Examining Fantasy Football 2026 Expert Mock Drafts After Preseason Week 3

The end of the 2026 NFL preseason sent the fantasy football world into the heart of mock draft season.

It feels a little differently than it has in the past due to the proliferation of simulated mock drafts. It can be hard clearing out schedule space for 10 to 12 experts to mock together, so many aren't bothering.

However, there are still fantasy crews who are mock drafting together, so we'll look at three of the latest offerings, analyzing shared trends and notable differences from a 10-team mock at ESPN, a 12-team mock at ESPN and a 12-team mock from FanSided.

The First Rounds

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For simplicity's sake, let's compare the first rounds of the two 12-team mocks with the first 12 picks made during the 10-teamer. While there are some clear similarities, there are notable differences, too.

Pick	ESPN 10-Team	ESPN 12-Team	FanSided
1	Jahmyr Gibbs	Bijan Robinson	Jahmyr Gibbs
2	Bijan Robinson	Jahmyr Gibbs	Bijan Robinson
3	Ja'Marr Chase	Puka Nacua	Ja'Marr Chase
4	Jaxon Smith-Njigba	Ja'Marr Chase	Jonathan Taylor
5	Puka Nacua	Christian McCaffrey	Puka Nacua
6	Amon-Ra St. Brown	Jonathan Taylor	Christian McCaffrey
7	James Cook III	Jaxon Smith-Njigba	James Cook III
8	Christian McCaffrey	Amon-Ra St. Brown	Saquon Barkley
9	CeeDee Lamb	CeeDee Lamb	Jaxon Smith-Njigba
10	Jonathan Taylor	Derrick Henry	Amon-Ra St. Brown
11	Kenneth Walker III	Justin Jefferson	CeeDee Lamb
12	De'Von Achane	James Cook III	Kenneth Walker III

The first takeaway: If you want Gibbs or Robinson, you better have a top-two pick in hand. Nothing was surprising about their prominent placement, including the fact that there wasn't universal agreement on the order of them.

The second: First-round values feel pretty well defined. Despite only presenting a dozen picks, all three draft boards agreed on 10 different players. If you're bracing yourself for a curveball, this isn't where you're likely to find it.

The final: How about those disagreements? Among the five players who weren't universal first-round picks, only one (Walker) showed up on multiple draft boards. Otherwise, it was one-and-done showings for Achane, Henry, Jefferson and Barkley.

The Quarterbacks

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The NFL's most important position is perhaps the fantasy world's most polarizing.

The general feeling among fantasy experts is that elite quarterbacks aren't worth the opportunity cost of spending such a premium pick on them. Since most leagues only start one signal-caller, the thinking goes that the player pool is deep enough to have serviceable-or-better starters available for everyone.

Given that these were expert mocks, they sort of all devalued the quarterback position together. None of the mocks featured a quarterback taken in the top two rounds, and only FanSided's had a quarterback crack the first three rounds (Josh Allen, 25th). In ESPN's 12-teamer, Allen didn't come off the board until the 46th pick.

To help highlight the position's depth, managers didn't need a top-100 pick to collect QB12. The 12th quarterbacks taken were Patrick Mahomes at No. 120 (in ESPN's 12-teamer), Caleb Williams (No. 110 in the 10-teamer) and Kyler Murray (No. 104 at FanSided).

The Outliers

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Anytime I'm tasked with presenting mock draft advice, one tip always makes the cut: Run through multiple mocks. While things like average draft position and consensus rankings might present a sense of groupthink, there are always eye-catching deviations in any draft room you'll find.

In this exercise, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels looms as a pretty large one. In the two ESPN mocks, he was QB2 and a fifth-round pick (going at Nos. 50 and 54). Over at FanSided, though, he was only QB5 and lasted until near the end of the sixth round (No. 69).

FanSided, meanwhile, was highest on Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who landed eighth overall. At ESPN, he made it to picks Nos. 14 and 19. It was also lowest on Arizona Cardinals rookie running back Jeremiyah Love, a mid-third-round pick there (No. 29), but a comfortable second-round pick at ESPN (Nos. 15 and 18).

Similar disagreements continued throughout the mocks, serving as a reminder that any draft room can turn upon the whims of any manager involved. And if a deviation starts a position run, it's up to you to decide whether to get in on the feeding frenzy or leave it alone to look for bargains elsewhere.