Futures

Championship

The board

Josh Allen / Lamar / Gibbs-tier keepers get the short number. Repeat champs pay a tax. Superflex without a locked QB1 pays a bigger one. Career résumé is the tie-break, not last year’s seed.

The cases

Why this number

Keepers first, then 2025, then the career. Click a name on the board to jump.

#1

+500

Steeler Virginity

Ryan Murphy · @rmurphh

Keepers · Josh Allen · Saquon Barkley

The board’s shortest number is the only pair that is a locked QB1 and a locked RB1 in the same sentence. Josh Allen is the best Superflex chip in the league. Saquon is still a weekly detonator. Murph already has a banner (2024) and missed the dance last year as a 7–7 defending champ — that is a bounce-back profile, not a fade. The knock is last year’s scoring drop (1,913) and shipping McBride at the deadline. The answer is he kept the two players who actually win Superflex weeks. If the draft is even average, this is the team everyone else is shooting at.

#2

+650

Hurts so Good

Aaron Smith · @BigKembaJ

Keepers · Jahmyr Gibbs · Jalen Hurts

Gibbs plus Hurts is the cleanest ‘I can ignore the first four rounds’ start in the league after Allen/Saquon. Hurts is a Superflex cheat code when the tush push is humming; Gibbs is a league-winner if Detroit’s offense stays on schedule. 2024 was 9–5 and 2,314 points. 2025 was a 5–9 cliff (1,805). That is the whole bet: is 2025 the new baseline, or a one-year injury/variance hole? The keepers say hole. The record says prove it. Second-shortest number because the upside is a title and the floor is another winter in the consolation.

#3

+800

Make-A-Wish

Clay Scheer · @cpsx9

Keepers · Bijan Robinson · Drake Maye

The only manager in the league with a three-year trend line that actually goes up: 2–12, 7–7, 9–5. Bijan is a top-three RB keeper. Drake Maye is the 2026 Superflex dart that already hit — year-two QB in New England with a real receiving room. Clay was the 3-seed last year and got wiped by a 6-seed that scored 202. That is not a talent problem. If Maye takes the next step, this number is too long. If Maye is just a good QB2, it is fair. The market is buying the climb, not last year’s seed.

#4

+900

The Jackson 11

Broc Balta · @brocb42

Keepers · Lamar Jackson · A.J. Brown

Lamar Jackson is the second-best Superflex asset in the room, and A.J. Brown is a WR1 even after the Patriots move. That pairing should not have gone 5–9. It did, and it ate the most points against in the league. So the number is not ‘Lamar tax’ — it is ‘can Broc stop drawing every nuclear opponent and then drafting around the two stars?’ When this team hits, it looks like a favorite. When it misses, it looks like Week 17’s 74-point floor. The odds split the difference: elite chips, vibes franchise, long winter still in the rearview.

#5

+1000

mcrilley

Matt Crilley · @mcrilley

Keepers · Jonathan Taylor · Ladd McConkey

He just won the thing as a 4-seed. Repeat tax is real, and these keepers are very good without being Allen/Lamar/Gibbs. JT is still a bell-cow. Ladd is a WR1 in a Chargers offense that should keep feeding him. Matt closed 164.94 / 152.78 / 164.46 in the playoffs — that is a manager who can finish. The fade is Superflex math: he does not have a locked top-five QB on the roster, so the draft has to produce one or the title defense becomes ‘hope Herbert/Love/whoever does it again.’ Champions get respect. They do not get the chalk.

#6

+1100

Puka and Friends

David Jolly · @davidjolly1231

Keepers · Puka Nacua · Dak Prescott

Rookie year: 10–4, 2,285 points, 116–38 all-play, loudest week in league history (235.80). That is not a fluke profile. Puka is a top-three WR when he is on the field; Dak is a fine Superflex QB1 and not an elite one. The semis loss to Opp (209.34) is why this is not a top-three number — the regular-season king did not survive January, and Puka’s health is already on the injury report. Year two is the proving ground: was 2025 a new ceiling for this seat, or a debut spike? The board says real, with a health asterisk.

