Examining Fantasy Football 2026 Expert Mock Drafts After Preseason Week 1

The first week of full NFL preseason action is finished, and the fantasy football world is every bit as active as you'd expect.

From rankings to sleeper spotlights to proceed-with-caution alarms on bust candidates, there is a wealth of pre-draft information available to researchers seeking it out.

Here, though, our focus is on recent mock drafts from industry experts and seeing what we can glean from these trial-run talent grabs.

12-Team, Half-PPR Mock

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The CBS Sports crew recently got together for a 12-team, half-PPR mock that didn't lack for interesting developments.

Perhaps the biggest was the passing of nearly four full rounds before any quarterback's name was called. While Buffalo Bills signal-caller Josh Allen occupied his typical QB1 spot, he didn't actually fill it until the 47th overall pick near the end of the fourth round. Lamar Jackson (No. 54) was the only other quarterback to crack the top five rounds.

That's maybe not super surprising for an industry draft given the near industry-wide advice to wait for quarterbacks, but it does create an interesting talking point. If everyone else is waiting on quarterbacks, you can grab a great one without the typical opportunity cost. The drafter who selected Allen, for instance, already had Bijan Robinson, Josh Jacobs and Rashee Rice on board.

A few other notable nuggets: Brock Bowers (No. 22) topped Trey McBride (No. 25) for TE1 status; Malik Nabers slipped to the third round as WR12; Joe Burrow (No. 63), Jayden Daniels (No. 64) and Drake Maye (No. 65) became QBs 3, 4 and 5 with consecutive sixth-round picks; and Patrick Mahomes made it all the way to Round 12 (QB12).

12-Team Superflex

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ESPN's fantasy crew recently came together for a 12-team mock using a "double-flex, superflex" format as Daniel Dopp put it, explaining there were "two flex positions plus an "OP" spot (often called superflex)."

This might not be the most popular format around, but it's still helpful to see how it dramatically changes quarterback values. To that end, the first six picks of the mock were quarterbacks: Allen, Jackson, Maye, Burrow, Jalen Hurts and Daniels, in that order. Five more quarterbacks were taken in Round 2—Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Caleb Williams, Trevor Lawrence and Jaxson Dart—including two who were paired with Round 1 quarterbacks.

Only three managers left the position untouched through the first two rounds. All three addressed the position in the third with Mahomes (QB13), Bo Nix (QB14) and Matthew Stafford (QB15). Those could be useful QB1s, but they all carry some risks. Then again, they also allowed some pretty ridiculous RB-WR pairings to be created: Bijan Robinson-Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase-Christian McCaffrey and Jonathan Taylor-Jaxson Smith-Njigba, respectively.

The first QB-free round of the draft was the 10th. Several popular sleeper picks landed in the round, like Washington Commanders running back Rachaad White (RB34), Tennessee Titans receiver Wan'Dale Robinson (WR39) and Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks (RB39).

12-Team* PPR

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A recent 12-team, PPR mock draft popped up at SI.com. Sort of. There just weren't 12 mock-drafters, but only one: Michael Fabiano, who manned every team, each one going "into this draft with different strategies." There was a "best available" team, a Zero RB team and teams that did or didn't wait on quarterbacks or tight ends.

Fabiano also followed each of the 10 mocked rounds with thoughts on the players selected, so those are probably the most noteworthy. For instance, while he included both Christian McCaffrey (No. 6) and De'Von Achane (No. 10) in the first round, he raised caution flags for both (durability and 2025 workload for McCaffrey; Miami's offense and Malik Willis' rushing ability for Achane).

Fabiano said it's stock up on Kenneth Walker III, "a mid-second-round selection in redrafts," and stock down on Jeremiyah Love, citing concerns over "him sharing the workload with backfield mate Tyler Allgeier." Fabiano also saw no real change in A.J. Brown's stock in New England, viewing him as "a low WR1."

Round 3 featured Emeka Egbuka, "my top breakout receiver," and Malik Nabers, while Round 4 featured quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Drake Maye, plus TE3 Colston Loveland, with Fabiano writing, "I expect him to bust out big time in 2026." In Round 5, Fabiano wrote that Christian Watson's "stock is on the rise" and while Bucky Irving's has "fallen...due to the addition of pass-catching running back (Kenny) Gainwell."