Welcome to the weekly Fantasy Notebook, the must-stop spot for keeping your finger on the pulse of Fantasy Nation. NFL news and developments drive fantasy values. The Notebook is here to keep you in the loop on all of it throughout the season -- and into the offseason.
Big Swings, Bigger Misses
It happens every year. We enter the season with high hopes after spending the entire offseason calculating player values to get the best results possible. We pay attention to Average Draft Position (ADP), and we try to find places where the market doesn't match our view.
As we saw in last week's ADP All-Stars Fantasy Notebook, plenty of players outperform these expectations.
Unfortunately, that goes both ways.
As sure as the sun rises in the east every morning, there will be players who fail to produce as expected.
The Good News?
Coming up small doesn't have to be a permanent condition. The biggest fantasy disappointments aren't necessarily the players fantasy managers should be most disappointed in going forward.
This week, we're going to look at 10 players who have disappointed to varying degrees, and we're going to figure out if they're actually busts or if some of them are about to become the best buy-low opportunities in fantasy football.
Beware: Not all of the outcomes are going to be great.
Can Brown Do Anything for You?
As AtoZSports.com's John Shereen noted this week, Cincinnati has a mediocre rushing attack at best through six weeks -- ranking 27th in the NFL -- and it has not worked at all from under center.
Chase Brown is a big part of that.
He is averaging only 3.5 yards per carry on his 71 attempts with one touchdown. Over the last two games, Brown only has 49 yards on 24 carries, an average of just over two yards per attempt.
When we last saw Cincinnati, in Week 5 against the Dolphins, Brown played 60 percent of the offensive snaps and his backup, Samaje Perine, played 51 percent.
The two backs were on the field together for seven plays.
Cincinnati leaned on heavy tight end personnel while running a four-minute offense with the lead for much of the second half. Perine spearheaded the rushing attack with 14 carries for 68 yards. Brown ran 13 times for 39 yards, caught three passes for 21 yards on four targets, and lost a fumble.
"I think we'll continually assess how that touch share between (Perine) and Brown should play out," offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said as the team opened practice this week. "Every game's different. What type of scheme we lean into is going to factor into that."
Redemption Coming?
Brown was a first-round investment. He was drafted as RB6 with the 12th pick overall, so 13.4 points per game isn't what managers paid for.
Nor did we believe we were buying into a timeshare with Perine.
If the shift to involve Perine persists, we'll have to adjust our expectations further, but, as SI.com's Mark Morales-Smith suggested, Brown is clearly a much better running back, and a year-10 breakout for the 31-year-old Perine isn't imminent.
Meanwhile, Brown heads into Week 7 sitting at RB17 overall despite playing only five games. He remains a solid starting option, and, with the Bengals' schedule easing up as we head into the stretch, I believe redemption is coming.
So does fellow Footballguy Dave Kluge, who has Brown as RB10 in his current Rest of Season Rankings.
Omarion Hampered
With offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel hired to run the Chargers' offense in January, Omarion Hampton's anticipated role in the team's new wide-zone-heavy run scheme seemingly guaranteed a breakout.
As a result, Hampton was drafted as RB9 with the 15th pick overall heading into September. Six weeks later, he's averaging 3.6 yards per carry and has just nine receptions.
What happened here?
For starters, the real concern isn't the decreased production -- although that's plenty worrisome. Instead, it's the diminishing opportunities.
As ESPN.com's Anthony Gharib noted this week, Hampton's snap count has decreased since having 40 in Week 2 against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Hampton had a career-high 23 carries in that game. Since then, his numbers have dropped, falling to 20 snaps against the Denver Broncos in Week 5 -- fewer than fellow running backs Kimani Vidal (26) and Keaton Mitchell (21).
When asked about Hampton's decreased snap count, coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters: "There's three outstanding backs, but love them, love them all."
Redemption Coming?
Hampton was once viewed as the future of the Chargers' backfield alongside Justin Herbert and a dominant rushing attack. One new offensive coordinator later, his role is decreasing -- just like the Chargers' playoff hopes.
Of course, McDaniel is an easy target. But the issues go beyond coaching.
With Tyler Biadasz, Rashawn Slater, and Joe Alt all sidelined by injuries, the Chargers started four rookie offensive linemen the last two weeks. Alt could return soon, but expecting this offensive line to play at a high level is a reach.
If you're looking for positives, Hampton's numbers through five games this season aren't far off his numbers at the same point last year.
He currently has a team-high 73 carries for 271 yards as opposed to 66 carries for 314 yards last year. His runs have been deemed a "rush success" 37 percent of the time so far, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. That figure was at 42 percent in 2025.
And he currently sits at RB26 on a points-per-game basis.
If you are in a shallow or medium-sized league and desperately need roster flexibility during the bye-week crunch, cutting ties is becoming defensible. Those in deeper leagues, however, will point to his borderline RB2 production as sufficient reason to hold on to him.
Henderson Can't Find His Groove
As we head into Week 7, Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson, who was drafted as RB25 in Round 6, has been a disappointment.
Sitting at RB44, the second-year player has fallen 19 positional spots below his draft price.
