2026 Fantasy Football Midseason Review: Winners, Disappointments and the Hype We Bought

Matthew Golden was available late in drafts. Omarion Hampton was supposed to be a weekly starter. Through Week 9, Golden has averaged 18.0 points; Hampton has averaged 8.5.

By Kaz | November 11, 2026 | 2026 regular season through Week 9

Golden has 783 receiving yards. Hampton has 432 yards rushing and receiving combined. If you drafted both, the receiver you took late has been doing a lot of the work you needed from your early running back.

The winners  |  The disappointments  |  The midseason verdict board

This review ends after Week 9. Points use the base PPR formula explained below, including deductions for interceptions and lost fumbles.

The August prices

Golden's Fantrax ADP rose from 122.17 to 107.56 over the summer. Brooks went from 102.27 to 77.74, Washington from 75.44 to 58.41. Ray Kuhn's September 7 review compared 317 drafts from June 1 to July 15 with 1,121 from July 16 to September 5. The scoring mix isn't specified, so those moves show who became more popular in that draft sample. Fantrax preseason ADP movement

The early picks carried much bigger expectations. Dan Johnson's August 29 PPR board listed ADPs of 7.6 for Smith-Njigba, 10.4 for Barkley, 13.2 for Jefferson, 17.8 for Hampton and 21.8 for Jeanty. Those are the page's ADP figures, not Johnson's rankings; it doesn't identify the underlying draft sample. DraftKings Network preseason board

At tight end, Michael Fabiano ranked Loveland third, with an overall ADP of 41 from Footballguys. Likely's was 115. Nathan Jahnke's September 6 breakout list had Judkins at 5.03 in the ESPN/Sleeper/Yahoo consensus for leagues with 12 teams. The sources use different draft settings, which we keep labeled rather than treating them as one universal price list. Sports Illustrated tight end tiers PFF preseason running back breakouts

The winners

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

WR ·SEA | Through Week 9

Winner

Smith-Njigba cost a pick in the first round and has been worth it: 71 catches, 1,036 yards and nine touchdowns in nine games.

Seattle has sent him 99 targets, a 35.7% share on the Data Lab board. He's producing 3.49 yards per route.

His 232.1 points come to 25.8 per game. Even Week 9, a quieter game by his standards, brought seven catches on 10 targets. He's been easy to leave in the lineup.

Gibbs and Lamb belong here too

Gibbs has been just as good a reason to spend an early pick: 1,132 scrimmage yards, 34 catches and 11 touchdowns in eight games. Lamb has 70 catches for 904 yards and seven receiving touchdowns in nine. The first round has had some painful misses, but these weren't among them.

The first-round check

The first-round check

Premium pick	Preseason ADP	Games	Points/game
Jahmyr Gibbs	1.2	8	26.2
Bijan Robinson	2.2	9	20.0
Jaxon Smith-Njigba	7.6	9	25.8
CeeDee Lamb	11.6	9	22.2

Preseason ADPs in the table are from the same August 29 PPR board. Preseason PPR price reference

Kenneth Walker III

RB ·KC | Through Week 9

Winner

Jahnke's August 28 list of potential league winners had Walker at a consensus ADP of 2.06, with a finish in the top five depending on more receiving work or a bigger Kansas City rushing role. PFF preseason league winners

Walker has delivered 872 rushing yards, 26 catches for 172 yards and 11 touchdowns in eight games. That's 196.4 points, or 24.6 per game. It is hard to ask much more from a running back taken in the second round.

The catches and receiving yards alone are worth 43.2 points. His four receiving touchdowns add considerably more. That scoring rate is the part I'd be careful about carrying into the second half.

He hasn't been steady every week. His last four scores were 27.9, 9.7, 12.4 and 36.3. The big games have more than covered the ordinary ones.

Matthew Golden

Golden's 53 catches, 783 yards and five receiving touchdowns would be a good first half at a much higher draft price.

He has 92 targets, a 28.0% team share and 2.45 yards per route. His last four target counts: 13, 12, 13 and 10.

He's scored 161.9 points, averaging 18.0 for the season and 21.4 over Weeks 6 to 9. His 164 yards in Week 9 lifted that recent average, but he was already getting the targets.

Green Bay had room for both receivers

Targets by week. Golden: 92 total; Watson: 74.

GoldenWatson

Green Bay had room for both receivers

Week	Golden	Watson
1	12	8
2	6	11
3	12	10
4	7	3
5	7	8
6	13	8
7	12	8
8	13	10
9	10	8

Christian Watson

Watson was especially cheap on ESPN. Austin Swaim's comparison in early August had him at 97.6 overall there, against an average of 78.9 across three platforms. ESPN's figure combined scoring formats. Sports Illustrated preseason ESPN values

He's caught 49 passes for 879 yards and seven touchdowns in nine games. His 176.9 points and 19.7 per game are even better than Golden's.

