Strategy for the 2024 Fantasy Football Draft: Tiers, cheat sheets, breakout players, insider tips from the NFL expert

The new NFL season begins on Thursday, September 5, when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens in the 2024 NFL Kickoff Game. That means preparation for the 2024 Fantasy Football Draft has officially begun. Patrick Mahomes is coming off the worst statistical season of his career, but owners seem to be giving him the benefit of the doubt. Kansas City upgraded its receiver room with Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy, and Mahomes has a 2024 Fantasy Football ADP of 26.35. Can Mahomes be trusted to produce the production of a third-round pick, or should there still be concerns after graduating as QB8 in 2023?

With a reliable set of 2024 fantasy football rankings, you can figure out where to find upside in the middle and later stages of your upcoming drafts and analyze the 2024 fantasy football tiers. Before you set your 2024 fantasy football draft strategy, be sure to check out the 2024 fantasy football PPR rankings with insider picks, outliers and best values ​​from SportsLine fantasy football analyst Jacob Gibbs.

Gibbs, author of the Fantasy Football Today newsletter and contributor to the Beyond the Boxscore podcast, uses a data-driven approach that has helped him consistently provide accurate rankings for each position. Over the past few years, he has proven to be one of the most accurate fantasy rankings in the country, posting the eighth most accurate scores over the past few seasons, according to Fantasy Pros.

Now, Gibbs has projected the stats of every fantasy-relevant player and released his exclusive PPR rankings for the 2024 season, along with plenty of dark horse picks, breakouts and flops. Head to SportsLine now to see them.

The best fantasy football newcomers and surprise candidates for 2024

One of the 2024 fantasy football breakouts that Gibbs predicts is Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. As a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Smith-Njigba’s rookie stats might be a bit disappointing. He caught 63 passes for 628 yards and four touchdowns in 17 games and has probably only made your fantasy football lineups a worst-case scenario.

However, he struggled with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, two established veteran receivers, and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron used more 12-person players (two tight ends) than one would expect after spending a first-round pick on a third receiver. New offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb called plays the last two seasons in Washington, where he spread the field and threw the ball well over 60% of the time during that time, so expect to see more use of Smith and Njigba in 2024.

Another dark horse for 2024 fantasy football that Gibbs identified in his 2024 Top 150 PPR rankings: Cardinals running back Trey Benson. James Conner had his first 1,000-yard rushing season in 2023 and scored 35 touchdowns in three seasons in Arizona. However, he has missed four games in each of the last two years and has now missed 24 regular-season games in his seven-year career.

That opens up the possibility for Benson to see significant action in his rookie season. The third-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft accumulated 2,267 scrimmage yards and scored 24 touchdowns in two seasons at Florida State after transferring from Oregon. He’s also a low-yardage running back who had just 349 touches in his college career and just turned 21 in July. See what other 2024 fantasy football prospects you should pick here.

How to find proven fantasy football rankings for 2024

Gibbs also has a lot of regard for a rookie wide receiver, who he rates as one of the top 20 players overall in his 2024 fantasy football rankings. This young player is surprisingly listed ahead of established wide receivers like Davante Adams and Deebo Samuel. You can see who it is and the 2024 fantasy football rankings for the top 150 fantasy-relevant players only at SportsLine.

So which fantasy football breakouts and dark horse picks should you target for 2024? And which rookie WR will surprise the NFL with a top-20 performance? Visit SportsLine now to get 2024 fantasy football cheat sheets for every single position, all from one of the most accurate experts in the world, and find out.