The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft is in the books, and with it, the 2026 fantasy football season officially begins! Granted, the draft officially kicking off the fantasy football only applies to freaks and weirdos like us, and not well-adjusted people with vibrant social lives. The first round of the NFL draft saw a player drafted at each fantasy-relevant position, and it’s time to start figuring out if they play into the equation for 2026 fantasy football leagues. As always, their talent level, opportunity, and 2026 fantasy football outlook will get between one and five Goodells. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Pick 1: Fernando Mendoza, Quarterback, Las Vegas Raiders
TALENT
The same full disclosure that I give, and I have given, every year doing the rookie breakdown series: I don’t watch college football. I do this intentionally, so that I don’t get caught up in narratives or the texture of the season. I throw on cut-ups, and I ask players what they can do for me. This has served me well in the last two quarterback classes, as I saw people talk themselves into Cam Ward and Fernando Mendoza as #1 overall picks. Personally, I didn’t understand the Ward hype, and I don’t understand the Mendoza hype. They both carry fatal flaws that I worry will limit their upside as a franchise quarterback, though both have traits that make them perfectly cromulent mid-tier quarterbacks. I wonder if this is a byproduct of COVID-19 stunting their high school development, because they were the best the last two classes had to offer, and neither is particularly thrilling.
Let’s get into Fernando Mendoza, the 2025 Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff MVP. His accolades speak for themselves, as he quarterbacked the Hoosiers to the CFP title, but throughout the season, he had some fatal issues with his game that I struggle to get past. First, however, the good.
Mendoza has a great processor and uses it to deliver quick strikes at short and intermediate range, with excellent placement. He rarely puts his receivers in a position to get injured, and he leads them well in this range. His out route timing and ball placement are immaculate, and he can hit a back shoulder fade extremely well. Unfortunately, when the defense pressures him, he puts the ball low and away, where only his guy can get it. It’s smart quarterbacking, and it is what makes me feel good about him in a Shanahan/McVay/O’Connell grip-and-rip system, where the weapons do the hard part.
He also runs the football well enough, reminding me of Trevor Lawrence in his “well, I don’t really want to do this, but I’ll go pick up 8 yards here” style that also ends with him diving headfirst into defenders. But doing that at Derwin James once should fix that particular predilection.
The bad, however, makes me worry about his ceiling, though he could end up working his way through the biggest issue I have with his game. First, he doesn’t particularly care for the middle of the field; it is lava to him, Kevin Patullo OCing Jalen Hurts-style. That’s something you can work around, but it’s troubling that he doesn’t want to challenge over the middle; that could also be a schematic decision.
Unfortunately, the biggest issue is that he cannot lead his receivers downfield. Once you see that everything he throws 15+ yards downfield is underthrown, it’s hard to unsee it. Even the balls that he connects on downfield have the receiver adjusting in the air or stopping and coming back to the football. This isn’t a fatal flaw, but it is one that makes me wonder if he has a top-flight quarterback in him down the line.
There are Jared Goff comparisons or mobile Matt Ryan comps floating around, but when I saw Mendoza, I saw a quarterback that was more processor than executor, which is great for teams who want a point guard at quarterback, who just gets the ball to his weapons. He’s refined, but I also think that his talent has peaked until he fixes the deep ball issues.
COMP: Washington Football Team Alex Smith
GRADE: Mid-First Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
I wanted to pre-write this section back in March, as Fernando Mendoza to the Raiders was the worst-kept secret in the NFL. But, I am very glad I didn’t, as the Raiders added Kirk Cousins to their quarterback room, and almost as quickly as the NFL broadcast finished with their Fernando Mendoza interview, Ian Rapoport popped on the screen to say that the plan is to keep Fernando Mendoza cooking and learning behind Kirk Cousins, who will start the season as the starter. Honestly, seeing how Kirk Cousins worked out last season, I am not too bullish on that lasting more than a couple of months, meaning we will likely get a couple of months of Fernando Mendoza: starting quarterback. He will likely continue to pepper Brock Bowers with targets. I wouldn’t worry about him, but the ancillary weapons might suffer as the kid makes his transition to the NFL.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Mendoza’s skillset doesn’t lend itself to any sort of draft-and-stash in 1QB leagues, especially since you will be waiting well into the bye weeks for him to play. In 2QB leagues, however, he is likely to be a QB3 who gets dropped when bye weeks start. When he makes his way as a starter, I expect him to fall into that QB15 range; a high-end QB2, but not one who is a difference-maker.