#7

+1200

Wolder Jits

Samuel O'Bryan · @Nova21

Keepers · Jayden Daniels · Emeka Egbuka

From 3–11 to a 9–5 2-seed is the best year-over-year jump in the league. Jayden Daniels is a top-five Superflex pick and the reason this is not a long shot. Egbuka is a year-two WR with juice and a Questionable tag. Four seasons, zero banners, and a habit of building the regular-season team that loses the wrong week. The Commish can draft. The keepers are a real title core. The number is ‘Daniels gets you in the dance, the rest of the roster has to win the weekend.’ No hardware in four years is the only reason this is not shorter.

#8

+1400

Operation Opp

Donny Opp · @dopp17

Keepers · James Cook · Matthew Stafford

Best career win percentage in the league (35–22), 2022 champ, 2025 runner-up. The résumé is a favorite. The keepers are not. Cook is a high-end RB1. Stafford is 17 years into it — a fine streamer, not a Superflex pillar. Donny’s whole sport is surviving the regular season and then going nuclear in December (202.82, 209.34, a 45-point Henry final that still lost). That path is live every year. The number is long because the draft has to find a QB, and because last year’s 6-seed magic is not a process you bet at 8-to-1. Always in the mix. Never the chalk.

#9

+1800

CeeDee’s Nuts

Ryan Klan · @rklan44

Keepers · De'Von Achane · Rome Odunze

The unluckiest good team of 2025: 2,048 points, 61% all-play, 7–7, golf. Achane is a league-winner in the weeks Miami lets him cook. Odunze is a real WR2/flex with a year-three bump coming. There is no QB on this keeper card, and Superflex without one is how you watch Maye and Daniels go off from the other sideline. Ryan already said the quiet part last year: he looked at the draft and thought he could win the whole thing. He needs this draft to actually produce the QB that card was missing. Talent is here. The number is the QB hole.

#10

+2200

wagmi

Jude O'Bryan · @wagmi

Keepers · Jaxon Smith-Njigba · Chase Brown

JSN plus Chase Brown is a sneakily complete non-QB pair — a locked WR1 and a locked RB2/flex who can be an RB1 in Cincinnati. The problem is the manager: one season (2022, 8–7), four years away, back on a franchise that just went 3–11 as Bake-N-Jigba. Superflex has evolved since he left. He does not have a QB keeper, so Monday night is live or die on the draft. This is the high-variance ticket. If Jude hits a QB in the first two rounds, the keepers suddenly look like a playoff team. If he does not, it looks like a 2022 reunion special.

#11

+3300

Shirts vs Skins

Matt Kopec · @MattK789

Keepers · Patrick Mahomes · Trey McBride

Mahomes is still Mahomes until he is not, and the 2025 tape (plus the Chiefs’ offensive questions) is why this is a long number instead of a mid-board QB1. McBride is the best TE in the league and a weekly cheat. Last year Matt went 8–6 with a 66–88 all-play — the luckiest dance ticket in Guardians history. That is the opposite of a process you bet to win a title. The path is Mahomes bouncing back to a top-five Superflex season and the draft filling two flexes. Possible. Not the way the house is leaning.

#12

+5000

Amon Top of the World

Will O'Bryan · @WillOBry

Keepers · Brock Purdy · Harold Fannin

Longest number on the board for a reason. Purdy is a playable Superflex QB2, not a pillar. Fannin is a tight end you kept in a league where McBride exists — a fine depth piece, not a reason to print tickets. Will scored 2,004 last year with a winning all-play and went 6–8 anyway, so the manager is not the problem. The keepers are. He can draft. He has to, because this is the only 2026 core that does not start with a top-12 QB or a top-five skill player. Brother of the Commish. Live dog if the first three rounds land. The futures desk is not paying that hope at anything shorter than 50-to-1.