Matthew Berry's 100 Facts For The 2026 Fantasy Football Season

It’s the moment.

You’re in the draft room. You’re up, and you need a quarterback.

Two are available.

Which one do you choose?

“Quarterback A” is just an absolute stud. Averaging more than 290 total yards per game last year, he was a fantasy superstar with nine top-12 finishes. A multi-threat QB, “QB A” gets you points with his arm (over 4,000 yards passing each of his last three healthy seasons) and with his legs (21 rushing touchdowns in the last four years alone). And this isn’t some “Bad real-life QB, but good for fantasy gadget guy.” No, QB A grades out as a top-10 QB in the NFL per PFF grade, is a Pro Bowler, multi-time “Player of the Week” winner and an NFL Top 100 player over multiple years. Averaging 2.5 touchdowns for every 0.2 interceptions per game last year, he’s coming off his best season ever with a group of pass catchers that are among the best in the NFL. Young, aggressive, dual-threat QB who continues to ascend and has three top-12 fantasy QB finishes in his last three healthy years? Yeah, I’m in on QB A this year.

Meanwhile, “Quarterback B” has been labeled a bust since he came into the NFL, and I’m not sure he’ll ever figure it out. Just 32nd (out of 42 qualifying QBs) in completion percentage, he just looks lost back there. He was sacked a career-high 41 times last season and had 22—count ’em—22 turnover-worthy plays. Even when he does something positive, he gets no help. His receiving corps led the NFL in drops last year. He’s been in the league for many years and has a career passer rating lower than Carson Wentz, Gardner Minshew and Mac Jones, among others. Yes, I’ll grant you, after multiple years of finishing as QB23 or worse, he was better last season, but come on. He was QB27 in 2024; there really was nowhere to go but up. If you want QB B on your team, knock yourself out. But he won’t be anywhere near mine.

So, which player do you want?

Understand that every single thing I just wrote about each player above is 100% true, heavily researched, verified and completely accurate. You’re in the draft room, the clock is ticking down and now you gotta make a pick in the next 10 seconds.

You’ve listened to podcasts, watched videos and read a ton, including around 500 stat-filled words from me on two different quarterbacks. You’ve been prepping for this day all summer. The choice should be easy, right? You know which QB you want, right? I’ve made it fairly obvious. Grab the clearly better QB and let’s start figuring out which one of our leaguemates we are gonna screw over by grabbing their starting RB’s backup, right?

Well, hang on for one more second. Before you click “draft”, there’s one other fact you should know.

“Quarterback A” is Trevor Lawrence.

Oh, and “Quarterback B”?

That’s also Trevor Lawrence.

Yeah.

You see, I can make stats say anything I want. Literally, anything I want. What’s the phrase?

There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies and statistics.

The reality is I can talk up or down any player I want. I just have to choose the right stats for the job.

Or use FantasyLife.com’s Utilization Report, which is the sickest research tool that breaks down just about every player and their utilization. Or you can ask my producer Damian Dabrowski or my friend Ryan Paganetti to research the right stat, which I did at various points in this column.

The point is, everything in this column is an accurate statistical statement that has been heavily researched and double-checked. They are heavily vetted, purposefully thought-out, 100% true, can’t-be-argued-with, black-and-white facts.

That only tells PART of the story.

The part of the story I want you to see. But ONLY that part. The part that supports whatever opinion I have on a player. Whatever opinion I want to try and convince you of.

As I often do with this column every year, I wanted to show how I can make the same player seem either great or awful, and I told the truth in each paragraph. For “QB A,” the hard part wasn’t talking up Lawrence, who finished last year on a heater, was the QB1 in fantasy over the last seven games, and finished as a top-five QB overall. The hard part was talking him up without giving him away. But I mentioned the rushing upside without talking about the fact that his 9 rushing touchdowns last year were a career high and unlikely to repeat; how I sidestepped his brutal 2023 by using injury as an excuse and used total numbers vs per-game numbers because, other than the injury-filled 2023, his counting stats look good because he plays all 17 games.

