Welcome to Must Draft Players, the final article in The FFU 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Kit. Here we will use Fantasy Pros 1/2 PPR 1QB ADP to pick out some great targets who are not only late-round targets but also available on waiver wires after fantasy drafts. To see how these players rank in our FFU Consensus Rankings, check out our FFU Rankings Page.
Amon-Ra St.Brown, WR (Lions)
If I’m in the back half of round one in a 1QB league and the top six of Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson, Breece Hall, Tyreek Hill, Ja’Marr Chase, and CeeDee Lamb are off the board, I’m selecting Amon-Ra St.Brown. He ranks as my WR3 for this season and can be had anywhere between the middle to end of the first round. I’m taking him over Justin Jefferson, Garrett Wilson, Jonathan Taylor, AJ Brown, Puka Nacua, and Jahmyr Gibbs. He is simply one of the safest assets in fantasy football.
He is on a high-flying offense with a consolidated target share. The only players with a more guaranteed volume than him are the five I listed above, with even Chase being debatable above him. The Lions run through Jared Goff, Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs, and St. Brown and that’s the exact scenario I want to target. There is no serious competition in the wide receiver corps and the best player below him on the depth chart is Jameson Williams. Outside of injury, there are simply no situations in which St. Brown isn’t worth a first-round pick. He is my pick to finish the season as the WR1, and if McCaffrey can’t stay healthy, he may be the 1.01 by this time next year.
Isiah Pacheco, RB (Chiefs)
Pacheco is going off the board in the third round despite being a workhorse running back. This is due in large part to the fact he isn’t a household name. By the end of the season, Pacheco is going to be a consensus RB1 and he is going off the board well after the rest of the RB1s. He may not have the upside of the high-end RB1s, but he is going to be as consistent as they come in 2024.
The Chiefs may be the defending champs, but they appear to be at a crossroads. Travis Kelce has started to show signs of decline and the wide-receiving corps is far from certain. Xavier Worthy is a rookie and needs time to develop, Rashee Rice is embroiled in a criminal case, and Marquise Brown looks to miss some time. The lack of reliable options among the pass-catchers makes Pacheco the most likely player to see a heavy increase in workload. Pacheco is about to have a full-blown breakout, so get him cheap while you can.
Evan Engram, TE (Jaguars)
Engram finished last season as the TE2 for fantasy and despite this he finds himself going in the sixth round, well after at least six other tight ends. The fantasy community has become infatuated with youth and as a result, the old, reliable Engram has been ignored. After back-to-back years as TE5 or better, the situation in Jacksonville only got better for Engram.
This offseason, Calvin Ridley departed for Tennessee, leaving only Christian Kirk and rookie Brian Thomas Jr as his competition for targets. Engram led all tight ends in receptions last season with 114, that was good for 19 more than Travis Kelce who was second, and there is no reason why he can’t improve on that number. The best strategy when drafting tight ends is to look for a tight end who has the potential to be the second target earner on their team, not only does Engram have the potential to be second in targets on Jacksonville, but he could just as easily lead the team in targets.
Chris Godwin, WR (Buccaneers)
Fantasy managers seem to be out on Godwin after a bad year for him and are currently letting him slide into the seventh round. The problem is that his bad year still saw him put up more than 1,00 receiving yards while finishing as a top-30 receiver. Godwin has shown that even in his worst of years, he still puts up 1,000 yards like clockwork. The reason for the reason downturn in Godwin’s fantasy value has been due to a lack of touchdowns with Baker Mayfield at quarterback.
When Tom Brady was at quarterback for the Buccaneers, touchdowns came early and often and there was always plenty to go around. However, with Mayfield at quarterback, the majority of the touchdowns have instead gone to Mike Evans. After three consecutive years of five or more touchdowns, Godwin has now had three consecutive years of three or fewer touchdowns and at some point, that trend will reverse itself. The law of averages indicates that Godwin will eventually find his way back into the endzone consistently and when he does, this ADP will prove to be a massive value.
Raheem Mostert, RB (Dolphins)
Mostert finished the season as RB2 last year, so it’s only natural that he now finds himself being drafted in the eighth round. The fantasy community is doing what the fantasy community does, it’s overvaluing youth. The public assumes that because DeVon Achane played well as a rookie and was productive when healthy, he will naturally take over as the full-time workhorse and Raheem Mostert will just go the way of Old Yeller. As we’ve seen in the past, that’s rarely the case. Even when Jonathan Taylor looked to be the next dominant force in the Colts backfield, he wasn’t fully unleashed until Marlon Mack was moved out of town. The problem for Achane is that Mostert isn’t going anywhere.
Not only is Mostert still on this roster, but in a league where NFL teams don’t rely on just one running back, the Achane Bell Cow scenario is just not going to happen. Instead of Achane leading this backfield in a 75/25 split, managers should expect this to be closer to a 55/45 split in favor of Raheem Mostert. So if we are smart enough to deduce that this backfield is going to be a timeshare and that both backs are speedy and highly talented, we should be smart enough to draft the running back of the two who is going in the eighth-round and not the one going in the second round.
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