I love landing a top-four pick in 2026 Fantasy Football drafts, but it is a challenge. I'll tell you why in a moment. First, let's focus on the positive. You get one of the best players in Fantasy! My esteemed colleague Jamey Eisenberg believes we have three candidates for the No. 1 overall pick this season, and that's Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson or Ja'Marr Chase. In my opinion, Puka Nacua belongs in that conversation. I love the fourth pick for that reason, especially if drafting a team with three starting WR roster spots.
Chase has just barely edged out Nacua (21.7 to 21.5 PPR points per game, respectively) over the past two seasons. I would take Chase above Nacua, but either is a valid pick. In my opinion, either is a defensible selection at first overall in this format.
I'm not going to hesitate to select Nacua, even if regression from last year's wildly efficient MVP performance from Matthew Stafford feels likely. And that's what I did at pick four in this draft.
This is our 12-part, pick-by-pick series where I, Adam Aizer, Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, Dan Schneier and Heath Cummings all took part in a six-person PPR mock draft. We each built two of the 12 teams in this 14-round draft to show you a different strategy from each spot.
This is an outline that you can follow if you pick No. 4 overall in your league. The key is to study the strategy and not necessarily the players to see if this works for you.
The challenging part of picking at No. 1 overall is what happens at the Round 2-3 turn. Most or all of the top running backs will be off of the board. If in a scared draft room, you might see Ashton Jeanty fall to the Round 2-3 turn. Occasionally, Omarion Hampton, Derrick Henry, or Kenneth Walker might fall into late Round 2. In this draft, all 12 of my top-ranked RBs were selected by the time I made my second pick. What is one to do in this scenario -- start a draft with two receivers? You could swing on Brock Bowers or Trey McBride, but doesn't it feel so much better when you can land one as a Round 3 value than using a second-round selection on a tight end?
In this draft, I had to make a difficult decision between two stud wide receivers -- I selected Nico Collins ahead of A.J. Brown. The opportunity ahead of Brown in 2026 is massive. Drake Maye is by far the best passer he's been teamed up with, and Josh McDaniels has engineered massive touchdown outputs for Randy Moss, Davante Adams, and Brandon Lloyd, to name a few. It could absolutely be a huge season for him. Collins is also looking at a huge opportunity, though. We saw him command a 30% target share in five different games in 2025. Before that, he had only five total games with a target share that high scattered across his career. With an unfortunate injury sidelining Collins' up-and-coming WR teammate Jayden Higgins, the target competition in Houston is as sparse as it has been throughout Collins' career. I want to aggressively target the alpha WR1 firmly in the prime of his career.
After filling two of my three starting WR spots with my first two picks, I planned to select Jeremiyah Love in Round 3. Instead, I was surprised to find a player who I felt I could not pass on available. Now, let's see how the rest of the team turned out.
As a reference point, all touchdowns in this league are worth six points, and we award one point for every 10 yards rushing and receiving and one point for every 25 yards passing. We also award one point for every reception. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE and FLEX (RB/WR/TE).
Here's my team from No. 1 overall:
1.04: Puka Nacua, WR, Rams
2.09: Nico Collins, WR, Texans
3.04: Malik Nabers, WR, Giants
4.09: Bucky Irving, RB, Buccaneers
5.04: Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, Patriots
6.09: Jaylen Warren, RB, Steelers
7.04: Jordan Mason, RB, Vikings
8.09: Stefon Diggs, WR, Commanders
9.04: De'Zhaun Stribling, WR, 49ers
10.09: Dallas Goedert, TE, Eagles
11.04: Tank Bigsby, RB, Eagles
12.09: Kimani Vidal, RB, Chargers
13.04: Kyler Murray, QB, Vikings
14.09: Ryan Flournoy, WR, Cowboys
Malik Nabers scares me a bit, even if Year 3 could yield massive production. I don't want to invest in Matt Nagy's offense. And, of course, Nabers' health is a red flag.
With Nacua and Collins already on the roster, the pressure is off of Nabers to come through in a huge way for me. In Round 2, he's a risky pick. In Round 3, he's a luxury. Of course, starting with three receivers put me in an uncomfortable position as I waited to see who would make it back to me in Round 4. It was fun to start the draft this way, though! I hammered the RB position with every pick I made from Rounds 4-7. I'm curious what you think of the end result!
