The BEST Fantasy Football Draft Strategy of 2026

Ian Hartitz lays out his favorite way to attack 2026 fantasy football drafts,
then runs two full mock drafts to prove it works. The build is simple: take a
stud running back in Round 1, take Brock Bowers in Round 2, then let the loaded
wide receiver tier come to you.

The case for a premium tight end pick is the part most people miss. Over the
last decade, tight end has been far and away the best position at overcoming a
bad offensive environment. Top-12 fantasy finishers who came from bottom-10
scoring offenses: 24 tight ends (20%), 14 running backs (11.7%), 12 wide
receivers (10%), and just 4 quarterbacks (3.3%). That is why a shaky Raiders
offense does not scare Ian off Bowers, and why the depth at quarterback this
year makes spending up at tight end so much easier to stomach.

From there it is rounds 3 through 6 hammering the wide receiver tier, rounds 7
through 10 building the RB2 room in the aggregate, and round 11 onward grabbing
the quarterback everyone else reached for.

Then two mocks, every pick explained.

MOCK DRAFT 1
QB Brock Purdy | RB Jahmyr Gibbs, Tony Pollard | WR Nico Collins, Zay Flowers,
Jaylen Waddle | TE Brock Bowers | FLEX Parker Washington
Bench: Rachaad White, Blake Corum, Rashid Shaheed, Jared Goff, Tank Bigsby,
Isiah Pacheco, Jaydon Blue

MOCK DRAFT 2
QB Jared Goff | RB Christian McCaffrey, Javonte Williams | WR Jaylen Waddle,
Davante Adams, Christian Watson | TE Brock Bowers | FLEX Parker Washington
Bench: Rico Dowdle, Jordan Mason, Josh Downs, Kyler Murray, Tank Bigsby,
Mike Washington, Kaelon Black

Rankings, articles and the Draft Assistant are all at RotoWire. Use code IAN20
for 20% off any subscription: rotowire.com

Timestamps:
0:00 The plan
0:25 Round 1: lock a stud RB
0:59 Round 2: Brock Bowers
3:39 Why tight end beats a bad offense
5:29 Rounds 3-6: feast on the WR tier
7:29 Rounds 7-10: build the RB2 room
12:01 Round 11+: the year of late-round QB
13:15 The rules, recapped
14:10 Mock draft 1
26:34 Mock draft 2

It's a great day to be great.