Fantasy Football Roundtable: Here's which first-round draft slot our analysts like the most for 2026
The way fantasy football leagues determine draft order is always different. Most leagues will let Yahoo decide for you, randomly generating the first-round order prior to the first pick. Others will decide the order prior to your draft to give you plenty of time to practice via the Yahoo mock draft lobby. League managers have also been known to come up with creative ways to decide the draft order.
Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2026 NFL season
Anyway, no matter which pick you get, you've got a chance to win. But which pick would make you feel the best going into the 2026 season? Probably the first pick, but it isn't always cut and dry. Yahoo analyst Scott Pianowski, Joel Smyth, Matt Harmon and Justin Boone share which pick in the first round they'd want to draft out of the most.
Pick: 1.09-1.10
Full transparency, I'm also somebody who would prefer the 1.01 or 1.02 pick. Smashing an early bellcow leads to a lot of favorable fantasy paths. But I can also reasonably consider a Hero or Robust RB build later in the round, and if I land something in the 9 or 10 range I start to fixate on Jonathan Taylor. I'm not sure everybody appreciates how dominant he was in the first half of 2025, and his late slump can largely be attributed to the Daniel Jones injury. If Jones is healthy, this Colts offense could easily be a top-five unit.
There are advantages to not being slotted at the absolute end, I can use neighborhood information to play off the rosters of my opponents who pick after me in the odd rounds. I also feel I tend to draft better when I'm not on an extreme end, since my picks cluster together more and leave me more pliable to handle draft flow and positional runs.
I don't like to commit too much of my strategy until the draft actually happens, because you want to be open to opportunities that present themselves in the live event. But starting a draft with say, Taylor, and then a run of receivers, sounds like a +EV path to me. Amon-Ra St. Brown (if he slips slightly), Justin Jefferson or James Cook would also fit nicely around 9-10, and there's some chance Jefferson or Cook could slide to my second pick (in that case, I'd be doing a Snoopy dance). — Scott Pianowski
Pick: 1.01
I'm tempted to say 1.12 with the build of two top running backs, but the combination of Jahmyr Gibbs with the quick falloff in value come Round 4 leads me to preferring the first pick. Looking at half-PPR ADP at the moment, the first pick through three rounds would give you Gibbs, Nico Collins and George Pickens, compared to 1.12 giving Ashton Jeanty, Saquon Barkley and Tee Higgins. I use the first three rounds because Round 4, for me, is where the range becomes wiiidddeeee.
How valuable is having the first pick in Round 4, like an Emeka Egbuka, to the last pick, such as Luther Burden III? Not much, in my humble opinion. Gibbs is the one player I believe can break fantasy football this season. McCaffrey has overall RB1 upside, but not the same as 2019 McCaffrey, while Bijan Robinson's path is much more difficult on a bottom-10 offense. In a small sample without David Montgomery, Gibbs already has shown that game-breaking upside, we just need to see a full season of it. I'd rather shoot for that then the value a Saquon Barkley range has over the end of Round 2. — Joel Smyth
Early-first round
All of the consensus top-four picks right now — Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Ja’Marr Chase, Puka Nacua (and I’d even group Christian McCaffrey in here despite the risk) — are quite appealing. You gain a foundational player with serious upside who could moonwalk into a top finish at their position. The more I look at the early second round, the more I find that some of the names available there just aren’t all that different from a ceiling/floor balance perspective than the names that go in the late-second to early-third. So, I’m totally fine waiting until pick 21-26 to take two more starters. Especially if you snag one of the top backs in the top five, you can come back around and snag two WR1 candidates like Drake London, Nico Collins, George Pickens or Chris Olave to build out that room. I’ll also contend that Derrick Henry, who falls to Pick 22 or so, remains a strong value if you want to go two backs early. Overall, I’ve found that team builds that start in the first five picks are much more comfortable than the alternatives. — Matt Harmon
Pick: 1.02
If I'm given the option, I'll keep it simple and snag a top-two draft slot, guaranteeing me one of the elite running backs in Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs. They're the only ball carriers to finish as top-four fantasy RBs in each of the past two seasons and are on the verge of their biggest campaigns yet with Tyler Allgeier and David Montgomery gone from their backfields, respectively. That also sets me up to choose from an interesting group at the Round 2-3 turn, including receivers Rashee Rice and DeVonta Smith, rookie back Jeremiyah Love, or possibly even the No. 1 QB in Josh Allen. Having a balanced build is beneficial from this spot, since you can comfortably target value as it comes to you. As long as you stay mindful of the dangers of picking on the edge of every round and avoid ending up on the wrong side of a positional run, you'll love the way your roster turns out. — Justin Boone
