Players on New Teams: Saquon Barkley, Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins (Fantasy Football)

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 on new teams in 2024 below.

Fantasy Football Players on New Teams (2024)

Kirk Cousins (ATL)

Kirk Cousins is being tasked with jump-starting a Falcons offense that struggled last season with Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke manning the QB position. Cousins was a consistent fantasy producer during his time in Minnesota, but he tore his Achilles on Oct. 29, and as he heads into his age-36 season, we probably shouldn’t assume that he’ll continue to provide low-end QB1 value. Before going on IR last season, Cousins was averaging 291.4 passing yards and 2.3 TD passes a game. For fantasy managers, drafting Cousins to be your starting quarterback would be risky, but once he’s fully healthy, this proven veteran should at least be able to provide solid QB2 value.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Justin Fields (PIT)

Justin Fields is a dangerous dual-threat quarterback in fantasy football, but how much of a chance will he get to play in 2024? The Steelers acquired Fields from the Bears in a mid-March trade, giving up a sixth-round pick that could become a fourth-rounder depending on Fields’ playing time this season. The modest compensation the Bears received — particularly when there were other QB-needy teams that didn’t make a play for Fields — suggests that the league doesn’t value the sack-prone young quarterback as much as fantasy managers may have. Fields now finds himself in the same QB room as Russell Wilson, whom the Steelers acquired earlier in the offseason, and early reports suggest that Wilson has the inside track to be the Week 1 starter. Fields has landed in QB1 range in fantasy points per game each of the last two seasons (6 starts minimum), finishing QB5 in FPPG in 2022 and QB12 in 2023. Fields’ rushing production fell from 76.2 rushing yards per game and eight TD runs in 2022 to 50.5 rushing yards per game and four TD runs in 2023, but he averaged a career-high 197.1 passing yards per game last season.
– Pat Fitzmaurice

Saquon Barkley (PHI)

The Philly front office has officially gaslit the entire Giants’ fanbase. Barkley’s move to the Eagles might be met with some blowback because people are worried about his touchdown equity with Jalen Hurts. Barkley and D’Andre Swift are not close to being in the same talent area code. Bringing in Barkley means we likely see a downtick of Hurts’ goalline dives in 2024. While the overall counting stats for Barkley look depressed, he’s still very much an every-down bell cow with juice left in the tank entering his age-27 season. Last season, he played at least 70% of the snaps in 11 of his 14 games while ranking second in opportunity share and ninth in weighted opportunities. Last season, Barkley was still an explosive player, ranking 17th in explosive run rate, but his tackle-breaking metrics took a hit as he was 37th in missed tackles forced per attempt and 33rd in yards after contact per attempt (minimum 50 carries per Fantasy Points Data). Barkley remains a stud RB1.
– Derek Brown