Fantasy football is hard.
Yes, you need a bit of luck. Ideally, you need healthy players. If possible, you need to avoid the highest-scoring opponent in your league every single week. (I'm definitely not speaking from personal pain.) But ultimately, you need to put together a successful draft -- and properly play the waiver wire and trade market in-season.
It's just not easy.
Last season, Malik Nabers and Justin Jefferson were both first-round picks. Nabers suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 4 and Jefferson was a bust, finishing as the fantasy WR21. Meanwhile, some of 2025's highest scorers -- Drake Maye (QB2) and Matthew Stafford (QB3) -- were drafted in the double-digit rounds.
So, with so much uncertainty, what on earth are you supposed to do? Well, you've come to the right place. In fact, I've got nine things you should do ... and nine more you shouldn't. This is my fourth annual fantasy football DOs and DON'Ts column, and it's got just about everything you need to prepare for the challenging rigors of your fantasy draft.
Buckle up, grab some popcorn, hold onto your hats, deploy some other random idiom about preparation ... and I'll see you in Week 17 for the 'ship (because, bonus tip, you should never have your title match in Week 18).
NOTE: Discussions of rounds, ADPs, points, etc. are based on 12-team PPR leagues, using ESPN ADP.
Do ...
... have a plan. It sounds obvious, and if you're reading this, I imagine you're already on board. But you'd be surprised how many fantasy managers show up to the draft with a one-page cheat sheet, a Todd Gurley jersey and a dream. Fantasy drafts are complex battlegrounds, and if you go in without a solid strategy, you'll end up panic-picking by Round 6. Instead, get to know the relevant rankings, average draft position (ADP), positional scarcity, league tendencies and everything you can to build a solid blueprint for the chaos to come. One way to get just about all of this in one place: the NFL Fantasy draft kit, including a full PPR cheat sheet and the tools available on NFL+ Premium, including the All-22 Film Room and the Fantasy AI Assistant. Oh, and read the next 17 tips.
... know the new NFL landscape. Did you know Kyler Murray is now quarterbacking the Minnesota Vikings (at least to start the season)? That A.J. Brown now plays for the Patriots? That the Cardinals' RB1 is a rookie drafted third overall? OK, maybe you've followed the major offseason headlines ... but have you factored in the fantasy implications of former Seahawks offensive guru Klint Kubiak departing to coach the Raiders, or that Ben Johnson-disciple Declan Doyle is now the OC in Baltimore? If you haven't had your finger on the pulse of the league since January, some of this stuff is going to go unnoticed ... and that will be to your detriment.
... follow the volume. Last year, the top five running backs in scrimmage touches all finished as top-eight running backs in fantasy points. All five of the wideouts to see 150-plus targets were top six in fantasy by season's end (George Pickens was the only outlier, with 137 targets). Volume is king in fantasy football. Finding the rosters where opportunity tells a promising story is a key component of smart drafting. One example in 2026: Travis Etienne transferred from Duval to the Bayou this offseason, which means someone will need to step up in the Jaguars' backfield. It could be Bhayshul Tuten, it could be Chris Rodriguez Jr. -- it'll likely be a combination of both -- but those names might not register much interest without an understanding of available volume.
... invest in ascending offenses. Everyone knows the Lions and Rams are going to churn out points and yards, and their star players are priced accordingly. The real value comes from upside offenses primed to outperform expectations. Last year, the Patriots and Cowboys were better on offense than they had been in 2024. They gave us the QB2 (Maye) and QB6 (Dak Prescott), three top-25 wide receivers and three top-25 running backs, with most of those players returning massive value on draft cost. My favorite teams to target in 2026: the Commanders (with Jayden Daniels healthy again), Giants (with a new coaching staff), Vikings (with Kyler Murray at QB) and Browns (with new coaches and young pieces).
