Fantasy Football Bounce-Back Candidates: Garrett Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Trevor Lawrence

You could finish your fantasy football draft and love your starters and bench depth, but you unexpectedly finish at the bottom. There will always be factors out of your control. Injuries play a big part in fantasy football, but you’ll also run into players not living up to their potential.

This is a list of six players who did not meet their fantasy football expectations last year but have a chance for a bounce back in 2024.

Fantasy Football Duds That Will Become Studs

Garrett Wilson (WR – NYJ)

Everyone was excited for Wilson, who had 1,000 receiving yards in his rookie year when he was going to have Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback. That lasted all of five snaps.

It was another year of incompetent quarterbacks, and while he did have 1,042 receiving yards, the week-to-week fantasy finishes were not what you wanted. In 2022, he had three top-10 finishes; in 2023, he had one. He also had 11 finishes outside the top 20, which is unacceptable when you drafted him in the top 20.

They trust him. He was peppered with targets, ten or more in nine games this year, and the only significant addition to that receiver room was Mike Williams.

As long as Rodgers is healthy, Wilson has top-10 potential.

Patrick Mahomes (QB – KC)

Yeah, technically, he was a dud. This was the top-ranked quarterback you took early in drafts but did not finish like one, especially when you look at the other quarterbacks that went around him and where they finished. He finished as the QB8, and his 18.4 points per game was the 12th-most last year. When you look at the surface stats, they weren’t Mahomes-esque; Mahomes posted a career-low 4.5% touchdown rate and a career-high 2.3% interception rate, also posting career lows with 7.0 yards per pass attempt and 261.4 passing yards per game.

It also had a lot to do with the receivers. The team finished with the most dropped passes (44), and many of them were during key situations. Mahomes’ numbers could have been much better if those dropped passes had been cut in half.

The Chiefs also addressed the problem by improving at that position. Marquise Brown gives him an experienced and high-quality receiver. They drafted Texas standout Xavier Worthy, and hopefully, Rashee Rice‘s offseason issue doesn’t impact his playing time too much.

Trevor Lawrence (QB – JAC)

After a breakout 2022 campaign, 2023 was a significant disappointment. He came into last season as the consensus QB8 but finished as the QB14.

While he was on the field for 16 games, he was never 100% healthy. He dealt with an ankle issue, and there was frequent worry that he wouldn’t suit up. That impacts someone who does like to scramble and make plays out of the pocket. That issue could have a lot to do with the rise in interceptions. He still threw for 4,016 yards and 21 touchdowns. Those are numbers you want to see from a quarterback.

He will come into the season healthy and could return to form.