Early-Round Draft Targets: Lamar Jackson, Drake London (2023 Fantasy Football)

We have a brand new season of fantasy football peeking over the horizon for 2023. After a wild NFL offseason and draft cycle, the dust has settled, and we have a shifting NFL landscape that appears ripe for the picking for fantasy. The attack plan for fantasy titles starts with the early rounds of your drafts. These early selections will build the backbone of your teams and influence how you approach the rest of your draft. Regardless of whether you love RB heavy, Zero RB or somewhere in between, I’ve presented a few targets early in fantasy football drafts.

Snake Draft Pick Strategy: Early | Middle | Late
Draft Targets for Every Round: Early | Middle | Late
Fitz’s Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE
Fantasy Football Draft Strategy

Derek Brown’s Early-Round Draft Strategy & Top Targets

Here is my approach and players to target for each of the early rounds.

Round 4

Lamar Jackson: The Baltimore Ravens love fest continues. This is an offense that I will be heavily invested in for 2023. With that being the case, If I miss out on Jalen Hurts or Justin Fields in drafts, then I’ll easily and aggressively pivot to Lamar Jackson. Break out the streamers and party hats because Jackson has been liberated. In steps Todd Monken who is riding in on his valiant play volume steed. Monken will inject new life into the pace of this offense as he’s ranked inside the top 12 in neutral script pace in three of his last four seasons as an offensive coordinator. With Monken and an army of new skill player additions, Jackson can revisit the torrid pace he started with last year before the receiving depth chart fell apart. In Weeks 1-3 with Rashod Bateman on the field, Jackson was the QB1 in fantasy points per game, averaging a whopping 34.8 points. He was also on his way to a beautiful passing season ranking third in passing grade, first in big-time throw rate and third in yards per attempt (minimum 80 dropbacks per PFF). Jackson could break fantasy football this year.

The Lamar Jackson haters don't want you to know

With Rashod Bateman in Weeks 1-3 playing at least 60% of the snaps…

L Jax among 30 QBs with at least 80 Dropbacks

– PFF passing grade – 3rd
– Big Time throw rate – 1st
– Yards per attempt – 3rd

Lamar with a STOCKED depth chart… pic.twitter.com/pu00mvj824

— Derek Brown (@DBro_FFB) June 8, 2023

Drake London: If we’ve learned anything over the last few years as fantasy managers, second and third-year wide receivers that have already flashed massive upside are strong bets to make in fantasy. While London didn’t live up to lofty predictions (WR43) as a rookie, everything screams that he is an insanely talented player to double down on in 2023. London posted alpha-level usage metrics ranking fifth in target share (29.4%) and second in target per route run rate (32.4%) among wide receivers. He was also 11th in yards per route run and 16th in open score (per ESPN analytics). London already gave us a peek at his WR2 floor for 2023 during last year’s stretch run. In Weeks 13-18, he was the WR20 in fantasy, even though he failed to score a touchdown in this span. I’ll continue betting on London’s beautiful talent profile.