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Who should I draft for fantasy football in 2026? Fantasy football outlooks for Tony Pollard, Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, Deebo Samuel Sr., Kyle Monangai, Jonathon Brooks, Brian Thomas Jr., Jaylen Warren, Rachaad White, Rome Odunze.
Who Should I Draft? Use this tool to assist you with some common 2026 fantasy football draft decisions regarding players like Tony Pollard, Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, Deebo Samuel Sr., Kyle Monangai, Jonathon Brooks, Brian Thomas Jr., Jaylen Warren, Rachaad White, and Rome Odunze. We are here to help make these calls and build winning teams in 2026. Draft your optimal fantasy football teams for 2026 with our Who Should I Draft? tool. Compare up to four NFL players, and we tell you who to draft... all free!
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Fantasy Football Draft Outlooks
Below are some fantasy football outlooks written by our NFL team here at RotoBaller, bringing you their fantasy football analysis and advice on which players to consider drafting in 2026:
Tony Pollard, Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans running back Tony Pollard has quietly remained one of the more reliable fantasy backs in the league, topping 1,000 rushing yards and 30 receptions in each of the past four seasons while never finishing worse than RB24 in half-PPR formats. Despite that consistency, the 29-year-old former Pro Bowler has fallen well into this year's running back dead zone, sliding to RB30 in RotoBaller's 2026 redraft rankings. Tennessee spent a fifth-round pick on running back Nicholas Singleton, adding a degree of competition to the Titans' backfield.
While a broken foot suffered at the 2026 Senior Bowl likely contributed to his slide into Day 3, his fall from one of the top high school recruits in the nation also suggests an inability to shake some of the concerns about his poor vision and stiffness, potentially making him more of a developmental project than an immediate threat to Pollard's workload. New offensive coordinator Brian Daboll should prove capable of boosting a Titans offense that averaged 232 total yards under Brian Callahan but showed signs of growth after his Week 7 firing.
Following Daboll from the Giants is wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson, and the team spent the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on Ohio State's Carnell Tate, but even if the Titans don't take a monumental step forward on offense, Pollard projects once again as a steady RB2 option. His all-around skill set makes him the favorite to remain the lead back, with weekly volume and receiving usage capable of keeping his fantasy floor intact.
Kyle Monangai, Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears running back Kyle Monangai is entering Year 2 with a chance to take a huge step forward. Monangai's role within Chicago's offense grew as the 2025 season wore on, culminating in 783 rushing yards and five touchdowns. He brought a combination of explosion and power that the Bears' offense needed. In Year 2 of head coach Ben Johnson's system, Monangai's role should only continue to grow.
As the 2025 season progressed, the Bears' running back tandem of Monangai and D'Andre Swift was beginning to look like the Jahmyr Gibbs-David Montgomery combination we saw during Johnson's Detroit days. The difference here is that Monangai is a more explosive player than his counterpart, Montgomery.
While Monangai seems poised to begin the season in the backup role once again, there is a real possibility that he works his way into the starting role at some point. At minimum, Monangai is well-positioned for something close to a 50/50 timeshare. After finishing as the RB30 in 2025, Monangai is being drafted in that range early in the draft process. He is absolutely worth that price, with a legitimate chance to finish in the top 24.
Monangai is week-to-week with a hyperextended knee, and his status for Week 1 is up in the air. He will likely be out the rest of training camp, but fantasy managers should continue to monitor his status leading into Week 1.
Jaylen Warren, Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren has outperformed ADP in three of his first four seasons in the league, and coming into 2026 as RotoBaller's RB32, he has a solid chance of improving upon that trend. Since signing on with Pittsburgh as an undrafted free agent in 2022, Warren has proven himself to be one of the most well-rounded, underrated backs in the league. In two of his three seasons sharing the backfield with former first-round pick Najee Harris, he topped 160 opportunities, and he never fell below 5.2 yards per touch.
Last year, as Kenneth Gainwell racked up the fourth most running back receptions in the league, Warren was not far behind with 40 of his own, while his 1.58 yards per route run ranked sixth among qualified backs. The Steelers added Rico Dowdle in free agency, and while he was able to top 1,000 yards at each of his last two stops in Carolina and Dallas, he has never handled a bellcow role for an extended stretch.
He also doesn't possess any single trait to justify Warren's fall to the back of the seventh round after an RB16 finish in 2025. At 215 pounds, Dowdle's 236 carries in 2025 do not come close to the workload of a prime Harris, and his career-high 39 receptions came while sharing the backfield with one of the league's most inefficient pass catchers in Chuba Hubbard.
Warren has fended off larger threats while finishing as a top-25 back in two of his last three seasons. While he may not offer the league-winning upside that some drafters prefer to swing for from the later rounds, Warren is a safe bet to return value, and he has a proven track record of thriving under similar circumstances.