The split is worth looking at. Golden has 92 targets to Watson's 74; Watson leads 2.98 to 2.45 in yards per route. Golden gets more throws. Watson has produced more yardage from his routes.

Green Bay receiving roles

Green Bay receiving roles

Green Bay receiver	Targets	Receiving Yds	Yds/route
Matthew Golden	92	783	2.45
Christian Watson	74	879	2.98

Parker Washington: a mixed result

Washington's summer rise has been harder to justify. His Fantrax ADP climbed from 75.44 to 58.41. In eight games, he has 29 catches for 493 yards and five touchdowns, plus 13 rushing yards. That adds up to 109.6 points, or 13.7 per game.

He's been useful, but 29 catches in eight games is thin reception support for a receiver whose cost kept rising. Five touchdowns have supplied 30 points. I'd put him in the middle: a playable pick, without the payoff Golden and Watson have provided.

Jaylen Warren

RB ·PIT | Through Week 9

Winner

Pat Fitzmaurice preferred Warren to Rico Dowdle in August, citing his receiving and pass protection. Warren was RB30 and 80th overall in that piece. FantasyPros preseason players to avoid

Warren has 704 rushing yards, 25 catches and 294 receiving yards in eight games. Only three touchdowns, yet 140.8 points and a 17.6 average.

That's 998 scrimmage yards. The catches and receiving yards account for 54.4 points before his receiving touchdown.

Walker has scored 11 touchdowns to Warren's three. Their averages are still only seven points apart. Warren's yardage and receiving work have justified the cheaper pick.

Bucky Irving answered the doubts

Roto Street Journal's September 4 fade questioned Irving's receiving and touchdown chances at ADP 47. He has answered with 825 rushing yards, 22 catches for 106 yards and eight touchdowns in nine games. That's 159.1 points and 17.7 per game. The catches haven't piled up. Eight touchdowns have made the difference. The preseason case against Irving

Isaiah Likely

TE ·NYG | Through Week 9

Winner

Likely was available at an overall ADP of 115 in Fabiano's preseason tiers. He has 46 catches, 448 yards and six touchdowns in eight games. For managers who waited at tight end, that's an excellent result.

His 69 targets have helped him reach 126.8 points and 15.9 per game. Loveland cost far more and has averaged much less.

McBride and Bowers were worth paying for

That doesn't mean paying up at tight end was a mistake. McBride has 73 catches for 598 yards and five touchdowns in nine games. Bowers has 48 for 658 and six in seven. Both have scored well enough to justify the attention they received in August.

Tight end return

Tight end return

Tight end	Games	Points	Points/game
Brock Bowers	7	146.0	20.9
Trey McBride	9	162.8	18.1
Isaiah Likely	8	126.8	15.9
Colston Loveland	9	83.3	9.3

Fabiano had McBride and Bowers in the top tier, at overall ADPs of 21 and 19. The awkward pick in this group has been Loveland at 41, between those two and the much cheaper Likely. SI preseason tight end tiers

Tyler Shough

QB ·NO | Through Week 9

Winner

Heath Cummings named Shough a deep sleeper on August 26, when his CBS ADP was outside the top 150. CBS preseason deep sleepers

Shough has 1,986 passing yards and 14 passing touchdowns in eight games, plus 162 rushing yards and two rushing scores. His 145.6 points work out to 18.2 per game. Six interceptions and three lost fumbles have hurt, but he has supplied a usable quarterback at a small draft cost.

Joe Burrow

QB ·CIN | Through Week 9

Winner

Burrow cost more, at an ADP of 55.9 on Johnson's board. He has 2,386 passing yards, 23 passing touchdowns and three rushing scores in eight games. His 199.1 points and 24.9 average have justified that pick.

Chuba Hubbard and Jonathon Brooks

Brooks went from 102.27 to 77.74 in Fantrax drafts and made Jahnke's September breakout list. He ended up playing two games.

Nine carries for 30 yards, two catches for 43, no touchdowns. Carolina put him on injured reserve September 23 after he aggravated his groin injury. Managers lost the pick to injury; two games don't tell us how a healthy Brooks would have handled the job. Panthers injury announcement

Hubbard has been the back worth having: 619 rushing yards, 26 catches for 167 yards and seven touchdowns in eight games. An average of 18.3 points is a strong first half from the player who attracted less of the summer excitement.

The Carolina backfield

The Carolina backfield

Carolina back	Games	Scrimmage Yds	Total TD	Points/game
Chuba Hubbard	8	786	7	18.3
Jonathon Brooks	2	73	0	4.7

The disappointments

Saquon Barkley

RB ·PHI | Through Week 9

Disappointment

Barkley has given managers 296 rushing yards, seven catches for 41 yards and three touchdowns in seven appearances. At his preseason cost, those numbers hurt.