Meanwhile, when I want to talk him down, I use his injury-filled season as one of the two seasons he finished outside the top 20 and ignore the three years he finished top-12 for his position. I mentioned a bunch of bad stats, like sacks and drops, without mentioning the volume of passing and dropbacks Lawrence had last year, and that none of it mattered down the stretch because he was legitimately a league winner last season.

And what I did with Trevor Lawrence, I can easily do for any player in the NFL. Because, you see, there is actually very little in this world I am good at. But one thing I am a world-class master at? Writing and manipulating stats to tell whatever story I want.

And I want to let you in on one more secret: I am not the only one.

Everyone does it. EVERYONE. Some are better at it than others, but everyone does it.

They do it in fantasy football analysis, they do it in office presentations, they do it in pop culture and while arguing at the bar. And spend five minutes on any social media searching for politics to see it go insanely over the top from both sides.

Everyone tells you the stats or side of the story that supports what THEY think. But they don’t tell you the whole story.

And this is probably the best advice I can give you about fantasy football research all season. It’s why this is usually the first column I write every year (went out of order with Draft Day Manifesto dropping a couple weeks ago. So, this year it’s the second big column, but whatever. I make the same points every year, reminding you of the same message, and making the same confession.

Because it’s crucial. There’s no more crucial piece of information.

As you start your research, you have to understand that NOTHING you read/watch/listen to from me this year (or anyone else) is black and white. It’s ALL shades of gray.

Opinions, really. Opinions presented as facts. As you go through this preseason (and frankly, life), you’ll have a zillion folks tell you why this player is awesome, and this other one is a bum, and why you can’t leave your draft without this guy, but you have to let others draft this other guy, and it’s all just opinions on players. They’ll throw facts, stats and snippets of game film to support their side. They’ll share a cherry-picked coach’s quote or the three best plays from training camp that support their opinion. And ONLY that opinion.

The challenge these days is NOT finding information; it’s trying to wade through it all to decide what to believe and what to ignore. We live in an era of information overload.

Take dumb ol’ me, for example. I’m doing a daily, hour-long show “Fantasy Football Happy Hour” every Monday through Friday. We are live at noon ET on YouTube every Monday through Friday, and it’s available wherever you get your podcasts. I’m doing weekly columns and rankings every week here on Fantasy Life, and once the season starts, I’ll be doing a Sunday morning show. I’m also going to be on all of our original programming for the Matthew Berry Fantasy Life FAST channel on LG TV, and I will be doing an exclusive video series every single week for our friends at Xfinity—who are also the generous presenting sponsors of my 100 facts for 2026.

Plus, weekly appearances on Fantasy Life radio on SiriusXM on the Fantasy Sports Radio channel. And, of course, I’m constantly posting on my social media handles, where I am @MatthewBerryTMR on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok and I’m @MatthewBerry1 on Snapchat.

I also, of course, contribute to the Fantasy Life Newsletter, which is a 100% free email from me and my team every single day with everything you need to know about fantasy football that day. You should sign up and check it out. Come on. It’s free. If you hate it, just unsubscribe.

And by the way, wait till you see our FantasyLife+ product.

We spent all off-season building a ridiculous set of tools that are ALL personalized specifically to your exact league settings. Every league is unique, so we believe your advice should be too.

And if that’s not enough, you can also subscribe to RotoPass.com, a bundle site that includes FantasyLife+ Tier 1 and access to many other great premium sites for one low price. It’s only the best value on the internet.

Blatant over-the-top sales plugs aside … the point is … all that information, tools, shows, rankings and articles are just me, right? Stupid amount. And I’m one of many. There are tons of other men and women just like me doing really strong work both at FantasyLife.com and elsewhere. Many other media companies, fantasy sports sites and shows where we are all talking and writing and arguing and tweeting and performing and blah blah blah. All of us trying to manipulate you into thinking how we do, starting with this column.

Frankly … It’s a LOT.

So, your job? Watch the games, do the research, figure out which analysts you trust and whose thinking aligns with yours. Question everyone and everything you hear, many times over; take it all in, and then make your own call.

