Adam Schefter has put out his personal draft board for 2026 fantasy drafts, splitting targets into early, middle and late rounds and giving managers a clean map of where value may sit. The piece is built around average draft position, or ADP, and it leans on 10-team league ranges to sort players by when they are likely to come off the board.
That is why the column is already the kind of thing fantasy players search for now. Schefter’s list is not just a name dump; it is a round-by-round guide that helps owners decide whether to spend early or wait, and it comes from his own experience in a 12-team league and a 16-team league. In a season where draft prep starts long before the first pick, that is the practical edge readers want.
defines the opening tier as Rounds 1-4, the middle as Rounds 5-11 and the later pool as Rounds 12 or higher, and the list follows that structure. The early-round group is notable for what is missing as much as for what is there: there are no quarterbacks in that tier, even though the column also says there is nothing wrong with taking Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson early. That is the kind of contradiction fantasy managers notice immediately, because it tells them the quarterback pool is deep enough to push elite names down without removing the appeal of paying up for a star.
The numbers give the advice its weight. Jahmyr Gibbs sits at an ADP of 1.4, Bijan Robinson at 2.5 and Chase Brown at 21.9, which places them in the range where a manager has to decide whether to chase a clear top option or wait for value. At quarterback, Bo Nix is at 86.3, Caleb Williams at 92.2 and Justin Herbert at 106.0, while Tyler Shough, Jordan Love and Daniel Jones are all slotted later at 155.4, 158.0 and 158.2. That spread is the point of the guide: the same position can be attacked in very different ways depending on when a manager wants to spend capital.
Last season’s names show how Schefter uses the format. Jaxon Smith-Njigba was one of the recommended middle-round values, and Drake Maye, Trevor Lawrence, Emeka Egbuka and Quinshon Judkins were among the later-round values. This season’s list keeps that same logic, treating ADP as a moving target rather than a fixed price. Managers who understand that gap between current cost and possible return will be the ones who use the column best when their 2026 fantasy drafts open.
What Schefter leaves readers with is not a prediction that every player will beat ADP, but a framework for choosing where to take the shot. If the early rounds are reserved for the safest bets and the later rounds are where the discounts live, the real task now is simple: match those ranges to your roster plan before the draft clock starts.
