NFL rosters are fluid creatures. Players work their way into key roles while others fade, either due to injury or ineffectiveness. Thanks to the rise of fantasy football, what was once a problem shared by an elite few coaches has been filtered down to the low stakes world of office pools and lowkey, months-long high school reunions.
That creates one of the biggest problems with the fantasy experience; figuring out which players to pull from the dregs of the late draft rounds or free agent pool, and who to give up to bring them aboard. There's no worse feeling than landing what you think is a rising star, only to watch him put up five points each week while the guy you dropped becomes a dominant force for someone else. Not only does that hurt your squad, but also gives the rest of the league leverage to mock your terrible decisions.
That's what we're trying to help you avoid. Welcome to Ladders, USA Today's only fantasy football column/video series co-hosted by a man who willingly calls himself a Rhode Island Scumbag. That's Mike "Yaj" Boyajian, who joins me as FTW's special fantasy ****** yst. Last year, we hit on the rise of guys like Brenton Strange, Christian Watson and Harold Fannin Jr. -- nothing too outrageous, but enough to carry you to a ****** le. We're back at it for 2026.
We've had a few names rise up draft boards and waiver wire bids as teams finalized their 53-man rosters -- enough to split our waiver targets and late-round steals into two parts. Let's start with trending tight ends and running backs before diving into wide receivers in our next breakdown.
The rules? There's pretty much only one; players have to be 33 percent owned or less in Yahoo! fantasy football leagues. We'll also look at each player's average draft position (ADP) in half-PPR leagues thanks to data from Fantasy Pros. Who's been responsible for the most preseason chatter rising up from the bottom of draft guides? Let's start in Los Angeles.
#draft #Football #late
That creates one of the biggest problems with the fantasy experience; figuring out which players to pull from the dregs of the late draft rounds or free agent pool, and who to give up to bring them aboard. There's no worse feeling than landing what you think is a rising star, only to watch him put up five points each week while the guy you dropped becomes a dominant force for someone else. Not only does that hurt your squad, but also gives the rest of the league leverage to mock your terrible decisions.
That's what we're trying to help you avoid. Welcome to Ladders, USA Today's only fantasy football column/video series co-hosted by a man who willingly calls himself a Rhode Island Scumbag. That's Mike "Yaj" Boyajian, who joins me as FTW's special fantasy ****** yst. Last year, we hit on the rise of guys like Brenton Strange, Christian Watson and Harold Fannin Jr. -- nothing too outrageous, but enough to carry you to a ****** le. We're back at it for 2026.
We've had a few names rise up draft boards and waiver wire bids as teams finalized their 53-man rosters -- enough to split our waiver targets and late-round steals into two parts. Let's start with trending tight ends and running backs before diving into wide receivers in our next breakdown.
The rules? There's pretty much only one; players have to be 33 percent owned or less in Yahoo! fantasy football leagues. We'll also look at each player's average draft position (ADP) in half-PPR leagues thanks to data from Fantasy Pros. Who's been responsible for the most preseason chatter rising up from the bottom of draft guides? Let's start in Los Angeles.
#draft #Football #late
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