Pick 3: Jeremiyah Love, Running Back, Arizona Cardinals
TALENT
First and foremost, I like Jeremiyah Love. Don’t put in the paper that I don’t like Jeremiyah Love. But…
Over the last few years, we have seen some prospect freaks come out at running back, namely Bijan Robinson and Ashton Jeanty. They both ticked every single box that you would want out of a running back. They had speed, size, control, power, vision, everything. While Jeremiyah Love is an exceptional running back, he is just a tick below both of those guys for me.
Let’s start with the rushing ability and the good. He is one of the most patient running backs that you will ever find, which, combined with his ability to decelerate into slow motion and accelerate through a hole at a level I haven’t seen since Le’Veon Bell, makes him one of the best backs to maximize good blocking ahead of him (or even poor blocking). He can turn a three-yard hole into a six-or seven-yard hole. He does a great job of watching the big uglies up front create space for him, then blasting through that space.
When he runs, he is a springy jackrabbit, a description you usually save for guys who give up 20 pounds to Love. Each step feels like he is already at full speed and somehow tapping into a new gear, as he deftly blasts downfield, using his momentum to fall forward on nearly every run. He’s a demon in space, and if he has space, he can take it an extremely long way. If there’s traffic… well… we will get to that in a second.
He’s also a very good pass catcher, naturally catching the ball away from his body and turning upfield, ready to get yards after the catch. He lines up out wide, but he’s usually resigned to bubble screens, drags, and curls.
Now, for the bad. While his vision is exceptional at the line of scrimmage, he runs like he’s wearing a dog’s medical cone; he has almost no peripheral vision, often focusing just on juking the guy in front of him, which leads him into big hits from defenders he didn’t even know were there (Velociraptors hunting would take him out in a hurry). He also struggles with traffic because of this, often spinning straight into a defender (or a blocker) and cutting his run short. Love also struggles to stack moves because of this, mostly just playing on pure gut instinct and athleticism. Sometimes it will work, but every run feels like the Saquon Barkley reverse-hurdle run, where his athleticism bails him out of barely-controlled chaos threatening to get him blown up at a moment’s notice.
All in all, I am in on Jeremiyah Love, but I don’t put him at the same tier as Bijan, but being alongside Jahmyr Gibbs isn’t worth crying over.
NFL Comparison: Jamaal Charles
Draft Grade: Round 1
2026 OPPORTUNITY
This was a baffling decision by the Arizona Cardinals, as they have much bigger needs. They added Tyler Allgeier and retooled James Conner’s contract to keep him around, too. They really didn’t need to do this, especially since they are likely hitting their nadir, and Love is unlikely to be a part of the next good Arizona Cardinals team.
That having been said, he not only is already miles ahead of every other running back on that team, but his profile already has virtually zero overlap with the existing players, meaning that he’s unlikely to get shunted into a timeshare situation with the other running backs there. The blocking ahead of him is going to be suspect, but not quite at 2025 Ashton Jeanty levels. The Cardinals last season ranked fifteenth in ESPN’s pass block win rate, were tied for twelfth in stuff rate, and were twentieth in yards before contact per attempt. So, the situation is not great, but not dire.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Somebody in your draft is likely to get rookie fever and possibly overdraft him in the first or early second round, but at first blush I would take him in the second or third round. That feels like a good sweet spot for him, and he is likely to get every chance to dominate that backfield, giving him a high floor. But, I wouldn’t take him before RB7 off the board (Robinson, Gibbs, McCaffrey, Taylor, Achane, Cook, and Jeanty). But, once we get around RB8, things get interesting. I fully expect him to produce in his rookie year, but I am worried about the Cardinals’ offense’s overall potency. They scored plenty of points last year, but almost all of them were in catch-up mode, which is not conducive to fantasy football production. Still, he is unlikely to end the year outside of the top fifteen at the position unless there are some real surprises.
Pick 4: Carnell Tate, Wide Receiver, Tennessee Titans
TALENT
Tate doesn’t have a lot of carrying traits that jump off the tape, but he is a conglomeration of strong traits that should carry him into being a lower-end WR1 or a high-end WR2 at the NFL level, following in the footsteps of fellow Ohio State receivers like Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson. There is a bit of Olave in his game, but that is helmet scouting, not a direct comparison to Olave. He’s a slippery route runner who is more than capable of finding the holes in zones.
