Second-Year Players: Chase Brown, Jaleel McLaughlin, Roschon Johnson (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. Here we break down all second-year fantasy football players to consider in your upcoming drafts. Let’s dive into a few notable second-year fantasy football players below.

Fantasy Football Second-Year Players: Draft Advice

Chase Brown (CIN)

Chase Brown remains a high-end handcuff bet for 2024 that could offer some stand-alone value if he can eat into Zach Moss’s workload. Brown was impressive on a per-touch basis last season, although the sample size is pretty limited (44 carries). Among 77 backs with at least 40 carries, Brown ranked 12th in yards after contact per attempt and 16th in missed tackles forced per attempt (per Fantasy Points Data). Brown is a player to get exposure with during draft season because the upside is there for him to outkick his ADP.
– Derek Brown

Jaleel McLaughlin (DEN)

Fully expect me to be above consensus regarding Jaleel McLaughlin this season. Last year, he was electric with every touch he earned. Among all running backs with at least 50 rushing attempts or 20 targets, McLaughlin ranked 14th in explosive run rate, fifth in missed tackles forced per attempt, fourth in yards after contact per attempt, and fourth in yards per route run. Denver made it a point to get him involved in the passing game when he was on the field, as he also ranked first in targets per route run. McLaughlin could easily earn more opportunities this season, as Samaje Perine wasn’t amazing last season, and Javonte Williams looked like a shadow of his former self. At this juncture, I’m not worried about Audric Estime and Blake Watson stealing any of McLaughlin’s work this season. If McLaughlin earns Sean Payton’s trust, he could be an RB3/4 that vaults into steady RB2 production.
– Derek Brown

Roschon Johnson (CHI)

Roschon Johnson had a consistent role as a committee back in his rookie season, but he was never able to seize the backfield fully. In the three games he played at least 49% of the snaps, he did average 9.7 touches and 53.5 total yards while flashing upside in the passing game. Among 60 qualifying backs last year, he ranked 27th in yards per route run and 17th in targets per route run rate (per Fantasy Points Data). Sadly, though, Johnson’s collegiate tackle-breaking prowess didn’t translate to the NFL in year one as he finished outside the top 40 backs in explosive run rate (46th), missed tackles forced per attempt (49th), and yards after contact per attempt (42nd). Johnson is now buried as the RB3 on Chicago’s depth chart and is only a late-round best-ball target at best.
– Derek Brown