This week is always a bittersweet one for both NFL fans and fantasy football players. While everyone is excited for all of the action of the playoffs kicking off this week, more than half the teams in the league are looking at early exits. Meanwhile, fantasy managers face a weekend slate of NFL action without their typical head-to-head matchups to follow and cheer for. There are playoff leagues, and daily fantasy, but nothing has the same impact as a regular season head-to-head fantasy matchup. There are no lineup decisions, no waiver wires, and no Sunday/Monday night sweats. It is going to feel like something is missing this weekend, no matter how great the slate of action is!

We have six games this weekend, with 12 teams trying to take the next step into the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs. On the NFC side, things start out with the Rams, one of the favorites to make the Super Bowl, visiting the Carolina Panthers. The Rams sputtered down the stretch, and fell all the way down to the five seed, but they are massive favorites in Charlotte. Remember, earlier this year, Bryce Young and the Panthers went to LA and beat the Rams, snapping a six-game winning streak and forcing Matthew Stafford to throw two picks. The NFC slate continues Saturday night with the oldest rivalry in football, meeting only for the third time in the playoffs. The Bears will play host to their hated rivals, the Green Bay Packers, who are dealing with a litany of injuries on the defensive side of the ball. The final NFC game is Sunday evening, when the defending champions welcome in Christian McCaffrey and the 49ers. These teams don’t like each other one bit after the 2022 NFC Championship game, so expect a chippy game on both sides. 

The AFC side of Wild Card Weekend features three games that all have spreads of 3.5 or less. The closest of them is the Bills @ Jaguars, which will kick off the Sunday action. The Jaguars have been rolling, but Josh Allen is the most talented quarterback still standing in the league, so he won’t go down without a fight. The Patriots will host the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night, featuring a matchup between two young stud quarterbacks in Drake Maye and Justin Herbert. The weekend wraps up on Monday Night, when the Steelers, who needed a missed Tyler Loop field goal to qualify, host the Texans. Houston is the hottest team in football, winning nine straight games dating back to November 2. 

With the regular season wrapping up, the coaching carousel starts spinning as well. The Browns, Cardinals, Falcons, Ravens, and Raiders joined the Giants and Titans on the recruitment trail. After the success this season of first-year Head Coaches Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnso,n and Liam Coen, those seven teams are hoping to find similar lightning in a bottle. The biggest name available is actually one of the coaches recently let go. Kevin Stefanski figures to attract the most attention amongst the other five teams. His relative successes in Cleveland have actually led to him winning Coach of the Year twice in the past five seasons. He’s one of only 13 coaches to win the award twice. 

While you may not have any dynasty matchups on your schedule this week, that doesn’t mean that it’s the off-season! That’s because there is no off-season in dynasty fantasy football. The work has already begun towards building the 2026 championship team in your dynasty leagues. Whether your team is looking to repeat as champions, turn around a tough playoff defeat, take your team from rags to riches, or you’re already stocking up draft picks for 2027, DLF is the place to be to find success in 2026! Take some time to analyze your roster with the My DLF League Sync Tool and the DLF Expert Rankings. You can use these tools to scour the waiver wire for the hidden gems that your league mates forgot about this season, or propose a trade for a sleeper that you think is going to go off in the coming season. Already itching to select a star rookie with your 2026 first-round pick? Check out some of the evergreen articles over at DLF, like these ones focusing on Rookie Draft strategy. Keep it locked in right here, because as the NFL action winds down, that’s when the DLF content machine hits high gear!

This wasn’t a banner year for offensive rookies, and that’s apparent when you look at the Offensive Rookie of the Year race. None of the quarterbacks did enough to earn the award (despite a late-season push by Tyler Shough). Running Backs like Quinshon Judkins, TreyVeon Henderson, and Cam Skattebo flashed, but injuries and inconsistencies will keep them out of the running. Emeka Egbuka started the year looking like the obvious choice, but his production fell off when Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were healthy. Right now, the favorite to win the award is last year’s number eight pick, Tetairoa McMillan. 

