16 Bounce-Back Fantasy Football Players to Target in 2024
Taking advantage of your league mates' recency bias is a perennial tradition in the fantasy football world and one I can always get behind. We’re all guilty of associating one bad season with the next regardless of the cause surrounding a player’s dip in production.
Players can underperform for many reasons, including injury, poor system fit, off-the-field issues, or even an early-season fumble derailing usage. Unless it’s a huge name like Christian McCaffrey, a “bust” player’s draft stock typically takes a hit, allowing us to grab them with some built-in capital. Chasing the upside on these guys with depressed ADPs can have league-winning ramifications, so here’s a look at some bounce-back candidates for the 2023 season.
Quarterbacks
Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs (Yahoo ADP: QB3, 41)
After five straight seasons finishing as the QB6 or better in fantasy points per game, Patrick Mahomes ended 2023 as gasp a fantasy QB2 (QB14) with an average output of 17.5. The Chiefs receivers had a whopping 44 drops last season which was the most in the NFL, while Mahomes’ bad % rate (poor throws per pass attempt excluding spikes and throwaways) was the third lowest in the league at just 13.6%.
Kansas City added some new blood in Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy, which should help Mahomes return to the top of QB mountain.
Joe Burrow, Bengals (Yahoo ADP: QB7, 65)
In his second and third seasons in the NFL from 2021-2022, Joe Burrow threw for over 9,000 yards and a nice 69 touchdowns, resulting in campaigns of QB7 and QB4, respectively. A strained right calf held him back at the start of 2023, and then a wrist injury ended Burrow’s season in Week 11, which produced QB25 numbers.
The 27-year-old still has Ja’Marr Chase - his longtime teammate in both college and NFL - as his primary weapon, plus a solid WR2 in Tee Higgins and rookie Jermaine Burton in the fold. Burrow is pricey on some other redraft sites but for now, he’s going in the sixth round in Yahoo leagues. If you don’t want to pay all the way up for QB but want a safe play on a solid offense, Burrow could be your guy.
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