Dynasty Fantasy Football: 10 players to watch at the NFL Combine
- Can Zachariah Branch buck the “gadget player” label? The NFL Combine won’t necessarily answer that question, but Branch could certainly do himself some favors with good measurements and drill numbers.
- Eli Stowers may end up as a better fantasy producer than Kenyon Sadiq: While Sadiq is certainly the better all-around player, Stowers wins out as a receiver and could show as much at the NFL Combine.
- 2026 NFL Draft season is here: Try the best-in-class PFF Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2026’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
WR Zachariah Branch, Georgia
Jamaal Pritchett (2024), Malachi Corley (2023) and Rashee Rice (2022) are united in that they led the FBS in screen catches the year before they were drafted. This year, Zachariah Branch joins that group. The question is, will he be able to overcome the “gadget player” label?
More than 50% of his targets were behind the line of scrimmage in 2025, again putting him in limited, and shaky, company among draft-eligible prospects over the past several years. The NFL Combine will be the perfect opportunity for Branch to show what he brings beyond his after-the-catch skill set. He will almost certainly be one of the fastest receivers in attendance, regardless.
The projected Day 2 pick will need a strong pre-draft showing to give dynasty managers confidence in his ability to be an explosive element of an NFL passing game like Rice and less of a screen-only player like Corley.
TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt
Stowers, widely considered the TE2 in the 2026 NFL Draft and for dynasty rookie purposes, doesn’t have much to prove ahead of April. Still, he could boost his dynasty stock — perhaps even ahead of Kenyon Sadiq’s.
Stowers’ receiving profile wins out, as he put together two seasons of solid college production compared to Sadiq’s one and averaged a Power-Four-leading 2.55 yards per route run in 2025. Sadiq is the better blocker, though, having earned a 65.0-plus PFF run-blocking grade this past season. That well-rounded skill set could keep him on the field more in the NFL and provide extra opportunities for fantasy production.
I’m keeping an eye on Stowers at the NFL Combine to see if he looks that much better than Sadiq as a receiver after his back-to-back 85.0-plus PFF receiving grades at Vanderbilt. Stowers even scored better than Sadiq in PFF fantasy analyst Jon Macri’s rookie tight end model (prior to combine measurements).
RB Jadarian Price, Notre Dame
While every dynasty spotlight shines on presumed 1.01 pick Jeremiyah Love, don’t forget about his backfield teammate, Jadarian Price, who is jockeying to become the class’ RB2.
He never topped 100 rushing yards in a game while fighting for touches in 2025, but he averaged 6.0 yards per carry and 3.92 yards after contact per attempt, the latter being an 82nd-percentile figure in a stable metric year to year. He didn’t feature much as a receiver at Notre Dame, although he showed small flashes (two touchdowns and 86 yards on six catches in 2025).
Price sits as the 61st-ranked player on the PFF Predictive Big Board, making him the current RB2. His eventual landing spot will determine a lot about his dynasty value, but for now, we need to see if his limited role with the Fighting Irish was covering up a player who can shine in the NFL Combine’s testing drills and, eventually, the NFL.
WR Omar Cooper Jr., Indiana
Cooper is an early draft riser, particularly after his impressive run of play to end his final college season. He is going off the board around No. 39 in the PFF Mock Draft Simulator, a near-30-spot jump from his average draft position in early January.
Cooper was open on 92.3% of his targets in 2025, a 99th-percentile clip. Breaking that down to just single coverage yields a similar 96th-percentile figure. That’s all to say: Cooper has the tools to succeed at the next level and in dynasty.
The NFL Combine will be a stage for the national-championship-winning wideout to showcase his athleticism and route-running chops, and he may even find himself as a fringe first-rounder when it’s all said and done.
QB Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
The 2026 NFL Draft’s weak quarterback class is well documented. There’s Indiana‘s Fernando Mendoza, then Alabama‘s Ty Simpson and then an amalgamation of talented but flawed prospects.
Nussmeier was supposed to be at the top of the ranks before an abdominal injury hindered him for much of 2025 and led to a decent but not outstanding 76.4 PFF passing grade (24th among 82 Power Four quarterbacks). His 7.0-yard average depth of target was also the lowest in the Power Four.
At the Senior Bowl, Nussmeier’s first pre-draft showing, the LSU product was the highest-graded quarterback (85.4) and looked the part of a Day 2 draft pick. The NFL Combine will be the next step in his journey to improve his draft stock to the high levels of pre-2025.
Superflex dynasty managers should be watching Nussmeier closely. He was once thought of as a future NFL starting quarterback, and perhaps nothing has changed when he’s fully healthy.
