The #1 Strategy in 2026 Fantasy Football Drafts

Two years ago, you guys absolutely blew up this video with 230,000 views. One year ago, you guys more than doubled that with 520,000 views, and it worked, helping thousands of you win your fantasy leagues. I saw your comments. I saw you flexing down below with your championship trophies, all right?

And don't worry, this year the mission remains the same: to help you draft the best team possible for 2026. And here's the best news. This strategy, backed by seven years of research with months of prep, is optimal for every single position on the draft board. The only thing that I ask for in return is that you hit that like button. I got a goal of 1,000 likes. With your help, I know we can get there. Subscribe if I earn your sub, okay? Throughout this video, if I earn it, sub. I'm trying to get to 100k before we before week one. You can help me do it. And of course, uh, hype if you're on mobile.

But, here's the big reveal. You ready? The official strategy you need to dominate in 2026 fantasy football drafts is elite option plus RB double tap. Okay, here's our biggest focus. To get the first three to four rounds right. The rounds that really you have the most to lose in, right?

This year, round one, it has two paths that you can take. A read option, if you will, right? You see where I'm going here? We're not reading pass run. We're not reading running back wide receiver. We're just asking round one, who's a flat-out superstar? For example, is the best player in round one a wide receiver? Well, here's the strategy for you in 2026. If the read in round one is wide receiver, go get you an elite wide receiver in round one. This is especially going to be helpful for the people drafting at the three, four, five spots in 2026, also some of the back end of the board guys. But, in round one, go get you a wide receiver that can finish wide receiver one overall.

In rounds two to three, this is where that double tap comes into play. Ideally, we'd like to get our RB1 and our RB2 through the first three rounds. We want to end with two running backs at minimum, a RB1 [snorts] with top six, top six upside, and RB2 with top 12 upside. In both paths that work I'm going to show you here, we'd like to walk away with two running backs in those first three rounds.

Then rounds four to seven, that's our flex zone. Hit your upside guys, hit your floor starters. From rounds eight to nine, take your upside swings. You know, who is your favorite sleeper? Who's your favorite rookie? Who's your favorite my guy? From rounds 10 to 12, I promise you that most people watching this video, you will want to wait on quarterback till late this year, and I will prove that in today's video. And then rounds 13 onwards, if you don't get an elite tight end in rounds two to four, historical data says you should punt here.

But, here's the other question with that elite option. We've got that option read in round one. Well, what if the best player available is a running back? Then this is the pathway for you here. Again, in round one, try and draft a RB that has RB1 overall upside. Then in rounds two to three, get one more running back. Hence again, the double tap. We want two running backs through three rounds. Get your wide receiver one as well in those first three rounds, and the rest of the strategy remains the same. So again, in round one, it's a read option. Is it receiver? Is it running back? It will depend on where you're drafting in your board in 2026.

Here's the great news, guys. You're going to see six to eight drafts where I try both strategies at different parts of the board. And you might be saying, "Zack, where is my early quarterback? Where is my early tight end? Why aren't you talking about them?" I hear you. I will get there. It will all make sense soon because with every strategy, there are caveats.

Now, let me explain why I believe elite option plus RB double tap is optimal in 2026, but quickly our first and arguably most important caveat here, we want to follow this strategy for sure. Like I'm all aboard following the strategy, but it is okay to deviate from it if you need to. For example, like the [snorts] last thing I would want any of you guys to do is to reach on a player who is in a far lower tier than the players that are available just so you could say that you you did my strategy. That just is not going to work for you. You're not going to draft your best possible team. For example, like in round one, focusing on a specific position can lead to you reaching and we just cannot afford to do that in the most important round of your draft. So read the board. Who's the best player available in round one?

For example, here's a hypothetical. If you were drafting from the three spot this year, Bijan and Gibbs are off the board, you're thinking, "Zack, I just want a running back though. I just want to draft a running back." I'm saving you from yourself because if you read the board and you look at my rankings ultra cheat sheet, you're very clearly going to see that the best player available is a wide receiver. For example, Ja'Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, JSN. So let's play out that scenario, okay? Let's play out that scenario where in round one the read is a wide receiver. You take a receiver. Fantastic. Round one wide receivers have hit at a top 12 finish rate in fantasy football 70% of the time in the last seven years. If you want to look at top six finish, they've hit at a 50% rate in that same exact span. Okay? [snorts] So there's no problem going elite wide receiver to start your draft and they are harder to find deeper down the boards, those elite wide receivers.