Because honestly, that’s all any of us are really doing. Taking a small piece of a big picture and making a call.

Everything that follows is a 100% completely accurate fact. Some of them are about players, some of them are about tendencies and not a damn one of them tells the whole story.

These are 100 facts you need to know before you draft in 2026.

What you do with them is up to you.

100 Facts For The 2026 Fantasy Football Season From Matthew Berry

1. Since 2020, the top four QBs in fantasy points per game are Josh Allen (23.3), Patrick Mahomes (21.1), Lamar Jackson (21) and ... Kyler Murray (19.7).

2. Dating back to 2019, there are four quarterbacks with 15+ fantasy points per game in every single season … Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and … Kyler Murray.

3. Since Kevin O’Connell became the Head Coach of the Minnesota Vikings, the team leads the NFL in red-zone passing rate.

4. In three of KOC’s four seasons as head coach, the Vikings have ranked top 10 in overall fantasy QB points per game.

4A. Among KOC’s QBs during that tenure were Kirk Cousins, Josh Dobbs, Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall, Carson Wentz and, at the time, journeyman Sam Darnold.

5. In every season that he has played at least eight games, Kyler Murray has finished as a top-12 QB in PPG.

6. According to Fantasy Life’s terrific fantasy football ADP tool, Kyler Murray’s ADP this year is QB16.

6A. Quarterback is CRAZY deep this season.

7. Since the start of 2022, Jared Goff has thrown for 18,206 yards.

8. That’s the most passing yards by any quarterback in football.

9. In that same span, He’s thrown 130 touchdown passes.

10. That’s also the most in the NFL.

11. In each of the last four years, only one quarterback has finished as a top-10 fantasy QB in total points … Jared Goff.

11A. Jared Goff is currently going as QB17.

11B. Quarterback is CRAZY deep this season.

12. Starting in Week 6 last year, no quarterback had more goal-to-go rushing attempts than … Tyler Shough.

13. Tyler Shough didn’t start until Week 9.

14. Once he did take over as the starter (Weeks 9-18), Tyler Shough was sixth in passing yards per game.

15. He was the 12th-best QB in fantasy (PPG) over that time frame as well.

15A. Tyler Shough is currently being drafted as QB20.

15B. Seriously. Quarterback is CRAZY deep this year.

16. Over the last three seasons, no player has a higher yards per attempt than … Malik Willis.

17. Over the last two seasons, the leader in fantasy points per dropback is … Malik Willis.

18. In his six career starts, Malik Willis has averaged 44.8 rushing yards per game.

19. Since 2020, there have been 21 instances of a QB averaging 35+ rushing yards per game.

20. In 17 of them, the player finished as a top-10 QB in PPG that season.

20A. Malik Willis is currently being drafted as QB23.

20B. Dude. Do I need to say it?

21. Over the last two seasons, no player has more combined passing yards per game and rushing yards per game than … Brock Purdy.

22. Last year, Matthew Stafford led the NFL with a 7.7% Pass TD rate.

23. The last five players to lead the NFL had their TD% drop significantly the following season.

24. Aaron Rodgers dropped 2.1% and 2.2%, Patrick Mahomes dropped 1.8%, Brock Purdy dropped 2.6% and Lamar Jackson dropped 1.6%.

25. Only one non-QB has 13+ touchdowns in each of the last three seasons … Kyren Williams.

26. Only one running back has at least 1,500 rushing yards in each of the past two seasons … Derrick Henry.

27. In 34 games for Baltimore, Derrick Henry has 34 touchdowns.

28. Last year, no player had more goal-to-go rushing attempts than Derrick Henry.

29. Over the past two years, Lamar Jackson has only two total carries inside an opponent's five-yard line.

29A. I believe this is now the 379th straight year people say Derrick Henry is too old and is going to fall off.

30. Last year, in games that Joe Alt played, Omarion Hampton averaged 2.87 yards before contact.

31. In games in which Joe Alt did not play, Omarion Hampton averaged 1.89 yards before contact.

31A. Joe Alt is healthy.

