Who Should You Draft With the 12th Pick in 2026?

The 12th pick in a fantasy draft is usually the last pick of the first round and is often a reward for heroic feats the previous season. You might have taken the title last year, sweeping all before you on the road to ultimate triumph, and as such, you have to wait your turn before building your new roster for the coming season. It is highly doubtful one of the true blue-chip players will fall into your lap, as your leaguemates will want to offer you no freebies at all. But you have a choice of some good players at the 1.12 in 2026. Your climb back to the mountain top does not need to start painfully.

You, the drafter, have three standout options at the 1.12 this season, in my humble opinion, and based on our multi-site ADP tool. All three are running backs, a position on which most great fantasy rosters are built. Let’s take a look at each of them.

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RB James Cook

This guy loves scoring touchdowns, which is great news for all fantasy managers. Over the last two seasons, James Cook ranks fifth in rushing yards (2,587), third in rushing touchdowns (27), and seventh in PPR points among all running backs with 564.6. The only major knock? He’s not that involved as a pass catcher. Cook is 27th in targets and just 24th in receptions in the same span.

However, a lack of receiving work is offset by his voracious appetite for touchdowns. This is despite Josh Allen often calling his own number at the goal line. Over the last two seasons, Allen has had 40 goal-to-go rush attempts. But in an offense like the Bills, that hasn’t seemed to matter. Cook has been trusted with 50. He’s a great option here.

RB Saquon Barkley

Saquon Barkley was bound to come back to earth in 2025 after his stellar 2024 season. And he did. His rushing yards fell from 2,005 to 1,140. His Half-PPR points per game went from 21.2 to 13.4. He was just the RB15 in points per game and the RB13 overall. But his workload remained stable, commanding the fifth most rush attempts in the league in the fantasy-relevant span of Weeks 1-17.

The Eagles offense has seen some changes, both in playcaller and personnel, and a more Shanahan-inspired offensive system should be great news for the players who remain, especially Barkley. He is always likely to miss out on some goal-line work, given the presence of Jalen Hurts in the backfield. But Barkley still has 20 rushing touchdowns of his own over the last two seasons. If the new scheme can see him featured more as a receiver, then so much the better. Barkley averages just 2.2 receptions per game as an Eagle, compared to the 3.4 that the Giants version reeled in.

RB Omarion Hampton

Things were just starting to come together for Omarion Hampton in the early days of his rookie season. He saw double-digit carries in four of his first five starts, while also drawing 18 targets from Weeks 3-5. He posted more than 20 PPR points in back-to-back games against the Broncos and the Giants. Then injury robbed him for the next seven games, and in the next four he managed just one 20-point outing. It was sad. But things have changed for the Chargers and for Hampton, and there are reasons to get excited.

New Chargers OC Mike McDaniel loved putting the ball in the hands of his running backs in Miami, and they rewarded him and their fantasy managers for this faith. Dolphins running backs enjoyed an average of 466 touches a season between 2022-25, averaging almost 28 touchdowns between them in that span. Hampton has some company in the Chargers backfield, but this is a team that spent a first-round pick on him a year ago, and one that gave him a 77% snap share in his first four games as a pro. Hampton is a solid choice to begin building your roster with in 2026.

Who Should You Pick?

You should consider your scoring format before making your selection, as all three are viable options but come with slight advantages and disadvantages based on your league scoring settings. With this in mind, here is how I would lean based on the three main formats.

• Standard - James Cook
• Half-PPR - Saquon Barkley
• PPR - Omarion Hampton

The receiving upside, or lack thereof, influences my decision-making. When yards and touchdowns are all that matter, Cook is the player you need to take at this spot. But as receptions grow in importance, the other two players' cases become harder to ignore. One of the big advantages you may have at the 12 spot is that the 13th selection is yours as well, so you can probably take two of these three! What a time to be alive.