His best trait, however, is his ability to win at the second and third levels. He is an adept deep-ball threat, despite running a 4.53 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. He can make slight adjustments to his routes to lose defenders downfield, and he has large, pillowy hands and incredible ball-tracking downfield. He doesn’t have strong contested catch skills, but he does a good job of minimizing that possibility by angling his attack to the football to prevent true 50/50 balls.
He knows that teams fear him deep, as he stacks defenders to snap off comeback routes exceptionally well, and he has the prowess to find the holes in the zones that will maximize his ability to catch passes at the next level. Tate’s biggest weakness is strength. He isn’t the skinniest receiver out there, but play strength is a serious issue. He gets bodied when trying to run block, and he gets jammed by stronger corners at the line. I also already mentioned that he gets worked by true 50/50 balls. All in all, he should hit the ground running, ideally as a WR2.
NFL Comparison: Calvin Ridley
Draft Round: Late 1st Round
2025 OPPORTUNITY
The Tennessee Titans love Calvin Ridley so much that they went out and got themselves a brand new one in Carnell Tate. He’s immediately Cam Ward’s WR1, as there isn’t really much else in that room to worry about. They added Wan’Dale Robinson to that room, but he isn’t the type of player who will take anything from Tate; he will operate much like he did with Malik Nabers in New York. Long story short, Tate is their WR1, and he is going to be their WR1 by a large margin. He is walking into an incredible situation with last year’s #1 overall pick and the man who let Malik Nabers run wild in New York, Brian Daboll, who is the OC of the Titans.
2025 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Malik Nabers was WR8 in fantasy points per game his rookie season under Brian Daboll, but Carnell Tate is no Malik Nabers; he just carries a similar profile. The Titans threw to their receivers at the ninth-lowest rate last season, with only 17.4 targets per game going their way. Nabers is likely to reach 50% wide receiver target share, at eight targets per game, as he is the best receiver in the room by far. Eight targets per game come out to 136 targets, and even if he only gets seven per game, that still comes out to 119 targets. That’s a player I will take as a backend WR2, as that’s upper-echelon (not quite elite) volume (it would have ranked 16th in targets per game last season). There will be some ups and downs.
Pick 8: Jordyn Tyson, Wide Receiver, New Orleans Saints
TALENT
Jordyn Tyson puts defensive backs in absolute hell. There’s no other way to put it. His frenetic routes, his aggressive route breaks, everything he does puts defensive backs into a blender. He isn’t a complete receiver and has room to grow, which is the scary part. But he should be a fun part of the NFL immediately. Nearly every aspect of his game hits hard when you watch him on tape. The route running is impeccable, aggressive, and frenetic (if not the most technical). It’s rare to see a break put a defensive back on the grass, but I saw him do it multiple times. He’s also a fiend for contested catches (which worked well because Sam Leavitt was a sicko at throwing Tyson balls specifically to draw PI).
He’s a demon; there’s no other way to describe him, especially considering that his actions mostly make his opponents see hell in a way we haven’t experienced since Dante’s Inferno. Even if you manage to hang on for dear life as he puts you through the paces en route to the target, he still likely styles in your face with a ridiculous acrobatic catch, or if he gets it in the short area, he jukes you out of your shoes.
Tyson could use a bit of refinement, but my biggest fear is a curmudgeon getting their hands on him and making him tone it down. Let Jordyn be Jordyn, I say. And we saw this season when jarred lightning was finally set loose. He’s George Pickens 2.0, and if a team sees the vision, he could immediately pay dividends in fantasy leagues.
NFL Comparison: George Pickens
Draft Round: “Lottery” 1st Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
Kellen Moore put two amazing weapons together for Tyler Shough in New Orleans, and two extremely fragile ones at that. He joins a wide receiver room that looks like a long-since-abandoned dynasty roster rather than a real NFL room. Despite that terrible room, the Saints ranked ninth in wide receiver targets in 2025, meaning that there is a lot of meat on that bone for Tyson. He and Olave are both best suited as high-end WR2s, so they should co-exist very well together. The Saints chunked off 156 targets for Chris Olave and 66 for Rashid Shaheed in just nine games (7.33 targets per game). If the Saints give Tyson Shaheed’s projected year-long volume, he comes out to 124 or 125 targets for Tyson in his rookie campaign.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Tyson is checking all the boxes as a wide receiver that I have interest in in fantasy football drafts. He is extremely talented (my WR2 in this draft class), the depth chart is a mess behind him, and he has a hyperfragile incumbent ahead of him. He also has an established quarterback and an offensive guru who built a wide receiver-friendly offense. I love Jordyn Tyson in redraft leagues, as you are likely to get him in the WR30s or early WR40s. At that price, I am buying all day.
