Fantasy Football Targets: Malik Nabers, Amari Cooper, Anthony Richardson

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 some of Derek Brown’s favorite middle-round fantasy football draft picks to target.

2024 Fantasy Football Draft Advice

Malik Nabers (WR – NYG): While we might have worries about the landing spot, there are two undeniable facts here. Nabers is a stone-cold baller, and he will vacuum up all the targets he can handle in 2024. During his final year at LSU, Nabers ranked third in YPRR, first in PFF receiving grade, and fourth in missed tackles forced. Nabers is the clear WR1 for New York this season, and it’s not particularly close. No Giants wide receiver managed over a 16.9% target share last year, so there’s no one standing in Nabers’ way of soaking up a 23-25% target share in his rookie season. The Giants threw the ball 518 times last year. If Nabers can earn a 25% target share and the Giants don’t pass any more than they did last season, he will theoretically see 130 targets. That would have been tied for 19th in targets among wide receivers last season. I’m willing to invest in Nabers’ talent, and I’m just praying that we get at least league-average quarterback play from Daniel Jones and company this season.

Amari Cooper (WR – CLE): Cooper continues to chug along. Entering his age-30 season, he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Last year, he finished as the WR17 in fantasy points per game, ranking 23rd in target share (22.1%), 13th in air-yard share (39%), and 12th in YPRR. While Deshaun Watson wasn’t good last year, that didn’t stop Cooper from excelling with Watson. In the five full games Watson played, Cooper averaged 96 receiving yards per game with 2.96 YPRR and 0.123 FD/RR. Over a full season, among 81 qualifying wide receivers, Cooper would have ranked fourth, fifth, and 10th in those statistical categories if he kept up that pace. Cooper is a fantastic value pick this year that has some juicy upside.

Anthony Richardson (QB – IND): Richardson is a mystery box of untold potential entering the 2024 season. If he could put what we saw in a small sample last year on paper for an entire campaign, it could be magical. In Richardson’s two full starts, he averaged 25.7 fantasy points per game, which, if you’re keeping score at home, is more than Josh Allen averaged last year (24.2). Richardson led all quarterbacks (minimum 80 dropbacks) in fantasy points per dropback. Are his passing numbers worrisome? Sure. Are there some small silver linings that lead to hopeful thoughts? Yep. In his final two games, he managed at least 8.0 yards per attempt and at least a 7.1% big-time throw rate. Even if he takes a step forward as a passer, rushing will be the magic elixir that will carry Richardson in 2024. Last year, Richardson, even in the abbreviated sample, ranked fifth in rushing yards per game and third in red zone carries per game. Richardson has QB1 overall upside this season if everything breaks his way.