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.
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.
Michael Pittman Jr. is entering Year 3 and should be viewed as a legitimate alpha WR1 based on his accomplishments from 2021.
3rd in route participation behind Cooper Kupp and Ja’Marr Chase. 8th in target share – 31% from Weeks 13-18.
The only reason he didn’t finish higher than WR15 in half-point scoring was that the Colts ranked 29th in pass-play rate and 27th in pass attempts.
With a more trustworthy quarterback who has a track record of fueling fantasy WR1s and hyper-targeting alphas in Matt Ryan for the 2022 season, Pittman has the legitimate chance to make the leap into the top-12 WR1 conversation and alter the tides of fantasy leagues. – Andrew Erickson
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.