Pick 13: Ty Simpson, Quarterback, Los Angeles Rams
TALENT
Ty Simpson isn’t all bad. He’s a competent field general who does a great job of dissecting defenses presnap and can get through his reads quickly enough to find the open man. He also has an exceptionally quick release, which helps him fire the ball in on intermediate and short routes, letting his talented teammates do the hard work. He also has decent enough running ability, and can juke a man in the open field for a first down, but you wll never mistake him for Lamar Jackson or Colin Kaepernick (more of a Joe Burrow-level runner). Simpson is also a proficient scrambler and can throw on the run reasonably well. This off-platform ability is useful for Simpson because of my main issue with Simpson.
While Simpson does a lot right, he has one fatal flaw that I cannot get over, but one that a good quarterbacks coach can fix at the NFL level: his footwork is wildly inconsistent, even in clean pockets. I saw him, over multiple games, throw pigeon-toed (with his front foot pointed past 90 degrees away from the play’s target). He does this with extreme frequency, not only blowing his footwork, but also his torso and arm work. Nothing seems to have any sort of consistency for Simpson, which renders all his goodness moot. It doesn’t matter if you accurately read that the safety will roll over and leave your slot receiver wide open on a post if you can’t consistently get the ball to him downfield.
No lie, I watched a Tom Brady-hosted video on quarterback mechanics because Ty Simpson made me feel like I was losing my mind watching his completely scattershot mechanics lead to scattershot accuracy. Unless this is fixed at the NFL level, he will find himself going nowhere fast. Ultimately, he’s best suited as a developmental pick.
COMP: Mac Jones
GRADE: 6th round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
Matthew Stafford is the starting quarterback in Los Angeles, and this is a (horrible) pick for the future.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
No, thank you!
Pick 16: Kenyon Sadiq, Tight End, New York Jets
TALENT
Sadiq is an undersized, shredded, versatile H-back who lines up all over the field and won’t be mistaken for beasts at the position like Marcedes Lewis. He’s extremely athletic, and Oregon used him as a Kyle Juszczyk-style chess piece, moving him all over the field to create defensive mismatches; that having been said, he’s far faster and more refined than Juszczyk. He runs a real route tree, though he rounds off his breaks at times, instead preferring to float. As such, he is better at pressing the holes in zones than he is juking a man defender. Luckily, given that he will mostly line up against linebackers and safeties, this isn’t something to worry about.
Sadiq is an extremely agile, frenetic tight end who attacks the ball at the point of attack and is a YAC monster. He is the perfect tight end for this moment, when two- and even three-tight end sets are on the rise, and getting bigger, slower defenders on the field will allow him to best utilize his agility and speed.
Don’t let his size fool you, either. He’s a strong blocker (though he overcommits at times) and is more than willing to scrap it up with defensive ends and slot corners alike. He’s undersized, but an all-around package. There’s some refinement available to him, too, which means that he likely hasn’t tapped his full potential.
DRAFT ROUND: 1st Round
NFL Comparison: Vernon Davis
2026 OPPORTUNITY
Outside of Ty Simpson, I can’t think of a situation that I like less in the first round than Sadiq to the Jets. They are in a transitional period (quick, name their quarterback… it’s Geno Smith) with a defensive coach fighting for his life. The Jets also already have an established target there, with Mason Taylor getting 65 targets last year in his rookie campaign. With Sadiq coming in and being the one learning the NFL, despite being more talented than Mason Taylor, he is likely to take a back seat to Taylor to begin the year. Think about Colby Parkinson and Tyler Ferguson in Los Angeles last year. Ferguson was undoubtedly the more talented tight end, but Parkinson was familiar with the system and took the lead in the room. Sadiq is unlikely to top seventy targets this season.
After I wrote this, the Jets added Omar Cooper Jr. It’s going to be a disaster for Sadiq this year.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Seventy targets would have ranked eighteenth at the position last season. That simply isn’t enough volume in a bad offense for me to get excited. And for that reason, I am out.
