2026 BYU Depth Chart

BYU’s fantasy engine starts with Bear Bachmeier because the rushing profile is already elite and sticky: in 2025 he paired 3,033 passing yards with 527 rushing yards and 11 rushing TDs, giving him weekly spike potential even if the pass-catching hierarchy reshuffles.

LJ Martin remains the RB anchor because the workload + receiving floor is proven (236 carries for 1,305 yards and 12 TD, plus 36 catches), and spring feedback has his December shoulder-surgery recovery tracking on schedule—so the projection stays volume-forward even with BYU’s QB-run tendency siphoning some goal-line equity.

The entire skill stack after that is a target-vacuum problem, and that’s where the fantasy “depth chart” diverges from anything positional: BYU lost two of its top three 2025 pass-catchers to the NFL path (Roberts and Carsen Ryan exhausting eligibility), and Parker Kingston was removed from the program—taking 166 receptions and 14 receiving TD off the board in one offseason.

In that context, TE1 becomes a priority fantasy slot, not an afterthought. Walker Lyons arrives from USC with elite recruiting pedigree across services (top-tier TE rankings including On3/247) and projects into the route-forward role that just produced a 45-620-3 season; 247’s spring evaluation explicitly frames Lyons as the candidate most capable of becoming Bachmeier’s favorite target, which is the cleanest bet on concentrated volume in this offense.

At WR, I’m ranking JoJo Phillips first because his path combines role clarity and internal trust: BYU staff has described him as the room’s leader and the one they’re counting on if he stays healthy, while spring reps have consistently featured him with the top unit.

Kyler Kasper is the upside swing (former top-300-type recruit) but carries “translation risk” after minimal Oregon production (2 catches, 51 yards in 2025), so he lands behind Phillips on expected target share even if his TD profile is real.

Cody Hagen stays high because he’s already being rotated with the ones and brings manufactured touches (including rushing scores in 2025) that raise his weekly floor versus pure perimeter specialists.

The biggest spring-climbers are Tei Nacua (staff signaling he’ll “play a lot”) and freshman Legend Glasker (called the best spring performer in the WR room), while Reggie Frischknecht holds WR6 on situational-ceiling—JUCO TD dominance plus early spring end-zone involvement—despite a wider range of weekly outcomes.

On the RB2 decision, Sione Moa gets the first handcuff nod as the in-house favorite to emerge behind Martin, but freshman Devaughn Eka is the higher-volatility, higher-ceiling stash given Roderick’s openness to playing him immediately.