Underrated Fantasy Football Picks For 2026: Brock Purdy, Jalen Hurts & More

I love sticking up for underrated, overlooked players. Maybe it’s because I struggled to reach five feet tall throughout my entire childhood and know what it’s like.

I don’t know.

Every year in the fantasy football space, I find a handful of players that are, for whatever reason, being overlooked on draft day. And if you like those players as much as I do, it allows you to find serious value in drafts. So let’s take a look at some of the most underrated players in all of fantasy for the 2026 season.

Underrated Players To Target In 2026 Fantasy Football Drafts

Brock Purdy | QB | Niners

Forget fantasy football.

Brock Purdy is the most underrated quarterback in football, period.

For whatever reason, people discredit Purdy so far in his career. “He’s only good because of his weapons and Kyle Shanahan.” First of all, that’s just not true. But even if it were, from a fantasy perspective, guess what?

He still has great weapons, and he still has Kyle Shanahan.

This past season, practically every skill position player not named Christian McCaffrey missed time for the 49ers. Purdy himself missed time, but on 200 dropbacks with both George Kittle and Ricky Pearsall off the field, he completed 68.1% of his passes, averaged 7.7 yards per attempt, 1.67 passing touchdowns per game and 0.60 fantasy points per dropback. How about back in 2024, when McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk missed so much time? With both players off the field, Purdy dropped back 525 times, completing 66% of passes, while averaging 8.5 yards per attempt, 257.6 passing yards per game and 0.51 fantasy points per dropback.

Since 2023, Purdy’s 18.5 fantasy points per game rank sixth-best among all signal callers. And last year, despite injuries to all of his pass-catchers, Purdy still averaged 19.7 fantasy points per contest (QB6). I know the quarterback position is always deep, but Purdy being drafted as the QB12 feels a bit too low, especially with the 49ers upgrading from Jauan Jennings to Mike Evans this offseason.

Because all of San Francisco’s pass catchers were sidelined last year, it was McCaffrey who led the team with 31.7% of the targets from inside the 10-yard line. That didn’t just comfortably lead all running backs, but was a top-10 rate in all of football. Plugging Evans into the offense gives Purdy a true, elite red-zone target to pair with tight end George Kittle.

We’ve also seen Purdy add more in the rushing department as of late. Over the past two seasons, Purdy has averaged about four carries and nearly 20 rushing yards per game. And as Dwain McFarland points out, Purdy is averaging nearly four rushing fantasy points per game during that stretch. I’m not saying Purdy has a Josh Allen/Lamar Jackson ceiling. But there is a ceiling here. Just look at his league-winning Week 15-17 stretch from last year:

31.3 FPPG (QB2)
9% scramble rate (QB4)
6% designed rush rate (QB9)
27.8 rushing yards per game (QB9)

We have to stop looking at Purdy through the “Mr Irrelevant" lens. That’s a thing of the past. This is a very good QB and a mid-range QB1 for fantasy.

Jalen Hurts | QB | Eagles

Hurts is coming off a season with a career-high 25 touchdown passes, but his fantasy scoring took a hit. The rushing production fell off a bit, as his designed rush share dropped from 18% to 14%, while his inside-the-five rushes per game fell from 1.2 to 0.6. Between that and an absolutely broken passing scheme, it’s no wonder Hurts, who had been a top-three fantasy quarterback from 2022-2024, plummeted to QB8.

The down year (and departure of A.J. Brown) has resulted in Hurts’ fantasy football ADP dropping to QB7, behind the likes of Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams. And while there is obvious upside with the younger quarterbacks, I’ll gladly take the discount on Hurts. The A.J. Brown trade is getting all the headlines, but two pieces Philadelphia added have more of my attention.

Let’s not forget how banged up the Eagles' offensive line was last season. Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens missed some time, but Lane Johnson’s absence was most notable. Johnson left a handful of games early before ultimately missing the final eight games of the year with a foot injury. It’s safe to say that Hurts was a lot more comfortable with his all-world RT in front of him:

Hurts with/without Lane Johnson	Johnson On Field	Johnson Off Field
Completion Percentage	70%	60.6%
Yards Per Attempt	7.6	6.7
TD/INT Ratio	12/1	13/5
Fantasy Pts Per Dropback	0.63	0.51

A healthier, more cohesive offensive line will do wonders for Hurts and company, but a new scheme could take them over the top.

