Buffalo Bills Fantasy Football Team Preview For 2026

The Bills entered 2025 with their (now) usual expectations: Championship or bust. Unfortunately, Josh Allen and company joined 30 other professional football teams as losers, but that shouldn't distract from the fact that this was, and still is, a damn good squad of finely tuned athletic machines.

2026 Fantasy Football Preview For The Buffalo Bills

And yet, the Bills were not content to simply stay the course following their seventh consecutive season with double-digit wins. There were some BIG changes made to this team over the last six months:

Longtime HC Sean McDermott has been replaced by now-former Bills OC Joe Brady. Credit to McDermott for winning far more often than he lost in Buffalo—his 0.662 winning percentage is the 15th-best mark in NFL history—but the annual January nightmares were simply too much for the organization to continue to put up with.
The Bills decided the whole "everybody eats" mantra is cool, but so is having a legit No. 1 WR. Enter: Former Panthers and Bears WR DJ Moore, who enjoyed two solid 1,100+ yard seasons with Brady during their time in Carolina.
GM Brandon Beane used both of the team's top draft picks on the defensive side of the ball, adding Clemson EDGE TJ Parker and Ohio State CB Davison Igbinosun with picks 35 and 62.

What follows is a fantasy-focused team preview of the Buffalo Bills ahead of the 2026 season. Make sure to check out Fantasy Life's rankings hub for updated player ranks all year long.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

Is Josh Allen the greatest fantasy QB the game has ever seen?

QB1: Josh Allen (QB1)
QB2: Kyle Allen
QB3: Shane Buechele

You could say that. After all, Allen is the all-time QB1 in career fantasy points per game (22.1). He really hasn't missed ever since taking a big-time leap in 2020.

Josh Allen fantasy points per game:

2020: 24.8 (QB2)
2021: 23.7 (QB1)
2022: 24.7 (QB2)
2023: 23.1 (QB1)
2024: 22.3 (QB2)
2025: 21.5 (QB1)

However, the manner in which Allen has gone about racking up his fantasy points has changed in recent years. The man's average passing yards (4,385 vs. 3,700) and touchdowns (34.3 vs. 26.5) have drastically gone down in the 2024-2025 seasons relative to what we saw from 2020-2023. He's also been dancing closer to 30 rushing yards per game after flirting with 50 earlier in his career.

So how has Allen still managed to rack up all kinds of fantasy points? Easy: The Bills spam the tush push on the goal line as much as anyone outside of Philadelphia. And get this, they've actually posted a higher conversion rate of tush pushes (83.1% vs. 73.2%) than the Eagles over the last two seasons. The impact in fantasy land can't be overstated: Jalen Hurts (97.6) and Allen (73.2) are the only two quarterbacks with even 30 fantasy points from rushes at the 1-yard line in this span. It's a weapon in their fantasy toolbelt that simply isn't available to anyone else at their position.

When is the right spot to draft Allen?

Are we still underestimating James Cook's ceiling in fantasy land?

RB1: James Cook (RB4)
RB2: Ray Davis (RB69)
RB3: Ty Johnson (RB80)
RB4: Frank Gore Jr.

Maybe! Cook's career-best 2025 campaign featured him leading the league with 1,621 rushing yards, continuing to often look a lot like one of the best players on the field with the football in his hands.

James Cook rushing yards over expected per carry (Next-Gen Stats):

2023: +0.45 (10th)
2024: +0.82 (8th)
2025: +1.17 (2nd)

And yet, it was another season that saw the Bills not exactly go out of their way to feature him as a receiver. That only really happened in 2023 (44-445-4); more modest numbers in 2024 (32-258-2) and 2025 (33-291-2) have left Cook neck-and-neck in receiving fantasy points with guys like Javonte Williams and Kyren Williams.

Is Cook the pick at the end of the first round?

Is DJ Moore this year's George Pickens?

WR1: DJ Moore (WR26)
WR2: Khalil Shakir (WR54)
WR3: Josh Palmer
WR4: Keon Coleman
WR5: Mecole Hardman
WR6: Skyler Bell

Moore turned 29 in April and has flashed the ability to be a high-end pass catcher at the professional level, most notably when he turned 136 targets into a 96-1,364-8 receiving line working alongside Justin Fields in 2023. Throw in the reality that Moore was largely forced to deal with one mediocre QB after another during his initial five seasons in Carolina, and it's easy to be encouraged by his upside catching passes from Josh Allen.

Of course, there's a reason why Bears fans aren't exactly devastated to see DJM go. It's a “what have you done for me lately” world after all, and the last two seasons haven't exactly featured Moore put his best foot forward both from a real-life and fantasy perspective.

Will DJM party like it's 2023?

**Is this finally the year Dalton Kincaid really breaks out?**

TE1: Dalton Kincaid (TE9)
TE2: Dawson Knox
TE3: Jackson Hawes

Kincaid never surpassed a 55% snap rate at any point last season, but still managed to finish right around where he's being drafted, thanks to easily being the league's most efficient player at the position on a per-route basis. Hell, even including wide receivers, only Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua averaged more yards per route run than Kincaid last year!

GM Joe Brady already hinted back in March that more load management could be on the table ahead of next season. Still, Brady had good things to say about Kincaid more recently in May, a sentiment that was echoed by Kincaid himself, who noted this is "probably the best I've ever felt" entering 2026. Learned doctors believe there's reason for optimism here.

Health is all that's holding back Kincaid from being a top TE

Predictions for the 2026 Buffalo Bills

Win total prediction: The Bills have won 13, 11, 13, 11, 13, and most recently 12 games since Josh Allen decided to start being one of the best quarterbacks alive back in 2020. The loss of McDermott and some key defensive players like Joey Bosa and Taron Johnson could be a sign of regression on that side of the ball, but most key parties return from an offense that has been the most consistent high-scoring group in the league for the last half-decade. Give me OVER 10.5 wins as a sign of trust in No. 17 above all else.

Bold fantasy call: Dalton Kincaid leads the Bills in targets and returns top-5 fantasy production.

Last season predictions: Over 11.5 wins (hell yeah, brother), and Keon Coleman catches double-digit touchdowns and returns a top-24 finish in fantasy land (WHOOPS).