Fantasy Football Draft Targets: Cole Kmet, Gabe Davis, Jaylen Warren (2024)

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘better in best ball’ thrown around when talking about some players in fantasy football. It’s often used for players with higher ceiling outcomes but low floors. The annoying types for redraft leagues where you can never trust them from one week to the next. In best ball, with optimized rosters every week, that’s much less of a pain. This article will cover players that gain value in best ball formats.

Undervalued Best Ball Players

Cole Kmet (TE – CHI)

The Bears tight end could be one of the poster boys for better in best ball after a couple of frustrating years with Justin Fields under center. In 2022, Kmet put up straight weeks with less than 10 points, including four finishes as the TE35 or worse, before finally scoring 22.0 points and 23.4 points in back-to-back games. But if you thought that was the start of a Kmet breakout you’d be disappointed, as Kmet followed those top-two finishes with TE17 and 24 finishes before his final top-15 appearance of the season in Week 13. In 2023, Kmet displayed slightly more consistency with one three-week spell inside of the top twelve and another of four consecutive weeks but Kmet still disappeared at times with fewer than five PPR points in 31.2% of appearances. Getting a virtual zero in multiple weeks of managed leagues is a hard pill to swallow. In best ball, though, we can build around that tendency and hopefully make up for it.

4 TEs ranked top-9 in yards per target, yards per route, and @PFF receiving grade last year.

Travis Kelce
Mark Andrews
George Kittle

And …

Cole Kmet

— Jared Smola (@SmolaDS) February 23, 2024

Gabe Davis (WR – BUF)

The most divisive player in fantasy football continued to divide opinion with his stat lines and production, providing a Rorschach test to fantasy managers. Those who enjoy the Gabe Davis experience saw four top-12 weekly finishes, along with two more inside the top 24 at the position. He did record five games of over 21.0 points — for what it’s worth those, five finishes over 21.0 points were more than AJ Brown, Amari Cooper, Nico Collins, Davante Adams, Brandon Aiyuk and Davis’ Buffalo teammate, Stefon Diggs, among others.

Meanwhile, those who sway towards the more negative side will pinpoint Davis’ four finishes with zero points, along with a further three below five. In best ball, this is a problem you can live with, as long as you’ve selected several WRs ahead of Davis. It might be more problematic if you’ve leaned running back heavily early on.

Gabe Davis had more games over 21.0 PPR points than AJ Brown did in 2023.

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— Tom Strachan (@NFL_TStrack) February 29, 2024

Jaylen Warren (RB – PIT)

The Steelers found themselves at the end of 2023 with a strong two-headed running back committee, which should be viewed as one of their strengths heading into 2024. In 2023, Jaylen Warren was the clear value play being drafted 70 spots later than Najee Harris (44.5) and it was debatable over who was the better back of the pairing. Warren finished as the RB4 in rushing yards over expected, with 162 on 149 attempts. It was Harris, though, who kept a stranglehold on the RB1 duties with his bigger size being an asset around the goal line. Warren feels primed to push Harris even further in 2024 but there will be weeks where game flow favors Harris and Warren languishes in the single-digit returns.