6 NFL Players (And One Coach) Who Need To Reboot Fantasy Football’s Reputation In 2024

Matt Harmon examines which players (and coach) need a fantasy football brand refresh this season.

The complete ambivalence that the fantasy community holds toward a receiver who has a robust career resume, including a top-five season and being in the top 20 in targets and top 15 in receptions at the position last season, is a little intriguing.

Before his ACL tear late in the 2021 season, I thought Chris Godwin was knocking on the door to be considered a top-12 receiver in the league. At the very least, he was on the level just below these players. The last few seasons have been marked by a slow return and other injuries amid offensive turnover. Still, he remains a clearly useful and productive player.

To put this all much more simply: If Godwin caught six to seven touchdown passes last season instead of two, how would we feel about him?

I understand, he no score those touchdowns. But we know that touchdowns are fickle beasts, and if Godwin gets the same opportunity this season as he did last, there’s a chance that the mere variance could push him into the end zone a few more times. There is no reason to assume that its volume will decrease; in fact, he could be in line for more looks as he returns to his natural position under a new offensive coordinator.

Godwin is a good player who has had good results in the past. When you look more closely at his play last season, you realize it was a quality campaign. He will remain the WR2 on offense behind Mike Evans, but there is more than enough room in this passing attack for both to eat.

Lawrence was the most popular candidate to “make the jump” at quarterback last season, and while it wasn’t bad, there certainly wasn’t a leap forward. The Jaguars’ passing game felt like it was litigated and re-litigated so often last season, and it’s not worth rehashing most of it yet again. It’s better to look ahead.

With that look on the horizon, I’m not sure we can argue that the situation surrounding Lawrence is dramatically better, if at all this season. Calvin Ridley moved on despite the Jaguars fighting tooth and nail to keep him – that should tell you how he in truth played last season beyond fantasy results — and the team traded Gabe Davis and rookie Brian Thomas Jr. Davis is who he is, but there’s a chance Thomas could be the vertical receiver this offense has lacked in recent years. However, I think he is a slightly evolving prospect who may need to be eased into a larger role in the NFL.

The biggest problem for me was last season’s technical and offensive design. Doug Pederson has hired offensive coordinator Press Taylor and is unwilling to resume play-calling duties. This could be another obstacle for this unit.

Overall, I believe Lawrence is a quality quarterback, and the positional evaluators I trust strongly support that. He’s good enough to have a dynamic season at any time. But there are enough concerns surrounding the Jaguars’ offense that keep me from going all-in. Lawrence should exist in a wide range of ADP players who could finish anywhere from QB7 to 16 and I wouldn’t be shocked.

Not long ago, Taylor was viewed as the consensus overall pick in the 2022 Fantasy Football drafts, coming off a strong 2021 campaign. A lot has happened with Taylor and the Colts since then. Injuries and a declining offensive ecosystem with Matt Ryan at quarterback thwarted his 2022 season. More illnesses and a contract dispute derailed his bounce-back campaign, but he still had solid but only solid production, ranking 12th in points per game at the running back position.

Top ball writers are apparently willing to let bygones be bygones with Taylor as he leaves the board well short of the 12th spot as the RB5 overall.

Taylor is perhaps in the best position of any player on this list to improve his reputation in 2024. He is the clear leadership for what should be an ascendant offense with a player who should have our utmost respect. Still, I have some minor concerns about the fantasy ceiling/floor for a running back tied to Anthony Richardson.

The crafty Richardson will drain some goal-line offenses, though I think the Colts will try to be less arrogant with their run after last season’s injuries. The biggest problem for fantasy may be the pass-catching work. The Colts already have a tight target tree between Michael Pittman, Josh Downs and rookie Adonai Mitchell. It’s difficult to get a big receiving workload for Taylor, especially when backs tied to mobile quarterbacks rarely produce high reception totals.

