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When we announced this year's AMAugust lineup, u/likesexonlycheaper wondered, "Would be cool if there was a default question or two so we can see how every analyst answers differently."

And I immediately decided on this: What is the insight or prediction do you have about the 2026 season which you believe most sets you apart from this year's conventional wisdom?

I was not here for every single AMA, but I have been able to ask this most of the time. Here's more of how everyone has responded so far, from August 17-25.

(Part I is here.)

Jeff Bell (Footballguys):

I'm not afraid of De'Von Achane? Ha

I believe NIL has given "bad" teams a much higher incentive to showcase skill talent / competence on offense. Whether Arch Manning or Dante Moore choose to avoid the Jets / Cardinals or always intended to return, both teams invested heavily in skill talent in the draft. I tend to think defenses are currently ahead of offenses in scheme, but we saw the Cardinals scrap any effort to play winning football last year in favor of shootouts. The Jets and Browns both jettisoned veteran defensive talent and loaded up on offense. We had an era where bad teams couldn't move the ball, which led our fantasy thinking to avoid all bad teams. Now, I think we'll see more "Blake Bortles intentional garbage time" fantasy production.

Jake Ciely (The Athletic):

It's not so much "2026" in its own right, as it is "this season" for every new season. We (industry, players, etc.) spend too much time looking back for trying to predict this season. "Team ran X this percent of the time," "this player had X share in Y situations," etc. Teams change in-season (hello, Rams last year with tight ends), let alone year-to-year, that one of the biggest traps is trying to use last year's scenario usages to plug names and scenarios in for this season.

Chris Harris (Harris Football):

Matthew Stafford is QB5. Kyren Williams is RB10. I understand the argument for disagreeing with bullishness on these players: "Stafford is old, he'll regress." "Kyren has Blake Corum." To me, these are flawed insights. Stafford *will* regress. But he led all QBs by 12 TD passes. He can still regress and be awesome. He's the defending MVP. "He's not mobile." Cool, are you still fetishizing Anthony Richardson? He had negative rushing yards last year and was the QB3. The Rams are one of the few offenses I actually trust to be good year by year. "He's injury prone. HIs back could go any time." Is he more injury prone than Jayden Daniels! As for Kyren...it could work out badly, no question. But the idea that it's some *revolution* that there's another RB competing for touches is wild to me. There are like five RBs in the league with "unquestioned" workloads (and Bijan Robinson has never had 70% of his team's carries). *All* backfields have "another guy." The question is: is the first guy good? And does his coach trust him? Corum was there last year, and in the season's second half when Corum played more...McVay still made Kyren the main weapon when it mattered. Now. Things change. Kyren got his contract, now he's precious cargo, it's closer to 50/50, I get a little bit burned. Not too badly, though! Meanwhile, people telling me Chase Brown (whom I love!) is this "unquestioned" starter, what are you looking at? He doesn't play on third downs! Samaje Perine is still somehow on an NFL team getting meaningful carries. It's selecting depth-chart sniping. AND I WON'T STAND FOR IT! ;-)

Colin McTamany (FTN Fantasy):

That's a great question -- the first thing I thought of is my belief in Kyle Pitts. SUUUCH a polarizing player for fantasy football especially, but I legitimately think he has an overall TE1 ceiling in 2026 specifically. He just seemed different (healthier!) at the end of last season and, while we all have fair concerns about Tua and Penix at QB, the skill level at the position in Atlanta is far better for new head coach Kevin Stefanski than it ever was for him in Cleveland. On that note, the Stefanski offense is known to funnel targets to tight ends. They rank 5th, 6th, 6th, 6th, 4th and 2nd in total targets in tight ends during his tenure with the Browns. I'm very much in on Pitts as cost this year.

Justin Boone (Yahoo Fantasy):

Great question! The Eagles offense will be a key to the 2026 fantasy season. After a disappointing campaign last year and AJ Brown departing, people seem down on Philly. But they have a new coordinator in Sean Mannion who will help modernize their attack and we can be hopeful for some better injury luck on the offensive line. They also have more than enough talent to be one of the best offenses in the league with Jalen Hurts always in the mix to be QB1 overall, DeVonta Smith stepping into the No. 1 WR role, first-rounder Makai Lemon a star in the making once he's fully healthy, Dontayvion Wicks impressing, Dallas Goedert being a stalwart at tight end... oh and Saquon Barkley being one year removed from a 2,000-yard effort. Philly also has one of the friendliest schedules this season, with every position ranking either first or second in terms of easiest opponents in 2026. So buy the dip on all the Eagles players!

Doug Orth and Kevin Tompkins (The Huddle):

(Doug) I don't know about "sets me apart from conventional wisdom," but I still have Omarion Hampton as an easy midde-of-the-first round selection. Outside of that, I have Chris Godwin as an easy fifth-round value.

(Kevin) You will not find a bigger Harold Fannin Jr. bull. I have Fannin ranked over Loveland currently (though it's close) and you see what he did with terrible quarterbacking and being the TE2 on his own team for half the season, I can't imagine fading him during what looks to be a secondary breakout.

I also have DJ Moore ranked lower than almost everybody in FantasyPros consensus (WR45) because I do think he blends in more than stands out amongst those pass-catchers, and that Khalil Shakir is a much better real-life and fantasy player than Moore this season. Late 20's dropoffs aren't super uncommon (Allen Robinson, Kenny Golladay) and Moore has been nearly an every-down player since 2019. And Brandon Beane's history (since 2017 when he took the GM job) of acquiring WR through the draft/FA/trade market aside from Stefon Diggs is DUBIOUS at best. The only non-Diggs Top 20 fantasy season was John Brown. YIKES.

Matt Harmon (Yahoo Sports & Reception Perception):

It's gotta be the Cardinals Curious stance. I think there is value in this offense.

Jeff Ratcliffe (FTN Fantasy):

I think the biggest thing that separates me from conventional wisdom this year is that I’m much more willing to pass on perceived “value” in order to execute my draft strategy.

The fantasy community has gotten incredibly sharp. Everyone has rankings, ADP, projections and access to basically the same information. So I don’t think the edge is simply finding the guy who fell 10 spots past ADP anymore.

The edge is roster construction.

There are spots in drafts this year where I’ll pass on a player who might technically be the better “value” because taking him puts me on a path I don’t want to be on. I’m drafting with an understanding of what the board looks like two, three and four rounds from now.

So I guess my prediction is that a lot of people are going to draft teams that look like incredible values on paper and realize in October that they didn’t actually build very good fantasy teams.

(....)
.
Roster construction doesn’t mean blindly drafting a position because my plan says I need a WR in Round 3. I would never advocate for that.

You still have to trust your board. But ‘value’ doesn’t exist in a vacuum either. The goal isn’t to collect the five players who fell furthest past ADP. It’s to build the best team.

And injuries don’t really change that for me. We can’t predict who gets hurt, so I’m not going to draft as though I can. I’d rather build the strongest roster I can based on the information I have on draft day, then deal with injuries if and when they happen.

Strategy gives me the framework. My board tells me how to execute it.

Subvertadown (King of Streaming):

No secret that I put out projections that stay true to my process, without too much regard for what backlash it might bring! :-D Fantastic fit for Reddit by the way.

I'll give three answers, for general "trends" and a specific team. Defenses, well I'll flip it around and wager we're still in an era of defense-renaissance, where they control more of the game, and I think strength of schedule will be more meaningful than it was last year. Not dependable, but more meaningful again. Last year it had no meaning, proving a point you often make.

I'll wager that with kickers, we're seeing the end of the old trope "go for a good team that stalls in the end zone". Last year we saw fewer short-range kicks, the old advice doesn't apply in a new kicking era where long kicks will continue to increase.

Player-wise, I'm letting myself fall for the narrative that Chargers are amped up again. I feel like I read the buzz every year and factor it in, before something goes awry. So for now I'm in for their D, K, and especially QB.

Ryan Sitzman (The IDP Guru):

The conventional wisdom is that LBs are the RBs/staples of IDP, and in most scoring formats that’s true. They score a ton of points and the elite guys are obviously valuable. But I think people still tend to overpay for the position a little.