32. Last year, the top three running backs in yards per route run, minimum of 150 routes, were Bijan Robinson, Christian McCaffrey and Jahmyr Gibbs.

33. Sixth on that list was Kenneth Walker.

33A. Not a stat, but an opportunity for a plug: on my Fantasy Football Happy Hour podcast, which is now on my own YouTube page, we had Dan Graziano on, and he was recently at Chiefs camp, where he spoke with Andy Reid, who told him the plan is very much to get Walker involved in the pass game.

34. Last year, 27% of TreVeyon Henderson’s rushing yards came on 2% of his carries.

35. Over his final nine games last year (including the playoffs), Rhamondre Stevenson averaged 17.1 FPPG and over 92 yards from scrimmage.

36. Last year, Stevenson was third among RBs in fantasy points per touch (minimum of 100 touches)

36A. TreVeyon Henderson is going 2.5 rounds ahead of Rhamondre Stevenson.

37. In each of the past three seasons, only nine running backs have produced at least 1,200 yards from scrimmage in EACH of the past three seasons.

38. Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, James Cook, Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Kyren Williams, Breece Hall and … D’Andre Swift.

38A. Oh, and Tony Pollard.

39. Back to Swift. In each of the last three seasons, D’Andre has at least 220 carries, 40 targets and 1,200 yards from scrimmage.

40. Since D’Andre Swift entered the NFL, he ranks fourth among all running backs in targets.

41. Fourth in receptions.

42. And fourth in receiving yards.

43. D’Andre Swift has increased his total fantasy points in each of the last three years, finishing last year as RB14.

44. He’s currently being drafted as RB23 in consensus ADP.

44A. What are we doing here, people?

45. Among running backs with 100+ carries last season, only one RB had a lower YAC/attempt than … Chuba Hubbard.

46. Among running backs with 100+ carries last season, only two running backs had a lower rate of runs gaining 10+ yards than Chuba Hubbard.

47. Among the 32 running backs with 100+ targets over the past three seasons, Hubbard ranks 30th in yards per target.

48. In consensus ADP, Jonathon Brooks goes two to three rounds after Hubbard.

49. Last season, the Houston Texans ranked eighth in RB rush attempts

50. But finished 27th in RB fantasy points.

51. Of the 42 players with 10 or more goal-to-go rushing attempts last year, only one RB had a worse TD conversion rate than … Woody Marks (8%).

52. In six of his seven career seasons, David Montgomery has ranked top 10 in goal-to-go rush attempts.

53. In each of his past five seasons with at least 220 touches, David Montgomery has had at least 1,100 yards from scrimmage.

53A. David Montgomery is currently going in the sixth round.

54. Last year, three running backs led their team in receptions: Christian McCaffrey, De'Von Achane and … Kenneth Gainwell.

55. Out of the 48 qualified RBs last year in yards after contact per rush, Kenneth Gainwell ranked 14th.

56. Bucky Irving ranked 48th.

57. Speaking of yards after contact per rush last year, the top six players were, in no particular order, Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Taylor, De’Von Achane, Rhamondre Stevenson and … Chris Rodriguez.

58. Last year, Drake Maye had the second-highest average depth of target.

59. Last year, Drake Maye was tied for the most touchdowns on passes that traveled at least 15 air yards.

60. Over the last four years, no one had more touchdown receptions on passes of 15 or more air yards than … A.J. Brown.

60A. Brown is currently going outside the first two rounds on both ESPN and Yahoo.

61. Speaking of Brown, since 2023, when he’s been off the field for the Eagles, DeVonta Smith has been targeted on 29% of his routes.

62. In 43 career games with at least a 25% target share, DeVonta Smith is averaging 17.3 ppg.

63. Smith has averaged 8.5 yards per target in every season of his career.

63A. I have Smith ranked about a round ahead of consensus in my fantasy football rankings.

64. That past March, the Indianapolis Colts traded Michael Pittman to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

65. For his career, with Michael Pittman off the field, Josh Downs has been targeted on over 25% of his routes.

66. In 22 career games with at least a 20% target share, Downs is averaging 13.7 PPG

67. Alec Pierce is currently on PUP and has not practiced since undergoing ankle surgery in March.

68. The current Colts WR depth chart behind Downs consists of Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Ashton Dulin, Anthony Gould and Laquon Treadwell.

