Final Thoughts for the Last Draft Weekend (2024)

Aug 29, 2024

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

We’re roughly one week away from the first NFL game–Baltimore at Kansas City next Thursday –and there will be countless drafts held this weekend, so it’s a good time to discuss a few of the late-breaking storylines of the summer.

In last year’s edition of this article, I covered the following late-August situations:

Jonathan Taylor went on IR and the situation was dicey before he signed a contract in early October. I suggested that managers consider Zack Moss as the RB1 while Taylor was out, and he was the fantasy RB16 through the first four weeks even though he missed Week 1. (He was the RB8 on a per-game basis from Week 1 to Week 4.)
Jeff Wilson went on IR due to an undisclosed injury, so I highlighted Raheem Mostert’s (mediocre) splits without Wilson in the lineup. He went on to finish as the fantasy RB2 and was a “league-winner” in the middle rounds.
Cooper Kupp had a setback to his hamstring and was listed as “day-to-day,” and I adjusted projections to assume that he would miss a few games to start the season. He went on to miss four games, returning to a pair of 118+ yard games in Week 5 and Week 6.
Jerry Jeudy and Jaxon Smith-Njigba avoided PUP. I moved Jeudy into the WR45-WR50 range, and he finished WR54. As for JSN, he never really emerged as a solid fantasy starter, though his rookie stats (63-628-4) have him poised for a nice jump in his second season.
Terry McLaurin was dealing with a foot injury and his Week 1 was in danger. I was still actively drafting him in the sixth round and while he was quiet in his first game (2-31 on four targets and 88% snaps played), he finished with 79-1002-4 and a WR31 finish.