Kevin Patullo certainly overstayed his welcome last year in Philadelphia. His hitch-crazy passing attack was stale, predictable and easy to defend, making Hurts and the receivers' jobs much more difficult. The Eagles deployed hitch routes 24% of the time, easily the highest rate in football. And if/when nothing was open, it was usually the wideouts playing backyard football. New offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s offense, which should resemble Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur’s systems, will make things easier on everyone.

Rhamondre Stevenson | RB | Patriots

When a running back has a teammate that everyone in the fantasy community wants to get more work, a value opportunity opens up. Especially if that second running back just doesn’t get the work we expect.

Because everyone wants TreVeyon Henderson to break out, no one wants to draft Stevenson. And I get it. Henderson is young, more explosive and flashed upside as a rookie. But Stevenson was quietly very strong last season, ranking third in yards per touch (5.9), 10th in yards per route run (1.45) and first in rushing yards over expected per attempt (+1.4). He was also more reliable in pass protection, which likely played a role in his postseason dominance. During New England’s Super Bowl run, Stevenson re-emerged as the clear lead running back, logging 71% of the snaps and 61% of the rush attempts. Henderson averaged just 8.8 touches per game throughout the playoffs, while playing just 31% of the snaps during that stretch. Overall, in games Henderson and Stevenson were both active, the rookie averaged under 11 touches and just 8.4 PPR points per game.

Our fantasy football projections currently have Henderson and Stevenson projected for 163 carries each, with Henderson seeing a slight lead in targets (36-31). The ADP disparity does not reflect that projection, and while Henderson’s upside should lead to him coming off draft boards first, Stevenson remains an underrated and overlooked player.

Terry McLaurin | WR | Commanders

2025 was a lost year for McLaurin, but how good he is shouldn’t be lost on you.

A battle with a quad strain sidelined McLaurin for seven games last year. But it didn’t stop there. Quarterback Jayden Daniels missed 10 games, putting a serious damper on Washington’s resurgence. Still, when McLaurin was on the field, his advanced metrics were once again strong. He ranked fifth in first downs per route run (0.13), 13th in yards per route run (2.29), 16th in yards per target (9.7) and ninth in yards per catch (15.3). McLaurin accounted for 38% of Washington’s air yards last season (13th among WRs with at least 50 targets), and I’m excited to see a healthy deep ball connection between him and Daniels.

In Daniels’ rookie year back in 2024, McLaurin caught 82 balls for 1,096 yards and 13 touchdowns, en route to a WR14 PPG finish (15.7). During that season, McLaurin ranked just 36th in target share (23%). As good of a player as he is, McLaurin has only reached a 25% target share once throughout his career. But given the current state of Washington’s wide receiver room, McLaurin could easily eclipse that in 2026, while flirting with 145 targets.

Chris Godwin | WR | Buccaneers

Look, I get it. He’s 30 years old, likely isn’t the player he once was and injuries have limited him to just 16 games over the past two seasons. Quite the compelling case so far, huh? But Godwin is in line for a full-time slot role, and given his production when playing inside, I think he has one more good year left in him.

It was expected, but we received confirmation a few weeks back that Godwin would operate from the slot in 2026. That is very, very promising. Always more efficient from the inside, Godwin’s splits over his last 16 regular-season games are pretty glaring:

Production by alignment	Slot	Elsewhere
Yards Per Route Run	2.10	1.49
Targets Per Route Run	33%	21.3%
Yards Per Catch	12.1	9.9
Touchdowns	5	2

Now (hopefully) the healthiest he’s been since 2024, Godwin’s production should improve, especially with more looks on the horizon. Mike Evans leaves behind a 23% target share, but perhaps more importantly, 35% of Tampa Bay’s end zone targets from a season ago. And while it’s easy to forget, Godwin started the 2024 season red hot before his season ended in Week 8. From Weeks 1-7, Godwin averaged:

8.9 targets
7.1 receptions
83.6 receiving yards
19.8 PPR PPG

I’m not expecting that production, but I do like Godwin more than his WR41 ADP. He goes behind DK Metcalf, Courtland Sutton and Makai Lemon, for instance. I’ll take Godwin.