At the end of every fantasy football season, several players seem to be on every championship roster. Some of those players are the usual suspects you see getting selected in the first few rounds of every draft. But there are usually at least a handful of players who were afterthoughts during draft season and were selected late or not at all in most standard formats.
Those players are what we like to call “League Winners.” League Winners are those low-cost players who produce more for fantasy managers than what their cost suggested during drafts. These can be household names like Cooper Kupp or Deebo Samuel who exploded onto the scene with breakout seasons, or they can be players like Cordarrelle Patterson who weren’t even being drafted.
Being able to identify these players can, well, put you in a position to win your league. Our own Andrew Erickson recently took a look at 10 potential League Winners for the 2022 Fantasy Football season.
Cam Akers (RB – LAR)
There’s simply too much emphasis placed on Cam Akers’ poor production at the tail end of 2021 (2.4 ypc) amid a juggernaut of tough run defense that no Rams RB could run efficiently against. 95% of his rushing yards in 2021 came after contact — the highest mark in the NFL.
Touch volume is the key driver of fantasy success at running back. In the Rams’ divisional playoff win versus the Buccaneers, Akers played 81% of the Los Angeles offensive snaps and out-touched Sony Michel (signed with Miami this offseason) 27 to three.
I expect Akers to be dialed back in as the top RB next season in Sean McVay’s consistent 1-RB offense, where the team’s lead back averages 20-plus touches per game. Darrell Henderson Jr. has proven he’s nothing more than a replaceable running back.
Not to mention, Akers has a cakewalk of soft run defenses to open the season: Bills, Falcons, and Cardinals. It won’t take long for Akers to pay off his early Round 4 ADP in a high-powered offense.
– Andrew Erickson
Check out more fantasy advice for Cam Akers 
2022 Fantasy Football Staff Consensus Rankings
2022 Fantasy Football Rankings powered by FantasyPros
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | SoundCloud | iHeartRadio
If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Trade Analyzer – which allows you to instantly find out if a trade offer benefits you or your opponent – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.
