PIT

2026 depth chart · bye 9

What do these terms mean?

Depth

His spot on the team's published depth chart at his position, 1 being the starter. Comes from the team, not from Nova.

Nova Rk ★

Nova's own ranking by VORP, independent of ADP and the experts. The core opinion.

VORP ★

Value Over Replacement Player: projected points above a freely-available replacement at the same position. Nova's core measure of real value.

Tier ★

Nova's value tier at the position. A tier break marks a real cliff in value, so Tier 1 is the top group, Tier 2 the next, and so on.

Proj PPG ★

Nova's projected fantasy points per game.

Bye

His bye week, the week his NFL team does not play.

Early SOS

Strength of schedule over the early season (weeks 1-6).

Playoff SOS

Strength of schedule in the fantasy playoffs (weeks 15-17), which matters most for a title run.

★ = Nova’s own model, the secret sauce. The rest are the market reference and raw stats Nova is measured against.

bye week

players with a Nova projection

17.7

early SOS · weeks 1-6 · tough

19.3

playoff SOS · weeks 15-17 · average

Depth order comes from the current published depth charts. Nova rank, tier, VORP and projected PPR/game are PPR-scored. Players the model has not priced yet show n/a and do not link out.

Depth chart

QB5

ranktiervorpppg

1Aaron Rodgers#267T6-8112.9 2Mason Rudolph#883T8-1898.4

3Will Howardn/an/an/an/a

4Drew Allar#910T10-221n/a

5Ben Roethlisbergern/an/an/an/a

RB6

ranktiervorpppg

1Jaylen Warren#85T6510.3 2Rico Dowdle#87T6510.0 3Kaleb Johnson#749T6-1371.9 5Lew Nichols III#666T6-1304.9

5Eli Heidenreichn/an/an/an/a

6Travis Homer#857T6-1510.9

WR11

ranktiervorpppg

1DK Metcalf#67T61911.8 2Michael Pittman#70T61711.1 3Germie Bernard#220T6-65n/a 4Roman Wilson#410T6-1094.8 5Ben Skowronek#802T6-1421.4 6Kaden Wetjen#436T6-113n/a 7A.T. Perry#299T6-877.3

8Brandon Smithn/an/an/an/a

9Cole Burgessn/an/an/an/a

10Joaquin Davisn/an/an/an/a

11Levi Wentzn/an/an/an/a

TE8

ranktiervorpppg

1Pat Freiermuth#130T6-188.0 2Darnell Washington#255T6-774.7 3Robert Tonyan#556T6-1222.0 4Jaheim Bell#476T6-1163.0

5Dax Raymondn/an/an/an/a

6Eric Ebronn/an/an/an/a

7JJ Galbreathn/an/an/an/a

8Lake McReen/an/an/an/a

ranktiervorpppg

1Chris Boswelln/an/an/an/a

2Laith Marjann/an/an/an/a

Schedule strength by position

Score is 2025 PPR allowed per game by the defenses on the schedule. Higher means a softer draw for that position.

Position	Early (wk 1-6)	Playoffs (wk 15-17)
QB	17.7 · tough	18.3 · average
RB	17 · tough	20.3 · average
WR	15.7 · tough	22.3 · soft
TE	20.5 · average	16.3 · tough