Favorite pick: Jordan Mason
On Beyond the Box Score, Dan Schneier and I conducted a "Best ADP Values" episode and agreed that Jordan Mason was one of the best 2026 Fantasy RB picks on the board. All that people seem to remember about the 2025 Vikings season is the performance of J.J. McCarthy. In my opinion, the crux of Minnesota's offensive implosion was brutal offensive line injury luck. The Vikings pay their star tackle duo like its the best in the NFL -- if healthy, it might be! Obviously QB play ultimately sank the ship, but the ship was probably going down either way. There were holes all over!
Both tackles are expected to be back to their full powers -- Christian Darrisaw entering his age-27 season and Brian O'Neill his age-31 season -- and Minnesota's new assistant head coach Frank Smith is rumored to be transforming the run game with ideas brought over from his tenure working with Mike McDaniel in Miami. As Aaron Jones enters the twilight of his career, Jordan Mason seems likely to serve as an offensive engine for a Kevin O'Connell-led offense that we have seen put points on the board with regularity.
In a draft like this, where I happen to miss out on the RBs I want in the early stages, Mason feels like a gift in Round 7. The icing on the cake is that the Vikings have -- by my estimation -- the easiest schedule in the NFL. Mason probably will offer flex value while splitting the backfield with Jones, and he could be a league-winner if his veteran teammate misses time. In four games working as a fill-in bellcow last year, Mason averaged 16.5 touches and 14.5 PPR points. He was a strong Fantasy producer on that version of the Vikings offense!
Pick I might regret: Tank Bigsby
I regretted it as soon as I made the pick. I wanted to take Caleb Williams with that pick. I felt pressure to add quality upside RB bench stashes, and I knew that a late-round QB bandage was always available to my team if I missed out on Caleb. But I am a staunch believer in the Ben Johnson-led Chicago Bears, and I think Williams could win MVP in 2026. My immediate regret was quickly confirmed, as Williams was the very next player off of the board. Bigsby is a talented young player who has continued to improve his game and could put big points on the board if forced into action in 2026, but he's also not a player who many drafters seem to be targeting. I probably could have landed him in the following round. I really like stashing young RBs with upside in good offenses -- Kimani Vidal was my next pick -- and this team would benefit in a huge way from a lottery ticket win from the bench RBs. But I'll be honest -- I wish I had drafted Caleb Williams.
Player who could make or break my team: Bucky Irving
I was really hoping to land D'Andre Swift, but he left the board two picks before mine. I settled for Bucky Irving. I'm an extreme proponent of Irving's talent, and so I'm happy to draft him. I much prefer to add him to my team as the RB2 or RB3. With Irving as my RB1, I'm nervous, for obvious reasons. History has not been kind to running backs who faltered in Year 2 after a strong Year 1. Most of them do not make it back. The NFL is quick to move on at the RB position. That's especially the case when it comes to undersized Day 3 running backs.
Irving might just be special, though. His rookie season certainly suggested that he deserves some amount of faith. Given the overwhelming number of extenuating circumstances stacked against him in Year 2, Irving feels like a valid bounce-back candidate in Year 3. Tampa's offensive line can maul defenses in the run game when healthy, and new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson has shown an ability to create opportune in-space moments for his playmakers. In Atlanta, Robinson utilized Bijan Robinson as a pre-snap motion man and sometimes even lined his star RB up out wide or in the slot on routes. Irving is exactly the type of creator who benefits from space. Robinson's Atlanta offense had a player in motion at the snap of the football at a higher rate than any other in 2025. In 2024, under Liam Coen's instruction -- Robinson talks to Coen "almost every day," by the way -- Irving averaged a full additional yard per rush on plays involving pre-snap motion. Irving is one of three backs -- Christian McCaffrey and Jahmyr Gibbs being the others -- with a higher yards-per-route-run rate than Bijan Robinson over the past two seasons. He's an excellent creator with the ball in his hands, as both a receiver and a runner, and I expect his skill set to be maximized in Year 3.
A player who does not require nearly as much imagination to find a good result out of the backfield is Quinshon Judkins. That dude's a beast; just give him the rock 20 times per game. That's who I passed on to hope and dream with my boy Bucky. That decision could prove to make or break this team. Although the three running backs that I secured following the Bucky pick help me to sleep a bit better at night.
