Fantasy Football Player Predictions: George Kittle, Gus Edwards, Mike Williams, Curtis Samuel (2023)

Our analysts have put together fantasy football outlooks for all fantasy-relevant players. You can find them on our player pages and via our Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR). These will be updated throughout the preseason to help you navigate your fantasy football drafts utilizing our bevy of tools, including our FREE draft simulator and cheat sheet creator. We’ll cover players in different groups to help you identify those to target and others to avoid. In this series, our analysts took a look at some of the biggest storylines from 2022 and predicted players who could fit that mold in 2023. This means hyped players who busted instead of breaking out, unheralded sleepers who finished in the top tier of their position, rookie breakouts, and more.

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This Year’s Kyle Pitts

George Kittle (TE – SF)

This year’s Kyle Pitts: The biggest tight end bust in all of fantasy football

George Kittle‘s automatic top-five tight-end ranking will look laughable when we look back on this season. George Kittle survived off of touchdowns last year, plain and simple. His 11 receiving touchdowns were a massive outlier that won’t repeat in 2023. Kittle has never managed more than six receiving touchdowns in any season until last year. Also, add that Kittle is beginning to show a decline in his efficiency metrics. Impending touchdown regression and eroding efficiency is not a recipe for fantasy goodness. Last year Kittle had his lowest yards per route run and targets per route run since his rookie season in 2017. He also recorded the second-lowest PFF receiving grade of his incredible career. There are too many talented tight ends with similar upsides to worry about drafting Kittle in 2023. -Derek Brown

This Year’s D’Onta Foreman

Gus Edwards (RB – BAL)

This year’s D’Onta Foreman: The No.1 RB handcuff who gets drafted outside the top-55 RBs.

It’s not every day you can draft an RB as good as Gus Edwards with a clear-cut No.2 role on his team’s offense. He has been uber-efficient ever since entering the NFL, with a career 5.1 yards per carry. He owns the second-highest yards per carry since 2018 (5.1). Last season alone, the Gus Bus posted the league’s 7th-highest rushing yards after contact per attempt (3.5). He’s a completely forgotten handcuff to J.K. Dobbins, who has been plagued by injuries over the last two seasons. -Andrew Erickson

This Year’s Michael Thomas

Mike Williams (WR – SD)

This year’s Michael Thomas: A top-36 WR who can’t stay healthy and will become a wasted pick.

Over the last three seasons, when playing alongside a healthy Keenan Allen, Big Mike has averaged fewer than 11 points per game. Outside top-24 scoring rate. In eight games with Allen last season: sub-10 fantasy points per game (WR3 numbers inside the top-36). Williams’ status as the clear-cut No. 2 WR in LA is also in question this year. The team added first-rounder Quentin Johnston to the fold, which adds another layer of ambiguity in the target pecking order. Williams has never been a target hog – 20 percent target rate last year – which is problematic for drafters expecting any sort of consistency from the former first-round selection Because the big-bodied WR is the epitome of boom-or-bust WR3 in fantasy football. In 2022, he posted five top-13 games and seven outside top-35. Williams only finished as an actual WR2 once last season. -Andrew Erickson

This Year’s Russell Gage

Curtis Samuel (WR – WAS)

This year’s Russell Gage: A real-life No. 3 WR who gets too much hype.

Curtis Samuel had 92 targets and 38 rushing attempts for the Commanders last season. That was with Scott Turner as Washington’s offensive coordinator. Eric Bieniemy will be the Commanders’ OC in 2023, and there’s no guarantee Samuel will have as significant a role. Samuel has been a popular fantasy sleeper in recent years, but he’s had only one season in which he averaged more than 40 receiving yards per game. Samuel probably won’t see many targets this season if Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson both stay reasonably healthy. – Pat Fitzmaurice

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.