But what if you read the board and running back is a clear BPA? Let's give you an example, right? The 111. All the top wide receivers are off the board. Puka, JSN, Amon-Ra, CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson. Again, you can easily read here that there's a huge tier of running backs that you should prioritize at that point over wide receiver. Like Achane, James Cook, Achane, Hampton, Saquon Barkley. There's a huge list. But, here's the fantastic news. If round one your read is what is running back, I've got great news for you. Ladies and gentlemen, running backs are so back. They are so back. Last season, round one running backs finished top 12 at an 80% clip. An 80% clip, four out of five that were drafted finished top 12. And at top six rate finishes, 60% of them finished top six. Not sure if you noticed that in these charts, but that is the first time that running backs have had a had a higher hit rate than wide receivers for both top six and top 12 finishes in my entire data set. In seven years. Like, running backs are back. You can see running backs hit rates increasing each of the last three years, while wide receivers have been falling alongside of them. Not only top 12, but also top six. You can see the same exact thing.

And if you think about it, like let's think about that logistically. There's a lot of NFL trends here, but in the last four years, we have seen four running backs get drafted in the top 15 of the first round of the NFL draft. The last time we saw that happen was 2015 to 2018, where we saw Todd Gurley, Melvin Gordon, Zeke Elliott, Leonard Fournette, CMC, Saquon Barkley. There's a ton of NFL trends that could showcase why running backs are having a resurgence. I did a video about it not too long ago. You can go check it out on my channel afterwards. You can go save it and hear some more information. But, again, in round one, do not get cute. All you have to do is make the right read.

Then, rounds two to three, we ideally again want to walk away with two running backs if the board allows it. Why? Well, the reason why is because history shows us pretty clearly it's incredibly difficult to get a top-tier running back after round three. Top 12 hit rate at the running back position go from 61 and 1/2% in rounds three to 15.4% in round four, a drop of 46.1% points. You might be saying, "Okay, Zach, but why not wide receivers in that range?" Well, if the board hands you a screaming wide receiver value there, then yeah, you can take it, stay water, be flexible, but you should know the odds that you are facing historically. Let's flip that. Let's look at the last three years, rounds two to three, uh, hit rates, okay? Top 12, we're going to look at hit rates, running backs versus wide receivers. Running backs hit 59.3% of the time, wide receivers just 22.2%. Uh, that is why ideally we want to get them running backs early. And man, I absolutely will draft wide receivers in round three this year, but my goodness, the last three years have just not been kind to the position. Just 7.7% of wide receivers have hit at a top 12 rate in that range. And JSN is the only reason why it's not really a 0%.

Now, to be clear, we're not saying wide receivers are bad. They're not bad. You're going to need them to win your championship. And in fact, these trends aren't going to completely rule me out from drafting some wide receivers in that range. However, from rounds uh two to three, it is a little bit more riskier, and wide receivers are far deeper than running backs in your fantasy football drafts. For example, I created a hit rate based on expectations chart for you guys. You can pause and see the expectations I placed for each position through each parts of the draft. But if I was to say it very simple, a sim- simply what this means is I expect caviar if I spend $100 on a meal. Now, transparently, maybe caviar is worth more. I've never had caviar before. Uh, now, I expect crusty nuggets on the opposite side if I go to the dollar menu at Burger King. And again, I don't even know if Burger King has a dollar menu anymore. But check that, that is a simple way to say it. So, wide receivers, again, based on expectations per round, perform really well from round four onwards. Again, in our data, in our research, in layman's terms, I want to front-load top-end running backs if the board allows it, and swing on wide receivers later into my draft.

And we are only seeing running backs go off the board quicker in 2026 than in recent years. They're harder to find earlier on. Let's look at this. The RB6 is off the board at 12th overall in 2026 ADP. 12th overall? The RB12 is off the board at 21st overall this year, an entire round earlier than what it was in 2023. And look, if you're leaving round three without two running backs, there's a good chance that your league mates are leaving with two running backs. If you leave round four without a second running back, it's not a death sentence, but it certainly is an up-uphill climb. So, whether, you know, you read wide receiver or running back in round one, in an ideal world, we want to leave with two running backs through three rounds.

However, like I said, there are caveats to every good strategy. The best fantasy players are playing by staying water throughout their drafts, seeing how it comes to them. So, going back to our hit rates based on expectation research, I made this little chart for you guys. You'll see two red values at the bottom of this chart, quarterback and tight end. I promised I'd get there. So, let's talk about the onezies, all right? What are the onezies? Onezies are quarterbacks and tight ends because you start one of them.

