The NFL Draft is in the books, and it is finally rookie draft season! Now that we finally know all of the landing spots and draft prices for the rookies, it’s time for dynasty managers to plant their flags and take the players that they feel best about. Unfortunately, it was a really tough draft for dynasty managers. There were several head-scratching decisions and landing spots that made a major impact on dynasty value! Let’s do a quick overview of each position in this week’s newsletter. 

After the Raiders surprised no one by taking Fernando Mendoza with their first pick, the Rams made a shocking move picking up Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick. It’s a great landing spot for Simpson’s value; he’s the obvious replacement for Matthew Stafford once he retires. He’ll have an outstanding receiver to throw to, and a head coach calling plays. You’ll just need to be patient. Of the day two and three quarterbacks, Drew Allar to Pittsburgh is the most interesting to me. We’re still waiting on a decision from Aaron Rodgers, but Allar will have a chance to compete for the job in the long-term. 

At running back, Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price went in the first round, but then it was a long wait until the next group of backs went off the board. RB3 is going to go later in rookie drafts this season than they have in a very long time. The fourth round running backs, Jonah Coleman (DEN) and Mike Washington Jr. (LVR), went to intriguing landing spots with opportunities to see the field early on. 

The big three at wide receiver went in the order many expected, but the landing spots were a bit of a surprise. Carnell Tate went fourth to the Titans, the Saints took Jordyn Tyson with the 10th pick, and the Eagles traded up to 20 to take Makai Lemon. The Lemon pick seems to be a harbinger of an AJ Brown trade, Philly has prioritized adding wide receivers in this off-season. Cleveland double-dipped on early wide receivers, taking KC Concepcion in the first and Denzel Boston in the second. It’s a great move for the NFL team, but dynasty managers were dreading seeing which early-round wide receiver would go to Cleveland, and they ended up taking two. Miami was the team with the most obvious need at receiver, but they waited until the third-round to take Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell. 

This was the draft of the tight end, as teams are trying to mimic the Sean McVay two-tight end offensive sets that he had success with last season. Kenyon Sadiq to the Jets was the only first-round tight end, but nine more of them went off in day two. Eli Stowers ended up on the Eagles, and may be in the TE1 discussion in rookie drafts thanks to his landing spot. Deeper than those two, there are a lot of late-round rookie draft fliers you can take a chance on, but don’t pay up too much for them. Max Klare, Oscar Delp, Eli Raridon, and Justin Joly are the ones most likely to have dynasty value. 

If you want to win your dynasty leagues and rookie drafts, look no further than the DLF Dynasty Draft Guide. It’s the only draft guide out there that focuses exclusively on rookie drafts and dynasty fantasy football! Go in there and check out the 2026 rookie draft profiles, print a rookie draft cheat sheet, or see what the value of your rookie draft picks really is. Use the DLF Trade Analyzer and Team Analyzer to create trades to make your team better for 2026 and beyond!

Chase Brown was one of the veteran winners of the NFL Draft. For the second year in a row, running back was considered a need for the Cincinnati Bengals, but they once again didn't use an early round draft pick on the position, completely skipping over the position in their draft. Brown has a strangle-hold on the top of the depth chart. He’s a three-down running back, but he’s still being valued like the leader of a backfield committee. Let’s take a look at his value heading into the Draft, and if there’s room for his value to go up after this draft. 

Brown is a rare day three running back who has emerged as a legitimate dynasty fantasy football value. In November of his rookie season, his ADP bottomed out at 210.75. He peaked in December 2024 at 33 overall, and he’s currently going as the 38.67th player off the board. He’s the RB12 in ADP, going after TreVeyon Henderson and just before Bucky Irving and Breece Hall. The DLF Expert Rankings have him in a similar spot. He’s ranked as the RB12 as well, and he’s valued as the 44th overall player. 

It was an up-and-down season for Brown in 2025. In the first seven weeks of the season, he didn’t top 15 PPR points one time. But, down the stretch and throughout the fantasy playoffs, he was a fantasy force. He went over 15 PPR points in every single game from week eight on, finishing as the RB7. The ceiling of this offense is massive. Joe Burrow will hopefully be healthy this season, they’re loaded at wide receiver and they’ve made improvements to the offensive line. If Brown is dominating the backfield touches, he’ll be a really valuable player to have on your dynasty rosters, and he’s only 26 years old. He’s an RB1 for dynasty, but he isn’t in the same conversation as Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, Ashton Jeanty, and Jeremiyah Love. In the DLF Trade Analyzer, he’s valued between the fourth and fifth rookie draft picks. If you’re looking for running back help, Brown will do more for you this season than Jadarian Price or any of the other running backs going after Love.

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2026 Rookie Draft Coverage

Our 2026 Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Draft Cheat Sheets are now available! Every year, DLF provides these printer-friendly versions of our dynasty fantasy football rookie rankings for use in your dynasty league rookie drafts. Sometimes a simple printed cheat sheet is the best tool for the job, and these 2026 Rookie Draft Cheat Sheets can be a valuable asset in helping you win your rookie drafts.

A few things to keep in mind when using these sheets.

• The rankings used are for common scoring systems and lineup requirements.

• The rankings are set for PPR leagues, so please adjust accordingly for non-PPR leagues. The list won’t be dramatically different.

• These top 50 rankings do no include any IDP players. We’ll handle the IDP side later.

• There are two different sheets available – a 1QB league cheat sheet and a 2QB / Superflex cheat sheet.

• The cheat sheets contain deep positional rankings, including some undrafted free agents, as well as an overall top 50, all on one convenient sheet that now includes rookie draft tiers. We’ll update the cheat sheets after mini-camps have concluded and more free agents have signed.

• If you are looking for deeper and the most up to the minute data, be sure to check out all of our 2026 dynasty fantasy football rookie rankings for our most current dynasty rookie ranking information.

• In an IDP league? We have you covered. Check out our 2026 Dynasty Rookie IDP rankings for the most updated dynasty IDP rookie ranking information.

The 2026 NFL Draft gave us a lot of what we expected and some stunners along the way. Here are some of the highlights: