Structural Drafting Preferences in 2026 Best Ball Drafts
Throwing out the Old Rulebook
In my first article this season on the 2026 Best Ball Economy I examined the nature of running back inflation in this year’s drafts and attempted to decipher whether it was justified, where to lean into these rising prices, and when to swerve in the opposite direction.
I’d encourage anyone reading this to check that out because this article will be a direct follow up.
Like the previous article, this piece will heavily rely on past work of mine from the 2024 and 2025 off-seasons which is also recommended reading.
A New Landscape for Wide Receiver Value
Running backs are being drafted far more evenly with wide receivers in 2026 compared to 2025.
In each of the above and below charts, the X-Axis represents positional ADP while the Y-Axis represents overall ADP. The flatter the line, the more aggressively the position is being drafted.
We can see a clear relaxation of drafters’ demand for wide receivers early in drafts in each of the last two seasons compared to the peak of the wide receiver avalanche in 2024.
Despite this trend toward running back, drafters are still consistently filling out their wide receiver rooms within the first 7 rounds. There are 39 wide receivers with an ADP of 84 or higher — enough for every drafter to select their three starters and a few to grab a receiver for the flex.
This is not surprising. While drafters went overboard in recent years treating the flex as though it were a fourth wide receiver slot, you still cannot start more than three running backs in your lineup and need to start at a minimum three receivers. For that reason, Hayden Winks included “drafting three receivers through six rounds” as a structural decision that has been +EV in every year of best ball mania in an article published last off-season.
The notion that drafters need to build out sufficient wide receiver fire power before the close of the “wide receiver window” has merit. In the article below from last year, I charted where every late-season spike week has come from at the receiver and running back positions from 2022 through 2024. The vast majority of these spike weeks at the wide receiver position come from the first 50 wide receivers drafted, and a disproportionate amount of late round upside comes from rookies.
