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The experts of Yahoo Fantasy outline the biggest lessons they learned in the 2024 fantasy football season.
The Rule of Anthony Richardson (noun): Running is great, but your quarterback better be able to pass, too
The buzz for Anthony Richardson most of the summer was deafening. And given Richardson’s rushing ability and athletic talent, I get it, to an extent. But if a quarterback can’t navigate the pocket and throw consistently, there’s a hole in the boat. And eventually, those boats sink.
It’s great when a quarterback can add to his fantasy value by running. But it can’t be the primary thing he offers. Given Richardson’s limited experience entering 2024 and his checkered history as a passer, he was always a banana peel. Sadly, many Richardson zealots could have used a similar scouting strategy and found an easy ADP smash in Jayden Daniels, an accomplished passer and exciting runner who went several rounds after Richardson. — Scott Pianowski
If the value is screaming, just take it
Drafting players who have dips in value does come with inherent risk; you could end up with a Diontae Johnson. However, the mid-round draft value was absolutely screaming for many players this year. The key takeaway for picking value and avoiding the duds is evaluating where the actual dip is coming from.
For a player like Josh Jacobs, the dip in his value came from pure speculation that the Packers drafting MarShawn Lloyd was a sign that they lacked confidence in Jacobs. Fantasy managers put too much value into a third-round draft pick meaning doom and gloom for Jacobs.
There’s also preconceived bias; Terry McLaurin is a great example. McLaurin’s entire career has suffered at the hands of poor quarterback play and, despite the addition of Jayden Daniels, McLaurin’s ADP remained very depressed. Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury was the perfect combination, and McLaurin crushed his ADP. — Tera Roberts
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Late-round TEs provide the best bang for your draft buck …
Drafting a Tier 1 tight end in the first six/seven rounds seemed like a sound strategy entering the year, but it mostly backfired in 2024. Tight end is a position of chaos, and few are true fantasy difference makers; the TE5 this season averaged as many fantasy points (10.6) as the WR33, and the TE1 was equivalent to the RB17.
Half of the top 12 in TE fantasy points per game finishers were drafted after the 10th round (if at all). Brock Bowers and Trey McBride will be tempting early picks next year and should provide leverage, but I’m generally waiting until the double-digit rounds before addressing tight end in 2025 drafts. — Dalton Del Don
… but maybe rookie TEs aren’t so bad?
After back-to-back seasons in which first-year tight ends have finished at or near the top of the positional leaderboard, it’s probably time to retire the bias against rookies at this spot. That isn’t to say we should expect tight end prospects to break out immediately, but we should be open to the possibility — particularly when the player in question is an experienced collegiate talent from a proven system.
And yes, this is absolutely an endorsement of Tyler Warren in fantasy for 2025, because that dude is exceptionally versatile and ready to contribute. He’s capable of making a LaPorta- or Bowers-style splash in the right environment. — Andy Behrens
Take your shots on rookies
There’s no question that the 2024 class was a special one. It was long rumored to be a strong class for offensive skill position players, and it delivered.
Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix were top-10 scorers at quarterback. Running back Bucky Irving was the waiver-wire add of the year. Wide receivers Ladd McConkey, Brian Thomas Jr. and Malik Nabers were all WR1s on the season with some of the best rookie campaigns we’ve seen in recent years. Tight end Brock Bowers may have outdone them all by being the top-scoring player at a notoriously slow-developing position.
Perhaps most notable, Bucs receiver Jalen McMillan was also the most commonly rostered player on Yahoo championship teams. He’s a great reminder that you should also be on the lookout for the late-season rookie receiver riser in a tremendous offensive ecosystem. It’s an annual theme in fantasy.
We almost certainly aren’t going to get a special rookie class like this on an annual basis. However, they still present such an upside case compared to most of the players going around them in drafts. Just look back at the list of players above. Some of them weren’t exactly the rookies we expected to smash in fantasy this season but they ended up well out-kicking their ADP expectations. — Matt Harmon
Waiting on quarterback continues to be a wise move
Eleven quarterbacks were drafted within the top 100 fantasy picks this past summer. If you were able to land Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow, you were rewarded. But besides these three QBs, the other 73% of signal callers taken within the first 100 picks weren’t worth their ADP. The remaining eight quarterbacks had an average finish of QB14 on the season. The top 10 at the position ended up featuring rookies like Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels, while some other unsuspecting veteran QBs also finished top 10 like Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff and Sam Darnold.
All of this tells me that the late-round quarterback strategy is still the optimal strategy in home league drafts. In 2025, I’ll be targeting Drake Maye as he enters his second season with the Patriots. New England has an early 2025 draft pick and the most available spending money for free agency.
I’ll be waiting on QB in 2025 drafts, with my priority being Maye. — Sal Vetri
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