The NFL Draft is over, free agency has run most of its course, and players are where they will be for the 2024 season (except maybe Brandon Aiyuk). This means it’s time to start putting together fantasy football rankings, cheat sheets and more. But before you do, be aware of who will surely be climbing or falling from those fantasy football rankings, including a handful of players below.
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Fantasy Football Players Trending Up & Down
Fantasy Football Players Trending Up
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. Kyle Pitts, as an elite fantasy option, might happen. The highest-drafted tight end of all time has been under the microscope as long as he’s been in the league. Initially, it seemed he would live up to the hype, totaling 1,000+ yards in his rookie season and finishing as a top-10 fantasy tight end despite notching just one touchdown.
His sophomore season was a different story. He doubled his touchdown total to two but saw his targets and reception totals cut by half, recording just 356 yards. He saw improvement from that abysmal season in his third campaign, upping his yardage to 667 yards, but he was outside the top 10 for tight ends in fantasy scoring.
Entering the 2024 season, Pitts will have a quarterback in Kirk Cousins in their prime to catch balls from (he had Matt Ryan in 2021, but Ryan was washed by then). Pitts also has a new coordinator in Zac Robinson, who studied at the Sean McVay School of play calling, which should be an improvement on Arthur Smith, who seemed to hate Pitts by the end of Smith’s Atlanta tenure.
Despite being the 12th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, new Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix was also the last quarterback taken in the first round and sixth at the position. Between when he was taken, ending up on a team with very few prospects of success, and not even being promised the starting job, it’s understandable Nix has been a relative afterthought when it comes to fantasy drafts.
So far, Nix has impressed in practices and workouts (albeit padless), with head coach Sean Payton claiming he’s ‘farther along than most would be.’ Granted, Payton was the driving force behind drafting Nix in the first place, so take it with a grain of salt. But consider Nix’s competition, including draft bust Zach Wilson and veteran Jarrett Stidham. It’s not out of the question that Nix starts.
Then the question is, how well will Nix do? Consider that last year Russell Wilson finished as a top-15 fantasy quarterback last season in Denver after throwing for 3,000 yards and 26 touchdowns and rushing for another 340 yards and three touchdowns. Nix has the arm and legs to match those numbers, which would make him an absolute steal from his current QB31 ranking. He’ll start creeping up rankings as he sees starter snaps and attention.
Fantasy Football Players Trending Down
It was just a few months ago that Kyren Williams was putting a bow on one of the most improbable fantasy football seasons in recent history. Despite missing a quarter of the season, Williams still ended up as a top-five fantasy running back. From being considered a backup or handcuff for the entire 2023 offseason to rushing for over 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns and leading several teams to fantasy championships, it was quite the roller coaster for Williams and his fantasy managers.
Fast-forward to this offseason and Williams is on the other end of the trending scale. For starters, there are the injuries. Between foot and ankle injuries and breaking his hand in the playoffs last year, Williams is a walking medical case.
It only made sense for the Rams to use a fairly high draft pick on a running back. Los Angeles took Michigan running back Blake Corum 83rd overall, which piqued interest around fantasy circles because A) it’s rare the Rams have draft picks to begin with, but B) they spent a pick on a running back when they have several other holes to fill. Then again, this is a Sean McVay-led offense that hasn’t had the same running back lead the team in rushing in consecutive years since Todd Gurley in 2019.
It’s all led to Williams slowly sliding down fantasy rankings. Instead of being a top-five option in drafts, Williams is barely staying in the top 10. And watch out if he doesn’t see the field early on or if Corum is given more run in training camp and the preseason.
When it comes to fantasy stats, Justin Herbert has been as consistent of a QB1 as it gets. He finished as a top-11 quarterback in each of his first three seasons in the league. He missed a month in 2023 but still managed to throw for 3,000+ yards and 20 touchdowns and was on his way to another QB1 finish.
But the Chargers have not taken advantage of their young signal-caller’s success, making the playoffs just once two years ago before bottoming out to a 5-12 record last year. Thus, the change at coach to, perhaps, the biggest free agent coach on the market, Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh, fresh off winning a national championship, is getting a second shot at the NFL after a previous stint in San Francisco.
Usually, bringing a coach in with such pedigree would be a boost to a player, especially a quarterback’s value, both in real-life and fantasy leagues. Not so in Herbert’s case. Harbaugh has not been shy about his preference to run the football in his words or his actions. He brought in Greg Roman, who led a run-first attack in San Francisco with him. Roman’s teams have finished in the top nine of rush attempts in each of his 10 years as a coordinator. His teams have also finished higher than 28th in pass attempts just once. Harbaugh also brought in former Ravens Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins to lead the rush attack and used his first-round pick (fifth overall) on lineman Joe Alt instead of receiver Malik Nabers.
It should be a huge transition for Herbert, who never finished lower than 12th in pass attempts since entering the league. He, and the Chargers, should be successful but it might look a little different.
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