ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through the Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. This is the last question of the season. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: What is your preliminary Top 10 for the 2026 season?

SAM HENDRICKS

1. Jahmyr Gibbs - I am banking on no David Montgomery so a 5 FP bump per game.
2. Bijan Robinson - otherwise I would have made Robinson first pick simply for reliability.
3. Puka Nacua -I fell in love with him during playoffs.
4. Jaxon Smith-Njigba - A league mate drafted him in our local keeper league that I am the commissioner of and man do I hate hearing him brag about him year after year.
5. Ja Marr Chase - Rebound star in my mind from poor QB play in 2025.
6. Cee Dee Lamb - Another rebound player but from his own injuries.
7. Christian McCaffrey - He is injury-prone but the RB1 when healthy as seen in 2025.
8. Drake London - A lot will depend on who his QB is in 2026.
9. Jonathan Taylor - Until he has a poor season not due to injury he is top 10.
10. James Cook - He is young and energetic and he gets TDs. Honorable Mention: Amon-Ra St Brown, De'Von Achane

Hendricks is the author of Fantasy Football Guidebook, Fantasy Football Tips and Fantasy Football Basics, all available at ExtraPointPress.com, at all major bookstores, and at Amazon and BN.com. He is a 30-year fantasy football veteran who participated in the National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) and finished 7th and 16th overall in the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC). He won the Fantasy Index Open in 2013 and 2018.

MICHAEL NAZAREK

1. Bijan Robinson - Why Bijan over CMC? Simply put, Robinson does not have the injury risk of CMC, and CMC turns 30 in June. Meanwhile, Robinson just turned 24 in January!
2. Jahmyr Gibbs - Despite the presence of David Montgomery, Gibbs still produced nearly 1900 total yards with 18 scores in 2025. There is talk that Monty will move on in 2026, so that makes Gibbs an easy pick for the top half of the first round in fantasy drafts this year.
3. Puka Nacua - Nacua led the league in PPR fantasy at WR in 2025 even though he missed one game and most of another. He turned it up in the final five games of the season, scoring more than 150 fantasy points! As long as Matthew Stafford returns (and he announced he will play), Nacua is a lock as an elite WR.
4. Ja'Marr Chase - In case you forgot, Chase was WR1 overall in 2024 with 403 PPR fantasy points compared to 377 for Nacua in 2025. As such, I like Chase as my WR2 for 2026 simply due to the fact that WR Tee Higgins remains a big part of the team and QB Joe Burrow's injury history can't be ignored.
5. Christian McCaffrey - If you said you knew CMC would stay healthy for all of 2025 and dominate, I'd say you were a liar, but he did exactly that. And despite the fact that he is turning 30 in June doesn't mean he's no longer an elite fantasy producer, just ask Derrick Henry.
6. Jaxon Smith-Njigba - JSN nearly came from almost nowhere to become an elite WR for fantasy in 2025, finishing a hair behind Nacua for the top spot. While his season will be tough to beat or repeat, JSN should still be a top 3 WR for PPR leagues in 2026, and a well-deserved top 10 pick this coming summer.
7. Amon-Ra St. Brown - He finished WR3 in both 2023 and 2024 and WR4 in 2025, showing no signs of slowing down. These facts keep him the "safe" pick in the middle first round in 2026!
8. De'Von Achane - Believe it or not, Achane finished RB5 in both 2024 and 2025 despite the fact that the Dolphins offense struggled for much of that period of time. Bottom Line: Achane gets his due and is actually one of the safer picks in the middle of the first round in 2026.
9. Jonathan Taylor - Until QB Daniel Jones was injured, Taylor shocked as the RB2 through 13 weeks of the 2025 season, eventually finishing as the RB4. Assuming Jones returns and stays healthy, Taylor should once again be a top 5 RB for fantasy in 2026.
10. CeeDee Lamb - Lamb finished as the WR1 overall in 2023, WR8 in 2024, but slipped to WR22 in 2025 after missing four games. That said, he is still an elite fantasy producer. If he stays healthy, he should rebound with QB Dak Prescott to 100+ catches for 1400+ yard and double-digit scores even if the team re-signed WR George Pickens.

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 30 years online! His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its website, www.ffmastermind.com. He has been playing fantasy football since 1988 and is a four-peat champion of the SI.com Experts Fantasy League, a nationally published writer in several fantasy magazines and a former columnist for SI.com. He's also won $40K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

JASON WOOD

1. Bijan Robinson, RB, ATL
2. Jahmyr Gibbs, RB, DET
3. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR, SEA
4. Christian McCaffrey, RB, SF
5. Ja'Marr Chase, WR, CIN
6. Ashton Jeanty, RB, LV
7. CeeDee Lamb, WR, DAL
8. Malik Nabers, WR, NYG
9. James Cook, RB, BUF
10. Saquon Barkley, RB, PHI

Wood is Senior Editor at Footballguys.com and has been with the company since its start in 2000. For more than 20 years, Footballguys has provided rankings, projections, and analysis to help fantasy managers dominate their leagues.

