Fantasy Football Rookie Preseason Risers: Zay Flowers, Deuce Vaughn, Tank Bigsby

Two weeks of the preseason down, one to go. With the heart of fantasy draft season upon us and the regular season coming up quickly, FantasyPros analysts Derek Brown, Andrew Erickson, Pat Fitzmaurice and Mike Maher continue a series of preseason roundtables. Here is the full article, and check out last week’s fantasy football roundtable for even more expert advice. Below we dive deep on one of our weekly topics.

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Which rookie has most excited you with his performance in the preseason so far?

Pat Fitzmaurice: It’s Zay Flowers. Lamar Jackson reportedly calls Flowers “Joystick,” and it’s easy to see why. The rookie from Boston College has extraordinary movement skills and is absolutely lethal in the open field. Flowers has drawn rave reviews throughout training camp, and it’s possible he’ll be the Ravens’ best receiver right away. I’m trying to scoop him up in as many drafts as possible.

Mike Maher: I have to agree with Pat that it’s Zay Flowers. He immediately looks like he belongs, and he happens to play in an offense that is starving for a WR1 to emerge. The Ravens are going to pass the ball more this season, and Lamar Jackson could create some huge openings for Flowers, especially when he scrambles and looks to push the ball down the field. Flowers is still cheap in drafts, so I’m grabbing his upside wherever I can.

Andrew Erickson: The top guys like Bijan Robinson, Zay Flowers, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Kendre Miller are the first names that come to mind. But for the sake of diving deeper, I am going with Cowboys RB Deuce Vaughn. I wrote off Vaughn earlier because of his historically small height. (At 5-5, he’s the shortest player to measure at the NFL combine.) But Vaughn has shown during the preseason that it doesn’t matter. I’ve been getting MAJOR Tarik Cohen vibes from Vaughn this preseason. Keep in mind that Vaughn totaled over 4,800 yards from scrimmage and 43 TDs en route to an RB class-leading college dominator rating. With Dallas searching for a complement to Tony Pollard, Vaughn looks like he could be the guy.

Derek Brown: I remain bullish on Tank Bigsby‘s ability to eat into Travis Etienne‘s workload in 2023. Bigsby has looked fantastic at every opportunity. Among 69 running backs with at least 10 preseason rushing attempts, Bigsby ranks 12th in breakaway run rate (per PFF). I’ll continue hammering him in the later rounds of drafts as a weekly flex play with massive upside if Etienne were to miss time with injury.