With the oil tanker-sized caveat that this is late April and a lot will change between now and Week 1, it’s time to ponder which NFL veterans might have had their fantasy prospects boosted by the NFL Draft and which vets are down bad post-draft.
The winners/losers framing may be harsh and oversimplified, but headlines need to be short and sweet and communicate clearly and those who want a little context about just how much a veteran might gain or lose thanks to various NFL Draft picks can click the dang thing and read through.
And so below you will find a slightly more granular look at how much veteran NFL players may have won or lost with their teams’ draft picks last week.
2026 NFL Draft Grades for all AFC Teams: Browns make strides, Jaguars get flunked
The Browns secured a haul of offensive talent in the 2026 NFL Draft, making them one of the big winners of the offseason. The Jaguars, on the other hand, couldn’t help but reach at every turn.
Shough sorta kinda cooked in the final month and a half of the 2025 regular season. From Week 10 to 18, only 12 quarterbacks had a higher drop back EPA than Shough, who was the league' s fourth-most accurate passer over that late-season stretch. He was 12th out of 34 qualifying QBs in adjusted yards per attempt. It was all very good and rather surprising for the frothing Shough skeptics among us (me).
Shough, as you probably know, targeted Chris Olave relentlessly during that hot stretch in November and December. Olave and Juwan Johnson were Shough’s only reliable targets after the Saints dealt Rashid Shaheed at the trade deadline. Now Shough has another downfield dominator in Jordyn Tyson, who the Saints drafted with the eighth pick in the 2026 draft.
Before his injury-marred 2025 season, Tyson — operating as ASU’s clear-cut WR1 — averaged 91.5 receiving yards per game and was among the nation’s most efficient receivers against zone and man coverage. He ended his college career with a 98th percentile target share and a 94th percentile dominator rating. Tyson in his final two collegiate seasons saw a target on an absurd 33 percent of his routes. He was an air yards eater, averaging 125 air yards per game over his final two collegiate seasons.
If Tyson can stay healthy and upright in 2026, Shough could have one of the best upside wideout duos in the game. Let Shough cook, as I have always said.
With the Titans taking Ohio State WR Carnell Tate with the fourth pick in the 2026 draft, Ward enters 2026 with an overhauled pass-catching group and a real offensive coordinator. The young man is reportedly working on his mechanics this offseason. It’s a good thing considering what a mess he was in 2025.
Though Tate lacks the profile of a typical top-10 wideout selection — the guy never even approached 1,000 receiving yards in a season at Ohio State — the spreadsheets seem to like him quite a bit. Tate was, in short, absurdly efficient in his final collegiate season.
Add Tate to Wan’Dale Robinson, a healthy Calvin Ridley, a fun gadget guy in Chimere Dike, and an interesting second-year tight end in Gunnar Helm, and Ward has something to work with in 2026. Let’s hope he can improve from his world-historic inaccuracy as a rookie.
I don’t have any special insight into which QB might be under center for Cleveland in 2026. Probably it will be two or three quarterbacks rotating and taking turns with injuries and struggles and everything else that happens with Browns signal callers. Maybe rookie QB Taylen Green — the most efficient rushing QB in modern college football history — will take over and the Browns will run the wishbone. Who knows.
Someone could (should) benefit from the team’s excellent 2026 draft though. Adding the KC Concepcion—- who I wrote about here — and Denzel Boston to an offense with Harold Fannin should be a big plus for any quarterback who can run Todd Monken’s fantasy-friendly offense even halfway well.
2026 NFL Draft Grades for all NFC Teams: Giants earn high marks, 49ers get an F
The Giants got blue chip players at discount prices, making them one of the biggest winners of the 2026 NFL Draft. The 49ers, on the other hand, repeatedly reached to get their guys.
Last Thursday night was a rough one for Allgeier. ESPN’s Adam Schefter said this week that Allgeier left the Falcons and signed with Arizona because he believed he would be the team’s lead back in 2026. Then the Cardinals went ahead and used the third pick in the draft on blue chip RB Jeremiyah Love. So it goes.
Allgeier is back in a familiar spot. He spent the past three years playing behind Bijan Robinson — who, unlike love, is a generational talent — and will continue in that role in 2026. Without injury issues for Love and James Conner, Allgeier has almost no path to a valuable fantasy role this season. The Big Boy Back could, however, be annoying for those who draft Love. If the Cards are ever in the red zone this season it could be Allgeier who functions as the primary back.
I talked extensively on a recent Rotoworld Football Show about Olave’s prospects with Jordyn Tyson on the Saints roster, if you’re into that sort of that.
It’s not that Olave’s 2026 outlook has been irreparrably damaged by the presence of Tyson, taken with the eighth pick in the draft. But Olave’s late-season fantasy outburst was fueled by an ocean of weekly air yards. No one, in fact, had more air yards than Olave in 2026. Over his final seven games Olave averaged a downright silly 136 air yards per game as Tyler Shough’s main (only) receiver option.