PlayerProfiler is home to the award winning redraft rankings and tools. Our Player Rankings are second to none, and the World Famous Draft Kit contains detailed player write ups and cheat sheets to help You dominate fantasy drafts! Check it out. Below, Joel Ybarra identifies fantasy league winners available late in drafts (rounds three through 11).
Fantasy league winners are those players who reach elite levels of production in a given season and power fantasy teams to championships. There are usually just five to seven non-quarterbacks (RBs or WRs) who average 20-plus fantasy PPG in a given season. And they are on an inordinate number of championship rosters. You know – the Christian McCaffrey/Tyreek Hill types. They are the ones who are drafted in round one and sometimes round two every season. But there is another set of league winners every fantasy season who are not so highly drafted. They rise up from later rounds to produce at league-winning levels, like Kyren Williams and Puka Nacua last season.
To turn in a top-tier fantasy performance, a player needs to have some big hits during the season – multiple weeks when they score 20-plus points. Typically, those are also the players who can have 30-, 40- or even 50-point weeks. When looking for the coming season’s league winners, we are looking for players capable of exploding for multiple (six to nine) boom weeks during the season. Typically, they are running backs who get all the volume (carries and receptions) in a backfield or wide receivers who establish some chemistry with their quarterback and earn a high target volume. Below, we look at players available later in drafts (rounds three through 11) this season who have the potential to produce league-winning results.
Round 3 League Winners
De’Von Achane | Underdog ADP: RB7 (25 overall), FFPC ADP: RB10 (26 overall)
Get De’Von Achane while you can. He is sneaking up into the end of the second round on Underdog. Achane’s 1.36 Fantasy Points Per Opportunity is the highest mark in the PlayerProfiler Data Analysis Tool database other than Alvin Kamara‘s 1.41 in 2017 (Kamara’s rookie season). If that doesn’t say league winner, I don’t know what does. Achane is a great argument to double-tap wide receiver in the first two rounds if you want to bank on the second-year Dolphin being there in the third. The highly efficient running back’s volume was up and down in 2023. He had 16 or more touches in just four of 11 regular season games played. In the other seven, he averaged 8.9 touches. With a ramped-up workload in 2024, he is going to be a killer.
Tank Dell | Underdog ADP: WR 25 (34 overall), FFPC ADP: WR30 (60 overall)
In games where he played 60-percent of more of snaps in 2023, Tank Dell scored 18.8 fantasy PPG. He recorded 2.36 (No. 14) Yards Per Route Run in his rookie season on a 14.3 (No. 12) ADOT. The Texans offense will be one of the most potent in the NFL in 2024, and Dell is CJ Stroud’s favorite target.
Round 4 League Winner
George Pickens | WR27 (40 overall), FFPC ADP: WR27 (52 overall)
George Pickens was No. 1 in Yards Per Reception in 2023 and No. 17 in Yards Per Route Run (2.20). That was while being the No. 2 target in the Pittsburgh offense. WR1 Diontae Johnson went to Carolina in free agency. Drafters are still scared off by the low volume for the pass-catchers in a new Arthur Smith Steelers offense, but Drake London was targeted 109 times with Smith last season in Atlanta – in an unproductive offense.
The Steelers’ new WR1 gets a QB upgrade in veteran Russell Wilson (or even Justin Fields). Wilson’s primary target last year was Courtland Sutton, whose Catchable Target Rate was 82.2-percent (No. 5). His Target Quality Rating was 6.53 (No. 2). Even Fields’ WR1 DJ Moore was the recipient of a 76.5-percent (No. 20) Catchable Target Rate and a 5.63 (No. 23) Target Quality Rating. Pickens has little competition for targets. He is due for a breakout year.
Round 5 League Winners
Keenan Allen | WR33 (53 overall), FFPC ADP: WR34 (71 overall)
It feels unfair to name Keenan Allen as a fantasy league winner when he has not scored less than 16 PPG since 2014 (excluding 2016 when he played less than one full game). Last season, he was on a league-winning pace, scoring 21.2 FPPG in 13 games played. That is the highest PPG average of his career, and he is available in the fifth round of drafts due to changing teams, the ambiguity in the Chicago receiver room, and his age. It would not be a shock if Allen continued to earn eight-plus targets a game (he has averaged 9.49 over his career) and records another 16-plus fantasy points per game season.
Jayden Reed | WR34 (55 overall), FFPC ADP: WR36 (73 overall)
Jayden Reed is the most talented offensive weapon in what will be a powerful Green Bay offense. He was the WR26 in PPG on just 69.6-percent Route Participation in 2023. He ran hot on touchdowns (10) but recorded an efficient 2.06 (No. 27) YPRR and had a 51.3-percent (No. 22) Route Win Rate (45.2-percent, No. 12 vs. man coverage). Matt LaFleur also schemed him up touches in the run game (up to four rush attempts per game). As an integral part of the offense in 2024, Reed could easily be a fantasy league winner.