Rome Odunze, Chicago Bears
After an up-and-down rookie campaign, Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze came out with a blazing start to the 2025 season, scoring five touchdowns in his first four games and going into the Bears' early bye week as the WR3 in Half-PPR formats. Coming out of the bye, the 2024 ninth overall pick started showing up on the injury report with foot and ankle issues, and while he continued to play through the nagging injuries, his production dropped, and he was eventually shut down for the final five games after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his foot.
Despite playing in only 12 games, Odunze's 87 targets led a talented group of Chicago pass catchers, and his six receiving touchdowns tied for the team lead. By year's end, five different Chicago players saw at least 60 targets, but with DJ Moore and Olamide Zaccheaus no longer on the team, Ben Johnson's passing offense is expected to funnel through Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland in 2026. With the thinning of the receiver room likely to produce an uptick in targets, and quarterback Caleb Williams expected to take a step forward in his second season with Johnson, Odunze has a chance to produce WR1 numbers from the mid-round range of drafts.
In 2025, only Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy had a higher off-target throw percentage than Williams, and no receiver was impacted more than Odunze. Williams completed at least 60% of his passes in only six games, and on the four such occurrences when Odunze was active, the second-year receiver averaged 18.4 fantasy points per game. Odunze could also have a path to early-season targets in the event Burden misses time, as he is currently dealing with a groin injury.
When the connection is working, Odunze is capable of winning weeks, and at RotoBaller's WR36, that upside can still be had for a bargain in 2026.
Deebo Samuel Sr., San Francisco 49ers
Who says you can't go home? Bon Jovi was a proponent of heading home, and now Deebo Samuel Sr. is agreeing with that opinion. After a one-year stint in Washington and an offseason where no team seemed interested in signing him, Samuel is returning to help the injury-depleted San Francisco 49ers, bringing him back to where he was a fantasy force in 2021 when he racked up 1,405 receiving yards, 365 rushing yards, and 14 total touchdowns.
Samuel is far from the same player he was that season, though. He has lost the explosiveness he had several seasons ago and is now more of a possession receiver than a game-breaker. Samuel will slot into the injured Ricky Pearsall's role and should get plenty of targets (and handoffs) alongside aging pass catchers Mike Evans, Christian Kirk, and George Kittle. Samuel's durability always comes into question due to his reckless running style, so he will likely miss a handful of games.
Offensive guru Kyle Shanahan will utilize the best of his abilities, so a season of 700-800 receiving yards with another 200 yards on the ground and four-to-six touchdowns sounds about right, unless Father Time tackles him and/or he gets banged up again.
Who Should I Draft - Fantasy Football Tool
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2026 Player Decisions. Today's focus is on specific players - Tony Pollard, Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, Deebo Samuel Sr., Kyle Monangai, Jonathon Brooks, Brian Thomas Jr., Jaylen Warren, Rachaad White, Rome Odunze. These are some common searches for 2026 fantasy football drafts.
Using The Tool. This is a simple tool but very powerful. The first step is to enter the player names that you want to compare. In the first box, search for the first player name. In the second box, search for the second player name. Compare up to four NFL players at once, and then click the Who To Draft? button to see who the recommended draft picks are based on fantasy football rankings, projections, and more.
Improvements For Who Should I Draft? You may have noticed our Who Should I Draft? tool has gotten an overhaul. We've added lots of great features for you to give you as much information as possible to win your 2026 fantasy football drafts. You'll see NFL player tiles with bye weeks, stats and projections, ADPs, strength of schedule, enhanced search results with data to compare, and a slick interface. We hope you enjoy!
How It Works. Our RotoBaller staff puts together their preseason fantasy football rankings and projections based on their research, and update it constantly throughout the preseason. That information is the core data that is powering the decision-making in this tool. When you search for player names, you will only see those players that are ranked.
Scoring Formats. Fantasy football managers play in various types of leagues, and this tool allows you to choose whether it's PPR scoring, Half-PPR scoring, or Standard (Non-PPR) scoring. The second thing you want to do is to select the scoring format. There are three small radio buttons (small circles), so click on the scoring format you prefer. The results may vary based on the scoring format you select.
Popular Draft Searches. Curious to see some tough draft decisions for 2026? Below you will find a list of some popular Who Should I Draft? searches that RotoBaller readers are looking at. Click any of the links to see the result and recommendation.
Popular Player Comparison Searches - Who To Draft
Below are some popular searches and comparisons from our Who To Draft tool for 2026 drafts for Tony Pollard, Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, Deebo Samuel Sr., Kyle Monangai, Jonathon Brooks, Brian Thomas Jr., Jaylen Warren, Rachaad White, Rome Odunze:
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