As we get ready for the 2026 fantasy football season, there’s no better way to prepare than doing mock drafts. And while live mock drafts will give us a great idea of how things might shake out, sometimes they’re hit or miss and can be time consuming. Fortunately, Yahoo is offering its Instant Mock Draft tool again this season, available with your Fantasy Plus subscription.
If you’re new to the instant mock tool, here are some of the benefits:
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Draft immediately: That means no lobbies and no dropouts.
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Drafts tailored to your league: No more guessing if a mock draft from a generic 12-team league with standard scoring matches your custom setup. Draft against our algorithm, which mimics your league opponents.
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Test strategy: Simulate and try out different draft strategies from your exact draft slot. Find out which approach builds the strongest roster, then nail your live draft with real-time, on-the-clock recommendations.
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In this series, I’ll be performing an instant mock draft out of each pick slot for 12-team leagues with default half-PPR scoring. Today, we’re picking a team from the No. 4 spot. Below is the full roster, plus key takeaways.
More Instant Mock Drafts
No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 | No. 4 | No. 5 | No. 6 | No. 7 | No. 8 | No. 9 | No. 10 | No. 11 | No. 12
Full Roster
QB: Lamar Jackson, BAL
RB: Jonathan Taylor, IND
RB: Omarion Hampton, LAC
WR: Rome Odunze, CHI
WR: Marvin Harrison Jr., ARI
TE: Dallas Goedert, PHI
FLEX: Kyren Williams, LAR
Kicker: Will Reichard, MIN
Defense: Chargers
Bench: Josh Downs, IND
Bench: Matthew Golden, GB
Bench: Aaron Jones Sr., MIN
Bench: Keaton Mitchell, LAC
Bench: Jalen McMillan, TB
Bench: Dalton Schultz, HOU
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Strategy
As you can see, we went with a Robust RB build for this team, a strategy being endorsed by multiple Yahoo analysts this season. This approach also helps me avoid the RB Dead Zone, which Chris Allen goes over in detail here.
I think when you get past the third pick (which is usually Ja’Marr Chase), that’s where you can go in a handful of directions. I’m partial to going RB in this slot (either JT or CMC) and went with the Colts’ lead back. Taylor feels like one of the safest picks you can make in the first round. Joel Smyth has Indy ranked fifth in his offensive line run blocking rankings for 2026. Daniel Jones should be running less coming off an Achilles tear and I think the volume for Taylor will be among the highest at RB again. With Taylor, I get a player we saw dominate in 2025 early on before the Jones injury, so if I can win with this team early, I don’t have to struggle to make the playoffs later in the season.
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After JT, Hampton fell to me in the second round (which I gladly took). The ceiling for Hampton, if healthy, could be Miami De’Von Achane. The Chargers’ OL is healthier now and should be better. This offense feels like it’s going to be a lot of fun and I want a piece of it, something colleague Scott Pianowski has convinced me of through his analysis for 2026.
Kyren was there in the third round to give me a strong three-headed dragon at RB. This build is also great for standard formats but especially strong in PPR leagues. All three RBs have pass-catching chops; Taylor had a career-high 46 catches last season, Williams has at least 32 catches in three straight seasons and we know how Mike McDaniel likes to target RBs in the pass game in his scheme. My weekly floor with that trio is extremely high.
Can Lamar Jackson Return to Form?
Outside of the TE position on my roster, this is the biggest risk/question mark. Can Jackson get back to putting up MVP-type numbers in 2026? My feeling is, sort of. Last season, he finished as the QB16 in FPPG in 13 games. In the prior two seasons, Jackson finished QB1 and QB3 overall.
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Even if Jackson doesn’t throw for 40 TDs and/or rush for over 800 yards, I think he can land somewhere in the median outcomes. The new offense has been met by enthusiasm from the two-time MVP. He’s healthy and has a few more weapons to work with; rookie Ja’Kobi Lane has been getting some hype in camp. While I’m a late-round QB advocate, the WR position is deep and I figured taking Jackson was more of a winning pick. And again, we’re working with a high weekly floor, which is only elevated if Lamar returns to top-five fantasy QB status. Because so many are adopting the wait-on-QB philosophy, you should be able to get Jackson at a discounted draft cost as well.
Mid-Round Wideouts
After Jaxon-Smith Njigba’s ascension to the top of the WR ranks last season, the idea of finding that player in 2026 drafts feels like an enticing chase. You start to see some of those potential names emerge once you hit the WR16 and on range. Jaylen Waddle, Emeka Egbuka, Ladd McConkey and Luther Burden III are trendy names in the WR streets. But I really like Rome Odunze to take that big Year 3 leap in Ben Johnson’s offense. Matt Harmon continues to preach and champion for Odunze, both in his Draft Blueprint and the latest roundtable going over WR breakout candidates for this season.
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I like to play “What if?” scenarios with certain players to make some fantasy decisions. If Odunze hadn’t dealt with the foot/heel injury last season, where does he finish in 2025? And what’s his outlook for 2026? Last season, through Week 10, Odunze was the WR10 in FPPG (12.3), after that he failed to have more than three catches in a game and missed Weeks 14-18. If we do some quick math, had Odunze kept up that average thru the fantasy championship round (Week 17), he would have finished the season with around 196 total fantasy points, good for the WR7 slot.
Baking in that finish and the fact Odunze is young and in a great offensive ecosystem, where would his ADP be right now? One could argue it would be among the top-25 picks, likely an early third-round pick. Instead, his ADP is around Pick 68, which is the WR29. I think he should be going higher and is a great mid-round WR target.
MHJ also sort of fits the same mold as Odunze, a third-year wideout who has had a rough go in the NFL so far after lofty expectations. The Cardinals offense should be better than we think, and even if it isn’t, we know the game scripts should favor heavy passing again. And again, if Harrison isn’t hurt last season, where are we drafting him? Likely higher.
Downs, Golden (whom I reached for a bit) and McMillan are three WRs popping up among our analyst’s favorite breakouts for 2026. Each has a clear path to being their respective team’s No. 1 passing option, more so for Downs.
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Final Thoughts
We got a little lost in the sauce there with some analysis. I wanted to grab some TE insurance for Goedert if he falls off a cliff at age 31 and Schultz is a sleeper at the position for Justin Boone. Plus, the Jayden Higgins injury clears more targets for Schultz. A quick note on kicker — don’t ignore the position! Hayden Winks has some analysis on the kicker position in his deep dive. Joel Smyth has Reichard as one of his top K targets this season.
I like the heavy-RB build because that’s the position you usually worry the most about during a fantasy season. I feel more confident finding some useful WRs off the waiver wire early in the season as well.
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