Here's my quarterback strategy for 2026. Either an elite quarterback early, or punt that thing all the way to round 10 onwards. From a team-building perspective, I prefer to push to round 10 onwards. By far the easiest position to find good startable options late. By far the easiest position to replace by the waiver wire. For example, in the past 3 years, we've seen just as many top six finishes from the quarterback position from players who were drafted in rounds one to three as we have from players who were drafted from round 13 onwards. And I got the receipts for you if you want to double-check me. Last year, for example, four of the top six top six finishes, all right, came from round 10 or later.

Okay, how about tight ends? My tight end strategy in 2026, an elite early option or completely punt it. All right, there is no in between. In the past 7 years, the difference between the tight end 12 in the waiver wire was 1.6 points per game. In the past 3 years, it was 0.8 points per game. All right, in the last uh 3 years, every tight end after the top four basically scored the same, like all the way down to the waiver wire. You can see here, like tight end five in the last 3 years has been basically what the waiver wire gave you. That's what these charts are supposed to show you. In the last 7 years, it hasn't been much better either.

Again, two options for tight ends. Option one, the elite swing early in your drafts around two to four. I am by far more likely to go elite tight end early in my draft than I am elite quarterback because of the true positional scarcity. I'll give you an example here, okay? Because I feel like this will give you guys some freedom in rounds two to three if you went wide receiver in round number one. Here's an example, okay? Your running back will slide a little further here, but in the first round, the read was elite wide receiver. But in round two, there are no running backs worthy selected at all. All the running backs I wanted that tier are gone are gone. This is where I would deviate and go get a Brock Bowers, for example, knowing that you have the positional advantage over your league mates anyway. Okay, that's option one.

Option two for tight ends, pay nothing. Don't pay a single dime, okay? Shoot for a tight end you like really, really, really late in your drafts. Guys, there's only two to three tight ends who truly matter each year anyway. I mean, meanwhile, a third of all startable tight end seasons came from round 13 or later in our data. So, like, it is completely free at that point, right? Here are some great lottery picks in recent years. And before we get uh deeper, I want to tell you guys that here's a list of late-round quarterbacks and tight ends I would target, ranked from top to bottom in order. You can screenshot it, you can pause. Obviously, the best thing for you to do would just to be using my ultra cheat sheet this year, but uh, there you go.

However, talking about onezies, uh, whether you should go early on onezies or not is heavily dependent on your league format. We're going to get into some mock drafts soon, I promise you, but the broad way to think about this, guys, cuz these are all caveats now. The smaller your lineup is, and the smaller your league is, the more you should prioritize elite onezies. The opposite side of that, though, the larger your lineup is, and the larger your league is, the less you should prioritize those elite onezies. Here's an example. If you are in a 10-team start seven league, onezies account for almost 30% of your entire lineup's ability to score points on a weekly basis, and there are less players being drafted in your league, 28 plus less players in a like a a 12-team format, for example, I might go even double elite onezy in that scenario. So easy to fill your starting lineups, but the opposite side of that, here's an example. If you're in a 14-team start 10 lineup, 80% of your lineup's ability to score points on a weekly basis come from running backs and wide receivers, and obviously there's way less players available with the additional members in your league. So, I'm far more likely to punt the onezies in that position.

And the last really important caveat before we jump in and show you some real drafts here is if you're in a start three wide receiver league, you should be heavily targeting top end wide receivers. Just don't completely abandon the running back position, but again, they account for almost 44% of your weekly lineup points.

Okay, that's a lot of research, it's a lot of data, and now that you know the secret sauce, let's put it into action. I'm going to show you drafts from every area of the board, and I'm going to give you examples from 10 teams as well. Let's start with the early first round. This is the 101 to the 104 early part of the board. Okay, let's give you some examples.

Round one, and you're drafting at the one spot, aka the 101. What's the read? Well, for me, with my rankings and my ultra cheat sheet, I would say you have two options, and they're both running backs. It's Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs. Do not get cute. In this draft, I took Jahmyr Gibbs. Uh, these two guys are no-brainers, right? Last 2 years, both of these guys have had ceiling seasons over 21.5 points per game, floor seasons, floor seasons of 20 points per game, which is Guys, it's ridiculous. Last year, Bijan averaged 23 touches per game. Uh, Gibbs right under 20. With no Monty this year, that's probably going to be up north of of 20. Uh, both are quite literally the engines of their offenses. So, these are no-brainers at the beginning of your drafts early on the board. So, round one was the read was was running back here.

