We talk a lot about best ball these days. And that’s because it’s a format where we can draft a LOT of teams. That process helps us figure out who we are high on, who we are low on, and who we are “just okay” with. That way, we know who our favorite fantasy football breakouts and sleepers are compared to the rest of the field.

Since we have a big portfolio of players and we also have our fantasy football rankings for redraft, we can start to identify who we are ahead of the pack on. And, come August, those guys evolve from our core best ball guys to become the guys we are willing to bet out BIG redraft leagues on. They become our Consensus Crushers. 

"What Is A Consensus Crusher?

In the fantasy football world, “consensus” is basically what the average players are doing. Some sites gather a bunch of rankings from folks around the industry and call those consensus rankings. But the best way to get an idea of the consensus among fantasy drafters is to pull ADP.

At Fantasy Alarm, we pull ADP from multiple different sources like Sleeper, ESPN, Yahoo, RT Sports, NFFC, FFPC, etc. And that gives us a great idea of what the consensus is on players. From there, we can pull up our own rankings to highlight some players we believe are must-draft based on their ADP. So, without further ado, we present our 2026 Consensus Crushers!

 

 

 

Quarterbacks We Rank Significantly Higher

Drake Maye, QB3 (Consensus QB5)

Two spots might not seem like a lot. But in this range, it’s everything. Just think about it - if you were to rank Ashton Jeanty as your RB3 over Christian McCaffrey and Jonathan Taylor, you’d be taking Jeanty virtually every time, and you’d rarely get the other two. When you are splitting hairs at the very top, even one spot can mean a big difference. These guys are not coming back to you next round and, with elite QBs, you are only taking one anyway. 

With Maye, I’m not really sure what the hesitation is on some platforms where he goes as the QB4 or QB5, like Sleeper, RT Sports, or Yahoo. Last year, the Patriots didn’t even go all in - they carried over $40M in cap space into the season. And they still made the Super Bowl, and Maye almost won MVP. This offseason, they added Romeo Doubs in free agency and traded for AJ Brown. You can’t really do much more than that. As we will discuss below, mobile QBs have a great floor, and Maye has the ceiling of fantasy QB overall. 

Jaxson Dart, QB 10 (Consensus QB14)

Over the last decade, every QB to run at least five times a game and play 16 or more games has finished top 10 in fantasy football. Every. One. That’s 85 times in a 17-game season. Jackson Dart has just run 86 times in 12 starts. 

That is what we alluded to in the section above about QB floor. Picking Dart at QB10 is drafting him at his floor, given his profile. The general consensus is to pick him at QB14 without realizing that he’s much more appealing than all of the run-of-the-mill pocket passers going in that range, both in terms of downside and upside. We just need to hope he learns to slide and take a little bit better care of himself, as the “play at least 16 games” caveat might be the only thing holding him back. 

Kyler Murray, QB 13 (Consensus QB18)

There are a couple of beautiful pieces of stigma working in our favor right now. One has always followed Kyler Murray around, which is that he’s “not a winner”. That he’s “not a leader”. It’s a problem for some people that he plays video games - they would rather have their QB out partying or shotgunning a beer at a hockey game. But we don’t really care about any of that. All we care about is that he’s a mobile QB who is currently the QB8 all-time in fantasy points per game. He delivers for US.

The other stigma is this idea that he might not win the starting job for the Vikings. Though every day it seems Kyler Murray is getting further and further ahead of JJ McCarthy in that “battle”. When I consider that this mobile QB is going to a better organization to throw to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jauan Jennings, T.J. Hockenson, and Aaron Jones, I have to ask if we are still too low on him. But then we look at his consensus ADP and realize that he’s one of the easiest picks on the board. 

Running Backs We Rank Significantly Higher

Kenneth Walker, RB9 (Consensus RB12)

We have always been believers in the talent of Kenneth Walker. This made 2025 such a bittersweet season for us. Walker got hurt in the preseason, which saw Zach Charbonnett carve out a role in the new scheme. They split the work for much of the year, which hurt his fantasy upside. When Charbonnett got hurt during the playoffs, however, we saw what Walker could really do en route to a Super Bowl MVP performance.

