Fantasy Football Do Not Draft List: Tetairoa McMillan And More

It's tough to say you won’t draft a player no matter what.

Value plays a key role and at a certain point of a draft, anyone becomes a lot more intriguing. However, there are players that, going into a draft, I am not actively targeting. If they fall way past fantasy football ADP, sure, I’ll take a chance. 

But for the most part? I’m not drafting them.

Do Not Draft These Players in Fantasy Football 2026

Tetairoa McMillan | WR | Panthers

Look. I’ll admit it.

I’m scared.

Scared to be so unbelievably wrong about Tetairoa McMillan, an immensely talented young wideout who caught 70 passes for over 1,014 yards and 7 touchdowns as a rookie. Scared that he builds off his impressive rookie season and laughs in my face for this take. 

But I have to face my fears.

McMillan is an awesome player and is going to continue to have a very good NFL career. But from a fantasy football perspective, I just don’t envision myself drafting him on many teams. And honestly? It’s really not because of him. For starters, there are just so many other wideouts I like more in that range of the draft. Players I simply see with some more upside.

McMillan finished as WR16 overall and WR20 PPG. He finished as a top-12 wideout just twice all year long, while ranking outside the top-24 receivers in 12-of-17 weeks. Carolina’s pedestrian passing attack played a major role in McMillan’s limited ceiling. The Panthers aren’t going to air the ball out very much. Last year, Carolina ranked 27th in pass rate over expected (-4%), while its 66% pass rate when trailing by 4+ points ranked 22nd. And while he’d occasionally show flashes, Young failed to reach 200—not even 300—passing yards in 12-of-17 games. And among 37 qualified quarterbacks, Young’s metrics didn’t exactly wow anyone:

• 30th in EPA/play (-0.03)
• 33rd in YPA (6.3)
• 22nd in CMP% (63.6%)

Of course, McMillan will remain the alpha in this offense, and an uptick in slot usage is certainly a positive development ahead of Year 2. But it is also fair to wonder what the target share might look like with a fully healthy Jalen Coker, who made his season debut in Week 8. And following Carolina’s Week 14 bye, which included Carolina’s playoff game against the Rams, the usage was eyebrow-raising:

McMillan: 23% target share, 18% TPRR, 25% EZ targets

Coker: 22% target share, 19% TPRR, 32% EZ targets

TreVeyon Henderson | RB | Patriots

Let’s take a look at the TreVeyon Henderson offseason timeline, shall we? So far, the sophomore running back has continued to struggle with pass protection in Patriots training camp, keeping him behind Rhamondre Stevenson. And now he continues to work his way back from an ankle injury that has kept him from full practice participation.

Nope. Don’t like that.

After waiting his entire rookie season for Henderson to take over the New England backfield, it appears it is unlikely to happen in 2026, either. It’s a shame, too, because Henderson showed plenty of flashes last year, especially when he was the featured back. Henderson drew three starts with Stevenson sidelined. His averages were very strong:

15.7 carries

88 rushing yards

4.0 targets

3.3 receptions

22 receiving yards

19 touches

24.3 PPR PPG

Upon Stevenson’s return, Henderson’s involvement did increase from the first eight weeks of the season. During Weeks 1-8, Henderson logged just 32% of the snaps, handled 29% of the rush attempts and averaged 8.6 touches per game. But following his three-week dress rehearsal as the starter, Henderson climbed to a 45% snap share, 53% rush share and 14.8 touches per game. 

But during New England’s Super Bowl run, Stevenson re-emerged as the clear lead running back, logging 71% of the snaps and 61% of the rush attempts. Henderson averaged just 8.8 touches per game throughout the playoffs, while playing just 31% of the snaps during that stretch. Overall, in games Henderson and Stevenson were both active, the rookie averaged under 11 touches and just 8.4 PPR points per game.

The Patriots have so much trust in Stevenson, who isn't flashy, but simply gets the job done. And even after multiple fumbles last season, Henderson still couldn’t take over. While an exciting concept, it seems foolish to think it’ll happen this season. 

DK Metcalf | WR | Steelers

Last season, DK Metcalf’s competition for targets featured the following players:

Adam Thielen

Pat Freiermuth

Calvin Austin

Roman Wilson

Jonnu Smith

And yet, Metcalf could still muster only 6.6 targets per game and a 22% target share. And to make things worse, because the Steelers ran so much 13 personnel last year, Metcalf ran 59 routes where he was the only wide receiver on the field, the most among receivers. Yet, Metcalf averaged only 12.5 PPR PPG, ranking him outside the top-24 fantasy receivers. 

At this stage of their careers, I just don’t see Metcalf and Aaron Rodgers as a great duo. Rodgers, 43, wants to get the ball out his hands immediately to avoid taking any hits. This past season, a whopping 31.7% of Rodgers’ pass attempts were at or behind the line of scrimmage, the highest rate among qualified signal-callers. He also led the NFL in pass attempts within one to two seconds from the snap (193), making up a healthy 39% of his total pass attempts. Meanwhile, Rodgers ranked 23rd in football in pass attempts of 10-20 air yards, while Metcalf caught just 15-of-38 targets of 11-30 air yards.

New addition Michael Pittman Jr. projects to lead the Steelers in targets because he meshes better with what Rodgers wants to do. As his career has progressed, Rodgers has become a lot more reliant on quick-hitting slant routes and timing concepts. Over the last two seasons, no quarterback has targeted slant routes more than Rodgers (96). Pittman, meanwhile, was often used on such concepts, especially on RPO plays, during his time in Indianapolis. This past season, his 15 targets off slant routes were good for the eighth most in football.

Perhaps Mike McCarthy will add more pass volume in Pittsburgh to help Metcalf. But he’ll also add more 11 personnel, giving Metcalf much more target competition than he saw a season ago.