Fantasy Football: 5 of Matt Harmon's favorite targets of 2026

A lot of the times, when you draft a player in fantasy football, you're essentially drafting that player's team, too. You rarely can separate a player from their squad's ecosystem; a wide receiver can't force their quarterback to be accurate, and a running back can't make his offensive line block better. If you're targeting a player on a specific team, it's likely for many reasons, not just that player's individual talent.

Here are five of Matt Harmon's favorite 2026 draft targets from five specific teams.

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WR KC Concepcion, Browns

He was one of my favorite wide receiver prospects in this year's NFL Draft. On the surface, landing with the Browns isn't ideal for obvious quarterback reasons. However, Todd Monken is a good offensive coach and will design plenty of layup looks to get Concepcion the ball in space, and won't limit him to justbeing a slot-first option. You can get Concepcion outside the top-110 overall picks and hope the quarterback play is functional enough for him to be a classic second-half rookie breakout.

WR Jaylen Waddle, Broncos

He is one of the most mispriced wide receivers in fantasy football this season. He is barely ranked as a WR2 in consensus outlets yet he has a clear path to being a WR1 now that he's in Denver. Waddle's role is about to dramatically improve for the better with more snaps in motion, off-ball and a heavier diet of layup targets. He's also clearly a great receiver, ranking eighth in first downs per route run among WRs with 200-plus routes last season, 12th in yards per route and 11th in successful targets per route.

Now, he's about to see both a quarterback upgrade and play for an offense that was fifth in plays per game last year, while his former team was dead last. If his ADP doesn't rise a full 10 or so positional spots by Week 1, he will be my most-drafted receiver.

TE Sam LaPorta, Lions

He's one of the reasons I think you can pass on some of the vanity tight ends toward the top of the draft this year. Through the first nine weeks of the season, LaPorta was second on the Lions with a 20.1% targets per route rate behind Amon-Ra St. Brown's whopping 29.4%. LaPorta was efficient with his looks (1.99 yards per route) and convincingly cleared Jameson Williams' 14.5% targets per route.

Prior to getting hurt in Week 10, LaPorta was the more impactful secondary pass-catcher in Detroit. Now, he'll play under a new offensive play-caller whose system is known to prop up the tight end position. LaPorta is a strong target outside the consensus top-five tight ends.

RB Blake Corum, Rams

He has been an effective change of pace to Kyren Williams of late and has even pushed the starter from an efficiency standpoint. His ADP largely hangs outside the top 33 running backs and that feels perfect for his style of fantasy option. There's no doubt that Corum has massive contingent upside if anything were to happen to Williams. If Kyren misses games, Corum would be an easy RB1 candidate and would likely hold down a workhorse role for one of the league's top offenses. However, even when both backs are active, he brings a standalone "What the heck" flex value to your lineup. Those backs are especially valuable in wide-receiver-heavy team builds.

De'Zhaun Stribling, 49ers

The 49ers offense has more holes in the armor than we're used to seeing. Ricky Pearsall was meant to play a big role as the downfield receiver and losing him for the season is a massive blow. The rest of the skill position players are old, slow or both. The one who stands out is rookie De'Zhaun Stribling, who is a big wideout and ran a 4.36 coming out of college. While he didn't check all the production boxes you want in college, he beats man coverage on in-breakers, blocks well, catches everything and makes plays with the ball in his hands. That sounds like a perfect fit for this offense under Kyle Shanahan, who aggressively drafted this talented player in April.

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My guess is that Stribling is the WR2 across from Mike Evans — who is no lock to stay healthy — early on as a rookie and plays the Z and big slot position formerly held by Jauan Jennings. Stribling's game translates clearly to that gig and makes him an ideal late-round sleeper. And Stribling’s first preseason game (7/63) just boosted his stock.

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