Luckily, both Walker and the Kansas City Chiefs agreed that Walker deserves more than what he was getting in Seattle. So he got a big payday to come in and be the workhorse for Andy Reid. Fantasy breakouts happen at the convergence of talent, scheme, and opportunity, and that is finally all coming together for Walker this year in Kansas City. 

Javonte Williams, RB13 (Consensus RB18)

The ADP for Javonte Williams has us a little bit confused. That’s because, in this range, we often look for guys who either are poised to break out or are set to bounce back. But Javonte Williams did BOTH already last year - returning from injury to break out for the Dallas Cowboys. Guys like that in great offenses usually go in the first two rounds, do they not?

What makes it even more confusing is that everything broke Javonte’s way this offseason. They paid him a big contract. They didn’t sign incoming free agents. They didn’t pick any running backs in the draft. I’m honestly a bit confused why Javonte Williams isn’t considered one of the safest picks in the draft, but we will take him as our RB2 all day long and twice on Sundays.

Kenny Gainwell, RB31 (Consensus RB44)

Bucky Irving is a solid player. But we have our concerns. Injuries took a big toll on Bucky Irving in 2025, reportedly both physically and mentally. That saw the team lean on backup RBs, especially around the goal line, even when Bucky was back. In fact, Bucky got zero carries inside the five-yard line with Rachaad White and Sean Tucker taking all of that work. That’s on top of White mixing in on pass downs.

With White being a free agent, we hoped they would give Bucky more of the work in 2026. And they did let White walk, with him getting one year at $2M from the Commanders. But the Buccaneers then decided to UPGRADE that role, paying 2 years $12M for Kenneth Gainwell. Given everything going on with Bucky as well as the usage of Rachaad White last year, we love grabbing Gainwell as one of the top “handcuff plus” players out there. We really don’t know how this backfield will break down, but you don’t upgrade from White like that if you don’t plan to use Gainwell. 

 

 

 

Wide Receivers We Rank Significantly Higher

Zay Flowers WR13 (Consensus WR16)

Let’s start by looking at things here at face value. Zay Flowers finished as the WR7 in fantasy last year. I have him ranked WR12; everyone else is picking him at WR16. Right there, you would think that maybe something negative happened this offseason. But that’s not really the case. The Ravens did not sign any free-agent pass-catchers. In fact, they let Isaiah Likely, Charlie Kolar, and DeAndre Hopkins walk in free agency. In the draft, they did not spring for high-end prospects, instead picking the WR13 off the board and the WR19. That’s more of a problem for Rashod Bateman than Zay Flowers, who just got a massive new deal.

If Flowers is the guy he was last year, that would be great. But in this new scheme for Declan Doyle, Flowers could be even BETTER. Both the outside role and the slot/flanker role in this scheme are great for fantasy, but the slot/flanker role has produced Amon-Ra St. Brown and has many excited for Luther Burden. I think Flowers is the most likely candidate for that role, which could be wheels up for fantasy. 

Chris Godwin WR34 (Consensus WR41)

Chris Godwin has really never been “bad,” only hurt. I mean, the last time he was healthy, the year before last, he was the WR2 in all of fantasy behind only Ja'Marr Chase. But a serious ankle injury derailed both the end of that season and most of 2025. Still, we saw some light at the end of the tunnel at the end of 2026 when GM Jason Licht said Chris Godwin “looked like himself” again. That was despite Baker Mayfield being hurt during that period. 

We like Chris Godwin so much at ADP this year that we wrote an entire article on it.  The short and sweet is that they brought in Zac Robinson, who worked with Liam Coen, to try to recreate that awesome 2024 season. Mike Evans is gone, which is taking a Hall of Fame-caliber target out of the equation. And they’ve already said Godwin should be back in his slot role this season. I like Emeka Egbuka at ADP too, but I love Chris Godwin at his. 

Jerry Jeudy WR58 (Consensus WR65)

On a site like Underdog Best Ball, Jerry Jeudy goes as late as WR74. The consensus ADP in redraft has him at WR65 and, to us, that is still too low. This happened every year when it comes to rookies and bad teams - we think that any “old” is just going to go away and all of the new guys will immediately usher in a new era. But it doesn’t quite happen like that.

For starters, Jerry Jeudy is still 27 years old, which is smack in the age apex for WRs. He’s also under contract for next year with zero ways out of that deal, so he’s part of the plan regardless. We all know that betting on rookies can hit, but we forget that betting against them is an equally good way to create leverage. After drafting the rookies, Browns GM Andrew Berry himself reiterated that Jerry Jeudy is their bellcow WR. This guy was just the WR12 overall in fantasy the year before last, so we have no problem taking a stab at him with the last few picks. 

Tight Ends We Rank Significantly Higher

Kyle Pitts TE5 (Consensus TE7)

Not only do we have Kyle Pitts higher than consensus, but we don’t really love where the first four TEs are going in ADP. Brock Bowers and Trey McBride 

Kenyon Sadiq TE14 (Consensus TE21)

Historically speaking, there are very few situations where we are above consensus on rookie tight ends. And the problem isn’t usually talent-related; it’s opportunity-related. As we know, we need our tight end to be a top-two target on their team to have big-time upside. Many rookie tight ends aren’t even the top pass-catching TE on their team, let alone a top-two pass-catcher in general, including the WRs.

But Kenyon Sadiq DOES have a window to be that guy. Garrett Wilson is the top target on the team. And then it’s an open battle. Adonai Mitchell is not necessarily an insurmountable object. And after him, it’s two rookies against each other - Kenyon Sadiq vs. Omar Cooper Jr. It doesn’t hurt that Sadiq is arguably one of the most athletic tight ends of all time. So yes, we’re willing to take a stab at Sadiq at ADP as part of any two-TE build. 

Greg Dulcich TE16 (Consensus TE26)

This should come as a surprise to no one. Once we get outside the top 7-8 tight ends, ALL we care about is upside. And that goes double for outside the top 12. You are almost certainly drafting this player with a bench spot as a second TE looking for upside - why would we care one bit about the floor?

Enter Mr. Greg Dulcich. The jury is still out on whether he is talented. But the scheme absolutely plays into his favor with the history of a fullback and multiple TEs giving the top pass-catching TE a boost. And the complete lack of high-end WRs leaves a lot of room for opportunity. What if Malik Willis and Greg Dulcich are a little better than we thought and we get the perfect convergence of talent, scheme, and opportunity needed for a breakout?

 

 

 

Fantasy Alarm's Biggest Ranking Disagreements

The full rankings for me, Howard Bender, and Jim Bowden are all available as part of the Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide. And it’s a lot of fun to pull them up side by side to see where we each fall on certain players. If you listen to any of the Fantasy Alarm shows, you probably already know of a couple.

For instance, Howard Bender this year is OUT on Christian McCaffrey (RB9) while Jim and I are IN at ADP (both have him ranked top five). Jim is buying into the Michael Wilson breakout (WR18) while Howard and I both have him closer to WR40. And, as I alluded to in this article, I am much higher on some guys, like Greg Dulcich (TE16), while neither Jim nor Howard have him in the top 20. We agree on more than we disagree, but definitely check out the full slate of rankings to see who you most align with!

Players We'll Be Overweight On All Season

My rankings always reflect what I’m actually doing in drafts. So you can be sure that I will have a lot of these guys on my rosters this year. Based on my early best ball exposures (well over 100 drafts so far), here are some other names that I have a lot of, simply by liking them at or above ADP. We’ll call this the “honorable mention” section. Keep in mind that, in best ball, you are generally required to have two or three QBs and TEs, as well as a lot of deeper WRs and RBs.