Welcome to the final installment of my fantasy look-ahead for this coming season. I’ve been trying to identify the biggest question for each NFL squad from a fantasy standpoint.
Today I’ll tackle the NFL’s West divisions. You can find the AFC East, NFC East, North divisions, and South divisions at the highlighted links. And you can find my free agency and trading fantasy recap here.
To repeat: A record 10 NFL teams have new Head Coaches for the 2026 season, 21 teams have new Offensive Coordinators, and plenty of noteworthy players have changed teams via free agency and trades. The draft is in less than a month. Mix it all together and a lot of NFL offenses could look quite different this season. I’m asking my questions based on what we know today.
My last column covered the two South divisions, which have been the NFL’s two weakest divisions this decade. Today we climb from the outhouse to the penthouse, as the NFL’s West divisions have been the league’s strongest over that same span, and then some. Each of the last eight Super Bowls (and 12 of the last 14) has featured at least one team from the West divisions, with five wins notched in that span. Three NFC West teams have made it to the Super Bowl in this decade – no other division has more than one team that has gone. The NFC West was the only division with three playoff teams this past season, and the AFC West had three entrants the year before.
From a fantasy standpoint, there are plenty of high-octane options across the eight teams that make up the Wests. In fact, the No. 1 player at running back and the No. 1 and No. 2 players at wide receiver and tight end all came from the West last season, as did the No. 4 quarterback. And that was with the Chiefs having a very rare down year. There’s plenty to talk about for fantasy with these two divisions.
Teams are listed in order of finish from last season. All fantasy rankings are for Half-PPR scoring, on a fantasy points per game basis (FPPG), with Week 18 excluded.
NFC WEST
Seattle Seahawks.
QUESTION: Who are the top running backs, and where should you draft them?
The defending Super Bowl champs like to run the ball, and especially when they get in close. Seattle’s top two backs scored 21 rushing TDs last season, including playoffs. A split backfield limited the fantasy value of Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, with both ending up right around 10 FPPG. That put them in the fringe RB2/Flex range. Super Bowl MVP Walker left in free agency for Kansas City, and Charbonnet tore his ACL in Seattle’s first playoff game. It’s unclear when he’ll be ready to return and how much of a workload he’ll be able to handle. So who will be the Week 1 starter? George Holani and newly signed Emanuel Wilson are there, and maybe Seattle will add another free agent or a back via the draft, but for now this backfield is hard to handicap. The Seahawks don’t have many holes, but running back is a huge question mark at the moment.
L.A. Rams.
QUESTION: Can Matthew Stafford repeat?
Let’s rewind to August, 2025. Stafford was sidelined with a mysterious back ailment, and for fantasy drafts, that pushed his receivers down a bit and made him an afterthought and especially given the depth at quarterback. If you took him as your QB2 in a Superflex format, or as a backup or waiver wire find in a 1-QB league, boy did you cash in with an all-time Ka-Ching! Stafford finished as the QB4 while leading the league in passing yards (4,707) and TD passes (46), and winning league MVP honors. He was in the conversation for fantasy MVP too, given that he was essentially free. He played every game and his “bad back” was never an issue in his age-37 season.
So, can Stafford run it back, or is it too risky to chase that performance? The Rams are all-in for one last Super Bowl run, and he’s still got Sean McVay calling the shots, and one of the top receiver tandems in the league. That said, Davante Adams will be 34 in December, and Puka Nacua isn’t exactly having a good off-season. The Rams could add another playmaker at WR or TE with the 13th pick in the 2026 draft. Stafford himself is now 38, which makes him the league’s oldest starting QB. He won’t give you anything with his legs, so if you take him as your QB1 you need another huge passing season for him to return value. Throw it all together and Stafford is a high risk/high reward player, and especially at a position with a lot of quality depth.
San Francisco 49ers.
QUESTION: Can Christian McCaffrey get it done in an even year?
Speaking of high risk/high reward players, nobody fit that description in 2025 better than CMC, who was the RB1 in 2023 and then missed almost all of 2024 with lower leg ailments that threatened his prospects in 2025. Well, guess what? CMC bounced back and is again high on the list of boom/bust players.
Those who took a swing on McCaffrey last summer were handsomely rewarded with yet another finish as the overall RB1. McCaffrey led the NFL in total touches with 413, led all running backs with 102 catches, and found the end zone 17 times. He was every bit the 3-down workhorse of his busiest seasons. The million-dollar question is this: Can he stay healthy, dominate touches, and produce like that again, in an even year and at age 30? He won’t come with the same injury discount this year. Are you willing to roll the dice with a pick in the first half of Round 1?
Arizona Cardinals.
QUESTION: Would you really draft Marvin Harrison, Jr. over Michael Wilson?
