Must-Draft Players On ESPN, Sleeper and Yahoo Fantasy Football: Where To Draft DeVonta Smith & More

No two fantasy drafts are created equal. Every draft room is its own unique environment—managers with different drafting tendencies, varying league scoring settings and more. One thing that I’ve found to be underrated year-over-year is the drastic differences in ADP across the biggest fantasy platforms.

Using our fantasy football ADP tool—which pulls draft data from Sleeper, ESPN, and Yahoo and blends it into one average—I dug through the numbers and found some insane value opportunities. These are the three players you shouldn’t be leaving your drafts without on each of the three biggest platforms.

Must-Draft Players On Sleeper Fantasy Football In 2026

Devonta Smith | WR | Eagles

• Sleeper ADP: 44.9 (WR20)
• Consensus ADP: 35.6 (WR14)

DeVonta Smith is a player I’ve been drafting all summer at the 2-3 turn in best ball drafts, and it’s shocking to see him falling to the late fourth round on Sleeper right now. 

I believe we’ve yet to see Smith’s true ceiling at the NFL level. With the departure of A.J. Brown this offseason, Smith is poised to assume the WR1 role in Philadelphia going into his sixth season.

It feels like there is a common misconception that the Eagles have a super low passing rate and can’t support a top fantasy wide receiver. Last season, the Eagles averaged 29.2 attempts per game, ranking 19th in the league. Not anything eye-popping, but certainly enough volume to support a legit fantasy WR1.  

I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that Smith is an insanely good wide receiver. He’s the fourth-highest graded WR prospect in the history of my model. He has top-end WR1 upside in 2026, and he’s an absolute smash at cost—ESPECIALLY on Sleeper.

De’Zhaun Stribling | WR | Niners

• Sleeper ADP: 202.4 (WR76)
• Consensus ADP: 167.4 (WR67)

Sleeper needs to put some respect on De’Zhaun Stribling’s name. Sure, he’s not the most exciting WR prospect we’ve ever seen—his college production profile is underwhelming, he’s an older prospect entering the league, etc…

Draft capital is the strongest predictor of fantasy success at the NFL level. Full stop. Quite frankly, nothing else even comes close—particularly at the wide receiver position.

Stribling was drafted 33rd overall by the 49ers, and we’ve heard nothing but glowing reports out of training camp. With Ricky Pearsall set to miss the season with another injury, San Francisco is going to need the rookie Stribling to step up in a big way.

Does he have the talent to be an effective NFL wide receiver? I’m not sure. Is he going to have the opportunity to prove it? Absolutely. I’m taking stabs on this profile in the last rounds of my draft all day. 

Travis Hunter | WR | Jaguars

• Sleeper ADP: 160.2 (WR60)
• Consensus ADP: 135.2 (WR52)

Travis Hunter at pick 160.2 on Sleeper puts him firmly in the “free” zone. How many past top-three overall picks have been this cheap going into their sophomore seasons?! I’m not sure any other player has as much league-winning upside at cost as Hunter. 

He’s just such an easy bet for me to make, especially in redraft leagues. Draft him with one of your last picks and see how the offense/defense snap rates shake out in the first couple of weeks. Does it look like he’s going to be primarily playing defense? Then he’s an easy cut! But if the Jaguars see him contributing meaningfully on offense, he’ll surely outperform this price.

Priority Targets In 2026 ESPN Fantasy Football Drafts

Justin Herbert | QB | Chargers

• ESPN ADP: 108.3 (QB15)
• Consensus ADP: 86.3 (QB10)

ESPN is surprisingly low on Justin Herbert compared to consensus ADP, and I’m not really sure why. I’m far from the biggest believer in Herbert, but having him outside the top 12 options at the QB position feels like getting too fancy.

It’s looking like LAC will begin 2026 with a fully healthy offensive line (something that has plagued them for years), a bolstered TE room with Charlie Kolar and David Njoku, and a new offensive mastermind at the helm in Mike McDaniel.

I get the wariness around Herbert given disappointment in recent seasons … but QB15? Really, ESPN? Definitely my favorite target at the QB position over there.

