RELATED: See 6 shockers on the defensive side of the ball here
If you have played fantasy football for any amount of time, then you know that for every thing that goes according to plan, there are three that don't.
It's the nature of the beast—and 2025 was no exception.
No one was especially surprised last year when Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills finished as fantasy's No. 1 quarterback. But the list of folks who expected Drake Maye of the New England Patriots and Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars to join them inside the top-five was short—as in non-existent.
Surprise stars, both of them.
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San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey having a massive year wasn't that odd. But Travis Etienne Jr. of the Jags joining him in the top-10 was—unexpected.
Things got exponentially wilder at the wide receiver position.
Jaxson Smith-Njigba finishing second in PPR points at wideout was a minor upset—his ADP a year ago was just inside the top-15. George Pickens of the Dallas Cowboys ending the season fifth in points was more of a bombshell given his asking price just inside the top-30 wide receivers. But Michael Wilson of the Arizona Cardinals in the top-10?
Madness! Chaos! Anarchy! Dogs and cats living together!
GAH!
The tight ends left fantasy managers flabbergasted as well. If you predicted that Harold Fannin Jr.. of the Cleveland Browns, Juwan Johnson of the New Orleans Saints and Dalton Schultz of the Houston Texans would all finish inside the top-10 at the position, buy a Powerball ticket—because apparently you're Nostradamus.
Every fantasy season is filled with shocking developments. Some can supercharge a fantasy roster. Others can electrocute a season.
And the 2026 campaign will be no exception.
SHOCKER!: Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Kyler Murray Will Post 4,500-Plus Combined Yards and Crack the Top-Five Fantasy Quarterbacks
Boy, given how loudly this analyst has been beating the drum for Murray this offseason, if J.J. McCarthy wins the starting job for the Vikings, there's going to be a Barnyard Buster's worth of egg on my face.
Fortunately, McCarthy sucks—so I should be OK.
Kevin O'Connell can talk up competition under center until his face turns Vikings purple, but the reality is that Murray is a better quarterback than McCarthy in just about every possible category. He's a two-time Pro Bowler and former Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Has Murray been great the past few years? No. But we have seen O'Connell work magic with a reclamation project in the past—Sam Darnold posted over 4,500 total yards and 36 touchdowns on the way to a QB6 fantasy finish in 2024.
The weapons are there. The coaching is there. We have seen Murray post top-three fantasy numbers in a 2020 season where he rushed for over 800 yards. He has cleared 500 rushing yards three times.
There isn't a better value under center in fantasy in 2026.
SHOCKER!: Washington Commanders Quarterback Jayden Daniels Will Finish Outside the Top-12 in Fantasy Points—Again.
After a fantastic rookie season in which he ran for nearly 900 yards, finished as a top-five signal-caller in fantasy points and won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, Daniels' 2025 season was a massive disappointment—10 missed games and just eight touchdown passes.
However, fantasy drafters appear willing to give Daniels a pass—that 2025 was the exception and 2024 was the rule. Daniels' ADP here at Footballguys is inside the top-five at his position.
Those fantasy managers are throwing a toaster in the tub.
This isn't necessarily a knock on Daniels, although his passing numbers were down across the board relative to his rookie season.
The passing-game weapons in Washington aren't markedly better than they were a year ago. Jacory Croskey-Merritt and Rachaad White aren't exactly an imposing duo of running backs. Washington's offensive line was middle of the pack in 2025. And Kliff Kingsbury is gone as offensive coordinator.
Not exactly the recipe for a rebound year.
SHOCKER!: Omarion Hampton of the Los Angeles Chargers Will Lead the NFL in Rushing and Finish as a Top-Five Fantasy Running Back
Hampton's first NFL season was a letdown—he missed almost half the season with an ankle injury. But as ESPN's Matt Bowen wrote, the arrival of new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel in Los Angeles could mean big things in 2026.
"With a healthy and upgraded front--especially on the interior--and a new system under offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, there should be real optimism for Hampton in his second pro season," he said. "Look for the Chargers to lean more on '21' personnel (2 RB, 1 TE, 2 WR), as the team signed former Miami fullback Alec Ingold. The Dolphins, under McDaniel, had 131 rushing attempts out of 21 personnel last season (second-most)."
Over four seasons making the play calls in Miami, McDaniel's Dolphins teams amassed over 8,000 rushing yards and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. He likes to run the ball just as much as Jim Harbaugh does.
And Hampton is going to be the beneficiary of that—and lead the NFL in rushing.
Zap!
SHOCKER!: Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers Will be the Biggest Fantasy Bust at Running Back in 2026—and it Won't be Close
Yep. Going back to this well again. Consider it a Public Service Announcement. Because spending the sixth overall pick (on average) on McCaffrey is the fantasy equivalent of a toddler sticking a butter knife into an electrical socket.
There's only one way it ends—and it ain't good.
