With the Fantasy Football Expo in the rearview mirror from Canton, Ohio, and draft season upon us, managers must put in the time and effort to get a leg up on their competition. Regardless of which platform you use as your host provider (ESPN, Yahoo!, Sleeper, RealTime Fantasy, etc.), an easy task that pays immediate dividends is acclimating yourself to the default rankings and seeing where value or potential pitfalls lie.

Each hosting provider differs slightly in how they evaluate players, creating opportunities to exploit. Understanding these differences can give you a significant competitive advantage when going against competition that relies upon average draft position (ADP) or website-generated rankings.

Most recently, I looked at RealTime Fantasy Sports (RTS for short) and compared their updated 2024 draft rankings to our expert consensus rankings (ECR) at FantasyPros. Their rankings can be found here. There were some interesting differences worth noting, especially about players who had a much higher grade than other providers. RTS isn’t afraid to be bold about endorsing breakout calls, to be sure.

• 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
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Overvalued Fantasy Football Players: RTS Leagues

Quarterbacks

Unlike ESPN, which tends to devalue the position, RTS emphasizes the importance of having a strong signal-caller under center. Of the websites I’ve reviewed so far this offseason, they have most clearly mirrored ECR in terms of placement. Their position-specific rankings significantly differed from ours, most notably with these examples:

• Jordan Love (QB – GB) | ECR – 71st overall/RTS – 53rd overall
• Anthony Richardson (QB – IND) | ECR – 52nd overall / RTS – 44th overall

Jordan Love’s first entire season as a starter was a rousing success, passing for over 4,100 yards and finishing with a 32:11 TD: INT ratio. His ability to spread the ball to all of Green Bay’s wide receivers rather than focusing on one or two, coupled with his ability to scramble when plays broke down, made him a difficult opponent for defenses to gameplan for. In one of the most significant postseason upsets, Love dismantled the Dallas Cowboys’ secondary on the road en route to a 48-32 victory in the NFC Wild Card game. His 2023 season set the bar high for expectations.

Our QB10 at FantasyPros, RTS, confidently ranked him several spots higher as their QB6 over C.J. Stroud and Joe Burrow. I like the call, but his current cost on their website saps away any potential room for return on investment and puts a ton of pressure on him to take another step forward in his progressions. Hopefully, he has another gear.

Anthony Richardson is another popular breakout pick on several websites due to his combination of tantalizing physical traits and surrounding talent in Indianapolis. Due to his intimidating stature, Richardson draws constant comparisons to Cam Newton. Fantasy managers are crossing their fingers Richardson becomes less reckless when absorbing contact on the run in 2024 after he missed the majority of last year with a grade-3 AC joint sprain (this was after he sustained a concussion in Week 2).

Based on the tiny sample size he left us with last season, Richardson has top-five potential if he puts everything together. An improved offensive line coupled with the healthy return of Jonathan Taylor is a significant boon, and the Colts have a trio of wideouts in Michael Pittman, Josh Downs and rookie Adonai Mitchell that can challenge defenders at all levels of the field. Richardson’s range of outcomes from league winner to being placed on inured reserve (IR) again is vast, but to RTS, he is worth the risk.

Running Backs

• James Cook (RB – BUF) | ECR – 45th overall/RTS – 26th overall
• Kenneth Walker (RB – SEA) | ECR – 47th overall/RTS – 36th overall

James Cook’s 2023 campaign should be viewed in two parts — before and after Joe Brady took over as the Buffalo offensive coordinator in Week 11. In the first half of the season, Cook surpassed 14 rushing attempts just twice, but after Brady was handed the reigns, he broke that threshold in all but one contest. From Week 11 onward, Cook averaged over 103 total yards from scrimmage each game, becoming a more complete back than a change-of-pace option.

An explosive runner capable of making defenders miss in open space, we are hesitant to go truly all-in on Cook this year due to concerns about short-yardage and red-zone work being handed to rookie thumper Ray Davis. Early reports from training camp have Buffalo implementing a committee approach, so Cook must capitalize on his points per touch to meet this lofty ranking.

Following a magnificent rookie campaign in 2022, during which he finished with over 1,200 total yards and nine touchdowns, Kenneth Walker took a step backward last season, running with less ferocity despite several injuries he attempted to play through. A bruised shoulder, strained oblique, tender calf and sore chest made us start singing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” while looking at the Seattle injury report.

More importantly, backup Zach Charbonnet siphoned away red-zone and receiving-game work, limiting Walker’s weekly upside to mid-RB2 status. I’m confident the Seahawks will have a potent offense this year under new head coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb but split touches and an aggressive running style that invites contact leave us with tempered expectations of Walker this year.

Wide Receivers

• Michael Pittman (WR – IND) | ECR – 38th overall/RTS – 16th overall
• Stefon Diggs (WR – HOU) | ECR – 48th overall/RTS – 13th overall

The folks over at RTS are high on the Indianapolis Colts this season. Michael Pittman’s aggressive rank as their WR9 follows suit with their thoughts on Anthony Richardson, and it makes sense that if they pegged a true breakout season for one, the other should follow suit. Our WR21, Pittman, is coming off the best season of his career, finishing with a 109/1,152/4 split on 156 targets. The unquestioned alpha option for the Colts, Pittman plays the role of an oversized chain-moving option rather than a contested catch or downfield specialist.

The addition of Texas rookie Adonai Mitchell will slightly eat into Pittman’s target share this year, and we expect the team to be more centered on the ground game with Richardson under center. Pittman has the potential for a positive touchdown reception regression (try saying that five times fast), but his ceiling is likely that of a WR2 rather than a back-end WR1.

After six consecutive seasons of over 1,000 receiving yards (five of which he eclipsed the 100-reception mark as well) and a bevy of top-10 finishes at the position, it isn’t easy to think of Diggs as anything other than a WR1 in fantasy football. With that out of the way, it helps to take a step back at the changes that have happened this offseason and the new set of circumstances Diggs finds himself in.

Diggs was traded to Houston during the offseason after a tumultuous departure from Buffalo, where he didn’t feel valued. Now entering his age-31 season, Diggs represents the elder statesman in the receiver room alongside Nick Collins and Tank Dell. He will face stiff competition for targets from C.J. Stroud, and it is unlikely he will ever sniff the near 30% share he had last season in Buffalo again. We are treating Diggs as more of an upside WR3 than a mid-range WR2 this year.

Tight Ends

• Dalton Kincaid (TE – BUF) | ECR – 69th overall/RTS – 42nd overall

Besides Dalton Kincaid, RTS very closely reflected our ECR toward the tight end position. One of the most discussed “sleepers” at the position for 2024, the secret is out on Kincaid, and RTS isn’t afraid to show how bullish they are on his upside. Kincaid finished as the TE15 during his rookie season but showed glimpses of how dominant he could be when fellow Buffalo tight end Dawson Knox was sidelined with a wrist injury midseason.

The departure of Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis opens up a bevy of targets in the passing game, and we anticipate Kincaid (who essentially functions as an oversized receiver in this offense) to inherit a good portion of the vacated looks. An enhanced role in the passing game on a team set for another playoff run makes him a valuable commodity, but 42nd overall is an aggressive stance. Placing him ahead of Jaylen Waddle, Malik Nabers, Derrick Henry and others draws a clear line in the stand that RTS isn’t afraid to get behind.

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