The Hall of Fame Game was shockingly exciting, despite a lack of real fantasy football impact. There was plenty of scoring and a thrilling game-winning touchdown drive by Panthers rookie QB Haynes King. There’s no quarterback controversy in Charlotte, Bryce Young is the starter, no matter how great King looks this preseason. Behind Young, Kenny Pickett likely has a solid grip on the job. But, if King continues to impress, putting him on the practice squad could be risky. For now, King has a hamstring injury that he is going to need to recover from. On the Cardinals side, we got our first look at rookie Carson Beck. He started the game and looked solid in the first half, and he’s reportedly performed very well in training camp and off-season activities. Jacoby Brissett is the starter and he’s being paid to be that, but Beck is making a case to be the QB of the future for Arizona. The Cardinals are likely to be one of the teams vying for an early pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, so this is a critical preseason for Beck to prove the team can trust him once Brissett moves on (or is potentially benched by the end of this season). 

The real week one of the preseason kicks off tonight, with six games on the schedule and a full slate over the next three days. We’ll likely see the NFL debut of Fernando Mendoza tonight when the Raiders host the Cardinals. Mendoza was listed as the QB2 on the team’s first unofficial depth chart, but that doesn’t mean the competition is over. He’ll have his first chance tonight to show the world if he’s ready to be an NFL starter, or if he truly needs time to marinate behind Cousins. 

Outside of the game action, there’s plenty of news and headlines around the NFL world. After the publish time for last week’s newsletter, Stefon Diggs was finally signed by the Washington Commanders. That was probably the assumed spot for the Maryland native, and it’s a great spot for his fantasy value. Diggs was a part-time player for the Patriots last season, but he certainly made his snaps count. The Commanders are going to need to lean on Diggs heavily, and may need him to play more of an every-down role, if he can handle that at this point in his career. Unfortunately, the Commanders were dealt a heavy blow this week when Laremy Tunsil suffered a torn triceps injury. He’ll undergo surgery and will be forced to miss a significant amount of time, typically at least four months. Washington needed a major upgrade on the offensive line this off-season, and Tunsil was their top addition. Unfortunately, this is a hit to Jayden Daniels and his potential to stay healthy this season. 

There are plenty of injury headlines around the league, and while most of them are negative, there is a shining light of positivity coming out of Giants camp. Malik Nabers appears to be on track to be ready to return to action for week one. A candidate for the reserve/PUP list at points this off-season, he was able to hit the field at the very start of training camp. He’s seen his participation steadily increasing and still has a month to go before actual game action. Anyone who bought Nabers this off-season appears to have received a great value for their dynasty rosters. He’s a high-end number one wide receiver when he’s on the field, and he’s in the best offensive environment he’s been in throughout his short career. 

By this time next week, all 32 teams will have opened up the preseason and there will be plenty of news, headlines and tidbits to react to for dynasty fantasy football leagues. The best place to turn all of this information into dynasty fantasy football success is Dynasty League Football! We’re  publishing dozens of articles a week to help you win your dynasty and devy leagues, with advice and analysis you can pivot into your redraft drafts as well! The DLF Expert Rankings are constantly being updated by the top dynasty minds in the industry, helping you make roster decisions and identifying trade targets. Use the suite of tools at DLF to dig deeper on your rosters and spot the trends before anyone in your league does. DLF is the best place to help you win your dynasty fantasy football leagues.

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A training camp headline that made waves in dynasty fantasy football this week came from the mouth of new Chargers OC Mike McDaniel. He said that he plans to use all three of his running backs in every game, Omarion Hampton, Keaton Mitchell and Kimani Vidal. He also said that usage may depend on who has the “hot hand.” Hampton flashed at times during his rookie season, but a mid-season injury cost him a ton of time and forced an RB35 finish for the season. Despite that, his dynasty value is through the roof and he’s got massive expectations for his sophomore campaign. Let’s dive into his dynasty value and assess whether this headline should move him up or down the board. 

