2026 Breakouts | Fantasy Football Podcast 8-7-26

Matt Schauf and Jared Smola of draftsharks.com here with some fantasy football breakout candidates for 2026.

Now, how do you define a breakout candidate? It can be nebulous, Jared, but to me, I think it's really pretty simple.

A breakout candidate, in my mind at least, is a guy that I think can or that I expect will outperform anything he's done to this point in fantasy.

And, you know, outperform by a good bit.

We're not talking about just a little bit better than last year or years before.

Somebody who's about to do something significantly larger than the past few years.

Obviously, most of the time we're not talking about a guy who's definitely gonna do that, but we're picking out guys who have a path to it, who have a reason for us to believe in that happening.

Ideally, that guy also sits in an ADP range where he's a good draft value so it's even easier to take a shot on him and, you know, seek the, the big upside that comes with him.

I think we've got some candidates for that in this show.

But that's not necessarily a prerequisite.

It, it can be somebody who the rest of the market is also excited about, but you just believe in, so you don't wanna be off him just because people are drafting him higher than you wish they were.

For sure.

I mean, we talk all the time about, you know, fantasy leagues being won by usually a select hand f- full of, uh, you know, handful of players that really, you know, have that breakout season we're talking about here.

And I, I'm with you, Matt.

It's a guy who I, I think, you know, is gonna have their, a career-best season in terms of fantasy production.

And, and, and ideally, like you said, is gonna return value based on where they're going.

If everyone thinks someone's gonna break out and that's priced in, you know, that's, that's not helping folks much.

And I think one way to differentiate between a breakout candidate and somebody that you just like for this year is, a, a breakout candidate to me is a guy who's about to, you know, elevate his production and then continue that going forward, not somebody that's about to have one year spike.

'Cause, uh, to me, that's not really a breakout.

That's just, like, a guy who's headed for a good year.

Plus it also makes that kind of player, I think, less of a good bet if you don't really believe in him long term but just believe in him this year.

That means there's something about him that limits him from just being a good fantasy candidate in general.

Yeah, that's a good one, and I think a good thought exercise is always, you know, think about what the first round of fantasy drafts is gonna look like next year, or even, you know, the second or third round.

If there's someone that's going, you know, in round seven that you think when we get to this time next year is gon- gonna be going in round two, like, that, that's a good breakout candidate.

Now that's enough setup.

People came here to see players, so let's get into it.

We've got four picks, two each from us.

You can find the fantasy football breakouts article on draftsharks.com. It's been up there.

It's going to be updated soon with our number one breakout pick for the season.

He is not in this show, so that's a little bit of a tease for when we do release that article later.

Jared, hit us with the first player that is in our lineup today.