Fantasy Football Storylines to Monitor Heading into 2026 Training Camp

The training camp portion of the 2026 NFL offseason has finally arrived. With teams gathering to make meaningful preparations for the new season, the coming weeks will be chock-full of relevant fantasy news and information for managers to take in.

Whether it's checking in on a pivotal positional battle, seeing how injured players are recovering, sifting through snap counts to sus out a potential depth chart or just getting glimpses of how an offense will look under a new coaching staff, there is so much to monitor throughout training camp.

Not all the news coming out of training camp matters for fantasy football purposes, though, so it's key to stay focused and lock in on the important intel nuggets that can tangibly impact drafts and the subsequent season.

With that in mind, here's a look at five fantasy football storylines to follow as 2026 training camp gets underway.

QB1 Battles Around the League

AP Photo/Abbie Parr

Kyler Murray, left, and J.J. McCarthy

A slew of quarterback battles will take place this summer, each set to have a major impact on the upcoming fantasy football season.

These competitions will have ripple effects for skill-position teammates, making it imperative for managers to monitor and adjust their rankings accordingly based on the outcomes.

Here's a quick rundown of the five major quarterback battles set to occur during 2026 training camp:

The Atlanta Falcons have one of the most intriguing battles on their hands, with incumbent Michael Penix Jr. attempting to hold off veteran addition Tua Tagovailoa. Penix is running out of chances to prove he can stay healthy and elevate Atlanta's offense, while Tagovailoa is desperate to show he can bounce back from a pair of disappointing seasons and once again lead one of the league's top offenses.

The Arizona Cardinals' coaching staff will have to make a tough decision between incumbent Jacoby Brissett, journeyman pickup Gardner Minshew II and third-round rookie Carson Beck. None of these signal-callers projects to elevate the offense in any significant way, but Beck has the most upside of the trio and could spark some excitement around the downtrodden franchise.

The Cleveland Browns are hosting yet another offseason competition to determine their starter, with a healthy Deshaun Watson looking to usurp Shedeur Sanders and reclaim his QB1 status. Sanders showed promise as a Pro Bowl rookie, but new head coach Todd Monken has no stake in his success and will want the best player on the field. Watson's proven talents will give him a leg up in this race if he can avoid injury.

The Las Vegas Raiders are all-in on Fernando Mendoza after taking him No. 1 overall, but Kirk Cousins was also brought in to serve as a bridge quarterback. A strong training camp from Mendoza could make it tough for new head coach Klint Kubiak to keep his prized rookie on the bench. Even if Cousins manages to keep the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at bay in camp, Mendoza will inevitably take over the starting role at some point during the season.

The Minnesota Vikings took a major step back last year after replacing Sam Darnold with J.J. McCarthy. Although the Michigan product occasionally flashed the talent that led Minnesota to draft him on Day 1 two years ago, he largely looked out of sync and uncomfortable.

Kyler Murray was brought in to push the disappointing prospect and could thrive under quarterback-whispering head coach Kevin O'Connell.

Can the Jags Replace Travis Etienne Jr. with Bhayshul Tuten?

AP Photo/Gary McCullough

Bhayshul Tuten

Travis Etienne Jr. was a fantasy stud for the Jacksonville Jaguars last year, but the team's inability to retain him in free agency means it must find a way to replace the 253.9 fantasy points the back produced on 296 touches.

Bhayshul Tuten is the top candidate to take over the vacant RB1 role. Tuten was only a fourth-round pick last year, but a promising training camp showing led Jacksonville's brass to deal primary backup Tank Bigsby after the opener and elevate the rookie to the RB2 role.

While Tuten sporadically flashed his elite speed and playmaking skills—most notably in the immediate wake of the Bigsby trade when he scored his first NFL touchdown and tallied a career-best 15.4 fantasy points—his rookie season was largely underwhelming. He finished 2025 as the RB53 with 88.6 points and needs to make major strides this offseason to lock down the type of feature role that Etienne had.

Although incumbent third-stringer LeQuint Allen Jr. could be in the mix, Tuten's primary competition for snaps will come from Chris Rodriguez Jr. The former Washington Commanders back signed with Jacksonville on the heels of a career-best campaign, one in which he tallied 500 yards and six touchdowns on 112 carries in 13 games.

Rodriguez was absent from OTAs while recovering from foot surgery, but is expected to return in time for training camp. If the veteran returns and looks as good as he did for Washington in 2025, it could spell trouble for Tuten's fantasy prospects.

Rodriguez rarely participates in the passing game—he's caught just six balls for 54 yards during his career—and largely lacks fantasy upside due to this glaring lack of targets.

Tuten is a far more capable receiver who can play on all three downs, but splitting time with Rodriguez would cut heavily into his rushing workload. If that timeshare comes to fruition, it would render Tuten a low-tier fantasy option.

Be sure to monitor this situation closely before drafting any Jacksonville back. The stage is set for Tuten to become a sleeper superstar, but being forced into a timeshare will doom his chances of breaking out.

Packers' Pecking Order

AP Photo/Nam Huh

Matthew Golden

The Green Bay Packers haven't had a dominant No. 1 receiver since Davante Adams' departure in 2022, but that could change this season.

Green Bay's deep crop of pass-catchers largely failed to move the needle in fantasy last year. An already-crowded receiver's room became jam-packed following the team's decision to select Matthew Golden and Savion Williams within the first three rounds of the draft.

