One of the biggest wildcards when trying to figure out your fantasy football roster is trying to deduce how players who switched teams in the offseason will play. Learning a new scheme isn't easy, but at the same time, players often change teams in hopes of getting larger roles, so you never really know what you're going to get. (I mean, you do in some cases, like I don't think I need to tell you that Travis Etienne and Kenneth Walker will play well in their new homes.)
These five players who changed teams might not be elite options at their position, but by changing teams this offseason, their fantasy football value is on the way up. All five are potential sleepers who can help you grind out some fantasy football wins in 2026.
QB Malik Willis, Miami Dolphins
This almost feels like cheating, but I wanted to include a quarterback here and the only other options to consider were Kirk Cousins (who is going to be replaced at some point by No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza) or, uhh...Gardner Minshew, if he somehow wins the Cardinals' starting job? So yeah, we're going with new Miami Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis.
Willis was a disaster in his first stint as an NFL starter with the Tennessee Titans, but he showed massive improvement when pressed into action with the Packers.
Team | Completion Percentage | Touchdown Rate | Interception Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
Tennessee Titans | 53.0 | 0 | 4.5 |
Green Bay Packers | 78.7 | 6.7 | 0 |
I mean...that's a stark difference! Now, Willis doesn't have the supporting cast around him in Miami to expect production anything like what he delivered in Green Bay, but he also should be a good bit above the player he was with the Titans.
Willis is the consensus QB21 according to FantasyPros, but he has the upside to finish as a high-end QB2. He's got a big arm and will likely have a lot of garbage time to work with, which should set him up for fantasy success even if Miami as a team isn't set up for IRL success.
RB Isiah Pacheco, Detroit Lions
With David Montgomery now in Houston, the Detroit Lions needed a running back to complement Jahmyr Gibbs in this backfield. The requirements were simple: be capable of early-down work between the tackles and goal-line carries.
Is Isiah Pacheco that guy? Well...he has been, at times. Yes, 2025 was a failure for the hard-running back out of Rutgers as he finished with 462 rushing yards and a touchdown, but in his first two NFL seasons, he averaged 882.5 yards and six touchdowns per season. He was known for his ability to break tackles in the middle of the field and grind out tough yardage, and that's what the Lions need.
A healthy Pacheco can be that guy. Montgomery had 158 carries last season, so there should be plenty of available touches for Pacheco, and I think it's safe to say this Lions coaching staff knows how to maximize its running backs better than the Chiefs did. Pacheco is being viewed as a fringe top-50 running back by fantasy experts, but he could sneak into a top-35 finish simply by being 75 percent as good as he was from 2022 to 2023.
WR Jalen Nailor, Las Vegas Raiders
In 2024 and 2025, we saw some good flashes from Jalen Nailor, but he was never really going to work with the Minnesota Vikings long-term since the team has Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Now, in Las Vegas, he finds himself with a significantly easier path to targets.
The speedy slot receiver should face almost zero competition this season. He and Tre Tucker are locked in as the top-two wide receivers on this team, and Nailor's ability to play out of the slot gives him the most upside of any wide receiver on this roster.
And with the Raiders expected to go with Kirk Cousins under center to open the season, Nailor should have high-quality targets in the early going. It also helps that he's played with Cousins before. Not a ton — Nailor barely saw the field in his first two years in Minnesota, which also happened to be Cousins' final two years there — but enough that I think it factors in at least a little bit.
WR Jalen Tolbert, Miami Dolphins
Please, please don't take the presence of two Miami Dolphins players in this article as an endorsement of that team. As a whole, I think the Dolphins are destined to be one of the NFL's worst teams in 2026, but because the roster is so bad, some of the team's players will have chances to accumulate fantasy points at a rate that exceeds their skill set.
For example, Jalen Tolbert. There is no world in which Tolbert should be a team's No. 1 wide receiver except for in this world, the real one in which we live in, where the Dolphins have so little talent at the position that Tolbert is almost certainly going to be the No. 1 receiver by default.
Tolbert's a fine player. Before George Pickens arrived in Dallas, it looked like he could be the No. 2 receiver on a good team. He would be even better (fantasy-wise) as the No. 2 receiver on a bad team. I actually think I'd like him better in that role — he'd face far less defensive attention if the Dolphins still had Jaylen Waddle, which might have worked out more in his favor for fantasy — but garbage time coupled with Willis' increased efficiency over the past couple of years could be a winning combination here.
TE Isaiah Likely, New York Giants
The Baltimore Ravens chose Mark Andrews over Isaiah Likely, which is a decision they might come to regret. Sure, Likely's lack of progression in 2025 is a concern, but maybe a change of scenery is what Likely needs to get things back on track.
Likely joins a New York Giants team that's on the ascent, and his ability to theoretically make plays in both the short and long passing games — he ranked seventh among tight ends in aDOT in 2024 — makes him a potential impact player for a team that needed more receiving threats for Jaxson Dart.
Fantasy rankers seem to agree with this assessment, with Likely currently being drafted as the overall TE12. Notably, he's being drafted just ahead of Andrews, adding a little more fuel to the "Ravens kept the wrong tight end" fire. A top-10 finish at the position is easily within reach for Likely.
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