How about round two? Can we double-tap on running back there? Well, here are the options that make sense in my mind. Names like Derrick Henry, Kenneth Walker, Chase Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs. Now, depending on where you're drafting, ADP is different across the board. These are all options that could be available, right? You got work your workhorses like Henry and Chase Brown, who averaged over 18.5 touches per game last year and 16 points per game as well. You got projected workhorses like Kenneth Walker, who's coming off a really big bag with Kansas City, no competition. You've got a projected rookie star in Jahmyr Gibbs, who by the way, no rookie running back with his draft capital failed to finish top 12 as a rookie. Now, [snorts] I project all these guys to be crucial parts of their offense in 2026. However, ideally, you do not reach on like if those guys are available, you are not going to reach on a Breece Hall, Josh Jacobs, Kyren Williams just to say you double tapped on running back, right? I if if the guys that are in that tier aren't available, you should deviate. You should go get and these are in order of my preference, a Brock Bowers, Drake London, A.J. Brown, Nico Pickens, Trey McBride. Now, if you do go wide receiver or tight end in round two in the scenario, round three has some great options to get your second running back. You know, Breece Hall, Josh Jacobs, Kyren Williams, Javonte Williams. These guys make more sense in round three when there is less pressure for them to hit. You got workhorse options like Breece Hall, Jacobs, Kyren, Javonte. All these guys last year, guys, averaged over 18 touches per game, over 15 points per game with Breece Hall being the exception, but I think that uh offense is going to be better in New York this year. You've got wide receiver and tight end targets uh here if you already have two running backs on on your screen listed in order of my preference. In this still, again from the 1.01, we end up with a starting lineup of Bo Nix, Gibbs, Love, Nico Wilson. We're starting Isaiah Likely. We punt to the tight end position here. And then our flex is, do we want to flex Garrett Wilson, Jameson, Marvin, Chuba? Love this build, absolute killer with the late round quarterback and tight end as well.

Now, in round one, I'm still looking at the early spot. Let's say the three spot. Let's say that Gibbs and Bijan are gone. What's the read in this scenario? For me, with my rankings again in the cheat sheet, I would say you have three options and they are all wide receivers. I'd personally take Ja'Marr Chase at that point in the board. By the way, you can easily get my 2026 ultra cheat sheet and dominate your drafts simply by becoming a season pass member with my code Land. You can check out the pinned comment, [music] there's a link there. It's just $34. You get my draft guide, you get the cheat sheet which helped thousands of you guys win your leagues last year. You get support throughout the entire fantasy season. It's not just a draft kit, it's an entire fantasy season pass. And my strategy is inbuilt into the tool. You can print off my rankings if you prefer the old school. You get my draft guide, which is the best draft guide in the industry in my opinion. You got my fades, breakouts, my sleepers, my my guys. You've got the cheat sheet like I said, complete projections. You've got articles that I write over there. So consider checking that out in the pin comment down below.

Now, I took Chase here, but there are three wide receivers that you could confidently target in this range. Those are Chase, Puka, JSN. Last two years, all three of these guys had a ceiling season over 21 points per game, and their floor was 18.7 points per game with the exception of JSN because he did just break out to be fair. So we should consider that. Now, if you combine all three of these guys, worst season in the last two years, their worst season combined, 17.7 points per game. If you look at volume, all these guys average over nine and a half targets per game last year. Okay, offenses that are all really great to be a part of.

Now, in round one, if you go with one of those wide receivers, in round two, the running backs you're going to want to target are very similar to the ones that we just talked about. Your Derrick Henry, Walker, Chase Brown, Jeremaih Love. Again, these are all guys we want to target, but do not reach if they're not available on a Breece Hall, on a Josh Jacobs, on a Kyren Williams. Remember, you can deviate from this strategy if you need to. You don't want to overpay for a running back.

Now, in round three, if you want to double tap at running back, again, the same options like Breece Hall, Jacobs, Kyren Williams, Javonte Williams. We talked about these guys. Javonte in addition here, 19.1 touches per game, 15.2 points per game last year. All these guys have been right around that range. And in this build, when I went the read in round one was wide receiver. We've got a starting lineup of Brock Purdy. He was our late round quarterback we hit. We've got Breece Hall, Trayveon Henderson, or De'Andre Swift. We're starting Chase, Watson. We are putting Bowers in the tight end spot. Plenty of flex options. I love it.

Okay. How about the mid first round pick? If you've got a mid round pick, the 1.05 to the 1.08 this year. Well, let's say we're in round one at the six spot. There's no Chase, there's no Puka. Zach, what do I do? Well, let me ask you guys, what is the read here? What do you think the read is? For me and my rankings again in the cheat sheet, I would have taken either CMC or Amon-Ra St. Brown. And in this example, I took Christian McCaffrey. The read was running back. CMC, the definition of a league winner, finished RB1 or RB2 in in three of the last four seasons. Amon-Ra St. Brown meanwhile is the definition of consistency.