Hampton’s ADP is about as high as it’s ever been. He’s going off the board at 17 overall right now, one spot lower than his career-high in October of last season. He’s the RB7, going off the board in between Jonathan Taylor and James Cook. He’s ranked similarly by the DLF Expert Rankers in a similar spot, at 18 overall and RB6, jumping over Taylor in the RB rankings. 

Omarion Hampton is absolutely a dynasty RB1 heading into the 2026 season, no matter what the coaching staff says. This is going to be a team that leans on the running game, and Hampton proved to be a dynamic weapon last season in both the running and passing game. Mitchell and Vidal will work in, and I believe they’re good bench depth to have this year, but there will be room for Hampton to succeed alongside the other two getting production. If the “coach-speak” keeps pushing him down the board, then take that as a great buying opportunity to acquire a 24 year-old, dynamic running back with RB1 upside.

For the last several years, I’ve been writing the Hater’s Guide to the incoming rookie classes. Apparently, people enjoy my brand of negativity and we’ve decided to extend this series into the regular season for the first time. So get comfortable in your favorite chair and pour yourself a glass of haterade and enjoy this new edition where I’ll look into the reasons why every division in the NFL will be awful in 2026.

I mean, is there any other place this series could start? The Browns are just a historically awful franchise (yeah, yeah, yeah, they were good before 1972 and had a little decent run in the 80s). To kick off this season, they did what all teams who want to compete do: they traded away the team’s best player and arguably the best defensive player in the NFL, Myles Garrett. It’s been a proven winning strategy in the NFL for decades, right?

Additionally, the team fired head coach Kevin Stefanski at the end of the 2025 season. One of the lone bright spots for the team over the last few seasons was their defense under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. Schwartz made it no secret that he wanted the job – a job that was reportedly turned down by Grant Udinski, Chris Shula, Mike McDaniel, Jesse Minter, and John Harbaugh – so when you have a guy who wants a job that nobody else wants, you’ve gotta Browns it up and burn that bridge to the ground completely and bring in Todd Monken who (I think) has never been a head coaching finalist despite coaching in the NFL for 15ish if the last 20ish years. Great job.

They say football is won in the trenches, and if that’s the case, good luck in Cleveland. The team has five starting offensive linemen who have never played a snap together. First-round rookie Spencer Fano is slated to be their left tackle after playing right tackle in college. New right tackle Titus Howard played guard with the Texans, and new center Elgton Jenkins held out with the Packers partially due to a position switch to center. But that’s cool, I’m sure a nearly 31-year-old center on a $24 million deal coming off a broken leg with ligament damage will do just fine.

So, we think this O-line is going to stink, but more importantly, as is often the biggest question surrounding the Browns – who are they going to be protecting? We know one thing: it’s not going to be Dillon Gabriel. How do I know that? Because after the Browns traded away Garrett, Jared Verse shows up to Browns practice wearing the No 8 jersey. He just came into town, took the number and that was that. Nobody takes a starting quarterback’s number. So that leaves sixth-round rookie Taylen Green to compete with Deion Sanders’ awful son Shedeur Sanders and the ghost of massage parlor enthusiast Deshaun Watson. After the Browns signed Watson to the biggest contract in NFL back in 2022 and took two quarterbacks in last year’s draft, it sure seems smart to use more draft capital on the position this season again. All kidding aside, Green is probably going to start a game or two at some point this season; the Browns have averaged nearly four different starting quarterbacks over the last five seasons.

This entire division has questions at head coach. Three of the four teams fired their coach from 2025, and while I initially thought this was the kiss of death for 2026, I found that on average slightly more than two first-year coaches slip into the playoffs each season. If the Bengals would have fired Zac Taylor too, we know at least one team with a new coach would sneak into the playoffs.

I already touched on Todd Monken a little bit earlier, but again it has got to feel really good to know you were a team’s sixth choice for the job. I thought the whole “last one to get picked for the team” thing ended after middle school, but I guess it extends all the way into the NFL coaching ranks too.