Douglas' Top 25 Rookies for 2026
Rookies win leagues — not because they're better than the veterans, but because they're cheaper. Nobody pays full price for a player without a college stat line, which means the entire rookie class is a value play if you know where to look. Here are the twenty-five first-year players I'd target in 2026 drafts, ranked by projected fantasy impact rather than recruiting stars.
A quick note on method: I weight depth-chart opportunity over pedigree. A three-star walking into an empty backfield beats a five-star sitting behind an All-American. My weekly positional boards live on the Player Rankings page; this list is a one-off for draft prep.
Top 25 rookies
- Colbie Young, WR, Georgia
- Dominic Overby, WR, Iowa State
- Creed Whittemore, WR, Utah
- Sage Ennis, TE, Virginia
- Dominic Deluca, TE, Wake Forest
- Omar Mabson Ii, RB, Auburn
- Kolin Wilson, RB, Mississippi State
- Eric McAlister, WR, TCU
- Tyson Turner, WR, Texas Tech
- Luke Moga, QB, Oregon
- Tuna Altahir, RB, Stanford
- Davon Booth, RB, Mississippi State
- AJ Maddox, QB, Ole Miss
- De'Zhaun Stribling, WR, Ole Miss
- Micah Ford, RB, Stanford
- Jaiven Plummer, WR, California
- Izaac Dickey, RB, Nebraska
- Dezmen Roebuck, WR, Washington
- Davi Belfort, QB, UCF
- Daylon Gordon, RB, Georgia Tech
- Chase Gillespie, RB, Vanderbilt
- Ka'Morreun Pimpton, TE, TCU
- Ty Hawkins, QB, SMU
- Tramell Jones Jr., QB, Florida
- Makai Lemon, WR, USC
How to draft them
Don't reach. Rookies belong in the last third of your draft, where their upside costs nothing. The exception is anyone in my top five — those players have starter-level roles locked up by August and can be drafted on volume alone.