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Football fans rejoice, the regular season is on the horizon. With the return of football, fantasy football also makes its triumphant return for another year of rankings, lineups, waiver wire adds and trades. As you prepare for your fantasy drafts, here are some rankings, risers and fallers to keep track of as you get into your standard drafts.
With standard leagues, you will see wide receivers and receiving running backs lower in rankings than in half-PPR or full PPR leagues. The first round should be largely dominated by running backs that will see a lot of carries. Jonathan Taylor is the consensus 1.01 in drafts due to his high workload and production last year. Christian McCaffrey is a solid second pick, just be wary of his injury history. The first wide receiver should be taken at the backend of the first round. In standard leagues, I’ve got tight end Travis Kelce outside the top-12 as he doesn’t get the added benefit of his five-seven receptions per game boosting his score. Up to you how you want to handle quarterbacks, but I think you can wait and still get a serviceable quarterback to pair with a wide receiver like a Davante Adams/Derek Carr stack.
For risers, nobody is climbing draft boards faster than Houston Texans running back Dameon Pierce. While his team may not very good, he should get a lot of work in the run game. He has looked solid during camp, and while he shouldn't be anywhere near a top pick, you can certainly do worse when you get to where he is in the draft. Another name to watch is Romeo Doubs, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. Adams is with Carr in Las Vegas, so the back-to-back MVP needs someone new to target in the passing game. Doubs should be a solid option, even as a rookie.
As for fallers, tight end is a tough position to predict performance from after you get past the top guys. Mike Gesicki from the Miami Dolphins seemed like a solid asset last season and was a major dud. Now, he is ranked as the TE13 at FantasyPros, but I have him way down at TE22. From multiple goose eggs last season to Tyreek Hill being the new apple of Tua Tagovailoa’s eye and the recent report is that Miami is looking to trade Gesicki, he plummets down the rankings.