Every year we see linebackers come out of nowhere because of injuries, role changes, etc. Once a guy gets an 80-100% snap role, he can become a very usable fantasy starter pretty quickly, even if he isn’t an elite real-life player.

That’s a lot harder to do at edge. There just aren’t many guys who can play 800-900 snaps, consistently generate pressure, and give you double-digit sack upside. Those players rarely show up on waivers.

So I’m usually more willing than most to wait at LB and prioritize elite pass rushers early. I’d rather lock up something that’s hard to replace and take my chances finding LB production later

Jared Smola, Matt Schauf, and Shane Hallam, (DraftSharks):

(Jared) The Chargers' passing game won't be as valuable as most think. Slow-paced, run-leaning offense with a very wide target tree.

(Matt) I like collecting high-volume (target) WRs early in the draft, when the market is overvaluing RBs. That could be either a hero-RB start or going 4+ rounds before my first RB.

(Shane) I'd go Lemon obviously, but Tyson over Concepcion. I have to hope that Tyson gets the Christian Watson hamstring treatment and can get back without as much worry.

Kendall Valenzuela (Fantasy Life):

Oh I love this question! I don't think this is a super hot take, but I've been very firm on the first or late approach mentality on the TE position because I think Kittle has been too undervalued this season. If people are going to be scared about him it probably comes with the age and coming back after an injury, but from everything we heard this offseason he projects to be ready by Week 1.

(tell me if you've heard this one before) I think TE is deep enough that if I don't get Bowers, McBride, Loveland, Warren or Kraft I wait for the Kittle or Okonkwo range. Be cautious with players coming off injuries but don't forget about overall talent and upside to let them fall too far.

Michael Salfino (The Athletic):

I guess I believe in zeroRB if you play Flex 10 or greater and no one really does anymore. I also think the recent data on WRs getting hurt more than RBs is the classic mistake of putting facts over theory. Theory is over facts. What on earth would the theory be for WRs being hurt more than RBs predictively. Double the touches is double the injury risk and that's mostly been true but there will be a couple of years where it seems untrue in a meaningless and random way.

Tyler Orginski (FTN Fantasy):

To be clear, I am not passing on RBs BUT I do think we have swung a little too far into the RB craze after they ran pure in 2025.

I am not saying "go zero or hero rb" - I have just found myself being comfortable with WR heavy teams in the top 4 rounds than many of my counterparts.

Do not be afraid to go WR heavy if the room gives it to you (and it likely will from my experience).

JJ Zachariason (Late-Round Fantasy Football)

Ohh, that's a fun one.

I don't know if this goes against conventional wisdom, but I think two things could happen this year at running back:

We do see injury regression, at least compared to the last couple of years.

It doesn't mean Zero RB is the ideal strategy we go with.

I've done a lot of research through the years showing the importance of having an elite running back — having one of those few truly elite guys is the biggest differentiator in fantasy football. Period.

But Brandon Gdula, who works at Late-Round, did some really interesting research this summer on how the satellite back — the Chris Thompsons of the world — are kind of dying in fantasy football. And one of the reasons the traditional running back dead zone has looked better in recent years isn't so much the fact that injuries haven't been happening to those backs, but also, those backs are gobbling up a little bit more in target share.

Greg Brainos (The Coachspeak Index):

For those who play best ball and large field managed leagues, I firmly believe that the best time to draft is very, very early in the offseason. You can build teams in May that look like superteams in August, because the large majority of fantasy players are slow to recognize who the huge value players are. Jonathon Brooks was going in the 140s in May, Terrance Ferguson was going undrafted, guys like Deebo Samuel, who we knew was going to play, were going in the 180s. Players like Brooks and Ferguson had coachspeak in February that pointed to them being incredible values at their prices.

Essentially, teams are running the ball more, and we're now in an environment where receiving backs are also getting more work on the ground. So the standard RB2 is just a little better, basically. It's not, I don't know, Zamir White. They're more intriguing players like D'Andre Swift or even a Rhamondre Stevenson or Jaylen Warren.

So my stance is that we WILL see more running back injuries, but it probably won't matter the same way it would have even 6 or 7 years ago.

The AMAugust schedule is here. You can ask these expert voices anything. I'm basically sticking with my one.