The McBrayer coat of arms lays the framework for what to expect from our ilk. From the early days of William Wallace and other Scots rebelling against the crown of England, the MacBrayer clan felt it necessary to make it their creed. “In defiance” is emblazoned below a white knight with three red stars and a matching lion reared on its haunches. Hundreds of years later, my family has the independence it fought for. Ever the defiant one, I still bristle with pride when shunning average draft position (ADP) in my fantasy drafts. Why conform to the aggregate when you can chart your own way? The difference between a groove and a rut is perspective. Don’t let the consensus define who will lead your fantasy football squad to glory.

• 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
• 2024 Fantasy Football Rankings
• 2024 Dynasty Fantasy Football Draft Kit
• Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator

The Worst Team You Could Draft at ADP (2024 Fantasy Football)

Before I warn you all about who not to pick in each round of your fantasy drafts, let me set the record straight. I don’t dislike any player, as a rule. The point of this exercise is to point out the guys who I have valued lower than where they are currently being selected.

This is part of the story where you can all get apoplectic about your favorite guy appearing on “the worst” fantasy team. Good. That’s to be expected and energizes healthy dialogue among peers. Feel free to put me on blast on the socials for this. It fuels my desire to improve. The team is assuming a 12-team PPR redraft with QB/RB/RB/WR/WR/WR/TE/FLEX/FLEX.

The double-digit rounds are, by definition, value rounds. Meaning you can’t mess it up at that point. The team below is based on the first 10 rounds. Also, please do not draft a kicker or defense this early. There are dozens of value-adding skill players still available.

Round 1: CeeDee Lamb (WR – DAL)

Why on earth wouldn’t last season’s WR1 be a great pick this season? First of all, if I’m advising CeeDee Lamb, he’s not sniffing the field until he’s been made the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. Jerry Jones should have done that many months ago but has sat on his hands (on a yacht in the Bahamas) and doesn’t seem to have any urgency to get a deal done. Second, the Cowboys offense as a whole is due for some staggering regression.

Tyron Smith is gone, leaving Dak Prescott to lead this offense behind a very unproven offensive line and perhaps the worst group of RBs in the entire league. Mike McCarthy has done a passable job funneling the passing game through his alpha WR, but it remains to be seen if the same efficiency and explosiveness from 2023 will materialize this season. Most first-round picks in fantasy are can’t-miss, but Lamb certainly can miss.

Round 2: Isiah Pacheco (RB – KC)

There’s plenty of evidence to suggest Isiah Pacheco peaked last season. The Rutgers standout rambled for 1,100 scrimmage yards and nine touchdowns across his 14 games, but it was only good for RB15 in PPR formats in a down year for the position. The angry runner is fun to watch and a key piece of Andy Reid’s offense, but there is absolutely nothing that indicates he is worth a premium pick for fantasy purposes. His durability is already questionable, thanks to his furious stomping and contact-seeking mindset. Kansas City has shored up their offensive line and added receiving weapons for Patrick Mahomes. I consider Pacheco more of a third- or fourth-rounder, but he hasn’t been slipping that far in many drafts.

Round 3: Rachaad White (RB – TB)

Perhaps no player in the league plays smaller than their size than Rachaad White. At 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, White was one of the least efficient ball-carriers (especially between the tackles) in the entire NFL. Most of his damage in fantasy was from a ton of volume and high-percentage check-down passes. The Bucs didn’t have many other choices to haul it, so they kept shoving it in the Arizona State grad’s belly at three-and-a-half yards a pop. Bucky Irving is a smaller back who plays bigger than his frame. The Oregon standout has outstanding vision and contact balance, something Tampa Bay was certainly looking for in this year’s draft. We can hope a lighter workload can free up White for more efficiency, but it’s hardly worth the squeeze in the third round.

Round 4: C.J. Stroud (QB – HOU)

It was a remarkable rookie season for C.J. Stroud. Hitting on an early QB does wonders to accelerate a rebuild. Houston struck oil. Stroud was incredibly efficient as a passer and held a fantastic touchdown rate. The team even went out and acquired Stefon Diggs to bolster an already strong receiving corps. I still won’t touch Stroud in the fourth round. His record-breaking rookie campaign still only landed him at QB11 in fantasy with 368.10 points. That’s his ceiling. Not every elite NFL QB is great for fantasy. Stroud isn’t scoring many points with his legs, nor is he going to go too much higher than his 499 passing attempts in a Shanahan-style offense. There are a handful of QBs who fall in the same scoring tier as Stroud in fantasy who are available multiple rounds later. Don’t fall prey to the hype.

