Chris Dell is the former sports editor and fantasy football/sportsbetting columnist at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as well as the lead fantasy and betting analyst for ESPN 97.5's Late Hits. He's worked as a sports writer and editor for The New York Times, New York Daily News and Yahoo Sports, among other publications, before moving into the fantasy/betting industry. In 2023, Chris won first place out of 235 analysts in the FantasyPros NFL Draft Accuracy rankings. He has since registered multiple top-5 finishes in their 2024 and 2025 in-season contests.
Below are my dynasty top 300 rankings and positional tiers, which will be continuously updated year-round. These dynasty rankings can be sorted by both 1-QB leagues and 2-QB/Superflex leagues.
Before diving into the rankings, however, it's important to add some context into my ranking/playing strategy for both drafting and managing your rosters in this unique format. Let's break that down first:
1. The most important season is usually always the upcoming season, contrary to public opinion, even though dynasty leagues never technically end. Therefore, it’s risky (and often negative-EV) to project multiple seasons ahead for rookies when doing dynasty rankings outside of those with extremely high-end draft capital. Projecting performance for the coming season is challenging, and you are only adding noise by trying to project two to three seasons ahead, let alone more.
2. Age and positional trends matter. We know QBs can play for 15+ seasons, while RBs may play less than five at a high level. This often places a premium on rostering elite young players at QB, WR and TE, while conversely using the RB position to take more swings on established veterans with solid workloads in offenses with upside. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t draft rookie RBs, but you will most often pay a premium in ADP for them.
3. Understanding contract uncertainty is a valuable asset. Contracts add to the difficulty of predicting a player's future fantasy points. Rookies and well-paid studs have an edge here, since their contract situations are the most secure. Understanding these contracts can give you a decent-sized edge in dynasty formats.
4. Dynasty — and any fantasy format, truly — is a game of probabilities. Tons of different numbers, historical trends and statistical models are used each season to be as accurate as possible when ranking every player. Every player, however, has a wide range of outcomes, no matter how safe or ‘risky’ his profile appears on paper. We need to always remember no matter how strong a personal take we have — or the industry has, for that matter — we are still rooted in this game of probabilities.
5. Always consider the strength of your current roster in relation to rankings and ADP data before your drafts. Current-year points will be more valuable to win-now teams, while teams better positioned for the future would prefer younger, less proven assets. This goes for trades, too.
6. Don't underestimate the waiver wire as a function of trading to improve your roster, either. Oftentimes, bidding for the trendiest waiver pickup of the week can pay off in spades if you're willing to turn around and sell high on that player.
7. Conversely, hoarding draft picks can be overrated because our ability to nail each pick/each round is often inflated. Actually, depending on the date of your draft and corresponding training camp buzz/depth chart news, it can sometimes be wise to trade away picks for proven dynasty assets and subsequently utilize the waiver wire early in the season to act as a de facto late-round rookie drafting pool — when others will be stuck on their actual rookie draft priors and less willing to budge. These are just some ways to think both in a contrarian manner while weighing both short-term and long-term benefits for your roster.
8. Dynasty rankings can often be a bit biased towards age, primarily because your league-mates will be too, and that’s OK. It is far easier to acquire productive veterans than semi-productive rookies or second-year players. We want to read the room while both trying to win now and build for future seasons. Understanding the ADP of your given league and the opinions of your opponents on certain players can play an even bigger factor in dynasty vs. re-draft fantasy leagues, too.
9. Team, scheme and situation can sometimes matter the most — even more than season-long projections and prospect upside. We will value/de-value the roles of specific players more than others for particular head coach and offensive coordinator hires.
10. It remains essential to emphasize non-RB premium players. As stated previously, RB shelf lives can be fickle, and it's not always a guarantee that young RBs will hold onto their new starting jobs longer than veterans anyway. The "28-year-old RB" aging trend isn't always one to back away from, either. It's typically best to build your dynasty teams around elite WR/TE/QB prospects and players, and in turn, trade for established RB talent, whether younger or older, depending on the goals of your specific team in a given season.
Editor’s note: These rankings are full PPR and do not currently reflect the 2026 NFL draft pool and future draft picks. They will be updated with the upcoming rookie class following the 2026 NFL draft.
ICYMI: Each week during the 2026 season, I will be publishing each of the following for fantasy/betting:
- Mondays: Waiver wire rankings
- Mondays: Dynasty ranking updates
- Tuesdays: Waiver strategy 1-on-1's (premium fantasy subscribers only)
- Tuesdays: Deep dive fantasy usage thread
- Wednesdays: Rest of season rankings/tiers
- Wednesdays: Weekly top 150 rankings
- Thursdays: Trade strategy 1-on-1's (premium fantasy subscribers only)
- Thursdays: FantasyPros Q&A (6 p.m. EST)
- Fridays: Fantasy football weekly start/sit rankings podcast
- Fridays: NFL player prop strategy podcast
- Saturdays: Fantasy football sleepers/stashes podcast
- Saturdays: NFL best bet player props (premium betting subscribers only)
- Sundays: FantasyPros Q&A (9 a.m. EST)
Please Note: "ECR" stands for Expert Consensus Rankings, which is the average of all analyst rankings throughout the fantasy football industry, according to FantasyPros. The "VS. ECR" category on the right will show you how different Chris' rankings are from the industry consensus depending on the scoring format.
Chris Dell's fantasy concierge premium package is now available for the 2026 NFL season
Chris Dell's fantasy premium package gives you exclusive access to early releases for his weekly top 150 rankings, rest of season ranks/trade tiers and waiver wire ranks. You also get 24-7 access for personal advice on start/sit and roster moves, plus 100% guarantee to have ALL your questions answered the entire season.