Every season there are number high draft picks in fantasy football who disappoint and then you hear fantasy managers mumbling bust as they miss their league playoffs.
Identifying those candidates has become an art in fantasy football as money leagues leave a fine line to fantasy glory or a lost season.
I’m going to take a look at three players who may not fulfill their draft capital this season. The running backs I’m featuring are some obvious choices, but my wide receiver choice may surprise.
Let’s get into the players!
Bust Candidates
Bucky Irving, Tampa Bay (RB No. 20 Blitz official rankings)
Irving came out hot last season for the Buccaneers as he was averaging 18.0 fantasy points a game before he injured his shoulder and foot in his fourth game.
He missed next seven games before returning in Week 13, where he scored 16.1 points in both Week 13 and Week 14.
But in his final four weeks of the season, he only cracked the Top 24 RBs once, averaging only 8.6 fantasy points a game.
The shoulder injury was the biggest issue, but Irving seem to lack explosiveness during the final stretch that should concern fantasy managers drafting him this season or holding on to him in dynasty leagues.
Now, he comes into this season with Sean Tucker and Kenneth Gainwell in the backfield.
Tucker took over the goal-line and short yardage role after Irving returned last season.
Gainwell, who signed in the offseason, will more than likely take over Rachaad White’s role in the offense.
Irving had offseason shoulder surgery to repair a labral tear and should not miss time during training camp.
Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco (RB No. 3 Blitz official rankings)
The Curse of 370 is for real!
And CMC has suffered from the curse once already in his career. He finished with 403 touches during his third season with the Carolina Panthers in 2019.
The next season he missed 13 games from ankle and shoulder injuries.
Since his 2019 370-plus touch season, he’s only managed to play a whole season twice out of six. This included last season’s 413 touches.
Now the 49ers RB will enter 2026 as his age-30 season as running backs with heavy usage start to see a decline in production.
CMC has been one of the most efficient fantasy running backs when he’s stayed healthy, and the San Francisco coaching staff has expressed interest of managing McCaffrey’s workload, even though they have said that in the past.
But I’m going to go with the curse to stomp CMC’s lofty preseason draft rankings.
Nico Collins, Houston (WR No. 8 Blitz official rankings)
I’ll have to admit I’ve never been a fan of Collins being a WR1 – he relies on too many big games to boost his stats to that status.
He’s more of a solid WR2 with WR1 upside (probably a better weekly DFS play IMO), but going as the No. 9 WR is more of his ceiling than a floor.
In 15 games last season, he only posted 5 WR1 games and 33 percent is not going to do it on a consistent basis to be drafted so highly.
Plus, the Texans have shown they would rather ground out victories and have added David Montgomery to pair with Woody Marks this season.
Then quarterback C.J. Stroud has never reached 550 passing attempts in his three seasons and has topped out at only 23 passing TDs in his rookie season.
The Texans have added to the wide receiver corps last season with draft picks Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel. Add in WR Tank Dell is expected to be ready for training camp since he’s recovered from his gruesome knee injury at the end of the 2024 season and after missing all of the 2025 season.
Montgomery is also a solid receiver out of the backfield (231 receptions in 105 games), and TE Dalton Schultz is a coming off a career-high 106 targets.
Stroud may have more mouths to feed to focus just on Collins this season.
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