Round 5: George Pickens (WR – PIT)

Surely nobody has been burned by drafting a supposed top receiver in an Arthur Smith offense before, let alone in consecutive miserable seasons. George Pickens is a talented WR but is hardly a target magnet who gets open at will. Coach Smith’s favorite receiver is probably someone none of us has ever heard of. The Steelers won’t be throwing the ball much, nor will it be a very potent passing attack with either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields under center. I’m avoiding all Pittsburgh pass-catchers until the Tommy Callahan of FedEx is shown the door. To spend a precious fifth-round pick on Pickens is ill-advised, at best.

Round 6: Evan Engram (TE – JAX)

Of all the players in this column, I like Evan Engram the most. The sixth-round ADP group is loaded with talented players. Engram is due for some regression on his career-high 143 targets from 2023, simply due to Jacksonville acquiring more talented receivers. I’m a huge Brian Thomas Jr. fan. Christian Kirk will absorb his usual lion’s share of the Trevor Lawrence targets from the slot and Gabe Davis will run wind sprints in hopes of an occasional blown coverage. I still consider Engram a top-10 TE, but anyone outside the top seven has nearly identical projections. Better value at the position comes from waiting longer if you can’t nab one of the elite ones.

Round 7: Rashee Rice (WR – KC)

Aside from being a complete knucklehead, Rashee Rice is a niche player in a very balanced offensive attack for Kansas City. He doesn’t run traditional WR routes, instead soaking up all the low-depth targets when Mahomes reads Cover-1 or pressure coming off the opposite side. Rice isn’t a bad player, but none of the Chiefs receivers are allotted a high snap share. With Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy on the team this year, Rice is likely to get his number of looks squeezed. With or without a suspension this season, I’m out on Rice.

Round 8: Brian Robinson Jr. (RB – WAS)

I swore an oath years ago to never draft “decimal” backs. For those unfamiliar with the term, a decimal back is an RB who is seldom used as a receiver and whose fantasy production is tied to rushing yards and touchdowns alone. They score decimal points at a time and getting lucky in the touchdown department is the only way to salvage the pick.

Brian Robinson Jr. is a plodder. He is a hard-nosed runner who serves a purpose in the Commanders’ offense. Robinson is not expected to take receiving work away from newcomer Austin Ekeler, who also has 40 touchdowns over the last three seasons. Ekeler still has plenty in the tank, especially since his high ankle sprain from last season is in the rearview. I’m not one for safe floor picks in fantasy. Robinson might not even be as solid as we think in an offense run by perennial failure, Kliff Kingsbury.

Round 9: Ezekiel Elliott (RB – DAL)

Again with the decimal backs. 2017 Ezekiel Elliott isn’t walking through that tunnel at AT&T Stadium. He is a reclamation depth project in 2024, at best. He was slow in New England; even slower than 2022 Elliott who we screamed couldn’t hold a candle to Tony Pollard. Dallas is a train wreck and this is the saddest example. I’ve rooted for the Cowboys my entire life and this year has me feeling like the disheveled Spongebob meme. Rico Dowdle is somehow the best runner in the group. Elliott is not worth drafting in any round, I’m afraid. Nostalgia be damned, we need to draft with our brains to win the championship.

Round 10: Keon Coleman (WR – BUF)

My good friend Jeff Bell is your classic downtrodden Buffalo Bills fan. He has accepted the notion the Bills’ championship window is now closed, despite most of the noise to the contrary. Josh Allen did everything in his power to take Buffalo all the way and break the curse, but now he must trudge on with a rookie where his alpha WR used to be. Keon Coleman is not a natural separator, nor was he necessarily good at hauling in contested catches at the collegiate level. Will he develop into the dominant big-bodied X receiver? Or will he be the famed “sacrificial X” coined by Reception Perception’s Matt Harmon, who runs the boundary routes to free up the other routes in the tree?

I’m banking on the latter, at least for this season. Curtis Samuel and Khalil Shakir are both outstanding options, while TE Dalton Kincaid and RB James Cook have a defined pedigree as pass-catchers at this level. Among this outstanding rookie WR class, Coleman has a real battle to earn meaningful targets for fantasy purposes. It’s a no for me in redraft.

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