in a row must Goff turn in before managers remember he was, in fact, the first overall pick in an absolutely loaded 2016 draft class?
Tight End - Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills (ADP: TE12)
There are some frighteningly good tight ends in the league right now, and somehow Dalton Kincaid just made more explosive plays than all of them while barely seeing the field. Lingering knee and hamstring injuries limited Kincaid to just 28.9% of Buffalo's offensive snaps in 2025, yet he still led all tight ends with 13 receptions of 20 or more yards.
And when he was on the field, some of his efficiency metrics bordered on the absurd.
On a per-route basis, Kincaid ranked first among tight ends in fantasy points, targets, and first downs. He also led the position in yards per route run, one of the stickiest of sticky stats.
His 2.77 yards per route run didn't just lead all tight ends. It trailed only Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba among all pass-catchers, finishing a full yard ahead of Trey McBride.
The closest tight end? Tucker Kraft at 2.27. A player who is currently being drafted roughly four rounds earlier than Kincaid despite recovering from a torn ACL suffered less than nine months ago.
And don’t get me wrong; Kraft deserves every bit of the hype he’s receiving. He’s a stud. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but he actually finished second in yards per route run last season, and he makes for a fascinating foil in showing just how badly Kincaid’s bizarre usage has skewed the perspective on him.
Even with his season already over by the time most kids were finishing their Halloween candy, Kraft saw almost 140 more offensive snaps than Kincaid in 2025 and ran nine more routes. Yet, Kincaid caught seven more passes and gained 82 more receiving yards. Now, he enters training camp bigger, stronger, and healthier than at any point in his career.
Dalton Kincaid rocking a VISOR at #Bills mandatory minicamp today
👀#BillsMafia @BuffaloPlus pic.twitter.com/vfs39s02Bt
— Dan Fetes (@danfetes) June 10, 2026
Buffalo also scored 23 of its league-leading 30 rushing touchdowns from inside the 10-yard line last season, more than the total rushing touchdowns of 29 NFL teams. Josh Allen will always siphon off some goal-line production, but expecting that number to repeat is asking a lot, and even a modest swing back toward passing touchdowns could disproportionately benefit a player with Kincaid's efficiency.
If his snap share climbs anywhere near full-time territory, Kincaid could very well become the tastiest carrot in your championship stew.
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