Here are a few of the players I’m avoiding in 2023 fantasy football drafts. Upgrade to our premium subscription to view my full list of 2023 players to avoid.
- Draft Targets for Every Round: Early | Middle | Late
- Fitz’s Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE
- Fantasy Football Draft Strategy
- 2023 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
Fantasy Football Draft Players to Avoid
D’Onta Foreman (RB – CHI)
It’s not as if Foreman has a lofty ADP, but it’s hard to see his path to fantasy relevance in 2023.
Foreman needs touch volume in order to pop. He got it at times last year in Carolina. After the Panthers traded away Christian McCaffrey, Foreman fell into a boatload of early-down touches. He had five 100-yard rushing games, averaging 23.4 carries in those games.
Foreman isn’t going to see those types of touch counts in Chicago this year. He’ll be in a three-man RB committee with Khalil Herbert and rookie Roschon Johnson. It’s possible he gets a majority or a plurality of the early-down carries, but he’s not going to average anything close to 20 carries a game, and he’s unlikely to contribute much as a pass catcher — Foreman has 23 catches in 43 career games.
There are better ways to spend a late-round draft pick.
Davante Adams (WR – LV)
Adams spent his first eight years in the NFL catching passes from future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Rodgers. Then, Adams headed to Las Vegas to reunite with his old college teammate at Fresno State, Derek Carr. Now, Adams will probably have the worst QB situation of his career.
New Raider Jimmy Garoppolo is capable and efficient, but he doesn’t aggressively push the ball downfield. Carr averaged 9.1 intended air yards per pass attempt last season, according to Pro Football Reference, the fourth-highest total in the league. Garoppolo averaged 6.9 intended air yards per pass attempt last year.
Adams is reportedly unhappy with the direction of the Raiders. I don’t know about you, but “disgruntled” is not among the qualities I seek in early-round fantasy picks.
Oh, and Adams is 30 now, so the age cliff is drawing closer.
Adams has been money in the bank for years, but it seems like a good year to let someone else draft him.
Calvin Ridley (WR – JAC)
It’s possible Ridley picks up where he left off after not playing since early in the 2021 season. At his current price, investors need for that to happen in order to get a satisfying ROI.
The thing is, pro football is hard. We saw Deshaun Watson have trouble scraping off the rust last season after being out of the NFL for nearly two years. Maybe it will be easy for a wide receiver, who doesn’t have quite as much to process as a quarterback. Or maybe it will be a tough readjustment for Ridley, too. And is it fair to wonder about Ridley’s commitment to football after foolishly getting himself suspended for gambling? I think it is.
The Jaguars have other high-quality pass catchers — Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Evan Engram — so we can’t assume Ridley will consistently see big target totals.
Ridley was a terrific receiver when we last saw him. Maybe he’ll be terrific this fall. I’m just not comfortable with the pot odds we’re getting to bet on it.
More Players to Target & Avoid
- Pat Fitzmaurice: (Targets | Avoids) (Premium)
- Andrew Erickson: (Targets | Avoids) (Premium)
- Derek Brown: (Targets | Avoids) (Premium)
- Fantasy Football Sleepers for Every Team (Premium)
- How to Identify Fantasy Football Busts (Premium)
- Erickson’s Guide to Drafting Players on Good Offenses
- Fantasy Football Draft Values for Every Round
- Predicting First-Round Bust Candidates
- DBro’s Wide Receiver Lottery Tickets
- Erickson’s Running Back Lottery Tickets
- Hoppen’s 4 Players Who Could Become First-Round Picks Next Year
- Players to Target in Each Round (v2 | v3)
- Players to Avoid in Each Round
- Late-Round Draft Targets
- Late-Round QB Targets in Superflex Leagues | More QB Sleepers
- Late-Round RB Targets | More RB Sleepers | July RB Targets
- Late-Round WR Targets
- Late-Round TE Targets
- Deep Dart Throw Draft Targets
- WRs to Target in the RB Dead Zone (v2)| RBs to Avoid in the RB Dead Zone | RBs to Target in RB Dead Zone
- Identifying the Next WR1s | Identifying the Next RB1s
- 2022 Duds That Will Become 2023 Studs
- 4 Kickers To Target at the End of Drafts
- Making the Case for RB1
- Post-Hype Sleepers
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