Fantasy Football 2026 Has Officially Begun With My First Draft of the Season!

The draft today was a little earlier than usual with 10 days before the first game, and moves still being made such as Aaron Donald coming out of retirement to join the stacked Rams team that looks to be very dominant this season. We were hoping to do a ‘live draft’ but that ended up being a bit too challenging to pull off on short notice for some out-of-towners. After some settling in on adding a SuperFlex position this year, and changing the Waiver Wire Priority order, we entered the preselected draft order manually and plowed forward about 15 minutes after our previously scheduled start time. With a new Commissioner this year with support from his family, everything was figured out and we were ready to go!

I have had about 30 Fantasy Football teams the last 10 years, so I am no newbie to how the draft works, but I have never played with a SuperFlex Position, so some research needed to be done. After talking to my son, and doing a little reading and looking at last years results, it seemed the prudent strategy would be to draft two Quarterbacks in the first four rounds. That way you can still get a team WR1, RB1, and two QB1s. After that, fill in the holes trying to get any team number 1 starters remaining for wide receiver and running back. Tight ends have produced so few points the last couple of years, that it just seemed prudent to wait until the later rounds and draft a couple hoping one might turn out alright or go to the waiver wires once some active tight ends might become available.

With Pick #6, I was going to draft Puku Nacua first, but he was taken the pick right before me, so I ended up taking the ‘risky player’ Christian McCaffrey who happened to have the top points (Yes, as in number one!) last year. I decided to take the damn Patriots QB next – Drake Maye. I hate the patriots, but this is Fantasy Football so we do what we have to. Pick #3 went to Drake London, who I know very little about, though he seemed to be Ranked 8th last season, an just happens to play for one of the worst offensive teams, which I was trying to avoid. At that point there wasn’t much available, after that went Davante Adams, Rashee Rice, Tetairoa McMillan (who???) and Ladd McConkey. Time will tell on that pick.

For my Pick #4 I wanted to get my second quarterback in four rounds, so I took Matthew Stafford who was ranked lower but will be playing for the dominant Rams this season, so I went with the power-team for Matthew Stafford to rake in the points with. The rest of my picks in order of rounds were: Ashton Jeanty, Tee Higgins, Jared Goff, Jameson Williams, Rhamondre Stevenson, Tucker Kraft, Stefon Diggs, Seahawks, Steelers, Mark Andrews, Lions (why not 3 defenses!!!), Maskai Lemon (who???) and Jake Bates, a kicker last of course because all are the same except the top 3 that people always draft way too early.