5 Bold Predictions For Fantasy Football 2026: DeVonta Smith Posts Top-5 WR Season

Yeah, sex is cool, but have you ever read some BOLD 2026 fantasy football predictions in early April?

Don't mistake my provocative opening sentence as some sort of grand gesture that I'm not taking this seriously. There's no relax here, champ. We're on 10 at all times over here at Fantasy Life. I'm coming at you with 5 BOLD predictions that I truly believe in my heart of hearts to be possible ahead of next season.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

2026 Fantasy Football Bold Predictions

A.J. Brown is traded, leading to a top-5 season … for DeVonta Smith

The people's insider Rickey (that dog avatar twitter dude who sure seems to get a lot of stuff right well before multi-millionaire insiders get the OK from agents to actually post said news), along with "several NFL executives" believe A.J. Brown will be traded to the Patriots in June.

This is because *pushes non-existent glasses up slightly* the Eagles would take on $16.3 million in dead money with a post-June 1 trade as opposed to $43.5 million if they make the move before June 1 (per Over The Cap). Note: NFL teams regularly release dudes in March or whenever with a "post-June 1" designation, but it's apparently different for trades. Totally normal stuff here. Cool? Cool.

Anyway: I'm sure Brown reuniting with Mike Vrabel in New England and catching passes from Drake Maye would be fine and dandy—but I'd really be excited to see what kind of ceiling DeVonta Smith could offer as a featured receiver without a partner in crime who throws temper tantrums disguised as book club meetings on the sideline.

The numbers tell you that Smith has worked as the WR25 in PPR points per game since entering the league in 2021. That's sandwiched between Jaylen Waddle and DJ Moore. The man is really good. That's not up for debate. But you know what? My eyes tell me the man is actually already GREAT.

DeVonta Smith pic.twitter.com/IwYWjcZzZk
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) November 13, 2025

And now I will direct you to an interesting tidbit that Fantasy Life's fearless leader Matthew Berry heard at the combine:

"Regarding A.J. Brown, the Eagles are undecided on keeping him or not. They are definitely listening and are open to moving him as has been widely reported. But one thought around Brown possibly leaving that I hadn’t heard before was that the Eagles LOVE DeVonta Smith. They think, as good as he’s been in the NFL, he still hasn’t reached his full potential and has “another gear” he can get to. That, if Smith were given the same kind of target share as Jaxon Smith-Njigba, he could have that kind of year. They believe in his talent that much and that’s among the many reasons they would be OK moving Brown."

Interesting. VERY interesting.

Expect the Eagles to address wide receiver sooner rather than later in the draft if their mind is indeed already made up on trading Brown—and get excited about the possibilities of Smith working as the undisputed engine of a passing attack for the first time since, you know, he had arguably the greatest season from a wide receiver in college football history.

Malik Willis works as a top-10 fantasy quarterback

Fantasy analysts recommending you draft dual-threat QBs has almost become a cliché over the years. No shit. Everyone knows that Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are good in fantasy. Thanks for the "expert" advice.

At the risk of working myself into a shoot, brother: I don't think the average fantasy Joe fully realized quite how high the floor and ceiling are for quarterbacks who run the ball as often as someone like Malik Willis.

Consider: 31 of 34 QBs with 100+ rush attempts in a season have returned top-12 fantasy per-game numbers since 2014—that's a 91% hit rate! Per game! I'm not even doing that annoying thing fantasy content creators do where they purposely use total production to spread their biased propaganda! And hell, one of the three misses (2018 Lamar Jackson) actually did return QB1 production upon taking over for Joe Flacco halfway through the season. Absolute madness.

And hey, painting a glass-half-full path to something close to average passing production is also possible. Willis looked GOOD on his way to leading the NFL in pretty much any premier aerial efficiency metric over the past two seasons.

Yes, that passing efficiency came on an extremely limited sample size. Also yes, the Dolphins' No. 1 receiver is something named Malik Washington. Also, ALSO yes: None of it should matter if Willis continues to run the ball as often and as effectively as he has in his young career. At the risk of assuming Willis CAN'T be benched—I know guys, I f*cked up with Justin Fields last year—we just simply almost NEVER see this archetype fail in fantasy football land. As Mos Def taught us: It's simple mathematics.

(For the record: I absolutely know who Malik Washington is. I have him on at least one dynasty squad. It was a good line, though! As Reece Witherspoon once said: Never let the truth get in the way of a good throwaway line in an early April fantasy column.)

Garrett Wilson BOOMs for 1,500+ yards and 10 touchdowns

Most should realize Garrett Wilson is good at football. He does have the position's sixth-largest contract after all. You remember the Air Jordan catch.

And yet, it's worth going through each of the 25-year-old's four career seasons to get a full picture of just how good he's been … in less-than-ideal situations:

2022: 83 receptions for 1,103 yards and 4 touchdowns as a rookie catching passes from Zach Wilson, Creator of White Lotus Mike White (actually the other one) and Joe Flacco. Good for the most receiving yards by a Jet since Brandon Marshall in 2015!
2023: Life was supposed to be grand catching passes from Aaron Rodgers … and you know what happened. Instead, Wilson posted a 95-1,042-3 receiving line while hooping with Wilson, Trevor Siemian and Tim Boyle.
2024: Wilson finally gets to catch passes from A-aron, who promptly gets BFF Davante Adams to come to town. Nevertheless, Wilson catches 101 passes for 1,104 yards and 7 scores–good for a career-best 14.8 PPR points per game (WR21).
2025: Wilson does his best DJ Moore impressions and begins putting together the best season of his career alongside Justin Fields. Wilson posts a 36-395-4 receiving line through the first six weeks of the season—16.2 PPR points per game, WR10!—before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Sadly/hilariously, no Jets pass catcher managed to top that 395-yard mark all season.

So yeah: Wilson has spent the first four years of his career catching passes from a bunch of memes and the corpse of Aaron Rodgers … and kind of still put up good numbers anyway? I get it, the lack of target competition (aside from 2024) helped matters, but still, it's hard to deny that the former No. 10 overall pick has largely looked the part of a difference-maker at the position ever since entering the league.

Consider: ESPN's "Open Score," which measures WR separation ability on a per-route—not per-target—basis.

That's some damn good company! It's also not lost on me that Wilson's teammate Adonai Mitchell also makes the list (dozens of us still believe!).

Ultimately, Wilson has racked up 147, 169 and 154 targets in his three healthy seasons. He was on pace for 159 through six weeks of last season. I'm not saying Geno Smith is *good* in the year 2026, but if he can be a little bit better than 2025 Justin Fields, it's certainly within Garrett Wilson's range of potential outcomes to ball the hell out.

David Montgomery randomly finishes as a top-12 fantasy RB

Usually, veteran running backs leave teams after they had a nice run, but faded out in favor of a new-and-improved younger option. There's a Leonardo DiCaprio girlfriend joke in there somewhere.

Here's the thing: Montgomery hasn't really had a bad season … ever. The man averaged 1,212 total yards and 7.5 touchdowns in four seasons in mostly bad Bears offenses before going for 3,156 total yards and 33 scores during his last three years in Detroit.

Yes, Monty's counting numbers dropped off in 2025, as the Lions shifted the backfield focus to some dude named Jahmyr Gibbs. Also yes, a lot of provocative metrics still painted him as a pretty average-to-above-average running back.

Montgomery among 33 RBs with 150+ carries in 2025:

Yards per rush: 4.5 (18th)
Yards after contact per rush: 3.2 (13th)
Tackles avoided per rush: 18.4% (18th)

Nothing crazy, but this was also far from Dan Campbell's best offensive line. The Lions certainly had every right to prioritize Gibbs—I would have done the same thing, and I'm sure you would have to—but that was also true for D'Andre Swift a few years ago, and that didn't stop him from proving some pretty solid fantasy contributions on new teams in 2023 (Eagles, RB24) and 2024-25 (Bears, RB21, RB17) alike.

I understand Montgomery and Swift couldn't be more different stylistically, and hey, Jamaal Williams' encore in New Orleans was rough. The point is that Gibbs being f*cking awesome doesn't mean Monty is suddenly incapable of putting up big fantasy numbers … something he, in fact, did in 2020 (RB6), 2021 (RB15), 2023 (RB15) and 2024 (RB16) alike.

Yeah, I skipped 2022 (RB28). Guess what: That still means Montgomery has finished as a top-16 RB in four of the last five years that his offense had an interest in using him as a key part of the offense—something that the Houston Texans now certainly seem to be keen on! A major addition in the draft could change things, but if not? Don't be surprised if Montgomery clears 300 touches with good health inside of a fine enough Texans offense that could be gifted all kinds of fantasy-friendly leading game-script thanks to this absolutely lethal defense at hand.

A boring, veteran backup RB wins fantasy championships

Vague, I know: But hear me out. The allegedly lackluster RB draft class makes it unlikely we see too many Day 2 picks at the position, meaning we could see a LOT of current veteran backups wind up in extremely high-upside handcuff roles.

Just look at a few of the current favorites to serve as the primary backup for some of fantasy's consensus top-12 RBs:

RB1: Bijan Robinson. Projected backup: Brian Robinson
RB2 Jahmyr Gibbs. Projected backup: Isiah Pacheco
RB4 Christian McCaffrey. Projected backup: Jordan James
RB8 Saquon Barkley. Projected backup: Tank Bigsby

And that's before considering the potential for Chris Rodriguez to win out in Jacksonville. Or for either Tyler Allgeier or James Conner to seize the day in Arizona. J.K. Dobbins and Rhamondre Stevenson just told your favorite fantasy analyst's favorite Day 2 rookie running back to f*ck right off in 2025, whose to say they won't do it again? There's a chance Rachaad White works as the lead back in a Commanders offense just one season removed from a top-5 scoring finish!

I'm not going to sit here and predict any injuries, but it doesn't take an alleged fantasy expert to figure out that more than a few late-round afterthoughts are *one* issue away from suddenly assuming lead back duties inside some pretty great offenses.