His 58.7 points amount to 8.4 per game. He's averaged 4.3 yards a carry, but only 9.9 carries per recorded appearance. There hasn't been enough work to turn that respectable rushing average into a useful fantasy score.

Those averages can include shortened games. They aren't a measure of his workload when fully healthy. For fantasy managers, the result has still been a rough combination of missed time and low scores.

Omarion Hampton

RB ·LAC | Through Week 9

Disappointment

Hampton has 369 rushing yards, 11 catches for 63 yards and 68.2 points in eight games. His 8.5 average is a long way from what managers needed from an early pick.

He's averaged 12.8 carries and 3.6 yards per carry. Eleven catches across eight games haven't given him much help when the rushing yards are low.

It's been hard to trust him as the weekly starter he was drafted to be.

Justin Herbert

QB ·LAC | Through Week 9

Disappointment

Andrew Erickson's August case for Herbert centered on Mike McDaniel and better protection. Erickson liked him at the price in rounds 7 to 8. The anticipated improvement hasn't shown up in Herbert's fantasy scores. FantasyPros preseason draft targets

He has thrown for 1,591 yards, six touchdowns and 11 interceptions in eight games. Another 190 rushing yards have come without a rushing touchdown.

Six passing touchdowns are worth 24 points. The interceptions have taken away 22. Before deducting lost fumbles, nearly the entire touchdown contribution is gone. He's at 80.6 points and 10.1 per game.

Hampton and Herbert have both disappointed. These totals don't tell us how much of the blame belongs to protection, coaching or health, but the optimism about the new offense hasn't helped either fantasy pick.

Justin Jefferson

WR ·MIN | Through Week 9

Disappointment

Jefferson has 31 catches for 393 yards and four touchdowns in seven games. His 93.2 points and 13.3 average are well below what managers wanted at that draft price.

The 28.7% target share sounds better than the workload feels. It's 51 targets in seven games, just 7.3 per appearance. He's getting a large portion of a passing game that hasn't thrown enough his way.

At 2.05 yards per route, there is still receiving efficiency here. I'd be slower to write off Jefferson than to acknowledge that he has been a poor fantasy investment through the first half.

Colston Loveland

Loveland's 37 catches, 363 yards and two touchdowns have produced 83.3 points in nine games. An average of 9.3 is a poor return for a preseason TE3.

But the timing matters. He scored 24.0 points in Weeks 1 to 5, then 59.3 in Weeks 6 to 9. In those last four games, he had 24 catches on 34 targets and averaged 14.8 points.

Loveland's slow start hides the improvement

Base PPR points each week. Weeks 1-5: 4.8 per game; Weeks 6-9: 14.8.

Loveland's slow start hides the improvement

Week	Loveland
1	0
2	1.3
3	7.1
4	11.7
5	3.9
6	18.5
7	19.9
8	11.5
9	9.4

Quinshon Judkins

RB ·CLE | Through Week 9

Disappointment

Jahnke expected a bigger role and better blocking for Judkins. In eight games, he has 385 rushing yards, 22 catches for 136 yards and three touchdowns.

There were warnings in August. Fitzmaurice questioned Cleveland's offense and rebuilt line, and preferred receivers around Judkins' draft cost. FantasyPros preseason assessment

Judkins is at 92.1 points and 11.5 per game, averaging roughly 3.3 yards per carry. The receiving work has kept the total from looking worse.

His 23.4 points in Week 7 offered some relief. The next two games brought 6.9 and 5.5. There hasn't been much reason to treat that big week as the start of a breakout.

Lost time: Brown, Achane, Jackson and Dart

Achane's ADP was 15.2 on the August PPR board, Brown's 21.4 and Jackson's 40.5. Jackson's price drew criticism from that board's author even then. All three have produced costly first halves, with injury playing a major part. Preseason prices and dissent

Injury-interrupted draft investments

Injury-interrupted draft investments

Injury-interrupted investment	Games	Points	Points/game
A.J. Brown	3	19.1	6.4
De'Von Achane	3	24.6	8.2
Lamar Jackson	5	79.1	15.8
Jaxson Dart	2	27.4	13.7

Brown went on injured reserve September 12 and was activated October 17. Achane went on IR September 28. Brown did return, so his September designation shouldn't be mistaken for his status throughout the half. Patriots IR announcement Brown's activation Dolphins roster announcement

Jackson's five appearances include Week 8, when he played once and scored zero points. Baltimore put him on IR November 5 with an injury to his right thumb. Dart scored 26.6 points in his opener and 0.8 in an abbreviated Week 2; the Giants confirmed September 24 that his knee injury would end his regular season. Those averages include the short appearances. They don't show what either player averaged when healthy. Ravens injury announcement Giants injury announcement

Jeanty looks different in PPR

Ashton Jeanty

RB ·LV | Through Week 9

PPR support

Jeanty has rushed for 362 yards and one touchdown in nine games, averaging 3.2 yards per carry. That's a disappointing rushing season by any fantasy format.

