Fantasy football rankings 2026: Sleepers, breakouts, busts by model that predicted Daniel Jones' huge year
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- SportsLine's model simulated the 2026 NFL season 10,000 times to produce fresh Fantasy football rankings for PPR and non-PPR leagues, with Jahmyr Gibbs (1.30), Bijan Robinson (1.94) and Ja'Marr Chase (4.03) leading average draft position via CBS.
- Colts WR Alec Pierce is the model's top 2026 sleeper despite an ADP around No. 75 — he ranked second in the NFL last year with 21.3 yards per reception and finished with a 47-1003-6 line before landing a four-year, $114 million extension.
- Giants QB Jaxson Dart is the model's top breakout pick at pick No. 102; as a rookie he threw for 2,272 yards with 15 TDs and 5 INTs and added 487 rushing yards and 9 rushing scores, with the model ranking him ahead of Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford and Justin Herbert.
- Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker III is flagged as a bust even though he's going off the board at pick No. 21; the model notes no Kansas City back has cleared 1,000 rushing yards since 2017, and Walker has missed at least one game in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
- Christian McCaffrey remains the No. 6 player off the board (7.02 ADP) despite currently sitting out practice with calf tightness, while the model also highlights a tight end it ranks inside the top eight ahead of Travis Kelce and Sam LaPorta.
- The model's track record includes calling Daniel Jones as a top-15 Fantasy QB entering 2025 (he was QB10 before a Week 14 injury ended his season at QB17), Jonathan Taylor's 2021 monster year, Rachaod White's 2023 breakout, and Isiah Pacheco as a 2025 bust.
Why it matters: Fantasy drafters chasing an edge have a new consensus baseline: SportsLine's model — which called Jones' 2025 leap, Taylor's 2021 explosion and Pacheco as a 2025 bust — wants managers to fade Walker at pick 21, scoop Pierce at 75 and grab Dart at 102, moves that invert the order of several stars currently going ahead of them in CBS ADP.
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