Despite the likelihood that he’ll win the award, the only thing exceptional about McMillan’s rookie season was his availability. He played every game and played more than 83% of the snaps in every game except for one. He finished as the WR16 in PPR scoring, but he only finished as a WR1 twice in his entire season. In fact, he only reached 20+ points one time, a 33-point bonanza in week 11. Despite all of that, his dynasty star is on the rise. He’s the WR10 in dynasty ADP in December, jumping from 25th to 17th overall in just one month. In the DLF Expert Rankings, he’s right in the middle of those two valuations. They have him as the WR12, going off the board at 19 overall in one quarterback dynasty leagues. 

It’s clear that McMillan has what it takes to become a star in the NFL, but he’s being held back and hamstrung by Carolina’s low-volume offense and Bryce Young’s inconsistencies. Unfortunately, with the team making the playoffs this season, I don’t expect any major changes to come for the Panthers. Young will still very likely be the quarterback, and Dave Canales will still be the coach. Once the dust settles a bit on this season, I’d be in the business of selling away McMillan, if I can get a WR1 return for him. I’m not sure that he’ll be able to take much of a step forward in this offense, unless Bryce Young makes a year four jump or they bring in some competition to challenge him. He’s going one spot behind Nico Collins in ADP right now, and two spots ahead of Drake London. Those are two receivers I’d much rather have than McMillan going forward.

1QB ROOKIE MOCK DRAFT

The fantasy football season has come to a close, which brings us to the magical time of year known as the ‘non-points-scoring season’. Dynasty managers switch their focus from winning a championship to finding the next stud rookie player and so begins the off-season. Some dynasty players focus on college players year-round, while some wait until NFL Draft season to dive in. While there’s no right or wrong way of doing it, I like to be able to plan around my draft picks early on, so I can make moves according to where I think players will be drafted. Taking that early aggressive approach can help you gain value, which will be more difficult once rookie drafts begin.

Once I have my picks in order, I like to focus on drafting the best players, not the best values, so my mock draft will likely look different than your actual rookie drafts. I will be drafting players based on how I would draft them, not how I think they will be drafted. My hope is for the readers to get a sense of clear tier breaks within the position groups, and to keep those tiers in mind throughout the off-season. For today, we will focus on 1QB leagues.

Tier 1: Elite Prospects

• 1.01 – Jordyn Tyson, WR Arizona State: The clear 1.01 in any format. Tyson has ideal X-receiver size (6’2”, 200 lbs) and the route-running ability of a smaller player. His high receiving yards market share (34% in 2024, 24% in 2025 across nine games) demonstrates his target-earning prowess, and his 3.28 PPR points per touch highlight his big-play upside. Projected as a top-ten NFL Draft pick, he is the safest pick with tremendous upside.

SUPERFLEX ROOKIE MOCK DRAFT

The 2025 College Football season is wrapping up with bowl games and the CFB Playoffs. Now is the time to start looking at the 2026 NFL Draft. I am going to give you my projected first-round picks in a 12-team superflex dynasty fantasy football league. Obviously, this could change depending on the final standings of the NFL season, but I’m going to give you my top players heading into the draft. Not everyone has declared for the NFL Draft with the playoffs still going on, but below, I’m giving you a list of players I think should be the top 12 picks in the draft. A lot has changed from the beginning of the college football season.

1.01 – Jeremiyah Love, RB Notre Dame

Love had a monster sophomore year where he rushed for 1,125 yards on 6.9 yards per carry and 17 touchdowns while adding 28 catches for 237 yards and two touchdowns. He then exceeded expectations with a fantastic junior season where he rushed for 1,372 yards on 199 carries, which was good for 6.9 yards per carry. He also had 18 touchdowns and added 27 catches for 280 yards and three touchdowns.

Love is an explosive athlete who shows good patience. He has great breakaway speed and has big-play ability to take it to the house at any time. Love is currently projected as a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. He reminds me a lot of Jonathan Taylor at Wisconsin. The receiving ability is not going to be a strength at the next level, but he has shown the ability to be competent in the passing game, much like Taylor has proven with the Colts.

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