Taylor will have a good season if he is healthy. I do not doubt it. However, how you view his level of success will likely match his expectations if he has a strong year and still gets closer to his 2023 per-game production.

It’s easy to forget that Daniel Jones enjoyed a top-eight fantasy quarterback season in 2022 and was a consensus QB1 in last season’s drafts. The first writers decided, in fact, to put this memory out of their minds, since Jones is the 30th quarterback off the board in early best ball drafts.

Pessimism is perfectly understandable; the Giants’ offense was a disaster when Jones was under center.

There is a lot of work against Jones this season. In addition to questions about his own ceiling as a starter, he carries warning signs of serious injuries, and as such, the team’s commitment to him as a season-long starter could waver at any time if they want to free themselves from future injury guarantees. in your contract. Jones could suffer the same fate as Derek Carr and Russell Wilson over the past two seasons.

Still, the environment around Jones should be better this season. New York added Malik Nabers, who is the type of receiver who can separate and create explosive plays on his own via layup targets. Jones has never had a receiver like that. The biggest problem for the starting offense last season was the simply insufferable pass protection. With Andrew Thomas healthy and some solid players added to the mix, the Giants should have better options on offense.

Jones’ ability as a power forward in a healthy offensive environment makes him someone worth discussing in fantasy circles. However, it doesn’t have a tremendously high ceiling and features a scary floor. This one could go either way, but current ADP suggests it can only go downhill.

It’s been back-to-back frustrating campaigns for anyone drafting Diontae Johnson in fantasy football. He is famous for not scoring a touchdown in 2022 and last season he missed a significant amount of time due to injuries and offered average production when available.

However, if you look under the hood, his 2023 season was actually one of the most efficient campaigns of his career.

Johnson was traded to the Panthers this offseason and is headed toward an open target tree. We’re not sure if Bryce Young can play at an above-average level behind center, but it’s also fair to note that he hasn’t had anything close to that sort of separator during his rookie season. If Young is an acceptable quarterback, Johnson could very well surpass his modest ADP this season.

Almost none of this is his fault – Williams suffered a devastating and complex injury in 2022 – but it would be hard to think of a running back who so quickly went from a guy who inspired “Free This Player” campaigns on social media to someone everyone wants to draft. .

Williams was painfully inefficient as a rusher and receiver last season, but we should have known that was coming. His return from a multiligament tear was never going to be a quick turnaround. Is it possible to see a better version of Williams in 2024? The fantasy community seems to have no imagination for such a universe.

Even though Williams is healthy and closer to his exciting rookie game, there are concerns from the committee and the overall ecosystem in Denver. Still, none of the other players on the roster are the same type of early pace runner that Williams can be at his best. He has a chance to revamp his resume if he’s healthy and the Broncos offense is better in the post-Russell Wilson era.

My only trainer on the list! A few years ago, Kliff Kingsbury was considered one of the most fascinating young offensive coaches in football. Now, Washington’s hiring of him as CO has been met with something between ambivalence and ire.

If you watched the Cardinals offense the last two seasons of his tenure, you understand. Arizona’s offense quickly became stale in the passing game and many of the concepts never emphasized downfield defenses. If Kingsbury ever built some momentum on offense, the league would quickly recover and the Cardinals teams would flounder as the season wore on.

Kingsbury has a great opportunity to restore his reputation in Washington if he can build a strong offense around quarterback Jayden Daniels. Kingsbury engineered some quality running games in Arizona, and Daniels’ ability as a rusher is ripe for instant fantasy success. The rookie passer will have a ready-made WR1 in Terry McLaurin, who has been desperate for years to be maximized with production commensurate with his talent. Players like Austin Ekeler and Jahan Dotson are on this roster and also need to renew their resumes after poor seasons, which may have been due to factors beyond their control.

If Kingsbury can put this all together, he will be seen in a very different light a year from now. If the offensive line issues and Kingsbury’s own lack of development get in the way, he will be stuck in this area of ​​public apathy where he currently resides.