Sure, McCaffrey is capable of not only capable of finishing as the No. 1 running back in fantasy overall but of blowing every other running back in fantasy out of the water. Or at least he was.
Now, McCaffrey is a 30-year-old running back coming off the third 2,000-yard season of his NFL career—after the last two, the wheels came completely off the bus. He also had a career-high 413 touches last year—and the history of running backs who hit that big a workload is—ungood.
There are multiple historic precedents staring fantasy managers right in the face with McCaffrey this year, including his own history. None of them are good.
Put the knife down.
SHOCKER!: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Wide Receiver Emeka Egbuka Will Finish Inside the Top-Five in Receptions, Receiving Yards and Fantasy Points Among Wide Receivers
This is less an "Old Sparky" shock and more a "Just walked across the carpet in socks before touching a doorknob" shock. After all, we have already seen Egbuka do this—over the first five weeks of his rookie season, Egbuka was third in PPR points among wide receivers.
Granted, from there Egbuka got dinged up and saw his target share drop, but this year Egbuka becomes the next Ohio State wide receiver to blossom into a superstar at the NFL level. This season, Egbuka becomes the next Jaxson Smith-Njigba.
Egbuka and Smith-Njigba weren't just teammates in college. They are essentially the same player—fantastic route-runners who play much bigger than their size who can play both outside and in the slot. Egbuka's comp entering the pros at NFL.com was literally JSN.
Mike Evans is gone. Chris Godwin Jr. is 30 and hasn't played 10 games in a season since 2023. With a healthy Godwin, Egbuka is still Tampa's best wideout and a player Baker Mayfield clearly trusts.
If (when) Godwin goes down? Lightning strike.
SHOCKER!: For the Fourth Time in Five Seasons, Atlanta Falcons Wide Receiver Drake London Will Fail to Amass 1,000 Receiving Yards on the Way to a Third Year Outside the Top-20 Fantasy Wide Receivers.
There is no shortage of fantasy managers who are all over Drake London this year, and it's not hard to see why—London was fourth among wide receivers in PPR points two years ago and, as Derek Brown pointed out, he was sixth in PPR points per game at wideout before a knee injury cut his season short in Week 11.
"During that stretch, he was fourth in target share (30.3%), fourth in receiving yards per game (86.4), sixth in yards per route run (2.74), fifth in first-read share (37.6%), and seventh in first downs per route run (0.135, per Fantasy Points Data)," he said. "London should be a locked-in WR1 this season with top-five upside if the quarterback situation works itself out."
London's talent isn't the problem. The situation around him is. There's a new offense. There could be a new quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa. London has as many NFL seasons outside the top-25 receivers in PPR points as inside them.
London is a great player stuck in a lousy situation, Jumper cables hooked up backward.
That rarely ends well.
SHOCKER!: Tight End Isaiah Likely Will Lead the Giants in Receptions, Receiving Yards and Touchdown Catches on the Way to a Top-Five PPR Finish at His Position
Full disclosure time. I drafted New York Giants tight end Isaiah Likely in Scott Fish Bowl 16, and my taking a player there is usually the kiss of fantasy death. But Likely is going to duck that curse in 2026—because he's going to be more electrified than Jamie Foxx in a bad superhero movie.
Zap!
Likely didn't post big numbers over four seasons with the Ravens, but that was more situation than talent. Now, the 26-year-old is out from under Mark Andrews' shadow and making big bucks in the Big Apple—and there's a legitimate chance he spends a big chunk of the 2026 season as the top option in the Giants' passing game.
That's right. Numero Uno.
The farther we get into the summer, the less certain the Giants appear to be about Malik Nabers' Week 1 availability. The rest of the pass-catching corps consists of a whole lotta "blah."
Throw in the Giants playing from behind with some regularity, and it's breakout time—in a big way.
Zap again (again)!
SHOCKER!: Colston Loveland of the Chicago Bears Will be the Biggest Fantasy Disappointment of the Season at Tight End, Turning a TE3 ADP into a Finish Outside the Top 10—Again.
This last call is less shock than short—the voltage fantasy drafters are so excited to get from Colton Loveland in his second season fizzling out.
Said drafters appear confident that Loveland's four straight games with double-digit targets (including playoffs) will carry over into his second season. That he is about to challenge the likes of Trey McBride of the Arizona Cardinals and Brock Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders for the top spot at the position in fantasy.
It's not unreasonable to ask why.
Prior to that end-of-season outburst, Loveland got eight targets in a game exactly zero times. For the season, Loveland was 12th in PPR points at the position, and it wasn't that much better over the season's second half—eighth at the position from Week 10 on.
DJ Moore is admittedly gone. But Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III are still in the Windy City. Is it possible that Loveland will see a massive target spike in a Bears offense that at least matches last year's success? But it's even more likely one of the things that has to go right doesn't. That Loveland disappoints.
And those who draft him will turn the key on their 2026 season and get silence.
Gary Davenport is a two-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association Football Writer of the Year. Follow Gary on X at @IDPGodfather.
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