Fantasy football veteran risers and fallers after the NFL Draft

The NFL Draft has massive implications on fantasy football. Not just for the new players entering the league, but also for players whose jobs are suddenly in danger, or players whose jobs suddenly aren't in danger.

It can be hard to sort through all the various meanings, but don't worry — I'm here for you. Based on all that happened over the weekend, here are the veterans who are rising up fantasy boards, as well as the ones who are trending down.

Post-NFL Draft fantasy football risers

QB Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans

Look, I'm not saying you go out there and draft Ward to be your fantasy QB1, but he makes a lot more sense as an upside QB2 option now that the Titans have added wide receiver Carnell Tate to the roster.

Drafting Tate probably wasn't the best move from a traditional team-building perspective, but it shows that this front office is committed to making up for its 2025 sins, the biggest of which was giving Ward absolutely no help. Signing Wan'Dale Robinson was a nice start, but drafting Tate is really huge when it comes to putting Ward in the best possible position to find success. Assuming Calvin Ridley is healthy, Ward actually has viable options to throw to, and the fact that Elic Ayomanor and Chimere Dike will have an extra offseason under their belt means even if one of the starters goes down, Tennessee will be fine at receiver. Great news for Ward truthers.

RB Cam Skattebo, New York Giants

Do I think that the New York Giants, a football team that made the huge mistake of drafting a running back in the top five not very long ago, were going to make that same mistake again if Jeremiyah Love had fallen to fifth?

Probably...not? But luckily for them and for Cam Skattebo's fantasy value, the Giants passed on running back there since Love was drafted by Arizona, and then they kept passing, with the team ultimately opting not to add to the position. As long as Skattebo comes back at 100 percent from his ankle dislocation, he'll be New York's lead back and should be viewed as a solid RB2

WR A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles

Okay, so you might be thinking "why is Brown a winner when the Philadelphia Eagles used a first-round pick on a wide receiver?" Well, it's simple: Philly drafting Makai Lemon is a clear sign that a Brown trade is going to happen very, very soon.

Where will Brown go? That remains to be seen, but after a tumultuous offseason, the Lemon pick is obviously the final nail in the coffin, and I'd imagine a team trading for Brown would do so with the intention of giving him a major role. New England is the obvious spot, though some of the Mike Vrabel stuff could impact that.

WR DJ Moore, Buffalo Bills

The Bills added DJ Moore this offseason to be the team's primary wide receiver, but the team entered the draft still counting on Khalil Shakir and Joshua Palmer as its other top receivers, so adding someone else seemed like a possibility.

Buffalo did draft a receiver, but not until late in the fourth round when the team added UConn's Skyler Bell. He was a very productive player in college and is especially scary in terms of his ability to make plays after the catch, but if he pushes anyone for snaps, it'll be Shakir in the slot. He's not a threat to Moore, who should be viewed as a high-end WR3 with the upside for more if he and Josh Allen can quickly form a connection.

TE Dalton Schultz, Houston Texans

Hear me out here. It might sound weird to call Schultz a winner when the Houston Texans used a second-round pick on a tight end, but I don't think the guy they picked, Michigan's Marlin Klein, really impacts Schultz much in 2026.

Klein is a blocking tight end who needs a lot of work still to develop as a receiver. This feels more about Houston wanting to use 12 personnel with Klein as an additional blocker than it does about looking for an immediate Schultz replacement, something that seemed like a possibility entering this draft. Klein had just 38 receptions across his four years in Ann Arbor, and averaged 9.6 yards per reception with one total touchdown. He isn't a threat to Schultz yet, which means Schultz can be viewed as a solid TE2 with upside.

Post-NFL Draft fantasy football fallers

RB Zach Charbonnet, Seattle Seahawks

It's not clear what the timeline is for Charbonnet, who tore his ACL in January, but the fact that the Seahawks spent a first-round pick on running back Jadarian Price suggests that Seattle definitely isn't comfortable going into 2026 with Charbonnet as the lead back.

I expected the Seahawks to add a running back, but I expected maybe it would happen at the end of the second or third. That it happened at the end of the first is a clear sign that the Seahawks viewed running back as a priority this offseason in the wake of Kenneth Walker leaving for Kansas City. This level of draft capital is a bad sign for managers with Charbonnet on their roster.

WR Calvin Ridley, Tennessee Titans

Wan'Dale Robinson should be fine in the slot still for the Titans, but I'd expect the addition of Tate to really impact Ridley. It seems that Tennessee's attempt to answer its receiver woes with Ridley is nearing its end.

With Robinson dominating the short-yardage targets, Tate and Ridley will be fighting for outside looks, and with low playoff hopes in Tennessee, there's incentive to make sure a lot of those are going toward Tate. I'm way down on Ridley now, and if I did a full ranking right now, he'd be outside of my top 60 wide receivers. The targets just won't be there, plus we can't trust Ridley to play a full season after he missed 10 games last season.

RB Tyler Allgeier, Arizona Cardinals

I was all in on Allgeier in fantasy this season, and then the Cardinals decided to make one of the worst decisions of the draft by taking Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love at No. 3 overall. Love has a chance to be an elite running back, but taking a running back that high is almost always a bad decision, especially for a roster with so many more immediate holes.

Anyway, Allgeier now finds himself in a familiar spot — trapped behind a first-round running back. He managed to carve out a solid role in Atlanta behind Bijan Robinson and I expect he'll have some fantasy relevance in Arizona, but before the Love pick, I really thought Allgeier had a shot to finish as a top-15 running back in fantasy. Now, he looks like an RB4 option.

TE Mason Taylor, New York Jets

Mason Taylor felt like a sneaky sleeper heading into the 2026 season. As a rookie, Taylor showed some things, catching 44 passes for 369 yards and a touchdown. It seemed he was heading for a larger role this upcoming season.

Instead, the Jets used a first-round pick on Oregon tight end Keyon Sadiq. I do think Taylor opens the year with a larger role than Sadiq simply because Sadiq isn't quite ready to be a full-time NFL tight end, but as soon as he figures out how to turn his athleticism into on-field production, that will flip, and Taylor will essentially be unplayable in fantasy by the second half of the season.

WR Jerry Jeudy, Cleveland Browns

I think Jerry Jeudy's fantasy value could have survived the addition of KC Concepcion in the first round, but then the Browns decided to just go ahead and select another wide receiver in the second round, adding Denzel Boston. Now, Jeudy's fantasy status is officially in question.

2026 should be viewed as a rebuilding year for Cleveland, and that likely means that the team will want to see what they have in Concepcion and Boston. That doesn't mean Jeudy won't play, but in 2025 he kind of showed that his huge 2024 season was an illusion, as his receiving yards were roughly cut in half. I'd imagine that Cleveland looked at that and decided Jeudy wasn't going to be the team's No. 1 receiver going forward, and these picks solidify that. I'd be trying to sell Jeudy in my dynasty leagues, except I imagine no one is trying to buy him at the moment.

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