His 42 catches for 371 yards and three receiving touchdowns have made him much easier to live with in PPR. He's at 139.3 points and 15.5 per game.

Change only the reception award to half a point and he loses 21.0 points. Take it away entirely and he loses 42.0.

The catches haven't made him a draft win. They have kept him useful. A manager using standard scoring has had a considerably worse time with the same player.

Jeanty's 42 catches change the result

Points through Week 9. Only the reception award changes; all other rules stay fixed.

Jeanty's 42 catches change the result

Reception scoring	Points
Standard	97.3
Half PPR	118.3
PPR	139.3

Explore the numbers

The receiving comparisons are in NFL Data Lab. Set 2026 and Weeks 1 to 9, then compare Golden, Watson, Smith-Njigba and Jefferson on targets, receiving yards, target share and yards per route. NFL Data Lab

Player Index has the weekly role trends. Some position boards and player profile features require All Access. Player Index

Sources and scoring details

The final omission audit added live Statyx checks on November 12, 2026, at 06:31 to 06:34 UTC, covering 22 additional QB, RB, WR and TE candidates. The performance cutoff remains Week 9. New comparisons use the same scoring formula and count of recorded appearances.

Production this season comes from live Statyx MCP game logs, the WR Data Lab board and the rushing production table, retrieved November 11, 2026, at 18:32 to 18:38 UTC, with the Hubbard, Brooks, McBride and Bowers additions checked at 18:46 UTC. We retained only games from the 2026 regular season in Weeks 1 to 9. These are selected editorial cases across positions, rather than an exhaustive ranking across the league of draft value.

The scoring formula awards one point per reception, one per 10 rushing or receiving yards, six per rushing or receiving touchdown, one per 25 passing yards, four per passing touchdown, minus two per interception and minus two per lost fumble. It excludes yardage bonuses, conversions worth two points and return scoring. Fields for conversions worth two points were unavailable in the returned logs, so the totals calculated here may differ from a league's official PPR totals. Totals are rounded only for display; averages use the recorded appearances, including games cut short by injury.

Preseason sources retain their original platforms, dates and formats. Fantrax's scoring mix is unspecified; its movement is used as evidence of changing enthusiasm. The Watson ESPN snapshot combines scoring formats. We do not subtract an overall draft position from a positional production rank or call that a measure of value. Comments about the second half identify evidence to watch. They do not constitute a fresh injury report or project the remainder of the season.

The midseason verdict board

Midseason verdict board

Midseason verdict board

Player	Team	Games	Points	Points/game	First-half verdict
Jaxon Smith-Njigba	SEA	9	232.1	25.8	Premium pick delivered
Kenneth Walker III	KC	8	196.4	24.6	Expensive breakout worked
Matthew Golden	GB	9	161.9	18.0	Major draft-value win
Christian Watson	GB	9	176.9	19.7	Major receiving winner
Jaylen Warren	PIT	8	140.8	17.6	Strong all-purpose return
Isaiah Likely	NYG	8	126.8	15.9	Lower-cost TE success
Chuba Hubbard	CAR	8	146.6	18.3	Backfield winner
Tyler Shough	NO	8	145.6	18.2	Useful inexpensive QB
Joe Burrow	CIN	8	199.1	24.9	Strong QB investment
Saquon Barkley	PHI	7	58.7	8.4	Major early-round shortfall
Omarion Hampton	LAC	8	68.2	8.5	Major early-round shortfall
Justin Herbert	LAC	8	80.6	10.1	Major QB letdown
Justin Jefferson	MIN	7	93.2	13.3	Premium-price shortfall
Colston Loveland	CHI	9	83.3	9.3	Shortfall with recent improvement
Quinshon Judkins	CLE	8	92.1	11.5	Breakout yet to arrive
Ashton Jeanty	LV	9	139.3	15.5	Receiving cushions rushing shortfall
Jonathon Brooks	CAR	2	9.3	4.7	Injury-driven draft loss
Jahmyr Gibbs	DET	8	209.2	26.2	Premium pick delivered
CeeDee Lamb	DAL	9	199.8	22.2	Premium pick delivered
Bucky Irving	TB	9	159.1	17.7	Rewarded the rebound bet
Parker Washington	JAX	8	109.6	13.7	Mixed return at rising price
A.J. Brown	NE	3	19.1	6.4	Injury-interrupted draft loss
De'Von Achane	MIA	3	24.6	8.2	Injury-driven draft loss
Lamar Jackson	BAL	5	79.1	15.8	Injury-interrupted draft loss
Jaxson Dart	NYG	2	27.4	13.7	Injury-driven draft loss