When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football players entering make-or-break seasons.
- 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2024 Fantasy Football Rankings
- 2024 Dynasty Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator
2024 Fantasy Football Draft Advice
Quarterbacks
Will we ever again see the early-career version of Deshaun Watson — the one who was a top-five fantasy quarterback in each of his first three full seasons as an NFL starter? Watson has struggled to recapture the magic of his run with the Texans from 2018 to 2020. He was understandably rusty when he made his Browns debut late in the 2022 season after serving an 11-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy. Watson wasn’t significantly better in six 2023 starts for the Browns before a shoulder injury ended his season. In each of his two abbreviated seasons with Cleveland, Watson has averaged 15.1 fantasy points per game. He’s completed 59.8% of his passes over the last two years and has averaged 6.5 yards per attempt. Watson turns 29 at the beginning of the 2024 season, and it’s seeming less and less likely that he’ll ever recapture the electrifying form he showed when he first burst onto the NFL scene. Approach with caution.
– Pat Fitzmaurice
After a triumphant 2022 season in which he threw for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns, completing an NFL-high 69.8% of his passes, Geno Smith floated back down to earth in 2023. Despite working with the WR trio of D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Smith finished QB25 in fantasy scoring last year, averaging 15.3 fantasy points per game. So … will the real Geno Smith please stand up? With Seattle’s ample pass-catching weaponry, a return to the heights of 2022 is certainly possible for Smith. But the 33-year-old Smith has only had one good NFL season, so it’s not inconceivable that he could play his way out of a starting job.
– Pat Fitzmaurice
Will Levis quickened the pulses of fantasy football managers when he threw four TD passes against the Falcons in his first NFL start. But after those Levis pyrotechnics in Week 8, the rookie QB couldn’t get much cooking for the rest of the season, throwing only four TD passes over his next eight starts. It’s hard to tell what to make of Levis for 2024. The book on him coming out of college was that he had the Josh Allen starter kit (rocket arm, good mobility) but was far from a finished product. The good news is that the Titans seem committed to their young quarterback. They signed free-agent WR Calvin Ridley to a four-year, $92 million deal, giving Levis a veteran WR duo of Ridley and DeAndre Hopkins. Tennessee also signed veteran slot receiver Tyler Boyd and made investments in a leaky offensive line. Levis is probably going to encounter rough patches in his first full season as a starter, but a dramatically upgraded supporting cast gives him a fighting chance to be a pleasant fantasy surprise.
– Pat Fitzmaurice
Is it far-fetched to think that we might get a rebound from Daniel Jones in 2024 after his ugly, injury-shortened season in 2023? Optimists will note that Jones finished QB9 in fantasy points per game in 2022, fueled by 708 rushing yards and seven TD runs. They’ll also point out that with the Giants spending the No. 6 pick in the NFL Draft on Malik Nabers, Jones will have a true No. 1 receiver for the first time in his professional career. The pessimists will note that in the six games Jones played last year before getting hurt, he posted a dismal passer rating of 70.5, with two TD passes and six interceptions. They’ll add that Daniels has averaged fewer than 7.0 yards per pass attempt in all five of his NFL seasons. The ceiling for Jones may be higher than some fantasy managers realize, but it’s entirely possible that Jones will stumble early in the season and be replaced by Drew Lock.
– Pat Fitzmaurice
Fantasy Football Draft Rankings
Check out the consensus 2024 fantasy football draft rankings from our experts.
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