2026 Fantasy Football: How to build the best team possible on Yahoo using ADP vs. XRank to identify positional value

2026 Fantasy Football: How to build the best team possible on Yahoo using ADP vs. XRank to identify positional value

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2026 Fantasy Football: How to build the best team possible on Yahoo using ADP vs. XRank to identify positional value

If you're entering an online draft at Yahoo, you and your leaguemates will have the available players defaulted to "XRank," which is a combination of the rankings of the six analysts at Yahoo with the rankings from RotoWire. Our rankings are constantly changing, so the default rankings are slightly changing as we gather more information. Drafters can see average draft position (ADP), but they do have to click over to it, so I'm assuming many Yahoo online drafters are often using the XRank to help guide their draft.

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Fortunately, the XRank is really, really strong. I literally have my hand in contributing to it, but in general, those rankings are going to put you in a spot to compete. They are, without question, better than ADP, as the analysts here are going to change our rankings far quicker than the public will change their drafting habits.

Today's column goes into where I differ from XRank and how we can build the best team specifically on online Yahoo drafts.

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Here's a chart looking at ADP vs. XRank on Yahoo, comparing the two to Hayden Winks' rankings.
Here's a chart looking at ADP vs. XRank on Yahoo, comparing the two to Hayden Winks' rankings.
Hayden Winks

These are the averages by position for the top-144 overall players based on XRank, which is 12-14 rounds for most leagues. While there are differences from player-to-player, the main takeaway is that Yahoo users are drafting QB and TE about one round earlier than the XRank or my personal rankings would advise. QBs are drafted 9.3 spots ahead of my rankings and 6.4 ahead of the XRank. TEs are drafted 9.2 spots ahead of my rankings and 10 spots ahead of the Rank. Right away, if you wait on QB and TE until prices normalize, then you're getting nearly two rounds of value, according to the experts. Seems good!

The RBs are drafted and ranked exactly correct. The ADP for top-144 overall RBs is 64.8, and the XRank is 63.1. In general, the market is normal. 

The WRs are where we're needing to gobble up value. Right now, the ADP for top-144 overall WRs is 71.9, and the XRank is 64.9. That's a substantial difference, considering the fact that we're drafting at least six WRs in the first 12-14 rounds. How I interpret this is that the best "values" in the later rounds will be WRs. It's not that we shouldn't take WRs early, but hammering WRs early to the point that we can't take them later on would be losing the opportunity of the mispricing evidenced above. A lot of my drafts will have 2-3 strong WRs, and then I simply wait until the value WRs are. We'll get into those names next.

There are five "sleeper" types who are going much later in ADP than the XRank. They are:

  1. Matthew Golden, GB: 127 ADP vs. 108 XRank vs. 74 Winks Rank

  2. Makai Lemon, PHI: 113 ADP vs. 103 XRank vs. 79 Winks Rank

  3. Jordan Addison, MIN: 117 ADP vs. 97 XRank vs. 75 Winks Rank

  4. KC Concepcion, CLE: 127 ADP vs. 100 XRank vs. 80 Winks Rank

  5. Parker Washington, JAX: 81 ADP vs. 55 XRank vs. 46 Winks Rank

I'd also call out Malik Nabers, Jaylen Waddle, Jameson Williams and Rome Odunze as the top values in the early and middle rounds versus current ADP. 

The worst picks, according to XRank, are the "elite QBs", and all six of them are being drafted a full round earlier than they should. 

  1. Josh Allen, BUF (ADP: 19.8)

  2. Lamar Jackson, BAL (ADP: 37.9)

  3. Drake Maye, NE (ADP: 47.4)

  4. Joe Burrow, CIN (ADP: 49.4)

  5. Jayden Daniels, WAS (ADP: 54.2)

  6. Jalen Hurts, PHI (ADP: 57)

If your league is drafting closer to XRank than ADP, then I've been perfectly fine with Hurts or a stacked elite QB in the Round 6 range. It doesn't happen often on Yahoo online drafts, but do not feel guilty if you grabbed one when the rest of the league is letting them fall way beyond ADP.

If most of the QBs are bad picks, and we still need to draft one or two of them, then who are we targeting? Fair question! These are the QBs who have an XRank almost identical to their ADP:

  1. Caleb Williams, CHI: 67.7 ADP vs. 69 XRank vs. 71 Winks Rank

  2. Trevor Lawrence, JAX: 84.5 ADP vs. 80.2 XRank vs. 99 Winks Rank

  3. Brock Purdy, SF: 98.4 ADP vs. 95.8 XRank vs. 102 Winks Rank

  4. Bo Nix, DEN: 99.6 ADP vs. 102.4 XRank vs. 98 Winks Rank

  5. Kyler Murray, MIN: 112.1 ADP vs. 110.2 XRank vs. 100 Winks Rank

My most drafted QB this season has been Kyler Murray. What can go wrong?

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