RJ Harvey | RB | Broncos

• ESPN ADP: 125.9 (RB36)
• Consensus ADP: 97.5 (RB32)

RJ Harvey was one of the few running backs who popped out to me as a massive value, specifically on ESPN. By no means is Harvey my favorite RB in the 2025 class, but it does feel like we’ve lost the plot a bit with his current price.

Based on his rookie production and prospect profile, Harvey draws some pretty interesting Year 2 comps:

According to Football Insights’ consensus offensive line rankings for 2026, Denver has the best OL in the entire league, and it’s not particularly close. I want pieces of this backfield wherever I can get them. Coming off the board nearly 30 picks later than his consensus ADP, this feels like a great price to pay for Denver’s priority pass-catching back with major contingent upside.

Chris Godwin | WR | Buccaneers

• ESPN ADP: 143.7 (WR51)
• Consensus ADP: 111.4 (WR42)

This one just blows my mind. Godwin is one of my favorite targets at cost across the entire WR landscape—I think he’s one to two rounds too cheap, even in the consensus rankings. To see him falling to the mid-140s, outside of the WR4 range on ESPN, feels unconscionable. 

People seem to be forgetting how elite Godwin looked before the injury that cut his season short in 2024. Across seven games, he averaged 19.7 FPPG, good for WR2 overall pace.

Last season we didn’t see the same league-breaking Godwin we had in 2024, but the underlying metrics were still extremely solid. From Weeks 13-17, after returning from injury:

• 2.01 Yards/Route (WR26)
• 0.21 Targets/Route (WR34)
• 0.33 Missed Tackles Forced/Route (WR5)
• 0.11 First Downs/Route (WR21)

Mike Evans is gone; Emeka Egbuka is already banged up …

If I were in 100 ESPN redraft leagues this season, I would have 100% exposure to Chris Godwin at WR51 prices.

Yahoo Fantasy Football Must-Draft Players For 2026
 

Jeremiyah Love | RB | Cardinals

• Yahoo ADP: 27.0 (RB13)
• Consensus ADP: 21.8 (RB12)

It’s difficult to find massive discrepancies on players in the first couple of rounds, but Jeremiyah Love on Yahoo is one of them. The difference in position rank itself is minimal (RB12 vs. RB13), but the difference between the mid-second and early third rounds feels pretty large—especially in a season where all running backs are being pushed up the board.

Jeremiyah Love grades out ridiculously well in the CUPPS model, coming in with a 98th-percentile prospect score. This puts him in an awesome bucket of comparable prospects:

Jeremiyah Love is as close to a “can’t-miss” prospect as you’ll find, and being able to snag him in the third round is one of my favorite clicks across the board.

Oronde Gadsden | TE | Chargers

• Yahoo ADP: 125.8 (TE18)
• Consensus ADP: 110.2 (TE13)

The Oronde Gadsden slander has gone too far. I get that the reports out of LAC training camp have been less than ideal, but the risk feels priced in at his current cost on Yahoo. 

Coming off the board at TE18 overall, you’re getting a guy who put up pretty insane rookie numbers for a tight end:

• 8.9 FPPG
• 21% rec yard market share
• 1.66 YPRR
• 8.7 aDOT

There is zero doubt in my mind that Gadsden is the best receiving TE on the Los Angeles Chargers. It’s simply going to come down to whether or not he’s able to stay on the field enough to matter. In my opinion, the upside here is absolutely worth the cost of admission.

Jakobi Meyers | WR | Jaguars

• Yahoo ADP: 126.6 (WR48)
• Consensus ADP: 109.4 (WR41)

I am on record being a little bit psychotic with my affinity for Jakobi Meyers … but I simply can’t get enough.

I covered Travis Hunter earlier in this article, and while I love Hunter’s upside, there is obviously plenty of downside risk to him not being fantasy relevant. I can’t say the same for Jakobi Meyers—he feels like one of the safest options across the board. Someone you can just throw in your flex week in and week out, and not have to worry about it.

Every year, Meyers is underrated by the fantasy community. Every year, he outperforms his ADP. Seeing him nearly fall out of the WR4 range on Yahoo has me wishing I were in more leagues on their platform.