Early-Round Fantasy Football ADP Values: All Aboard The Javonte Williams Train
Justin Carlucci highlights four players whose early-round ADPs may not be high enough and offer league-winning upside at their current costs.
Fantasy football has exploded into a year-round phenomenon, which means we’re tracking fantasy football ADP way earlier than we used to. Best ball tournaments have been booming since before the NFL Draft, and ADPs will continue to fluctuate as we creep closer to the middle of summer.
Today, we're diving into some early-round ADP values worth targeting. I’m not sure if a true “sleeper” exists in the top third of anyone’s draft in 2026, but that's also why having convictions behind specific players can really pay off as you build your portfolio throughout the summer.
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Early-Round ADP Values For 2026 Fantasy Football
Javonte Williams | RB | DAL | ADP 36.9
Let's start with Javonte Williams, who will likely be one of my highest-exposed players when the dust settles.
Williams finally found his footing in Dallas after years of begging for this kind of upside in Denver. In 2025, he averaged a career-best 4.8 yards per carry, bulldozed his way to 1,201 rushing yards and punched it in 11 times. He also chipped in 35 receptions out of the backfield.
Here's where it gets interesting. According to Fantasy Points Data, among all ball carriers with at least 100-plus attempts, Williams ranked third in the NFL in yards after contact per attempt in 2025. The proof is in the pudding, or whatever they say!
Now zoom out and look at who's sitting in his ADP neighborhood. You've got Josh Jacobs, who comes with a mountain of off-field uncertainty. Breece Hall on what could be a volatile, boom-or-bust offense from week to week. Kyren Williams—yes, he's a machine—but Blake Corum has firmly established himself as a 1B option in Los Angeles.
Williams just kind of sticks out in this tier. He has the exact kind of high floor-ceiling combo we should feel great about. The Dallas offense is loaded, they play every home game in a dome, and the Cowboys added virtually nobody to the running back room this spring.
True bell-cow backs are an endangered species in the modern-day NFL. Williams might be one of the last ones standing, and at ADP 36.9, there's real value here. The icing on the cake? The Cowboys have some juicy matchups deep in the schedule during fantasy playoff weeks, and both the semifinal and championship rounds will be played indoors in Dallas.
All aboard the Williams train. Don’t get left at the station without your ticket.
Terry McLaurin | WR | WAS | ADP 55.5
Full transparency: heading into the 2026 NFL Draft, I had some real concerns about McLaurin's fantasy outlook. My prediction was that Washington would add significant offensive firepower around Jayden Daniels, who was still developing after a breakout rookie campaign and an injury-riddled sophomore season.
Instead, the Commanders used their first-round pick on Sonny Styles—a move that's hard to argue with from a football standpoint, but it left McLaurin's target share essentially untouched.
You could still argue McLaurin is a “sell” in dynasty formats due to his age. But in redraft and one-year formats? The calculus is different. There's nobody on this Washington roster who is going to steal volume from him.
Antonio Williams was drafted in the third round in April, but figures to be more of a second-half-of-the-season developmental piece. Chig Okonkwo is set for a bigger workload in Washington, but with the pieces Washington lost, I’d say he will help fill a void rather than eat into McLaurin’s volume. My concern heading into spring was that Washington would land a Carnell Tate or Jordyn Tyson type—a true target-earning receiver who could challenge for alpha status. That didn't happen.
New offensive coordinator David Blough made his intentions clear: he wants McLaurin involved heavily, and with the way the roster is currently constructed, there's a realistic path to a ~25% target share from Daniels. We project McLaurin for 113 targets, 1,000-plus yards and six touchdowns, and there's real upside beyond that if both he and Daniels stay healthy.
At an ADP of 55.5, he's squarely in the top third of a 15-round draft, which makes him an early-round “sleeper” for me.
Honorable Mentions For Early-Round ADP Values
- A.J. Brown | WR | NE | ADP 29.1: Brown might be one of the most polarizing fantasy selections right now after the move to New England. As the undisputed No. 1 target in that offense, we project him for 85 catches, 1,177 yards, and eight touchdowns.
- Emeka Egbuka | WR | TB | ADP 48.9: With Mike Evans out of the equation and Chris Godwin being more of a chain-mover, we project Egbuka for 121 targets this season. Division foes with porous defenses make his schedule pretty friendly. This could be a breakout situation hiding in plain sight, and his ADP might not be high enough.
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