Fantasy Football Bounceback Candidates for 2026

Every August drafters recite the same mantra—“this is the year I don’t chase last year’s points”—and every November they stare at a roster dotted with red “Q” tags and wonder where it all went wrong. The 2025 season produced its usual crop of busts, but history reminds us that one down year is not always a death sentence. Josh Jacobs’ roller-coaster ride from 1,653-12 to 805-6 and back to 1,329-15 between 2022 and 2024 is the template for the rebound story. The names below may never match Jacobs’ peaks, yet every metric, contract situation and depth-chart vacuum points toward a 2026 revival.

Lamar Jackson, QB, Ravens The box score says 16.5 fantasy points per game, the worst mark of Jackson’s career outside his rookie year. A deeper cut says the decline was injury-forced: through Week 4 he trailed only Josh Allen in weekly scoring, averaging 217.3 passing yards, 41.5 rushing yards and 1.1% interceptions. After the ailment the splits collapsed—186.7 yards, 20.3 rush yards and 2.9% picks. Baltimore had no alternative but to trot out a diminished MVP. Even if Jackson’s rushing volume never returns to the 9-carry baseline he held through 2023, a healthier season and a career 0.8% interception pedigree make him a screaming value at a position that perennially overpays for last year’s stats.

Bucky Irving, RB, Buccaneers The rookie renaissance of 2024 (5.4 yards per attempt, league-best 3.5 yards after contact per carry) gave way to a seven-game absence and a 3.4-YPA thud in 2025. Yet attrition is about to become Irving’s best blocker: Rachaad White and Sean Tucker are poised to leave, and Tampa Bay’s long list of defensive needs makes a high-priced backfield addition unlikely. Even a modest efficiency rebound should pair with 250-plus touches, turning last year’s one-score campaign into bankable counting stats.

Kenneth Walker III, RB, Seahawks Yearly totals can lie. Walker posted nearly identical PPR outputs in each of his first four seasons, but 2025 was the first time he played 17 games. The cost was a career-low 13.0 attempts per game and only eight goal-line carries. With Zach Charbonnet expected to miss most or all of 2026, Seattle—or any team that signs Walker in free agency—will treat him as a true bell cow. Touchdown regression and goal-line monopoly are coming.

Justin Jefferson, WR, Vikings Jefferson did not suddenly forget how to separate. A carousel of J.J. McCarthy, Max Brosmer and Carson Wentz delivered the league’s most quarterback-agnostic receiver a 58.9% catchable target rate, per StatsHub. Minnesota will add competition under center this off-season, either through a reclamation project or a veteran bridge. Jefferson’s target volume and Kevin O’Connell’s play-action scheme remain elite; even marginal quarterback improvement should push the 26-year-old back into the overall WR1 conversation.

Malik Nabers, WR, Giants An ACL tear in Week 4 derailed Nabers’ sophomore campaign, yet the calendar works in his favor: ten months of rehab plus the likely exit of slot target-hog Wan’Dale Robinson frees an extra 90-100 looks. Rookie-year explosiveness (17.2 yards per reception) and contested-catch polish make Nabers the odds-on favorite to lead New York in every receiving category if health cooperates.

Garrett Wilson, WR, Jets The Jets’ offense is perennially a punch line, but Wilson has produced three 1,000-yard seasons and was pacing a career-best 76.4 yards per game before injuries in 2025. Assuming full health, his target share remains locked in regardless of who is under center.

Terry McLaurin, WR, Commanders History sides with players one year removed from a holdout. McLaurin’s 582-yard nadir came after a camp absence, mirroring post-holdout dips by Melvin Gordon, Chris Johnson and Larry Johnson—each of whom rebounded the following season. Expect Washington to feature its alpha wideout early and often as it breaks in a new quarterback.

Isaiah Likely, TE, Free Agent Stuck behind Mark Andrews in Baltimore, Likely posted career lows across the board (36 targets, 27 catches, 307 yards, 1 TD). Now set to sign elsewhere, he inherits the same path that turned Gerald Everett, Evan Engram and Dalton Kincaid into weekly starters once freed from a timeshare. A 2024 stat line of 42-477-6 on only 58 targets offers a glimpse of his floor as a primary tight end; the ceiling is top-five at a position starved for difference-makers.

Draft rooms will overreact to 2025 scars. Savvy gamers will remember that blips are not obituaries and will roster the bounce-back class before the market corrects.