Calvin Ridley | WR35 (56 overall), FFPC ADP: WR35 (72 overall)
Whatever you think about Calvin Ridley‘s 2023, he recorded six weeks with over 20 fantasy points. That’s league-winning stuff. Ridley was No. 8 with 1,792 Air Yards, but the targets from Trevor Lawrence left something to be desired: 64.7-percent (No. 82) Catchable Target Rate and a 4.69 Target Quality Rating (No. 63). Yes, Ridley is going to a Tennessee offense helmed by Will Levis, but Levis threw DeAndre Hopkins more catchable targets (67.6, No. 66) and a better Target Quality Rating (5.08, No. 42). The Titans are supposed to boast a pass-heavy approach, and Ridley could be the No. 1 target.
Round 6 League Winners
Rashee Rice | Underdog ADP: WR41 (70 overall), FFPC ADP: WR38 (78 overall)
Rounds 5 and 6 are rich in terms of potential fantasy league winners available way past the first two rounds. Rashee Rice is one of the best based on his 2023 production. Somehow, he is the third or fourth Chiefs pass catcher going off the board. A suspension is still looming but avoid Rice to your own demise in 2024. He popped in every efficiency metric in 2023: 2.52 (No. 10) YPRR, 0.57 (No. 7) Fantasy Points Per Target, +32.8-percent Target Premium, and is tied to Patrick Mahomes.
Yes, Rice was working underneath (4.8 ADOT, No. 99), but that is how the Chiefs offense succeeds. Kansas City also upgraded their ability to stretch the field with the additions of Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy. Rice is poised to dust his 13.3 (No. 27) PPG mark from 2023 and bury his ADP.
Ladd McConkey | Underdog ADP: WR42, (72 overall), FFPC ADP: WR37 (78 overall)
Justin Herbert has fueled a top-12 PPG season for his top target (Keenan Allen) in all four seasons they have played together. He also helped Mike Williams to a top-20 PPG finish in both 2021 and 2022. Looking at the Chargers’ WR unit – Ladd McConkey, Josh Palmer, and Quentin Johnston – McConkey seems most likely to notch a top-12 or top-24 season. Palmer and Johnston have had their chances to develop chemistry with Herbert, and it hasn’t happened.
Brian Thomas Jr. | Underdog ADP: WR45 (75 overall), FFPC ADP: WR46 (105 overall)
Calvin Ridley drew 25 Red Zone Targets last season. His replacement, Brian Thomas Jr. was a red zone target for Jayden Daniels in their final college season.
Thomas scored more touchdowns than fellow first round draft pick, Malik Nabers, in 2023, scoring 17 times on 68 receptions for an incredible 25-percent TD rate. Christian Kirk, Evan Engram, and Calvin Ridley have provided solid production in the Jacksonville offense, but the hyper-athletic Thomas has the highest ceiling.
Round 7 League Winners
Diontae Johnson | Underdog ADP: WR43 (73 overall), FFPC ADP: WR39 (80 overall)
Diontae Johnson is capable of a top-10 WR season. He did it in 2021 with Ben Roethlisberger feeding him short area targets. Adam Thielen was the underneath route winner in the Panthers offense last season, but Thielen plays in the slot and is about to turn 34 years old. Johnson is in his prime and will be the primary outside target in a Dave Canales offense sure to improve over last year’s fail.
Jonathon Brooks | Underdog ADP: RB23 (88 overall), FFPC ADP: RB24 (78 overall)
The only bell cow-capable back going later than Jonathon Brooks in drafts is James Conner. Conner is a potential league winner in his own right (see below), but Brooks is a younger option also capable of shouldering a sizeable role in the run and pass games.
Brooks is available in round 7 because he is a rookie and he is coming off a late-season (November 11, 2024) ACL tear. The veteran Chuba Hubbard will get his share of the work, but Brooks could see elite usage in the second half of 2024.
Round 8 League Winner
James Conner | Underdog ADP: RB24 (89 overall), FFPC ADP: RB19 (66 overall)
James Conner is not falling off yet. In 2023, he notched a 24.7-percent Juke Rate (he is usually in the 25- to 27-percent range). He also had his highest Breakaway Run Rate (6.3-percent, No. 7) since 2019 (7.0-percent, No. 11), and the highest Yards Created Per Touch figure (3.64, No. 16) of his career. Conner recorded four 20-plus-point weeks down the stretch last season (Weeks 13-18) and was the RB1 over that period. That’s league-winning stuff.
Round 11 League Winner
Nick Chubb | Underdog ADP: RB42 (139 overall), FFPC ADP: RB34 (104 overall)
Nick Chubb suffered a devastating knee injury in Week 2 last season. That means he will have close to a year to recover by the time the 2024 season starts and has not ruled out a Week 1 return. Even if he is not back until the middle of the season (as originally thought), we know Chubb is one of the league’s premier backs who is capable of shouldering a heavy load. Would anyone be surprised if he was a late season league winner in 2024? It might be smart to put some money on Chubb as Comeback Player of the Year.
See Joel’s wide receiver ADP deals here: Deep Wide Receiver ADP Values | Underdog, FFPC, Redraft Fantasy 2024
