Updated Sep 7, 2026 · Week 1 board.
The surplus gap, not the name
A keeper is worth holding when the price stays fixed and the output does not. Put four real prices beside the board and see where the two come apart. At the top of the running back market they do not come apart at all. Gibbs at $65 is the board's first back and Bijan Robinson at $63 is its second, which means the auction has the order right and there is no bargain to find up there.
Two names came off this table on the way here. Zach Charbonnet is on the physically-unable-to-perform list (PUP) and TreVeyon Henderson is carrying a questionable tag, and the board holds no usable Week 1 figure for either man, so neither appears above with a number or below in an argument.
| Player | Team | Pos | Week 1 projected pts (PPR) | Board rank | ADP | Auction $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jahmyr Gibbs | DET | RB | 22.50 | 1 | 1.4 | $65 |
| Bijan Robinson | ATL | RB | 19.28 | 2 | 2.4 | $63 |
| Trey McBride | ARI | TE | 14.35 | 2 | 30.7 | $29 |
| Dalton Schultz | HOU | TE | 8.36 | 19 | 175.6 | $1 |
Now read the bottom two names, because that is where the money is. Trey McBride costs $29 and comes back second among tight ends on 14.35 projected points. Dalton Schultz costs a dollar and comes back nineteenth on 8.36. So the market charges twenty-nine times as much for a shade under twice the output.
That ratio is the keeper case in one line, and it is the reason a cheap tight end is worth a slot that a cheap running back this week is not.
What a Week 1 number can and cannot tell a keeper decision
Keeper cost rules differ by league. Some raise the price a round each year a player is kept; others tie the cost to a fixed auction increment. Our numbers span one week, not a season, and carry no next-year cost rule for any league, so we cannot price your specific keeper slot. What we can price is today's gap between market cost and current output, the input every keeper rule eventually charges against.
A one-dollar tight end reading close to a twenty-nine-dollar one is not proof Schultz outscores McBride across a season. It is one week, off one board, and it is the most honest figure available before a snap is played. Play a few games and the gap either holds or it closes. Weigh it against role security and target competition, the way the 2025 winners retrospective grades last year's keeper calls after the fact.
Neither one settles it alone. Together they beat guessing off a name you liked last August.
Position cost curves you are actually paying
Running back money piles up early, on the priciest few names. Robinson and Gibbs alone are $128 of a $200 budget, nearly two-thirds of a roster's spending power on two men. And they are worth it, which is the problem: paying full price for the first and second backs on the board leaves no surplus for a keeper slot to protect. Tight end runs the other way entirely.
The dearest tight end in the pool costs $29, less than half of Gibbs, and a dollar still buys a real starter. That is where a keeper slot earns its keep this year.
Check the full Week 1 board before you settle a keeper choice, then set your league's roster rules against our ADP value tiers guide to see where depth thins at each spot. One or two keepers: weigh the running back numbers above heavily. Five or six: the same discount spreads thinner across more slots.
What the Number Says
Twenty-nine dollars against one. That is the ratio to carry into a keeper deadline, and Dalton Schultz at a dollar is the name it points at. The top of the running back board is priced correctly and there is nothing to steal there; Gibbs at $65 is the first back on the board and Robinson at $63 is the second, and both are worth the money.
Houston's tight end snaps kill the Schultz case if they go somewhere else. A cheap name that holds its rank after real snaps is the one to keep; a name that drifts back toward its own price is not, whatever the first box score says. Come back to the board once Week 1 has actually been played.
