Fantasy Football Future Planning Is Bonkers

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Last fantasy football season completely destroyed any and all strategies outside of CMC at running back. This is how next season must be tackled and its backwards.

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As we look back at the completed 2023 NFL season, in real life, and especially in fantasy football, it was just so weird. But was it too weird to take anything away from it, or are these signs of things to come? To remind ourselves, let’s recap a few facts from the regular season. As always, specific rankings can vary slightly depending on league settings.

At quarterback, we thought we were entering a time of the elites. Fantasy managers had to come away with one of the top QBs because production fell off a cliff. It wasn’t so long ago that waiting (and waiting, and waiting) on a QB was the way to go, because everyone outperformed their draft price. Where are we now?

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At running back, we were already in “it’s a mess” territory before 2023. This season simply doubled down. Before the season, the trio of Raheem Mostert, Travis Etienne, and Kyren Williams would have been a better bet to be out of the NFL than be three of the top four finishers at the position. The only stalwart at RB is Christian McCaffrey. Everyone else in the entire sport is a question. Will anything change to help us at this position?

Finally, wide receiver was the safety net, or at least it was supposed to be. 2023 destroyed that too. Many of the top WRs missed time, under performed, or both. Two undrafted players finished as top 10 WRs in Puka Nacua and Nico Collins. Multiple stone cold locks to be elite just…weren’t. Stefon Diggs, Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, and Ja’Marr Chase at the highest end all sorely disappointed. Jaylen Waddle, Chris Olave, DeVonta Smith and Cooper Kupp, among others, fell greatly short of the elite production we expected as well. This position has gone coo coo. What does future planning look like?

 

Fantasy Football Future Planning

 

Todd Salem: Strategy… What Strategy?

At the quarterback position, I wouldn’t say we are suddenly back to the latter strategy. In fact, we may have found a middle ground that is the most confusing of all. Managers still need an elite producer at the position, but now it is impossible to predict who will finish there! 

Obviously, injuries play a part for the likes of Joe Burrow. But Patrick Mahomes finished as QB8, Trevor Lawrence was QB12, and Justin Herbert was QB17. On the other hand, QB5 by year’s end was Jordan Love, who was unplayable for the first two months of the season. Brock Purdy was QB6, Jared Goff was QB7, Baker Mayfield was QB9, and CJ Stroud grabbed the 11th spot. These are passers who would have gone undrafted in shallow leagues.

So what is the lesson at quarterback? You can wait, but only if you target the correct guys later. You can make sure to come away with an elite passer, but there’s no guarantee he’ll remain elite even if healthy. It’s a mess.

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To wit, the running back position is worse than ever. Who would be RB2 off the board for you in 2024? I’m asking because I have no idea. Tony Pollard, Austin Ekeler, Josh Jacobs, and Rhamondre Stevenson all were healthy busts in 2023. Bijan Robinson, Saquon Barkley, Najee Harris were all healthy disappointments. Nick Chubb is coming off a serious injury. Nearly everyone else not nicknamed CMC is in a timeshare. It’s absolutely wild.

The biggest change has come at wide receiver, but only because it was once stable. It feels like we should want to give many of these guys at all the positions the benefit of the doubt, but it doesn’t feel great to do so. We’ve been burned, sometimes deeply, sometimes for multiple years. On the other hand, someone has to be drafted after McCaffrey in fantasy football. Someone. Anyone!

 

 

Dan Salem: When Everything Fails, Do The Opposite

You left out the tight end position! Is that because they were already a literal shot in the dark? In 2023 Kelce dipped in a big way and Kittle was as cold as ice, except for those few weeks when he was hotter than lava. I’d argue that there is another lock along with CMC, and its Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta. That team isn’t changing much and LaPorta will only get better in year two. There is another!

Can you draft LaPorta second overall or even in the top ten? Absolutely not, but he’s probably the only other lock at a fantasy football position. Wide receiver remains a safety net, but not in the way everyone assumes. I’ve taken the philosophy for several seasons now that great wide receivers always blossom from the undrafted within the first two weeks of the season. Don’t spend big money on the position, because it rarely pays off. That’s how I ended up with Nico Collins and Rashee Rice this past year, two likely keepers for the price.

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Quarterback is certainly a balancing act, because you need a proven starter on a team with dynamic offensive weapons. Those are the qualifications, not a player’s pedigree. Great quarterbacks still turn their teammates into stars, but stars make average QBs into fantasy studs. Just look at Tua in Miami. I always draft two starting quarterbacks, one with proven success from last season and the other a reach a la rookie CJ Stroud last year. I personally rolled the dice with Carolina’s rookie passer over Stroud and lost, but the dice were still rolled in the right direction.

So we save our money on wide receivers and double up with risk and reward at quarterback. What the heck do we do at running back? I lost on Barkley last year, but kinda sorta won with Breece Hall. I’m okay grabbing a timeshare back, so long as they are active in the passing game like Hall. The days of one player dominating are long gone. Running backs can’t sustain that for more than one or maybe two seasons in a row. Even CMC truly makes his mark in the passing game, and let us not forget that he has been injured before. I’m leaning towards a similar philosophy as wide receiver. Get starters, but bank on adding a true star after week one or week two. 

The bottom line in all of this is simple: Do not get attached to any player you draft, because you must be willing to drop them in order to win your fantasy football league.

 

Meet our Writers:

Dan Salem is Lead Editor, Writer, and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s a published author, as well as an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X and Instagram.

Todd Salem is a Staff Writer and Contributing Editor at BuzzChomp. He’s also a fantasy football and fantasy baseball Staff Writer for RotoBaller. Follow him on X or comment below for his unfiltered opinions.

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