Ja'Marr Chase vs Josh Allen

“There aren't many questions about Ja'Marr Chase in 2026, but if you remember 2025, there were plenty. The start of the season was rough, and everyone was panicking (and I was buying). It's old news because he led the league in targets, finished as the WR4, and is now going off the board as the WR1, right where Mike and Jason have him ranked.”

“No receiver projects for more volume than Ja'Marr Chase. His 182 targets led the league, reinforcing his status as one of the few true offensive focal points in the game. The surprising part of Chase's season wasn't the workload. It was the TD total. After scoring 17 TDs the previous year, Chase found the end zone just eight times despite finishing with 22 targets inside the 20-yard line, 6th most in the league.”

“Chase has averaged 115+ catches, 1,400+ receiving yards and 10+ touchdowns over the last three years, and Joe Burrow is coming into 2026 100% healthy.”

“Chase has led the league in targets each of the last two years. He's averaged 6.7 catches and 87.7 yards per game over his five-year career. Chase also gets to play with Joe Burrow, one of the best pure passers in the game.”

“Much of Chase's ceiling is tied to Joe Burrow's health. In games with Burrow at quarterback since Chase was drafted, he averages 0.78 touchdowns and 20.67 PPR points. In the games without Burrow, those numbers drop to 0.33 touchdowns and 15.48 points.”

“The only question mark is the consistency beyond Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, with the Bengals' next most targeted wide receivers combining for a 16% drop rate while Chase and Higgins were at 4% combined.”

“Ja'Marr Chase, Bengals (4) was the highest rated Wide Receiver in the NFL Top 100 for 2025.”

“One player who notably looks worse in per-route data compared to his annual ADP is Higgins' teammate — Ja'Marr Chase. However, I don't think anyone seriously believes this means Chase isn't one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.”

“In five years in the league, Chase has averaged 1,490 yards a season.”

“The same goes for elite wideouts like Ja'Marr Chase and Puka Nacua. But they are knocked down a peg or two by the top-tier quarterbacks.”

“Using this year's board, let's say you take Ja'Marr Chase at 1.01. You pick at 24 and 25.”

“The idea behind "Stars & Scrubs" is to build your team primarily around a few star players. For example, you may be able to walk away with Ja'Marr Chase, Jahmyr Gibbs and someone like Christian McCaffrey, but this will leave you with a significantly lower budget for the remaining picks.”

“There is hope that a healthy Kincaid can live up to the hype that he has carried since entering the league as a first-round pick in the NFL Draft and be an elite TE option in an offense with Josh Allen .”

“With the first pick in the draft, Mike takes what feels like an obvious choice of Josh Allen, who has finished as the QB1 overall in four of the last six seasons.”

“The most obvious thing to consider is your positional strengths and weaknesses — trading for Lamar Jackson when you already have Josh Allen probably isn’t a good idea.”

“The counter to this would be that Josh Allen is coming off his lowest passing yardage total since 2019 (3,668), and hasn’t thrown for more than 30 touchdowns in the last three seasons.”

“Josh Allen’s 0.8 points per game above QB2 in 2025 was the lowest QB1 to QB2 gap since 2022, when QB1 and QB2 tied atop the ranks.”

“Skyler Bell is headed to Buffalo to catch passes from Josh Allen after being selected in the fourth round of the NFL Draft.”

“When I say avoid Josh Allen, this is purely a fade at his ADP. He’s definitely the best quarterback to have for fantasy, but his 33rd overall ADP leaves so much value on the board around that spot.”

“Ever since Diggs left, we have been chasing the upside of Josh Allen ‘s WR1.”

“Allen rushed for 14 touchdowns, his third straight year with at least 12 rushing touchdowns. He was second in fantasy points scored inside the red zone in 2025 (148.7). Allen has ranked first or second among all position players in fantasy points inside the red zone for five consecutive seasons.”

“No player has a track record of pushing the top of positional scoring more consistently than Allen. Since 2020, Allen has finished as the QB1, QB1, QB2, QB1, QB2, and QB1 in overall quarterback scoring.”

“Allen has a late-third-round ADP. He's being drafted just ahead of Ladd McConkey.”

“Bills QB Josh Allen is an amazing football player and a time-tested fantasy asset. But drafting McBride in the second round and Allen is a recipe for disaster.”