Kenyon Sadiq and 3 More Overvalued Players in ESPN’s 2026 Fantasy Football Rankings

Avoid these players who are ranked too high in ESPN's 2026 fantasy football rankings.

New York Jets tight end and 1st round draft pick Kenyon Sadiq (16) takes a water break during a practice for the New York Jets at their training facility on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Florham Park. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

This August, we are on a quest to find the best value in fantasy football. The treasure chest is out there, and we must find it. Today, our research brings us to compare our expectations to those of ESPN's own rankings. Their latest fantasy football rankings show names well beyond where our Fantasy Sports On SI Projections have the blueprint to find, "X," which marks the spot.

All comparisons are based on PPR (Points Per Reception) scoring.

WR, Deebo Samuel

ESPN Ranking: WR51
Our Projection: WR93

This is the biggest disparity among draftable players. Samuel joins a San Francisco 49ers team that fields a deep wide receiver room. Despite losing Ricky Pearsall for the season, Samuel slots into just the WR4 role. Of course, the 49ers will use him as a Swiss Army knife. Nonetheless, he falls down the priority list, projecting a 12% target share.

Samuel should easily fall behind Mike Evans, Christian Kirk, and De'Zhaun Stribling in wide receiver volume. Including the pass-catching work of Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, there is a big gap in Samuel's volume.

TE, Kenyon Sadiq

ESPN Ranking: TE15
Our Projection: TE34

Sadiq is way too overvalued considering two key factors. The first of which is that the Jets are a bottom-5 offense in the power index. Simply put, they are not meant to do very well, and if that is the case, can they really support much more than Garrett Wilson as a startable, fantasy football asset? Even if they can, the right name may be Omar Cooper Jr.

The Jets roster Sadiq with high hopes, but the team also has Mason Taylor. Like it or not, the second-year tight end will be on the football field. He is not being overlooked by any means, especially while the staff that drafted Taylor is still in place. Sadiq's volume projects a target share of 10-13%. There is too much risk given a bad team, current injury, and a crowded depth chart to make Sadiq your TE1 in fantasy football.

RB, Jeremiyah Love

ESPN Ranking: RB7
Our Projection: RB25

Love is a top-10 NFL draft pick. Pretty much any time that a running back is drafted that highly, they finish as a fantasy football RB1. As for Love, I strongly believe that this streak ends.

The Cardinals are rated as the NFL's 6th-worst offense, per the power index. They have a first-time head coach who was also fired as offensive coordinator with the New York Jets just a few years back. The team also added Tyler Allgeier before drafting Love, which they have consistently said will have a quality workload.

Cardinals don't plan to overload Jeremiyah Love as a rookie, per @AlbertBreer.

They're looking for the right rotation between Love, James Conner, and Tyler Allgeier. pic.twitter.com/0HvtVjNahi

— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) July 29, 2026

Love will not have 300+ touches. He may be reluctant to find 250+ touches. Our projections have Love commanding 55-60% of this rushing offense, next to Allgeier's 25%. An offense that may have to revert to a second-half pass script, Love's rushing yards are capped at about 56 per game on a team that may be hopeful to rush for 100+ per game as a football team.

Let's recall that Ashton Jeanty was projected to have a much higher workload on a similarly rated offense, and he did not finish as similarly rated, despite being projected as a top-10 running back.

WR, Jameson Williams

ESPN Ranking: WR24
Our Projection WR36

Drew Petzing's West Coast, zone-run scheme heavily favors the X-receiver. Michael Wilson talked about this a few weeks back, and he reaped the benefits as the Cardinals' X-receiver for much of 2025. Last season, Wilson surged to be the WR10 in fantasy football.

We reference this because Williams is not the X-receiver. He is a Z-type receiver, while Amon-Ra St. Brown will benefit from the isolated X role.

Williams still projects to command 22% of the Lions' receiving offense. While an explosive threat that may easily exceed 16 yards per reception, Williams shall fall to average about 3.0 receptions per game and 5.5 touchdowns on the season. We have him on par with Chris Godwin, Jakobi Meyers, and Wan'Dale Robinson as a WR3/Flex in fantasy football with WR2 upside.