With the end of the fantasy football season merely days away, it’s time to look back and be a little negative. Plenty of players surpassed expectations in 2024, but which players disappointed fantasy managers in 2024?
2024 Fantasy Football Disappointments
Is this the final time we allow ourselves to be disappointed by Kyle Pitts? It feels possible. It’s more than likely the last time Pitts has an average draft position (ADP) inside the top 100 anytime soon. Name value might keep Pitts inside the top 150, but it’s quite hard to make an argument as to why.
Pitts has played four seasons in the NFL and has only nine touchdowns to show for it, the same amount Mark Andrews has scored in what is being called a disappointing year by his standards. Pitts hasn’t had more than 53 catches since his rookie season. He’s currently averaging a career-low 2.7 receptions per game. Pitts has had five top-12 weekly finishes this year but he also has eight as the TE18 or worse, including six below 2.5 PPR points. If you draft Pitts in 2025, you better have a plan to deal with his ability to disappoint.
Another player who had plenty of hype is C.J. Stroud, who was elevated as high as QB5 in offseason ADP before falling slightly and settling around QB6. Stroud could have dropped significantly further and still not paid off his ADP. He is currently the QB17 in total points and QB25 in points per game (PPG).
There have been 140 20+ point performances from quarterbacks this year, and Stroud is responsible for only one, which is fewer than the two Mac Jones has managed.
The Broncos seemingly wanted Javonte Williams to be their lead back this season with Sean Payton urging Williams to drop weight and being happy with him when he managed to. But Williams was never able to separate from the rest of the Broncos’ backfield with just five games over 14 touches and only two games with 100+ total yards.
Williams has now averaged 3.6 yards per carry in back-to-back seasons and has combined for 1,250 rushing yards and seven touchdowns across 2023 and 2024. Williams has been able to stay on the field, which is an accomplishment given his injury history, but he’s rarely providing usable weeks. Since he stays involved in Denver’s offense you feel obliged to keep him on your fantasy roster. Players with this profile rarely pay off. Cutting bait can be a big help.
The Bears were widely praised this offseason for giving the No. 1 overall pick the best situation a rookie quarterback has had in years, yet Caleb Williams failed to deliver. It’s fair to portion off a large part of the blame on the offensive coordinator who seemingly stunted Jaxon Smith-Njigba‘s progress in Seattle last year as well. Under Shane Waldron, the offense completely floundered with no wide receivers being viable and Williams looking lost.
Since the change of scheme, Williams has faired much better, getting the ball out quicker and more decisively, finishing as a top-six quarterback in three of his last five games. However, it could be too little too late for many who aggressively drafted Williams expecting more. Perhaps 2025 will be different and there are reasons to expect it to be, but finishing as the QB17 in points per game is not a great start for a much-hyped rookie.
In terms of disappointments, there might be no bigger fantasy football disappointment than Deebo Samuel, and possibly the Niners in general, who failed to live up to their haughty standards. Samuel, though, in particular, has done far more harm than good for fantasy managers in a year where he had the perfect situation.
Brandon Aiyuk rarely practiced throughout the summer while amid a contract standoff and when he did play he was plain bad, to put it politely, before tearing his ACL and MCL in Week 8. Samuel has been incredible in previous seasons when Aiyuk wasn’t available but the magic was firmly gone this season. He scored a combined 50.8 points from Weeks 8-15, almost a third of the points Samuel put up in the same period of 2023. Samuel bounced back with his biggest performance of the year in Week 16, scoring 25.1 points and finishing as WR5 for the week. In all likelihood, though, Samuel was likely on your bench by then, having scored 25.6 points in the previous five weeks combined.
In hindsight, it’s hilarious that Aaron Rodgers and sections of the media kept up the storyline Rodgers could have made it back in 2023 for a potential Jets playoff run, particularly given his poor performances this year. Despite throwing for the seventh-most passing touchdowns (24), Rodgers has been the QB20 and had nine performances below 16.1 points.
Rodgers also brought large amounts of negative energy to the team, along with forcing the ball to Allen Lazard, which isn’t what we want from a quarterback who has an elite talent in Garrett Wilson. Rodgers deserves plaudits for successfully coming back from an Achilles injury but he’s not been fun for fantasy football purposes.
After a strong finish to the end of the 2023 season, Zamir White was a divisive figure heading into this year with a top-70 fantasy ADP and a clear path to large amounts of touches, but it didn’t come close to playing out that way.
Over the final three weeks of last season, White averaged 95 rushing yards per game, the fourth-most among running backs, but his 1.7% touchdown rate was the second-lowest among running backs. In hindsight that touchdown rate should have been enough of a red flag to warn people off. When Alexander Mattison was playing ahead of White in preseason games that was the most obvious sign White was a quintessential dead-zone running back.
After putting on additional weight this offseason, White went on to play only eight games and never scored more than seven PPR points in a game with Mattison, Sincere McCormick and Ameer Abdullah all performing better.