69. Downs is currently going well outside the top 100 picks on both ESPN and Yahoo

70. Over the past three seasons, the San Francisco 49ers are third in the NFL in red-zone passing touchdowns.

71. Over the past three seasons, Mike Evans ranks second in end-zone targets per game.

72. Last year, Tetairoa McMillan led all rookie wide receivers in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.

73. And Tetairoa McMillan played more than 87% of Carolina’s offensive snaps and earned 122 targets.

74. But last year, Tetairoa McMillan finished as a top-12 WR in only two of his 17 games.

75. In each of the last two seasons, five different players have earned at least 140 targets: Ja’Marr Chase, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Justin Jefferson, Trey McBride and … Wan'Dale Robinson.

76. This year, Robinson is playing for the same play caller that gave him 140 targets each of the last two years and a team that paid him 17.5 million a year.

76A. He’s currently going outside the top 100.

77. From Week 8 through the playoffs last year, the top three wide receivers in yards per route run were Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and … Parker Washington.

78. In the 5 games Parker Washington played with Brian Thomas Jr. and Jakobi Meyers active last season, he averaged 15.4 PPG and 85.2 YPG.

79. In games where he ran at least 70% of the routes, Washington averaged a 24% target share.

80. Last year, Parker Washington had six games with 17+ PPR points.

81. That was more than all other Jacksonville wide receivers combined.

81A. On both ESPN and Yahoo, Washington is being drafted outside the top 80 picks.

81B. I have him ranked 64th overall.

82. As a rookie, Colston Loveland averaged 1.98 yards per route run.

83. Since 2011, the only rookie tight ends with a better yards-per-route-run season are Brock Bowers and Kyle Pitts.

84. Speaking of Pitts, in Week 15 against Tampa Bay, Kyle Pitts scored 45.6 fantasy points in PPR scoring.

85. That game accounted for 21% of his total fantasy points for the entry year.

86. If you remove that one game, Pitts would have finished as TE15.

87. Last year, Kyle Pitts earned just four end-zone targets.

88. That tied for 21st at the position.

89. Since entering the NFL, no qualified tight end has a higher YAC per target than Tucker Kraft.

90. Kraft also ranks second in yards per target.

91. Over the first eight weeks of last season, prior to the ACL tear, Tucker was the TE1 in fantasy PPG.

92. The only tight end that averages more fantasy points per target than Kraft is … George Kittle.

93. Last year, among tight ends who ran at least 200 routes, no one was targeted on more of his routes run than ... Harold Fannin.

94. Per ESPN, Harold Fannin’s 108 targets were the eighth-most by a rookie tight end.

95. Harold Fannin’s 21.4% team target share was the fourth-highest among NFL tight ends last season, behind only Trey McBride, Brock Bowers and Kyle Pitts.

96. And yet, on 108 targets last year, Harold Fannin was outside the top 15 among tight ends in aDOT, yards per target and yards per reception.

97. In three years with Todd Monken as his offensive coordinator, Mark Andrews never had more than 70 targets in a season.

98. Last season, the Cleveland Browns ranked 32nd in the NFL in WR target share and WR fantasy points.

99. This year, the Cleveland Browns drafted KC Concepcion in the first round.

100. And Denzel Boston in Round 2.

Players Mentioned in this Article

DerrickHenry
RBBAL
PPG
15.9
Proj
248.3
LamarJackson
QBBAL
PPG
16.3
Proj
332.8
KylerMurray
QBMIN
PPG
16.2
Proj
303.1
TylerShough
QBNO
PPG
14.5
Proj
273.1

Published Aug 13, 2026, 5:00 PM ETUpdated Aug 13, 2026, 6:21 PM ET

Matthew Berry's 100 Facts For The 2026 Fantasy Football Season

Join Our Newsletter

100 Facts For The 2026 Fantasy Football Season From Matthew Berry

Join Our Newsletter