Should You Draft Chase Brown As A Top-15 Fantasy Football Pick In 2026?
Fantasy

Should You Draft Chase Brown As A Top-15 Fantasy Football Pick In 2026?

Ian Hartitz breaks down whether or not Chase Brown is a viable value in the early rounds of 2026 fantasy drafts.

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Chase Brown continues to be one of the more underappreciated assets in all of fantasy football, and Ian Hartitz dives into how to take advantage of that fact as part of his 2026 Cincinnati Bengals fantasy football team preview.

CIN_bengals-logo.svgIs Chase Brown worthy of a top-15 overall fantasy pick?

The fantasy football world always seems to come up with new, fun, interesting ways of presenting data in our never-ending quest to better predict the future of a sport that uses a ball that isn't even round. And yet, fantasy analysis on running backs in particular still seems to more or less come down to the following four factors:

  • Talent: Is the RB, you know, good at football?
  • Offensive environment: Is the QB good? Is the offensive line good? Are there ample fantasy-friendly red-zone opportunities?
  • Workload: Is the team willing to feed this running back north of 300 opportunities throughout the course of a 17-game season?
  • Age/injury: Are there any red flags in terms of age or a concerning injury that the RB is returning from?

And guess what: Bengals RB Chase Brown checks each of these boxes with *enough* flying colors to believe that he is firmly capable of (again) working as a league-winning asset in fantasy football land.

Talent

Brown's standing as a former fifth-round pick doesn't exactly make him a "generational" prospect, but we're also looking at a guy who has managed to average 4.3 yards per carry in three career seasons behind a Cincy offensive line that has ranked as PFF's 26th-, 30th- and 28th-ranked unit, respectively, since 2023. Throw in 137 career catches and blistering straight-line speed—Brown's top ballcarrier time of his career of 22.05 miles per hour makes him the NFL's third-fastest RB since 2023 per Next-Gen Stats—and at a minimum, we have a certifiably good professional running back here.

Offensive environment

Yes, the Bengals' aforementioned lackluster offensive line shouldn't be considered a strength by any stretch of the imagination. Also, yes, the presence of near-consensus top-five QB Joe Burrow has still helped this offense rank seventh, seventh and sixth in points per game during the three seasons that he's been healthy enough to start more than 10 games. You don't need all 10 of your fingers to count the number of offensive environments we'd rather have a workhorse RB operate from.

Workload

Brown has racked up 283 and 301 touches during the last two seasons. While the Bengals have been willing to shed some carries to guys like Zack Moss and Samaje Perine, Brown has consistently been THE running back, y'all, posting ELITE snap rates of at least 80% on 11 separate occasions since 2024. The associated high-end pass-game role (fourth most targets among RBs last season) helped Brown post the position's sixth-best overall Utilization Score in 2025.

Age/Injury

As the great Cal Naughton Jr. once said: The best ability is availability. Credit to Brown for playing in 33 of a possible 34 games during the last two seasons, as the 5-foot-10, 210-pounder hasn't dealt with anything too serious since a rookie-year hamstring injury landed him on injured reserve. Throw in the fact that Brown just turned 26 in March—firmly in the 22-27 prime range that has featured 84% of the position's top-performing fantasy options over the last decade.

Also note: Samaje Perine might be old (31 in September), but college football's all-time single-game rushing leader looks a lot like the next man up should Chase Brown be forced out of action. Maybe he wouldn't completely take over the backfield, but the Bengals were certainly more willing to feed him the ball as a rusher (84 vs. 16 carries) and receiver (21 targets vs. 2) compared to Tahj Brooks. There are worse last-round fantasy picks out there.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Chase Brown
    ChaseBrown
    RBCINCIN
    PPG
    14.2
    Proj
    223.7

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