In round two, I took, like I said, CMC round one. I want to double tap that running back. So, here could be the options like an A chain, Saquon, Chase, Brown, Hampton, Walker, Henry. I went Henry in this example. All workhorses, all guys that are averaging over 18.8 touches per game last year, over 16.4 points per game with Saquon and Walker being the exception there. Hampton, I looked at weeks 3 to 17 when he became that starter. Um, and look, all these guys, except for Walker, have it proven. Walker is just a projection at this point. And uh, look, if you aren't going to go running back in round two, then here are some wide receiver and tight end targets I would look at instead. Like a Bowers, London, A.J. Brown. The list is smaller because we're at a more premium part of the board than we were earlier uh, we were looking at the 1.01. But, if you do go a non-running back in round two, round three has some fine options to get your second running back. We've talked about a lot of these guys already. The one addition I would add that I haven't discussed already is Kemoko Ababu, who last year averaged 20.7 touches per game and over 19 points per game from weeks two to seven. I have big expectations for him this year, but all those guys are workhorses. We've talked about it, we've proven it. And if you've already double-tapped running backs, here's some great wide receiver or tight end options. Uh, if you've already got two running backs heading into round number three. In this build, you can see we are starting Jared Goff or Kyler Murray, either way. Then we've got CMC, Henry, are you kidding me? Rice, Waddle, Ferguson. We are flexing either like Evans, Warren, White, Addison. We have an incredible team from this spot.

Now, let's say we're at the middle of the board, but we're going to be drafting from the seventh spot, okay? And you went wide receiver. For this example, it would be Amon-Ra St. Brown for me. And this is how it played out for me. Mahomes as our starter. We've got Walker, Javonte, Amon-Ra, Waddle. We're putting Kittle at tight end, flexing McLaurin and and uh Jaylen Waddle Price. Beautiful build.

Okay, let's get to the late part of the board here. Round one at the 10 spot, no CMC, Amon-Ra, Justin Jefferson. So, what's the read? For me, again, with my rankings, we have this huge tier of running backs that I absolutely love, six to eight deep at the position. In this draft, I took Jente, but there's plenty of options. This is a great double-tap RB option at the back end of your board. Names like Jonathan Taylor, Jente, James Cook, A. J. Chan, Saquon, Chase Brown, Hampton, Walker, Henry, uh all guys averaging, again, over 18.8 touches per game, all projected workhorses. In this example, I went Achane, Jente, and Chase Brown, but there are endless options. But if you read wide receiver in round one, there's only two options. It's Jefferson or Lamb. Otherwise, you really have to double-tap RB there. Again, in this build, we are starting Trevor Lawrence, Jente, Chase Brown, Smith-Njigba. We're putting Okonkwo at tight end, flexing Adonai Di- I mean, this is just These builds are Come on. This is a perfect strategy, y'all. Here's another example from Yahoo if you want to pause and analyze it.

And I told you I'd give you some 10 team examples. Now, in 10 teams, I am much more likely in a onesie format uh, sorry for the onesies, to go elite at that spot. In these two drafts I wanted to show you that that was possible based on Yahoo and ESPN ADP. I wanted to show you when you go aggressive at onesies what it could look like. This is from Yahoo where I double tapped RBs in the first two rounds. This is from ESPN, went hard again on those elite onesies.

So, in conclusion, guys, again, elite option plus RB double tap, we want to get the best player in round one and ideally leave our draft within the first uh, three rounds with two running backs. Last thing I will say, guys, the 101, the pick that you guys are obsessed with that you covet the most has been absolutely cursed for years. I mean, we have talked about this last couple of seasons. It has been 6 years in a row where it has absolutely flopped. I am thrilled to tell you I'm thrilled to announce that last year the curse was broken. That's right, Ja'Marr Chase finished as the wide receiver four. Finally, the curse was broken and it wasn't an absolute flop.

Anyway, guys, I appreciate you so much coming out here and hanging out. If you enjoyed the video, like I said, hit the like button, subscribe. I'm trying to get to 80,000 subscribers and uh, hype on mobile. Last thing I'll say, if you want my cheat sheet, if you want some awesome help this year, become a season pass member with the code land, check out the link down below. I appreciate you guys being here. I'll see you in the next one. Nothing but love.

>> This is Chad. Last year, Chad joined his friend's [music] fantasy football league for the first time. He drafted the worst team possible [music] and finished last place. A year later, he lost his job, his wife left him, [music] and his kids no longer respected him. Don't be like Chad. Get the season pass for $34 with the promo code [music] land.