While Henderson surprisingly played in Week 6 -- a week after suffering a high-ankle sprain -- his afternoon hit a snag when he coughed up a fumble against the Jets.
Compounding matters, fellow back Corey Kiner actually out-carried him, logging 11 rushes for 57 yards while averaging 5.2 yards per carry.
Henderson's fumble likely cost him snaps down the stretch, and Kiner's strong efficiency introduces a messy committee behind Rhamondre Stevenson.
Redemption Coming?
According to Pro Football Focus' Nathan Jahnke, it's possible Henderson can start taking a majority of early-down snaps and the bulk of carries once the ankle issue is behind him.
Jahnke notes that offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has an extensive history of three-man backfields, so it's also plausible that Kiner can complicate the Patriots' running back rotation as we advance through the season.
Still, as Kluge suggests, Henderson has value through bye weeks as a big-play flex option and would move into the weekly RB1 tier if Stevenson misses any games.
Chasing Past Production
Yes, I'm making a point here: Disappointment is relative.
Bengals wideout Ja'Marr Chase was the third pick overall heading into the season. He's WR17 overall and WR15 on a points-per-game basis.
We certainly didn't expect WR2-level production.
According to Athlon Sports, there are issues at play here that might be lowering Chase's ceiling. The Bengals may need to make a counterintuitive adjustment with Chase to course correct: line him up outside more often.
Locked On Bengals host Jake Liscow noted that a review of recent snaps with Joe Burrow on the field found lower passing and rushing success rates, along with less efficient EPA results, when Chase worked from the slot.
The case is not that Chase cannot win inside.
It is that Cincinnati's current usage may be turning an elite playmaker into the focal point of predictable, short-area designs.
It's possible the injury to Andrei Iosivas matters more than previously believed because a dependable third receiver could allow Chase to return to more outside work without sacrificing the offense's slot element.
Redemption Coming?
Did I mention disappointment is relative?
As I noted in the 2026 Footballguys Draft Guide, Chase is a premier wide receiver with an elite combination of speed, power, and contested-catch ability -- a dominant playmaker with exceptional YAC skills and consistent home-run upside.
Chase ran a route on 97 percent of Cincinnati's dropbacks in Week 5, when Tee Higgins was at 76 percent. Chase out-targeted Higgins 10 to 4.
Redemption is baked into the role and locked in by the talent. When the season is over, that No. 3 pick will have been well spent.
Waddle Can't Hit Stride
As SI.com's Nick Raducanu framed it, "Jaylen Waddle's nightmare 2026 campaign took another frustrating turn during Denver's Week 6 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks."
Waddle managed just four receptions for 24 yards on seven targets, briefly exiting the contest in the third quarter with a shoulder scare before returning in the fourth.
Through six games, Waddle has 22 catches for 228 yards and one touchdown. His 10.4 yards per reception are on pace to be his worst number since his rookie year.
This obviously wasn't the expected outcome when the Broncos acquired Waddle in a trade from Miami.
As CBSSports.com's Zachary Pereles wrote, "Denver needed explosiveness. Waddle brought it in bunches. This was the start of a beautiful marriage."
Fantasy investors bought into it.
We drafted Waddle as WR18 in Round 4.
The supposed "perfect combination" has actually been, for the most part, not much of a combination at all early this season.
Waddle has played a large role in that last line.
He has four drops already this season, after three all of last year. He came to Denver with a 6.1 percent career drop rate (which already wasn't great), but he is at a very bad 10.8 percent this year.
But we can't put all this on Waddle's shoulders.
Bo Nix has a 4.9 air yards per pass attempt rate so far this year. His passing tendencies have bordered on playing not to lose, rather than playing to win.
As Late-Round Fantasy's JJ Zachariason noted, among the 338 quarterback seasons with 100 or more pass attempts from Weeks 1-6 since 2016, Nix has the lowest air yards per attempt rate out of all of them.
But this isn't a new issue, and it's a big reason why Waddle appealed to the Broncos.
Denver ranked 27th in average depth of target when throwing to wide receivers last year (7.4 yards). Waddle was at 13.1.
He averaged 14.1 yards per catch last year; only one Denver wide receiver, Courtland Sutton, was over 11.
But there is a clear disconnect between what Waddle provides, what Nix wants to throw to, and what the coaching staff trusts Nix to do.
Redemption Coming?
Waddle is currently WR46, averaging 8.8 points per game. This despite the fact that, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, Waddle has an average separation of 3.9 yards, the 11th-highest rate in the league and much higher than his mark last year (2.7).
If there's a reason for optimism, it's only been two weeks since Sean Payton took playcalling duties back from Davis Webb. And as Pereles pointed out, it's not like the work is being funneled elsewhere.
The entire passing attack is bad. Waddle leads all Broncos with 228 receiving yards and is nearly 100 yards ahead of the next-closest wide receiver (Pat Bryant, 133).
At some point, Nix has to push the ball downfield. But until he does, Waddle investors are in a tough spot.
As Raducanu suggested, you cannot outright cut a talent like Waddle, but trusting him as an automatic weekly starter has become a massive liability.
An upcoming matchup against the Cardinals offers a slight glimmer of hope, but if he cannot deliver a ceiling game soon, he belongs firmly on your bench.