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 Cole Kmet

Tyler Higbee (TE – LAR)

This year’s Cole Kmet: Tight end who finishes as a TE1 based heavily on TD production (outside top-10 in ADP).

All of these are great picks to provide touchdown-heavy seasons, but I went with Tyler Higbee for a couple of reasons. First, his usage last year was surprisingly great as he averaged 6.8 targets per game, which ranked fifth among tight ends last year. The Rams did nothing in the way of bringing in additional competition (outside of signing Hunter Long from Miami), so there’s little reason to believe this usage will go down. Higbee ran a route on 66.3% of the team’s dropbacks last year, putting him among the top 20 tight ends in that regard. Finally, the Rams’ defense is projected to be one of the worst in the league. If that’s the case, Los Angeles will be forced to throw the ball even more than they did last year. -Sam Hoppen

This Year’s Jamaal Williams

Damien Harris (RB – BUF)

This year’s Jamaal Williams: RB who carves out a massive red-zone role and scores a TON of TDs.

You knew it was coming. In 2021, Damien Harris finished tied for second in the NFL in rushing TDs (15). 18 of his 20 career TDs have come from inside the 20-yard line. If Harris can emerge as the primary goal-line rusher in Buffalo, he is going to score A LOT of TDs in 2023. – Andrew Erickson

This Year’s Christian Watson

Jalin Hyatt (WR – NYG)

This year’s Christian Watson: Rookie WR left for dead (outside the top 65) who breaks out.

Jalin Hyatt was a big-play savant in a gimmicky Tennessee offense, giving him a wide range of outcomes heading into his rookie year. There’s likely going to be a steep learning curve for him, so I am bracing for the “negative reports” during training camp. But from a sheer pure talent standpoint, Hyatt stands out tremendously compared to the rest of the Giants WRs. Remember, New York apparently was willing to take Hyatt with their Round 2 pick but rolled the dice hoping he would come back to them in Round 3 after so-so testing. They also traded very aggressively to draft him trading a No.89 and No. 128 (4th-rounder) to move up to the 72nd overall selection. Joe Schoen has ties to Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, and that relationship played a part in the team’s confidence in selecting Hyatt. Brian Daboll sees comparisons to Gabe Davis in his game, but there’s no question Hyatt enter the NFL with a much stronger college profile than the Bills WR. Hyatt also said in his post-draft presser that he plays much closer to 188-190 pounds, which is drastically different from his weight at the combine (176 pounds). Hyatt broke out in a massive way in 2022, catching 67 balls for 1,267 receiving yards and 15 receiving touchdowns en route to a 32% dominator rating. After an injury-plagued sophomore campaign, his elite junior season earned him the Fred Biletnikoff Award and unanimous All-American honors. The 6-foot and 176-pound Tennessee Volunteer played 87% of his snaps from the slot, finished sixth in yards per route run (3.27), and boasted the No. 1 passer rating (and almost perfect) when targeted at 156.5. His elite speed is too tough to ignore and will make him a big-play specialist. – Andrew Erickson

This Year’s Adam Thielen

Mike Evans (WR – TB)

This year’s Adam Thielen: Aging WR who finally hits the cliff (top-100 overall pick or top-36 WR)

If Evans tanks in 2023, a lot of people will blame the Buccaneers’ quarterbacking. Baker Mayfield is the favorite to start at QB for the Bucs, with Kyle Trask a Plan B. But Evans, who’ll turn 30 in August, endured a career-long 11-game touchdown drought last year, and his yards per target dipped below 9.0 for the first time since 2017. Evans has shown no glaring signs of decline, but 30 is the age at which we saw significant slippage from A.J. Green, and Julio Jones fell off at age 31. It’s possible Evans is approaching the dreaded age cliff. – 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.