NFL Season Kickoff Brings Upcoming Fantasy Football Season and Draft Picks
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The 2026 NFL regular season gets underway in under three weeks with the kickoff game on Wednesday, Sept. 9. With Week 2 of the NFL preseason rolling, the time has come for Fantasy football owners to lock in on preparations for another big Fantasy football draft weekend. Veterans like Josh Allen, Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and Ja'Marr Chase all headline the 2026 Fantasy football rankings, and will likely be among the top players on most Fantasy football draft boards. The key to Fantasy success remains finding sleepers and rookies who outperform their Fantasy football ADP, and avoiding drafting players that end up being Fantasy football 2026 busts.
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Bleacher ReportThe start of the 2026 NFL preseason's second week is a great reminder that the busy drafting weekend on the fantasy football calender is fast approaching.
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The passing game is the crux of the Minnesota outcome. And, of course, we have no idea what to expect. I see some concerning signs for Justin Jefferson, in terms of the pairing with Kyler Murray. He's the one who I have the hardest time ever clicking in drafts. Everyone else in this offense feels like a value. But if we see Minnesota put points on the board, Jefferson will probably be a huge part of it. His target shares have never been higher than the last two seasons. We just need the overall passing production in Minnesota to be better for it to matter.
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Bleacher ReportPicks 9-12 3 of 3 Pick 9 Last season proved Justin Jefferson isn't immune to horrific quarterback play, but he's still a good value play here. Kyler Murray could stabilize the position, and if he does, Jefferson might be the WR1. You'll still want a second receiver among your first three picks to account for the volatility of Minnesota's passing game, but running back is probably your best Round 2 bet.
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How to find proven 2026 Fantasy football rankings SportsLine has ranked almost every Fantasy-relevant player at every position and you can see their entire 2026 Fantasy football positional rankings now. You can only see their top sleepers, breakouts and busts at every position at SportsLine.
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The same model has a proven track record providing Fantasy football tips, identifying A.J. Brown as a sleeper in 2020, nailing Jonathan Taylor's monstrous season in 2021, correctly predicting C.J. Stroud would take a step back in 2024 and calling Daniel Jones' breakout season in 2025. Additionally, it's called past Fantasy football sleepers like Derrick Henry in 2019, Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara in 2018, and Davante Adams in 2017. Anybody who banked on players like those made a run at their league title.
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The second week of the NFL preseason continues on Friday night with a three-game slate, and with Week 2 being the week when more teams play their starters, this could be a strong chance to take advantage of the latest DraftKings promo code, which gives new users $150 in bonus bets after making a first wager of $5 or more. Friday night features Steelers vs. Jets, Jaguars vs. Panthers and Packers vs. Broncos, and SportsLine expert Matt Severance has locked in his picks on the action. Friday also features a strong MLB slate, and the SportsLine Projection Model has found value in Yankees vs. Blue Jays, backing Toronto to cover as 1.5-run underdogs on the run line as part of Friday MLB best bets at DraftKings.
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Friday best bets at DraftKings Sportsbook Blue Jays (+1.5) vs. Yankees (-136) Steelers (+1.5) vs. Jets (-120) Packers (+6.5) vs. Broncos (-112)
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Combining the three picks into Friday at DraftKings would result in a payout of +519 (risk $100 to profit $519, odds subject to change). Claim $150 in bonus bets after your first $5 wager at DraftKings here:
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Want more NFL, MLB picks for Friday? You've seen some of the model's and SportsLine team of experts' Friday best bets. Now, get against the spread, total and money-line picks for all games, including the NFL, MLB, UFC, and more, all from the SportsLine Projection Model, which has simulated every game 10,000 times.
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Blue Jays (+1.5) vs. Yankees (-135) The Yankees are starting the AL Cy Young favorite in Cam Schlittler, but despite his 2.19 ERA and 0.94 WHIP, New York is 0-4 in his last four starts. One of those losses came against the Blue Jays on Saturday in a 4-1 final despite Schlittler allowing just one run over 5⅓ innings. Toronto has been playing some of its best baseball recently, going 7-3 in its last 10 games, all coming against the top three teams in the AL East. Toronto has also covered a +1.5 spread in nine of its last 10 games, including all three contests against the Yankees last weekend, leading the model to project the Blue Jays to cover in 60% of simulations. Back the Blue Jays by claiming the latest BetMGM bonus code CBSSPORTS here:
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Denver has the NFL's longest active preseason winning streak at eight in a row, but six points?" Back the Packers by claiming the latest BetMGM bonus code CBSSPORTS here:
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The first two rounds of your 2026 Fantasy Football drafts could produce multiple league-winning draft picks at the running back position and it appears this is more defined than we've seen in past years. This range of Fantasy Football drafts produces league-winners at a really high (relatively speaking) rate. And in 2026, this range of drafts is dominated by the RB position. What is one to do when on the clock and staring at a list of awesome running backs?! Let's sort through the early-round RB league-winning candidates.
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Penn State: Over 9.5 wins (+140) A schedule that misses Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon will ease Matt Campbell's transition from Iowa State to Penn State. The Nittany Lions' nonconference slate of Marshall, Temple and Buffalo is also light, and five of Penn State's nine league games are at home. Campbell's Iowa State-heavy transfer class is the No. 4-ranked haul in the country, and a nice sampling of talent from the James Franklin era is still around. Among them are a star left tackle in Anthony Donkoh, a veteran leader at linebacker in Tony Rojas and a proven starter at corner in Audavion Collins. All told, the conditions are optimized for the Nittany Lions to win 10 or 11 regular-season games and crack the CFP in Year 1 of the new regime.
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Fox SportsThe loss to Oregon was the first of six consecutive defeats. Penn State finished 6-6 and did not even play in a bowl game. After the disappointing season, the Nittany Lions hired head coach Matt Campbell away from Iowa State, and Campbell brought with him a number of his former players.
4 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 ESPN Preseason college football Power Rankings: Who's No. 1 in 2026? Can Indiana do it again? Will Texas break through? Is Notre Dame ready to rise up? Here's our preseason top 25.
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02 Bleacher Report If you haven't nailed down your draft strategy quite yet, time is absolutely of the essence.
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03 CBS Sports Last year, the model accurately predicted that Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin would fall well short of his top-50 ADP. The result: A season after piling up nearly 1,100 receiving yards and a career-high 13 touchdown catches, McLaurin had career lows in receiving yards (582) and receiving touchdowns (3). Injuries were a factor, but his per-game averages were down across the board as well, so anybody who avoided him in Fantasy drafts dodged a major headache.
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04 Fox Sports This time last year, the Penn State Nittany Lions were widely considered viable national title contenders.
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Sources (4)
- cbssports
- bleacherreport
- foxsports
- espn