That logjam recently cleared when Romeo Doubs—the team leader with 85 targets last year—exited in free agency and Dontavyion Wicks, whose 46 targets ranked third on the team, was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles.

While the Green Bay did add Skyy Moore off the open market and picked up a promising UDFA in J. Michael Sturdivant, the 131 targets that Doubs and Wicks vacated should mostly transfer to the incumbents.

How the Packers will divvy up these targets remains to be seen, making this training camp a must-follow for fantasy managers. The bulk of the volume projects to go to Golden, Christian Watson and Jayden Reed, with the latter two pass-catchers each cementing their status as building blocks by inking extensions this offseason.

Watson is the most likely to burst out as Green Bay's top receiver. After making his debut in Week 8, the wideout went on to post four top-12 finishes in 10 games—rating as the WR12 over that stretch. Injuries have held Watson back from superstardom, however, as he's missed multiple games in all four of his NFL seasons and has only suited up for 48 of a possible 68 games in that span.

Reed is also due for a nice bump in targets. While he's been a streaky contributor out of the slot and dealt with injuries of his own in 2025, he could be in line for a breakout campaign if he establishes himself as Green Bay's No. 2 option.

Golden is the sleeper of the bunch, even if he's opening camp on the heels of a pedestrian rookie campaign in which he caught just 29 balls for 361 yards in 14 games.

Those were disappointing marks for first-round pick, but the Texas product still has the potential to be a top-flight wideout at the NFL level. A strong preseason showing could position him to be a difference-maker as a sophomore.

How Will Post-Injury Patrick Mahomes Fare in New-Look Chiefs Offense?

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs had a rare down year in 2025, but fantasy managers still got plenty of mileage out of the superstar quarterback.

Prior to tearing his ACL in Week 15, Mahomes ranked as the QB2 and was the only player at the position within 40 points of the league-leading Josh Allen.

While Mahomes was a week-winning star last year, his fantasy status may change significantly in 2026.

The most obvious reason to expect a regression is the injury. The 30-year-old has spent the offseason rehabilitating his surgically repaired knee and still hasn't been fully cleared for a return.

While there's little doubt he'll be ready for the opener on September 14, Kansas City will likely alter its offense to avoid risking more damage to the two-time league MVP.

Much of Mahomes' fantasy production last year was tied to an uncharacteristic amount of rushing volume. Although he only appeared in 14 games, the QB logged 64 totes for a career-high 422 yards and five touchdowns. Those contributions on the ground more than made up for a slight downtick in passing metrics.

The other reason to expect Mahomes to drop down a fantasy tier is the addition of Kenneth Walker III.

Walker was one of the Chiefs' major free-agency additions, with the reigning Super Bowl MVP coming over on a blockbuster three-year, $43 million deal. The move should singlehandedly revitalize a Kansas City backfield that stagnated last season, opening the door for head coach Andy Reid to leverage the ground game on far more than the 40.5 percent of offensive plays the team ran on last year.

While Mahomes could make up for his loss of personal rushing production and passing volume with a spike in efficiency, it still seems unlikely that he'll rate as a QB5 or better in 2026.

It's worth keeping an eye on training camp to see how Kansas City's offense will operate this coming season, but it would be unwise to expect another truly elite fantasy campaign from the future Hall of Famer.

New Coaches Set to Change the Fantasy Landscape

AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough

Jesse Minter

With 10 new regimes at the onset of their first training camp, there is an almost overwhelming amount of new information for fantasy managers to keep an eye out for.

Some of the most shocking adjustments were made by franchises that have long resisted change. With the Baltimore Ravens firing John Harbaugh, the Buffalo Bills canning Sean McDermott and the Pittsburgh Steelers parting ways with Mike Tomlin, a trio of head coaches who were at their posts for nearly 50 combined seasons are now gone.

Incumbent stars such as Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers and Josh Allen should all continue to put up relatively familiar fantasy numbers, but there's potential for certain stars to regress and some unheralded talents to shine within the new schemes being installed by the likes of Jesse Minter, Joe Brady and Mike McCarthy and their respective staffs.

Outside of these historic franchises making a rare regime change, there are several other intriguing new coaching-player pairings to monitor.

The Tennessee Titans will be looking to jump-start the Cam Ward era after a pedestrian debut. With head coach Robert Saleh delegating the offensive responsibilities to Brian Daboll and surrounding the No. 1 overall pick in 2025 with several new weapons and better protection, the potential for a massive Year 2 leap is obvious. If Ward can finetune his mechanics and quickly grasp Daboll's scheme, he'll be on the fantasy QB1 radar sooner than expected.

The Las Vegas Raiders could be on the cusp of a massive offensive turnaround. Head coach Klint Kubiak already proved he's one of the league's top up-and-coming play-callers and now has Fernando Mendoza, Ashton Jeanty, Brock Bowers and several other promising pieces at his disposal. With this level of talent, Kubiak could potentially oversee one of the best offensive campaigns in the organization's storied history.

Don't fall into the trap of expecting the 2026 fantasy season to play out similar to last year. The league's landscape has shifted significantly this offseason and much will change in 2026—especially for players working under new head coaches.

Be sure to keep tabs on training camp for these teams in particular to make the most informed decisions possible during your league's draft.