... go for "elite" or "fringe" players at the onesie positions. This is one of the most specific tips in the entire post, but it feels uniquely fitting in 2026 drafts. Both quarterback and tight end have sifted into similar tiers for this season: a small, elite group at the top, a smattering of known commodities with question marks after that, and then a few discount values at the fringe of QB1/TE1 range. I'm (mostly) avoiding the middle group at both spots. At quarterback, that means snagging Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Drake Maye, Joe Burrow or Jayden Daniels (the Elite Five) OR waiting on someone like Jared Goff or Murray, while avoiding players like Jalen Hurts and Caleb Williams in between. At tight end, it means locking in Brock Bowers or Trey McBride (the Elite Two), taking Tucker Kraft near pick 100, or tapping sleepers like Isaiah Likely, Dalton Kincaid or Chigoziem Okonkwo (while happily passing on Sam LaPorta, Dallas Goedert and others).
... stuff your bench with league-winning upside. Last August, deep in the double-digit rounds, you faced a choice between Cole Kmet, a perennially middling tight end competing with an incoming rookie in Chicago, and Harold Fannin Jr., a rookie himself in Cleveland coming off one of the greatest college seasons for a tight end in history. If you picked Kmet, you got the TE36. If you selected Fannin, you got the TE6 overall. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but the point is, it's (usually) better to shoot for upside in the unknowns. Aim to draft league-winners. The names in this section last year included Emeka Egbuka, Tyler Warren and Trevor Lawrence. For 2026, here's a list of breakout candidates and potential sleepers.
... handcuff running backs -- from other managers' teams. This is one of the simplest ways to follow the "league-winning upside" tip above. Injuries are unfortunately common in this sport, and a handful of backup RBs will be starting by midseason. Handcuffing your own early-round picks (which is the common instinct) only helps you maintain a poor man's version of the status quo. Handcuffing other teams' running backs gives you a shot at major upside if the injury bug avoids your squad. A few of the top names to know in 2026: Tyler Allgeier (ARI), Keaton Mitchell (LAC), Brian Robinson (ATL) and Tank Bigsby (PHI).
... target rookies. Last year continued the ever-blossoming trend of rookie relevance, with two wide receivers and three running backs finishing among the top 25 at their positions, along with the TE4 overall (Tyler Warren), TE6 (Harold Fannin Jr.) and TE12 (Colston Loveland). The league has been steadily shifting in this direction in recent years, and fantasy managers need to take notice. Even with a weaker draft class, rookie RBs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price are worth drafting as starters, while WRs Carnell Tate, KC Concepcion, De'Zhaun Stribling, Jordyn Tyson, Makai Lemon, Denzel Boston and more have sneaky upside at wide receiver, although Tyson is out for two months with a hamstring injury. Admittedly, it looks pretty barren for rookie QBs and TEs, but that could change come October.
... draft players you like. As always, it's important to remember fantasy football should be fun. When Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays (and sometimes Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays) roll around, it's more enjoyable when the players you'd root for naturally are also putting up points for your fantasy squad. For a variety of reasons (including the Penn State fandom of my desk mate), I'm obsessed with Jaguars WR Parker Washington this year. I will be drafting accordingly. (Ideally, he stops inflating his draft price with endless camp hype.)
So now that you know what to do, you're good to go, right? Wrong. There's a whole lot of potential pitfalls in the course of a fantasy draft, and avoiding catastrophic mistakes is just as crucial as executing the strategic "DO's."
Don't ...
... overplan. Wait, what? Didn't I just write a thousand words telling you to have a plan? Which one is it? Both, dear reader. You should have a thoughtful approach to your draft (as per all the other tips). But that doesn't necessarily mean "start RB-RB-WR-TE" or "draft your QB specifically between Picks 83 and 107," or "Kyle Pitts, no matter what!" Take-lock strategies are a surefire way to set yourself up for "draft tilt," when someone inevitably snipes your player or derails your plan. Be fluid and flexible, let the draft come to you, and then lean on your preparation to help you execute in the moment.
... let recency bias reign. As a human being (unless you're an alien reading this, in which case, welcome), you're hard-wired to prioritize recency bias. "What has a player done (or not done) for me lately?" Flush that mindset. Situations change, injuries heal and talent (usually) wins out. Last year, Christian McCaffrey was the RB1 overall despite returning from injury, and while Saquon Barkley was OK, he was nowhere near what he'd been in 2024. In 2026, I really like Joe Burrow, Omarion Hampton, Justin Jefferson, Malik Nabers, Jaylen Waddle, Tucker Kraft and others to wipe away disappointing or injury-shortened 2025 showings with major fantasy comebacks. Don't be caught napping.
... buy the "injury-prone" narrative. With rare exceptions, players are not injury-prone just because they've missed games in multiple seasons. Many NFL injuries are freak accidents, not the product of brittle bones or imbalanced hamstrings. In this blurb last year, I highlighted Christian McCaffrey, Dak Prescott and Kenneth Walker III, who each played a full 17-game slate and was excellent in fantasy in 2025. A few such players I'm targeting as 2026 draft values: Cam Skattebo, Tucker Kraft and Jonathon Brooks.
... be afraid to buck the trends. If you have the 1.01 and don't take Jahmyr Gibbs or Bijan Robinson, your league might laugh at you. And fair enough, they're pretty foolproof. But consider this: Six of the last seven consensus 1.01 picks have missed at least five games in the ensuing season. "Consensus" does not always mean "right" or even "best." I wouldn't shame anyone for taking Ja'Marr Chase or Puka Nacua at 1.01, nor would I shame you for taking Kyler Murray three rounds ahead of his ADP or drafting multiple Packers wideouts in the middle rounds, hoping to hit on one. If there's one thing we know for sure in fantasy football, it's that we don't really know much at all.
... fear bad offenses … in all cases. Ideally, you want to target the best players on the best offenses, but those are in limited supply. Landing the high-volume anchors of iffy offenses can be an underrated consolation. In 2025, Ashton Jeanty was the PPR RB11 in the league's worst offense, and Alvin Kamara was even better on an abysmal Saints squad the year before. As you might have guessed, three-down running backs are the best pieces to target on these teams -- players like De'Von Achane, Quinshon Judkins and Cam Skattebo come to mind for 2026.
... avoid RBBCs (running back by committee). That's right, DON'T avoid RBBCs. In 2025, I listed the Chargers, Jets, Broncos, Patriots and Cowboys as strong teams to target despite unclear RB depth charts. Those five teams ended up producing five top-25 running backs, and the Chargers' Omarion Hampton was the RB13 in points per game, as well. Running back by committee is the way of the modern NFL, and we have to evolve with it. For 2026, I'm once again targeting the Patriots, while adding the Panthers, Jaguars, Vikings, Rams and Bears as intriguing multi-back contenders.
... let "schedule difficulty" sway your decisions. In 2024, the Jets' defense allowed the second-fewest total fantasy points and was terrifying for wide receivers. Last season, New York allowed the second-most real points and fourth-most fantasy points in the league. The NFL is ever-changing. Don't let a player's "strength of schedule" -- whether enticing or daunting -- significantly shift their place in your rankings.
... pass the positional cliffs without drafting at least one relatively safe player. Particularly at RB and WR, there's a "fantasy draft cliff" beyond which you're going to feel very uncomfortable taking your highest-rated remaining option. While there are still sleepers aplenty, confidence takes a nosedive past these marks. For me, they occur after RB16 (Kenneth Walker III) and WR18 (Ladd McConkey). If you can have one of each position by Round 3 or 4, you'll leave your draft feeling much more stable.
... run from risk. Embrace it. If you're happy to make your fantasy playoffs and lose in the first round, you can ignore this tip. If you're gunning for the championship (as you should be), then listen up: This is a game of risks, and you have to take big shots to win big prizes. Whether it's the sleeper you snag two rounds early or the blockbuster trade you make in Week 2, we're not here to "play it safe." Good luck. And please direct any thank-you notes after you win your championship to @MattOkada on X.