HOWARD BENDER

1. Bijan Robinson
2. Jahmyr Gibbs
3. Jaxon Smith-Njigba
4. Ja'Marr Chase
5. Omarion Hampton
6. Puka Nacua (assuming Stafford returns)
7. James Cook
8. Ashton Jeanty
9. De'Von Achane
10. Jonathan Taylor

Bender is a longtime veteran of the fantasy sports industry and the 2008 runner-up for People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. He serves as the Head of Content for FantasyAlarm.com, a weekly columnist for the New York Post and is the host of the award-winning Fantasy Alarm Show on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (M-F 6-8pm ET). You can find him on X, IG and Facebook as @rotobuzzguy and on TikTok as @therealrotobuzzguy.

IAN ALLAN

There are the two elite tight ends, but I don’t think they get into the conversation for top 10 overall. Both will be playing in re-worked offenses – new coaches, new quarterbacks. And with there being lots of good quarterbacks, I don’t see one that I would consider in the top 10 (other than in a Superflex format). So I think we’re looking at backs and wide receivers. Christian McCaffrey turns 30 in June, which scares me (I got stuck with him two years ago), but if we’re supposing PPR scoring, it would make sense to take a stab at him in the top 10, hoping he’d stay healthy. Other backs perhaps making the first round would be Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jonathan Taylor and Ashton Jeanty. But I would think mostly wide receivers in the first round of a PPR draft, with Ja’Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Amon-Ra St. Brown, CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Malik Nabers and Rashee Rice making my rough draft list. I believe Jefferson will bounce back. With Smith-Njigba and St. Brown, both will be working with new coordinators.

Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He is a member of the FSGA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.

TOM KESSENICH

1. Bijan Robinson
2. Jahmyr Gibbs
3. Christian McCaffrey
4. Puka Nacua
5. Ja'Marr Chase
6. Jonathan Taylor
7. James Cook
8. Jaxon Smith-Njigba
9. Amon-Ra St. Brown
10. De'Von Achane

Kessenich is the Director of High Stakes Contests for SportsHub Games. He runs the NFFC, NFBC and NFBKC and is a fantasy sports Hall of Fame inductee.

SCOTT SACHS

1. J. Chase
2. P. Nacua
3. J. Gibbs
4. J. Allen
5. J. Smith-Njigba
6. A. St. Brown
7. C. McCaffrey
8. B. Robinson
9. M. Nabers
10. J. Jacobs

With 2 perfect seasons and multiple league championships to his credit, Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, featuring LIVE Talk & Text Advice. He is a 3-time winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Auction League, as well as a previous winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll. Follow on X: https://x.com/ffbcoach

ANDY RICHARDSON

1. Bijan Robinson - New coaching staff and quarterback questions, but Robinson's rushing and receiving role make him look pretty safe for another huge year.
2. Puka Nacua - Might I go running back here, yes, but the reality is if you don't take a wide receiver, the top 10-12 will all be gone when you pick again.
3. Jaxon Smith-Njigba - I'm sold. What a season, and no reason to think he won't be the same next year.
4. Ja'Marr Chase - Strictly on talent, he's probably still the best in the league. A little more competition for targets than others, and his quarterback keeps running into injury issues.
5. Jahmyr Gibbs - Will probably at least consider him over the wide receivers above him, but am ultimately slotting him here.
6. Jonathan Taylor - He sure was good last year before they lost their quarterback. Seems like the right spot to pick him.
7. Christian McCaffrey - Ugh. I suspect I'll be hoping someone else takes him. But old, inefficient and an injury risk though he may be, at some point you can't pass up a guy capable of putting up top-15 rushing AND receiving numbers each week.
8. CeeDee Lamb - If he can stay healthy and especially if George Pickens is gone, this seems about right. But ...
9. Amon-Ra St. Brown - I will also consider Detroit's No. 1 here.
10. Trey McBride - DeVon Achane and maybe a healthy and fully practicing Malik Nabers will earn consideration here, but a TE that seems to be head and shoulders above the rest of the field at the position also looks pretty appealing.

Richardson has been a contributing writer and editor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and www.fantasyindex.com since 2002. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections and various site features, and he has run the magazine's annual experts draft and auction leagues since their inception. He writes a weekly gambling newsletter, Index Bets, during the NFL season and also previews all the games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays.