Last season, the four situations we recommended monitoring were:
The Jaguars Uncertain Backfield - Travis Etienne ended up finished as the RB12 in PPR points per game, vastly exceeding his preseason ADP.
The Entire Cleveland Browns - Harold Fannin Jr. had one of the best rookie TE seasons in history, overcoming 3 starting QBs who all played dreadfully.
Tyler Shough - After being named starter midway through the season, Shough had five QB12 or better finishes.
The Buccaneers Wide Receivers - Emeka Egbuka became a clear undervalued pick as he dominated camp and more news came out about Chris Godwin’s timeline, and he dominated the early season - having three top-twelve finishes in his first five weeks.
Here are the top four situations worth monitoring in 2026!
1. The Panthers Backfield
With the departure of Rico Dowdle, the Carolina backfield appeared to be firmly in the possession of Chuba Hubbard. But now, former second-round pick Jonathan Brooks has recovered from a second ACL tear in his right knee. Prior to his injuries, he was one of the most explosive RBs in college football, running for over 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns in his final collegiate season. Now he will compete with Hubbard, who ranked 55th in yards per carry last season and scored only one rushing touchdown all season.
Right now, Hubbard is going as the RB28 on Sleeper, while Brooks is going as the RB44. That is a massive discrepancy, and the real-life gap between the backs is much closer than the ADP gap suggests. If Brooks starts training camp on an explosive note, he will skyrocket up draft boards.
2. The Vikings QB Competition
To put it bluntly, J.J. McCarthy, Max Brosmer, and Carson Wentz provided the Vikings with some of the worst QB play in franchise history in 2025. Last season, Kyler Murray was not great, but he certainly was not atrocious either. In his five games, he scored 18 or more fantasy points twice. For NFL purposes, a multifaceted QB with experience should, at a minimum, raise the floor of the offense. Murray would likely provide Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson with consistently reliable target shares, while also helping the team score more points than the Vikings did in 2025.
There is still a QB competition to be had. As of a week ago, Kevin O'Connell refused to make a decisive statement regarding who the starter will be. This is why it’s super important to stay on top of the training camp news, as well as our rankings. Right now, we have Murray projected as the starter for the entire season. If McCarthy wins the QB battle, all of the Vikings weapons would see slight dips in our rankings.
3. The Commanders Backfield
The current Washington RB room consists of Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Rachaad White, Kaytron Allen, and Jeremy McNichols… Somebody has to win this starting job, or at least see a majority of the work.
As a rookie, Croskey-Merritt had four games with 14 or more PPR points, but he also had 10 games with six or fewer PPR points. He saw only a 36.6% rush share, but he averaged almost five yards per carry and ranked 15th among RBs in rush TD rate. As a Buccaneer last season, White was worse than Croskey-Merritt in each of these categories, but he is currently neck and neck with Croskey-Merritt in ADP.
The training camp battle between the two of them will drastically alter how their ADPs shake out. It is also worth watching how rookie Kaytron Allen and Jeremy McNichols perform, though it is not as likely that either sees consistent, substantive work. But if White or Croskey-Merritt gets injured, Allen or McNichols would be in line for fantasy relevance.
4. The Raiders, Giants, and Dolphins Wide Receivers
This is kinda cheating, but at the end of the day, it’s additional content for you! Assuming Malik Nabers misses some time, all three of these WR rooms have serious questions surrounding them. This is primarily because of how bereft of talent they are. Here are each of their current WR rooms, Malik Nabers excluded.
Raiders: Jack Bech, Tre Tucker, Jalen Nailor, Dont’e Thornton, and Malik Benson
Dolphins: Jalen Tolbert, Tutu Atwell, Malik Washington, Chris Bell, Caleb Douglas, Kevin Coleman Jr.
Giants: Darius Slayton, Calvin Austin, Malachi Fields, Darnell Mooney, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Odell Beckham Jr., Isaiah Hodgins
Most of these players are in very similar tiers. Right now, we have Jalen Nailor, Malik Washington, and Malachi Fields ranked the highest on each of their respective teams. It’s certainly worth monitoring the training camps of each of these teams because the rankings of these rooms are as subject-to-change as any groups in the NFL.
Lightning Round ⚡️
Here are a few more situations to monitor broken down into one sentence each.
The Jaguars RB Room:
Bhayshul Tuten is the clear cut starter, but Chris Rodriguez Jr. has history with Liam Coen, and has an opportunity to see goal line work.
Aaron Jones vs. Jordan Mason:
One of these guys will be a high-quality fantasy RB both are going way too late in fantasy drafts right now.
The Browns QBs:
While none of them are good, one of the Browns QBs needs to win the job, as well as support an underrated group of weapons.
Tank Dell:
Prior to his serious, career-threatening leg injury, Tank Dell was emerging as one of the up-and-coming WRs in the NFL, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how well he performs throughout training camp.