Pick 20: Makai Lemon, Wide Receiver, Philadelphia Eagles
TALENT
Lemon can do a little bit of everything. The Trojans tasked him with the slot, out wide, getting routes and carries out of the backfield, and even throwing touchdowns (though he is primarily a slot receiver). He’s a versatile athlete who is a refined and polished route runner and who displays his exceptional athleticism when he breaks off the route at the top of his stem. Lemon is a fantastic contested-catch receiver, as he is a superb ball tracker and a tough, soft-handed receiver. It’s weird that I don’t have a lot to say about Lemon, because he is just fantastic at pretty much everything you ask him to do.
I do have a couple of quibbles with his game. First, if a defensive back can jam him at the line of scrimmage or quickly close the gap, Lemon struggles to shake him loose. Second, Lemon also struggles to find the proper spot in a zone, frequently drifting towards defenders and minimizing his space to catch the football. Lemon also lacks a top gear and the ability to juke multiple defenders in the open field.
All in all, Lemon has the ability to hit the ground running as a fantasy football-relevant receiver immediately. He will get the trust of his coaching staff right off the bat, because he never drops anything, lays it all on the field, and blocks his ass off. Lemon is a bit on the athletic side of the “athletic versus tough” binary, which drifts him towards the Luther Burden camp, and away from the Amon-Ra St. Brown camp (where many have him). He should contribute right away and have an exemplary and long career.
NFL Comparison: Luther Burden
Draft Grade: “Lottery” 1st Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
A.J. Brown, YOU are a New England Patriot. The Eagles (annoyingly) filled an impending need at wide receiver, and did it with my favorite wide receiver in this draft. The Eagles focus their entire passing game around two receivers, with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith taking a combined 234 targets in 2025. Like the two receivers taken before him, Lemon steps into a great situation to get a ton of volume in 2026. The Eagles took a renewed look at their passing game last season, and getting rid of malcontent A.J. Brown for the more versatile Lemon will allow them to mix and match with Lemon and Smith in the slot, giving them more unpredictability at wide receiver.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
My favorite wide receiver in this class is going to a high-powered offense that has a renewed passing priority and will be without its #1 wide receiver last season. Makai Lemon is a priority add for me in fantasy football drafts, and is going to have a great rookie campaign for fantasy football purposes. I just hope the Niners beat them in the playoffs again.
Pick 24: KC Concepcion, Wide Receiver, Cleveland Browns
TALENT
KCC is a slot receiver who drops a ton of footballs (9% drop rate) and, as such, is mostly a manufactured touch and short-area YAC guy in the NFL, not someone I am particularly enthusiastic about succeeding in fantasy football, despite the highlight plays. He has very little down-to-down consistency, as evidenced by his drops.
He is a dynamic playmaker who can make life hell on opposing defenses when he gets the ball in his hands, which is what makes him a dynamic return man. The thing that makes him dangerous to have on your offense is the fact that he struggles to get separation and is even worse at contested catches. He could have a decent career ahead of him as a returner and a WR3 or WR4 gadget-specialist, and he could even peak as a WR2, but he has zero chance of being a true WR1.
Oops, that was cut from my 2023 Jayden Reed profile. But, it’s still true.
Concepcion’s wiggliness will be his carrying trait in the NFL, as he has an exceptional ability to make would-be tacklers miss in the open field. Unfortunately, the second tackler usually gets him with ease. He is also extremely passive at the catch point, to the extent that his own teammate stole a low ball meant for Concepcion, where the other player literally simply wanted it more than Concepcion and jumped his route.
I have very little excitement about him from a fantasy football perspective, though I concede his return ability and versatility (good at a lot of things, not great at anything) will make him a value for real-life NFL teams.
NFL Comparison: Jayden Reed
Draft Grade: Early 3rd Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
The Browns are a complete mess, and they brought in new head coach Todd Monken to run their offense. Monken spent the last few years building a dominant running game and a pretty decent, nothing-to-write-home-about passing game in Baltimore. The Concepcion pick feels like they are trying to create a Zay Flowers allegory in Cleveland, but they already have a WR1 in Jerry Jeudy and a target-dominant TE1 in Harold Fannin. It doesn’t feel like there’s much room left to prioritize Concepcion in any meaningful way. I am willing to be wrong on Concepcion, but I struggle to find a path forward for him in Cleveland, as he and Jeudy are redundant and likely to cannibalize each other. Never mind the fact that the quarterback room is unsettled, despite “Pro Bowler Shedeur Sanders” being a truthful reality. The team simply doesn’t have a potent enough passing game to support all those weapons, and Jeudy & Concepcion likely cannibalize each other’s targets.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
I have no interest in Concepcion in 2026 redraft leagues. There’s too much working against him for me to want a part of him; I am willing to be wrong about him, but I am not willing to draft him. I am out.