The Cardinals are one of those teams that’s in “draft a QB in 2027” mode, and it looks like they’ll go with Jacoby Brissett again in 2025. Expert consensus rankings (ECR) are not that meaningful right now, but as it currently stands Harrison is the WR33 and Wilson is the WR41. Wilson thrived with Brissett under center, and was the WR2 From Week 11 through the end of the regular season. He was easily among the waiver wire MVPs for 2025. Harrison was out for most of that stretch, which makes that performance harder to analyze, and potentially less sticky going forward.
Harrison wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire early in the season, but he was a fringe Top-24 wide receiver from Weeks 1-5 when Kyler Murray was still playing. What will the passing game look like this season, if everyone stays healthy and Brissett starts most of the games? Wilson could again be a player who delivers outsized returns, and Harrison also might offer a cheap price for a player of his pedigree.
AFC WEST
Denver Broncos.
QUESTION: Who are the safest Broncos for fantasy?
The Broncos won 14 games last year and earned the AFC’s 1 seed. They have a top offensive mind coach in Head Coach Sean Payton, and a great defense that frequently puts their offense in favorable position. So, they must be a slam-dunk for fantasy, right? Wrong. From Bo Nix to R.J. Harvey and J.K. Dobbins, to newly acquired Jaylen Waddle, Courtland Sutton and the rest of the receivers, and to Evan Engram, this is a team with more questions than answers for fantasy.
Nix has finished right around QB10 in each of his two seasons, and the injury he suffered in the AFC Championship shouldn’t be much of an issue, so he appears to be somewhat reliable at that level. Dobbins has been injured so often that he has less than 600 attempts in six seasons, but for however long he’s healthy, the running backs will have capped values and especially if they add someone else to the mix. Waddle and Sutton are both capable of WR1 numbers, but we don’t know what the target shares will look like and especially since Denver goes five-deep with quality at the position. Engram never emerged as the “joker” in Payton’s offense and was a big disappointment last season. He’ll be 32 when the season starts. Ranking all the Broncos won’t be so easy.
Los Angeles Chargers.
QUESTION: How big of a bump will the offense get from Mike McDaniel?
One of the most ballyhooed coordinator hirings this offseason was McDaniel to the Chargers. Some might argue that it’s among the biggest moves, period, made this off-season by any team. Miami’s Greatest Show on Surf peaked in 2023, and was on a slow and steady decline over the last two seasons. A lot of that was due to the limitations of Tua Tagovailoa, who led the NFL in passing yards in that 2023 season. Now McDaniel gets to work with Justin Herbert, who has the arm strength, mobility, and durability that Tua lacks.
How much should fantasy managers bump up the main Charger pieces this season? Is Herbert a Top-10 quarterback? Top-5? Is Omarion Hampton a clear RB1? What about the wide receivers and TE Oronde Gadsden? I think people are going to believe the McDaniel hype, and that you’ll see the main Chargers coming off the board early and often in drafts this summer.
Kansas City Chiefs.
QUESTION: What version of Patrick Mahomes will we get in 2026?
Lost in the mess of Kansas City’s 2025 season is that Mahomes was performing at his best level (for fantasy) since 2022, when he finished as the QB1. He tore his ACL in Week 15, but through Week 14 he was the QB2, at 21.7 FPPG. Only Josh Allen was scoring at a higher clip. That’s a nice improvement over his back-to-back QB8 finishes in 2023 and 2024, which were disappointing given his draft cost.
But questions abound. Will Mahomes be ready to go Week 1? Will he continue to be somewhat of a dual threat (he had already set career highs in rushing yards (422) and rushing TDs (5) when he got hurt last season)? Will the Chiefs add a big receiver with one of their two first-round picks? Does Travis Kelce have anything left? Will Andy Reid actually deploy Justin Fields in short yardage including (gulp) at the goal line to protect Mahomes? All of those concerns will weigh on Mahomes’s cost, but he’s Patrick freaking Mahomes and a heavily discounted price could mean great value.
Las Vegas Raiders.
QUESTION: Is Ashton Jeanty worth a pick around the 1-2 turn?
I didn’t get everything right last season, but perhaps my best call was that Jeanty was way, way overpriced, and was not worth a first round pick. He was the poster child for my annual “Players to avoid at cost” column. I didn’t doubt his talent, and don’t doubt it now either, but the situation was abysmal, the O-line was bad, and very, very few rookie RBs have lived up to a Top-12 pick. Jeanty’s rookie season wasn’t all that bad (12.9 FPPG, RB14), but that was very disappointing value considering the draft-day cost.
So will he be worth his price this season? Again, it’s early for rankings, but as it stands now Jeanty’s ECR is 15, which is early second round, and I’m guessing that will creep up after the draft. The situation should be better. The Raiders made some big investments in the OL in free agency, and new HC Klint Kubiak worked wonders with Seattle’s offense last season and is considered a very sharp offensive mind. Fernando Mendoza might not start right away, and the pass catchers are unproven outside of Brock Bowers. Jeanty will be a popular breakout candidate for year two. I haven’t decided yet if I’m in or out at cost.
That’s it for the West divisions. I’ll have some more fantasy content around the NFL draft, so keep it here!
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