Fantasy Football: Scott Pianowski shares his 'My Guys' — preferred players he's drafting often for 2026

I'm about 85% through my fantasy football drafts for 2026. The story isn't complete, but themes are taking shape. I now have a good sense of what players will define my 2026 season.

With so many drafts in the bank, it's a good time to roll through my preferred plays. You can call this piece "What's In My Wallet?" or "My Guys," it doesn't matter to me. I'm not hung up on labels.

Understand that player share counts will be significantly affected by some random things, like draft slot. If you're not continually gifted with the first overall pick, it's hard to be overweight on Jahmyr Gibbs. So it goes.

Any player considered in the first round carries a fun upside, but I also want to consider floor. The Sun God is as sturdy as they come, with an average return of 117-1,393-11.9 over the last three seasons. Tied to a plus quarterback, an easy schedule and a bunch of indoor games, I'm prepared to take St. Brown over Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Christian McCaffrey.

Brown is good at everything, a crafty runner, a handy receiver. The Bengals employ a narrow usage tree — the RB depth chart after Brown is uninspiring — and profile as a carnival team , yet again. Brown is a perfect second-round pick, and still in his prime entering his age-26 season.

I understand the surface concerns on Henry — he's a power back, he turned 32 in January, he's had a heavy career workload. But there's zero sign of attrition with The King. He's somehow improved in his two Baltimore seasons, pushing his YPC to 5.6 and scoring an absurd 34 touchdowns. And even if some efficiency drop creeps into his game this year, I suspect Henry would fall into the end zone 12-14 times even in a bad season. The Baltimore offense as a whole is an arrow pointing up, with new OC Declan Doyle providing a fresh coat of paint. When I don't land Brown in Round 2, I pivot to Henry when I can.

The dots line up so cleanly here. McConkey showed dominant potential in the second half of his rookie year, and the sophomore slump goes down as an excused absence — OL injuries, stale play-calling, crowded target tree. The line should be better this season — even with center Tyler Biadasz out for the year — and the WR room is leaner with Keenan Allen gone. And we can't underestimate the value of new OC Mike McDaniel, a creative, motion-heavy schemer who will put McConkey in spots to succeed. McConkey is a perfect fourth-round target.

I'm not going to dismiss Kyren Williams out of hand — I drafted him in the second round of the Yahoo Expert League on Tuesday — but Corum looms as a platoon partner. Corum entered the Circle of Trust for the final 11 games last year, producing at a clip that paces to 179-911-7.7 for a full season. Corum is another player you can draft at his floor, but still dream of a fun upside. The Rams should be a run-heavy team in the fourth quarter this year, with a loaded defense controlling outcomes on the other side.

Warren has carved out a solid NFL career after going undrafted four years ago. He'll cede a fair amount of work to new teammate Rico Dowdle, but there should be plenty of opportunity for both players. Warren's receiving chops (7.4 yards per target last year, 88.9% catch rate) are a perfect fit for veteran QB Aaron Rodgers, who is looking to dump the ball off as quickly as possible. No matter what your preferred RB strategy is, Warren is a pick that fits the build.

Quarterback is the no-stress position for fantasy football this summer, as deep as it's ever been. As a result, I'll skip the vanity options early and try to target some of the guys in this group. Every quarterback in this four-pack has a similar setup — an exciting collection of pass-catchers, and a defense that will likely force weekly shootouts. Carnival life for the win .

Loveland makes this list more in spirit than actual roster count, as I haven't quite acquired the commensurate shares I seek. But I can't unsee what he did at the end of 2025 (including playoffs), gobbling up 48 targets and posting a 28-378-2 line over his final four games. I'll check the FOMO box on Loveland in the next week, even if it means hitting that plus-one button aggressively in some salary cap drafts.

We went broke on the Minnesota offense last year, something I'm willing to blame mostly on overmatched QB J.J. McCarthy. Kevin O'Connell remains one of the sharpest coaches around, and whatever you think of QB Kyler Murray these days, he should be a notable upgrade over McCarthy. Mason is five years younger than Aaron Jones Sr., and was the more effective runner last year. Mason didn't quite pay off his sleeper tag last year, but I'm happy to double down. The Vikings should have plenty of positive game scripts, with star DC Brian Flores scheming up an above-average defense.

For a while this summer, Johnson was being drafted outside the top-20 tight ends on Yahoo, which never made sense. The market has come around since, in part because hotshot rookie WR Jordyn Tyson is down for a couple of months. But no matter the shape of this offense, Johnson (77-889-3 last year) is likely to be involved. It's no surprise he clicks so well with QB Tyler Shough, as the two players shared a season together at Oregon. Johnson is good enough to be a Week 1 starter in many fantasy leagues, and he's a dynamite backup TE in some other builds. He'll likely be my most rostered player this season.

Everyone has their own preferred list of one-injury-away running backs, the type of high-upside picks that make sense for stashing. Washington and Johnson played so well in the preseason that they might have a case for expanded roles in-season, and they're both behind backs with injury concerns (Ashton Jeanty is already dinged up, Kenneth Walker III has an extensive injury history). Davis won't have value unless James Cook (a terrific player) gets hurt, but at least Davis has already shown proof-of-concept on his upside. He exploded for 174 total yards against the Jets in January last year.

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