Fantasy Football Player Outlooks for The 2026-26 Season

Campbell has taken a step forward in every aspect of his game in each of his three seasons, leaving it as little surprise that the Lions inked him to a four-year, $81 million extension this offseason. Fantasy managers should feel equally confident in investing in Campbell. The most important aspect of Campbell's game is his ability to stop the run and rack up tackles, and he did both at an excellent level in 2025. Per PFF, he led all linebackers in run stops, and his 7.1 percent missed tackle rate was also elite. Campbell has also improved his work in coverage drastically in the last few seasons, giving the team confidence to keep him on the field for all three downs. As a result, he logged 1,087 defensive snaps in 2025. Campbell's 5.0 sacks last year are unlikely to repeat, but he will still be in a position to potentially be the top IDP linebacker in the league in 2026.

After missing three games in 2024, Oluokun returned to his workhorse ways last season and re-established himself as one of the best IDP linebackers. He served as Jacksonville's ace in coverage among the front seven, while also logging the sixth-most snaps in coverage at the position in the league. When called upon to defend the run, Oluokun remained a reliable tackler, maintaining a missed-tackle rate of only 9.1 percent. Looking ahead, Oluokun will certainly remain the team's most relied-upon linebacker in coverage due to the departure of Devin Lloyd. Given the general inexperience of Ventrell Miller, Oluokun could also draw more snaps in a traditional run-stuffing role. He's likely to begin the season strong with Miller getting up to speed, momentum that could carry him to overall excellent results on the season.

Plenty of defensive rookies made a strong impact on their team in 2025, but Schwesinger was rightly crowned the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year last season. He finished sixth in the league in tackles (156), led Cleveland's defense in snaps (955) and also immediately wore the green dot. That combination, plus the departure of Devin Bush and ongoing absence of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, should give fantasy managers a lot of confidence that Schwesinger can come close to replicating his stat line from 2025. There isn't much room for him to take a step forward statistically, but like many rookies, Schwesinger did show some leaks in coverage -- a projected weakness when he entered the league. While that may be an area worth monitoring in future seasons, Cleveland has little choice but to play Schwesinger as an every-down defender while serving as the leader of the defense in 2026.

Smith has set a high bar for himself since entering the league in 2018, so his 130 tackles in 2025 were a disappointment. A hamstring injury seemingly bothered him for the entire year, limiting him to 40 percent of defensive snaps in Week 4 while also sidelining him for the entirety of Weeks 5 and 6. He went on to be listed on the injury report during three additional weeks leading up to game day. Smith has acknowledged that he struggled without offering excuses, and this offseason has been full of positive news regarding Smith's adjustment to new head coach Jesse Minter's scheme. The 2025 season was one to forget for the Ravens nearly across the board, and Smith deserves the benefit of the doubt based on his lengthy track record of excellent performance. Projecting a full bounceback is reasonable.

Bolton has had an up-and-down career, but he'll enter the 2026 season on the strong end of that pendulum and is re-establishing trust as a productive linebacker. His 2025 campaign, when he logged 154 tackles, suggests he's returned to elite production. However, both his 12.2 percent missed tackle rate and low proportion of solo tackles (73 solo tackles) suggest his stat line from 2025 flattered his level of play. On the other hand, Leo Chanel departed in free agency, and the Chiefs did little to replace his production. That means the team will be relying even more heavily on the combination of Bolton and Drue Tranquill to solidify the middle level of its defense. Even if Bolton doesn't perform at an elite level on the field, he should continue to fill the box score.