Fantasy Football Rankings 2026: Chase Brown Rises, Alec Pierce Falls

Over the next two months, fantasy football rankings will be moving quickly as news continues to come in from minicamps, positional battles and everything in between.

Below are a trio of risers in Kendall Valenzuela’s latest rankings update, as well as a trio of fallers, and how to approach them in your upcoming drafts this summer.

Risers In The Fantasy Football Rankings

Joe Burrow | QB | CIN

Kendall’s Rank: QB3 (+2 vs FL consensus)

Only one ranker has Joe Burrow inside their top-four QBs for 2026, and that’s Kendall. While many will point to his lack of rushing production as a reason to rank him behind quarterbacks like Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts and Drake Maye, his upside through the air is unparalleled at the QB position.

In the six games after he returned from injury last year, Burrow averaged 270 passing yards per game and in his last healthy season (2024), he threw for over 4,900 yards with 43 touchdowns.

While his rushing upside is virtually nonexistent, he’s operating as arguably the best pocket passer in the league with elite pass-catching options in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, a capable pass-catching back in Chase Brown and a defense that is allergic to stopping the football. He’ll be forced into pass-heavy scripts more often than not, making Burrow one of the most bankable options at the position, health permitting.

Chase Brown | RB | CIN

Kendall’s Rank: RB8 (+3 vs FL consensus)

Speaking of Chase Brown, Kendall has him as a top-10 running back in half-PPR formats for 2026, ranking him three spots ahead of our consensus.

Still discounted when it comes to conversations surrounding workhorse backs in the NFL, Browns role has been one of the most fantasy-friendly over the last season and a half. He finished as the RB6 in Utilization Score (85) in 2025 and his fantasy production (RB8 in PPG) was anchored by his utilization in high-leverage situations:

Chase Brown Ranks - high-leverage/value touches (min. 500 snaps):

Designed Rush% (in RZ): 63.0% (6th)
Inside-the-five Rush%: 63.0% (9th)
Targets Per Route Run: 22% (5th)
Target%: 15% (5th)

Where we saw meat left on the bone was in long-down-and-distance situations, where Brown’s snap rate plummeted to 35% in favor of Samaje Perine (72%). They also split the two-minute snaps nearly evenly (Brown 50%, Perine 54%). If Brown can siphon away more of that passing-down work, we could see legitimate top-five-RB upside.

In an offense projected to score a ton of points, coupled with a porous defense, Brown is the archetype of running back we love in fantasy. Don’t overthink this one at his discounted fantasy football ADP (Round 2-3 turn).

Chuba Hubbard | RB | CAR

Kendall’s Rank: RB27 (+1 vs FL consensus)

With all of the hype focused on his backfield mate, Jonathon Brooks, this summer, the expectations for Chuba Hubbard in 2026 quietly make a strong case for him as a massive value at his current cost in drafts.

Per Mike Kaye of The Charlotte Observer, Hubbard “can still be a workhorse and he'll ‘probably’ take the lion's share of touches early on … Jonathon Brooks will probably be used similarly to Rico Dowdle in the first 2 weeks of last season.”

Before Dowdle’s eruption last year, we were looking at a rather dominant hold of the RB room from Hubbard:

Weeks 1-2, 2025	Chuba Hubbard	Rico Dowdle
Designed Rush Attempts	70%	24%
Routes	63%	24%
Targets	13%	5%
I5 Rushing Attempts	0%	100%

Dowdle commanded all of the inside-the-five rush attempts, but it was still Hubbard who dominated the general short-down-and-distance snaps (81% to 31%), while the split evened out a bit on the long-down-and-distance snaps (54% to 46%).

Even if we expect Brooks to emerge as the lead in this backfield by season’s end, Hubbard is simply too cheap in drafts for the role we could see out of the gate. And if this holds true, he could be a prime sell-high candidate early in the season.

More Risers In Kendall’s Rankings: Rachaad White (RB36, +4 vs FL consensus), Tucker Kraft (TE6, even with FL consensus), George Kittle (TE12, even with FL consensus)

Fallers In The Fantasy Football Rankings

Jaxson Dart | QB | NYG

Kendall’s Rank: QB10 (+1 vs FL consensus)

Dart showcased his upside for fantasy football last season once the Giants turned over the reins at the position, but he also showed serious limitations as a passer, which sounds like they are still rearing their ugly head in minicamp—indecision in the pocket, picking up the new offense as a “work in progress” and more.

More concerning for me is the lack of pass-game weapons he has until Malik Nabers returns to 100% health. We know we’ll get production out of designed rushes and scrambles from Dart, but to truly unlock his ceiling, we need progress as a passer. Operating with a pass-catching room of Isaiah Likely, Darius Slayton, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Darnell Mooney and the corpse of Odell Beckham surrounding a rehabbing Nabers doesn’t instill much confidence that we’ll get that.

It’s enough for me to deprioritize him a bit when looking at the QB1 conversation, but know that Dart still possesses more upside than most QB1s in fantasy on the ground, so the game-breaking upside is there.

Chris Rodriguez | RB | JAX

Kendall’s Rank: RB42 (+2 vs FL consensus)

Chris Rodriguez has been a popular sleeper this offseason and at the center of the discourse around the Jags’ backfield, arguably the most ambiguous group of the offseason. While it’s clear he’ll assume a key role, he’s missed most of training camp with a foot injury.

Jaguars want to improve their Run game (long):

“There also will be expanded roles for Bhayshul Tuten and LeQuint Allen Jr.”

Tuten: "I know my role might increase significantly, but I've just got to prepare myself and go out there and just take it play by play, just harping on…
— Zain Dhanani (@DhananiZain) June 19, 2026

With his health in question and expanded roles for both a more exciting prospect in Bhayshul Tuten, as well as LeQuint Allen, I’d rather take a gamble on the second-year pro in Tuten as the bet to run away with the backfield, especially with Rodriguez’s lack of pass-game involvement (7 total targets across three seasons).

Alec Pierce | WR | IND

Kendall’s Rank: WR41 (-4 vs FL consensus)

The third (and rather obvious) faller in the rankings is the Colts’ newly paid wideout, Alec Pierce. After signing a four-year contract this summer, it’s come to light that Pierce underwent ankle surgery in March and could be held out “into training camp and even past the preseason”.

There’s been nothing to suggest Pierce won’t be ready for Week 1; however, while Pierce has demonstrated dangerous upside as a vertical threat—18.9 air yards per target (1st), 11.9 yards per target (2nd), 21.3 yards per catch (2nd)—it’s not a guarantee we see a massive uptick in volume, even with Michael Pittman gone.

I’ve been heavily investing in Josh Downs this offseason given his target-earning ability when on the field (29% targets per route run versus man coverage in 2025) and the likelihood that he moves out of the slot more in 2026, and haven’t drafted much of Pierce at his elevated price tag.

Our current fantasy football projections have Pierce (101) leading the WR room in targets (Downs - 98), but both trail Tyler Warren’s projected 105 targets. With Pittman’s over-the-middle role vacated, the answer to the Colts’ pass-game question may just be Warren.

More Fallers In Kendall’s Rankings: Jameson Williams (WR27, -2 vs. FL consensus)