Pick 30: Omar Cooper Jr., Wide Receiver, New York Jets
TALENT
Cooper isn’t much of a deep threat, but that isn’t where his bread is buttered, anyway. Cooper is the best receiver in this class at creating yards after the catch and one of the best at creating short-area separation, and those will be his calling cards in the NFL. That’s a strong calling card to have, as this type of game-breaking is extremely valuable to NFL teams. Cooper isn’t a burner, but he’s incredibly hard to bring down thanks to his great contact balance. So, he doesn’t waste time dancing around tacklers; he just lets them bounce off of him instead. If he does win downfield, it’s because of his ability to high-point a football, not because he burned anyone.
Cooper is a versatile receiver who lines up all over the field and is strong against press coverage. These two factors make him a boon for any team looking to draft him. He’s not without his warts, however, as he struggles with contested catches and is a complete zero in the run game.
NFL Comparison: Stefon Diggs
Draft Grade: 3rd Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
Cooper is going to put Adonai Mitchell where he belongs (in the shadow realm) and give the Jets a true blue WR2 on their roster, and one who can work alongside a target hog like Garrett Wilson. I think this is a nice landing spot for Cooper in 2027 and beyond, since the Jets could move on from Wilson and make him WR1, or he could blossom with Wilson with a new quarterback, and really do something in 2027. But that passing game is playing out to be a mess next year, with too many mouths to feed and Geno Smith serving up soup with a hole in the spoon.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
If there’s a Garrett Wilson injury, I could see Cooper having some value in redraft leagues as a PPR scam and volume player. Outside of that, however, I have no interest.
Pick 32: Jadarian Price, Running Back, Seattle Seahawks
TALENT
It’s interesting to see two running backs who complemented each other, as well as Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price at Notre Dame. Usually, you’d see Price leading a backfield with his all-around skill set, but he was stuck behind Love, who was the #1 back in the nation heading into the 2026 NFL Draft.
Funnily enough, Price reminds me a ton of a guy who was famously a part of a tandem backfield with a more talented back, straight down to the way he runs… Jadarian Price is Woody from Toy Story, Pt 2, AKA TreVeyon Henderson Jr.
Price powers through holes, churning his feet and turning small gains into huge plays, but he doesn’t really churn his feet or fall forward in a way a power back would. He is a sort of glass cannon, getting huge chunks or getting blown up at the line of scrimmage (and potentially suffering an injury). He has nice instincts as a running back, and good enough power, but his speed, shiftiness, and explosiveness is where he shines. He (like TreVeyon) was a good kick returner in college and should thrive in the NFL as well. Price (like TreVeyon) is best suited as a home run hitter in the NFL, where he can slither through holes and stack jukes in the open field to wreak maximum havoc on opponents.
Price would thrive as the 1B in a platoon with a power back who isn’t much interested in catching passes, which is something that spreadsheet warriors will insist that Price won’t do, because he wasn’t asked to do it at Notre Dame. Much like Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker, Price can catch passes, and the lack of utilization was a scheme issue, not a skill-set issue. He has good hands and catches the ball naturally away from his body, all things you would want to see in a pass-catching running back.
NFL Comparison: TreVeyon Henderson
Draft Grade: Round 3
2026 OPPORTUNITY
The Seahawks had to take Price here, unless they loved Mike Washington. Price is my RB3 in this class, and one that I am extremely excited about for his 2026 opportunity. The Seahawks love to run the rock, and will be without both of their running backs from last season, at least to start 2026. The reigning Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker, absconded to the Chiefs, and Zach Charbonnet is nursing an ACL tear from their playoff romp of the 49ers. There’s nothing else on the depth chart, and there’s nothing in Jadarian Price’s way. He will dominate this backfield in opportunities.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
I’m all the way in. His diverse skill set will allow him to dominate the backfield for the Seahawks, making him a backend RB2 without a second thought.
