Safest Draft Picks: Justin Herbert, Kirk Cousins, Najee Harris (Fantasy Football)

Fantasy football is a game of risk. Winning your league requires taking chances and making high-upside picks. But you can’t draft a team entirely comprised of upside. Your team should also include safe, reliable players that you know will get the job done.

Let’s discuss the safest players to draft in 2023 and the value they bring to your fantasy team. We’ll break it down position by position and feature players being drafted outside the top five at their respected positions.

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The Safest Players to Draft (2023 Fantasy Football)

Justin Herbert (QB – LAC)

Coming off a QB2 finish in 2021, Justin Herbert disappointed as QB11 last season. His top weapons missed significant portions of the season, and he dealt with a rib injury that hurt his mobility.

Herbert is now healthy, and the Chargers drafted Quentin Johnston to strengthen their receiving corps and hired Kellen Moore to boost their passing attack. Herbert is one of the safest players to draft in 2023 because he has an ADP of QB7, a huge discount for his ceiling, and low risk if his worst-case scenario floor is QB11.

Kirk Cousins (QB – MIN)

Kirk Cousins is a quarterback you can draft as a low-end QB1 or high-end QB2, and be very assured he’ll finish around his ADP. Cousins finished as QB7 overall last year, averaging 18 fantasy points per game – an average that puts him at QB11.

He’s an extremely stable option in a high-volume offense with the league’s best receiver, a top-three tight end and one of the top receiving prospects of the 2023 NFL Draft. Aside from one or two bad weeks, he typically provides a very stable floor.

Najee Harris (RB – PIT)

Fantasy managers are understandably lower on Najee Harris after an underwhelming 2022, but he is still one of the safest players to draft in 2023. Coming off a year where he finished as RB14, Harris is being drafted as RB13 and is a very ADP-appropriate RB1.

Harris spent a significant portion of 2022 playing through a Lisfranc injury and averaged just 10.9 fantasy points per game in PPR Weeks 1 through 8. However, after the Steelers’ Week 9 bye week, Harris averaged just over 15 fantasy points per game – very solid and worthy of being your RB1. After being overdrafted as a clear regression candidate, his ADP is back on track, and you can’t ask for a safer, low-end RB1.