Cordarrelle Patterson

The 2025 season ended a little over a month ago, but the 2026 season is already officially underway. And with that comes one of the best parts of the offseason: free agency. While much has remained the same for the elite players, we’ve already seen a shake-up across the fantasy landscape, mainly among the RB2/3s and WR2/3s tiers. This is the time of the year when dynasty values can change in a hurry based on where some players sign — or who the teams bring in to compete with others. That’s what makes this stretch of the offseason so fun. We’re reacting to the news and contract figures while trying to figure out what actually matters for fantasy football. Who’s set to take a leap next season? Which players took a hit because of a trade or a rough landing spot? We’re starting with the running backs and wide receivers in this article; here are the biggest winners and losers from free agency so far. Be sure to check back for the quarterback and tight end winners and losers tomorrow! PlayerProfiler is home to award-winning dynasty rankings and tools. Our Dynasty Deluxe package includes complete Dynasty Rankings, Rookie Rankings, Trade Analyzer, Draft Planner, Mock Drafts, and more. Check it out . Let’s get the obvious one out of the way, shall we? What a landing spot for the reigning Super Bowl MVP. Kenneth Walker cashes in after a brilliant playoff run, getting a three-year deal worth up to $43.05 million and $28.7 million guaranteed. With that kind of moola, Walker should get all the touches he can handle. The Chiefs will likely lean on him early in the season as Patrick Mahomes works his way back from a torn ACL. Kenneth Walker ‘s 2025 EPX Over the final six weeks of 2025, including the playoffs, the 25-year-old former Michigan State Spartan played like a man possessed. He racked up 771 total yards, caught 18 passes, and scored five touchdowns. Now, he’s finally free of Zach Charbonnet and gets to operate as the lead back in Andy Reid’s offense. As long as the workload matches the contract, Walker will be an RB1 for fantasy purposes. The veteran back decided to leave his long-time teammate, Trevor Lawrence — whom he’s played with since 2018 at Clemson — and return to his home state of Louisiana. Already 27 years old, I assumed Travis Etienne would get a modest two- or three-year deal. Instead, the Saints forked over a four-year, $52 million contract. Quite the commitment, one that will boost his dynasty stock in the short-term. Last year, Etienne totaled 1,399 yards and scored a career-best 13 times, good for 14.9 fantasy points per game (RB13). Now he steps in as the main back in Kellen Moore ‘s fast-paced offense, gets to play his home games indoors, and faces NFC South defenses six times a year. Big come-up for Etienne, who will be a high-end RB2 with potential for more in fantasy going forward. With Etienne leaving town, Bhayshul Tuten just became the most important guy in Jacksonville’s RB room…for now. While the Jaguars avoided the bigger names in free agency, they did sign Chris Rodriguez Jr. to a two-year contract. Rodriguez is a bigger back, who played for Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen at Kentucky — he should be involved to a degree. How much? We’ll find out. Regardless, the arrow is pointing up for Tuten, who averaged 0.91 fantasy points per opportunity (RB16) and scored seven touchdowns as a rookie. If he gets the majority of the work in Coen’s run game next year, he could pay major dividends. Right now, Tuten’s current average draft position (ADP) is RB30 on FFPC and RB36 on Underdog. Each is an appealing price if his role holds for 2026. It took all of about 90 seconds after free agency started for Adam Schefter to report that Alec Pierce was getting the largest free-agent WR contract in NFL history and returning to the Colts. Sounds like Pierce and his team got a lot of “legal tampering” done during that time, and it paid off. Alec Pierce ‘s Advanced Metrics All kidding aside, not only did Pierce [... truncated ...]

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