The NFL regular season comes to an end next week and most fantasy football leagues ended on Sunday. Let’s take a minute to review and grab some takeaways for next year.
1st Round Busts
Whether it was injuries or guys not living up to their draft stock, there were more misses than hits in the 1st round this year. Unless you took CMC #1 overall, or Tyreek Hill, pretty much everyone else underperformed.
Austin Ekeler was probably the worst pick since he stayed relatively healthy and probably stayed in your starting lineup only to put up replacement level numbers each week.
Bijan Robinson was solid at times, but his sporadic usage really limited him. Nick Chubb was lost for the season in Week 2, Justin Jefferson missed 7 weeks, and then guys like Ja’Marr Chase, Stefon Diggs, Travis Kelce, and Cooper Kupp underperformed.
Rookie Wide Receivers
Puka Nacua, Zay Flowers, Jordan Addison, Rashee Rice, Tank Dell, and Jayden Reed all burst onto the scene this year. The beauty of it is that most of them didn’t cost much if any draft capital and made a huge difference for your team if you added one.
Waiver-Wire Running Backs
What do Kyren Williams, De’Von Achane, Jerome Ford, Gus Edwards, and Jaylen Warren have in common? They’re all RB1’s that likely went undrafted in your league.
RB’s like Raheem Mostert, Rachaad White, and Isiah Pacheco also overperformed this year; which almost makes you think about waiting to draft running backs later in the draft next year.
Back Up Quarterbacks
7 different QB’s were lost to season-ending injuries this year and they were all pretty much QB1’s: Aaron Rodgers, Anthony Richardson, Kirk Cousins, Daniel Jones, Deshaun Watson, Joe Burrow, and Justin Herbert.
There were a few surprises like Brock Purdy, Jordan Love, C.J. Stroud, and Sam Howell, but the quarterback position was pretty predictable this year in fantasy.
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Tight Ends
If you invested early, you were probably rewarded this year. Guys like Mark Andrews (pre-injury), T.J. Hockenson, George Kittle, and Travis Kelce all finished as TE1’s. Sure Kelce was a 1st round pick, but he’ll still finish as one of the best TE’s this year.
There were also some major surprises like Sam LaPorta, Trey McBride, Jake Ferguson, and David Njoku. They’re all also relatively young, representing a wave of exciting new talent at the position.
Takeaways
Looking back at some of the major events this year, I’m definitely adjusting my draft strategy next year:
- Target young WR’s early
- Likely wait until the 2nd or 3rd round to take a RB
- Probably going to wait on QB’s too since the disparity this year wasn’t too crazy.
StraightSports 