Bounce-Back Players For The 2026 Fantasy Football Season: David Montgomery Gets Another Shot To Be An RB1

The 2025 fantasy football season was disappointing for a lot of players. However, one year is just one year. Some of the players who struggled last year can get right back on track this year. These are the top bounce-back players for the 2026 fantasy football season.

QB Tua Tagovailoa, Atlanta Falcons

Things went sideways for Tua in Miami last season in a situation that was clearly falling apart under his former head coach, Mike McDaniel. His weapons were beat up, and the offensive scheme had been figured out. However, he was an elite prospect coming out of Alabama, and he has led the league in passing before. This season, he'll head to Atlanta in the same offense as Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson.

He landed in a prime spot to bounce back. We do believe that he will beat out Michael Penix Jr., coming off another torn ACL, for the starting job in Atlanta. It should also help that late in the season, his road games will be in New Orleans, Tampa Bay, and North Carolina, instead of Buffalo, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. As long as he wins the job and avoids injury, he should far outperform his current draft stock and finish as a top 20 fantasy QB for Superflex owners.

RB David Montgomery, Houston Texans

Montgomery was clearly being fazed out of his role in Detroit in favor of Jahmyr Gibbs last season. Nevertheless, he's still a very good running back and is expected to take over the starting job for the Texans this season. Houston traded Juice Scruggs, a fourth-round pick, and a seventh-round pick for Montgomery and has committed to a two-year $16.5 million contract. All signs point to him being the clear-cut RB1 well ahead of Woody Marks on the Texans' depth chart.

There is no reason to believe that Montgomery won't perform if given the chance to be the lead back in Houston. In seven seasons, he has averaged 4.1 yards per carry while scoring 63 touchdowns and never failing to rush for at least 700 yards in a season. He should rush for 1,000 yards and score double-digit touchdowns in 2026.

WR Terry McLaurin, Washington Commanders

The writing was on the wall last season for McLaurin to have a bad season. He was at odds with the team and missed almost all of training camp due to a contract dispute. Predictably, he got off to a slow start before suffering a soft tissue injury followed by an ankle injury, which limited him to just 10 games.

To make matters worse, his quarterback, Jayden Daniels, went down, and he was left with quarterbacks like Marcus Mariota and Josh Johnson. Ultimately, he finished the season catching just 38 passes for 582 yards and three touchdowns. It was by far the worst season of his career.

Things should get back on track this season. McLaurin's contract issues are behind him, and Daniels is healthy and expected to be ready to go. In 2024, in his only full season with Daniels, McLaurin had his best fantasy season, grabbing 82 receptions for 1,096 yards and 13 touchdowns. As the only true threat at wide receiver for the Commanders, we expect him to perform much closer to what he did in 2024 than in 2025.

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