Fantasy Football Busts: Jayden Reed, T.J. Hockenson, Ladd McConkey

Drafts are happening thick and fast with every site offering a plethora of options to suit any budget or taste. One of the longest-running platforms is The FFPC, who cater more often to the higher budget options with drafts ranging from $35 up into the thousands, but the most popular is the FantasyPros Championship, a massive redraft contest with $1,000,000 to the winner.

FFPC uses a full PPR format with an additional 0.5 points awarded to tight ends for each reception. These are the most obviously overvalued fantasy football players to avoid on FFPC in August as potential busts.

Fantasy Football Busts: FFPC Leagues

Jayden Reed (QB – WR): 76.5 ADP

The Packers have a wealth of options at the wide receiver position and Jayden Reed may be the very best of them, but it’s hard to choose him when gameplans and matchups could move the game away from him in a given week and instead feature Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs or Dontayvion Wicks, not to mention their other options at tight end and running back. Reed averaged an impressive 13.5 PPR points in his rookie season, but this was massively inflated because of the 10 touchdowns he scored. Scoring touchdowns is an important part of fantasy football, but not the most sticky attribute. In the seven games Reed failed to score touchdowns he never finished higher than WR36.

Jayden Reed had the exact same reaction to having to block Rashan Gary that anyone would have. ???? pic.twitter.com/ckgATXp7Zm

— Tyler Brooke (@TylerDBrooke) August 6, 2024

Ladd McConkey (WR – LAC): 87.0 ADP

The Chargers were desperate for wide receiver help after moving on from both Keenan Allen and Mike Williams this offseason. They invested excellent draft capital in Ladd McConkey, trading up several sports to secure him with the second pick of the second round. McConkey never truly broke out at Georgia with Brock Bowers being the constant focus of the passing game. While it’s fair to give him a slight pass because of that, it would have been a lot nicer if we’d seen a bit more from him, having never surpassed 800 receiving yards or reaching double-digit touchdowns. Sometimes players find themselves pushed up the board simply because ‘someone has to catch the ball’ and that’s not an argument that feels worth a top-100 pick, especially when Justin Herbert is dealing with plantar fascia, keeping him in a walking boot for a few weeks.

T.J. Hockenson (TE – MIN): 104.8 ADP

On Underdog and DraftKings it’s not uncommon to see T.J. Hockenson falling into the 150 range of drafts, which still feels a tad high for a player coming off a torn ACL and MCL knee injury he suffered in Week 16. The most optimistic scenarios expect Hockenson to be back on the field around Week 6, at which point Hockenson will be expected to get up to speed with a new rookie quarterback. By the time Hockenson is healthy he could be, at best, the third option behind Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Yes, the TE-premium scoring makes the position more valuable, but parting with a top 105 pick for a player who could give you nothing for half a season feels like a steep price to pay. Unless we hear positive news about Hockenson, he’s best left alone until his ADP gets to around 150, which it likely will as we get to training camp when he lands on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.

Mike Fanelli is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @Mike_NFL2.

NFL Jayden Reed Christian Watson Romeo Doubs Dontayvion Wicks Ladd McConkey Keenan Allen Mike Williams Brock Bowers Justin Herbert T.J. Hockenson Justin Jefferson Jordan Addison