I am a very spiteful fantasy player. If someone burns me, my initial reaction is almost always to write them off and proclaim I will never draft that player again! In my head, I’m somehow proving a point (I’m not).
In reality, I don’t operate this way. There will certainly be players that I put on the do not draft ever again list, but the reasons will go far beyond “you burned me that one time!” More often than not, players that burn you one year offer value potential in the next. We saw it last year after Todd Gurley burned everyone who spent an early first round pick on him in 2016. He went from a top five pick to a mid to late second round pick and was one of the best values of the draft in 2017. We saw the same thing with DeAndre Hopkins.
The path to redemption doesn’t always have to involve a former elite player falling off and then returning to glory – it can be as simple as someone you wrote off as irrelevant becoming a WR3 or RB3. Here is my All Redeem Team – a list of players that I expect to bounce back in 2018 after disappointing 2017 seasons.
*Note: I am not counting players like David Johnson and Odell Beckham that had “down years” due to injury.
Get a free $3 Best Ball entry into a 2018 DRAFT contest with your first deposit 
QB: Drew Brees (NO)
There is a chance that these are just the new look Saints — a run-oriented team that only passes when they need to. Or, in the alternative, 2017 was an extreme outlier from literally every other year of Brees’ career as a Saint. Brees has led the NFL in pass attempts four times. In 2016, he attempted 673 passes. In 2017, he attempted 536 passes. That decline is ridiculous. Even if the Saints are more run heavy, I find it hard to believe Brees will fail to reach 600 pass attempts. He never attempted fewer than 627 passes in every season since 2010.
Brees also only had 23 touchdown passes last season. That is his lowest total since 2003 when he was on the Chargers. There’s a whole lot about Brees’ 2017 that is begging for positive regression in 2018. Brees may not be the elite QB1 he once was, but he should certainly be better than the 16.4 ppg he posted last season.
RB: None
Unfortunately, I don’t see a single RB that burned fantasy owners last season that I expect to redeem himself. Of the players that would even qualify, DeMarco Murray is done*, Mike Gillislee is going to get cut, and Ameer Abdullah also might get cut and, either way, is terrible at football.
* When I wrote this, I meant done being good at football. Turns out, he is literally done with football.
I still don’t think Cobb is that good at football. He’s a product of Aaron Rodgers. But the thing is, he still has Aaron Rodgers. You can currently get Cobb for the price of a low-end WR3. Jordy Nelson is gone and while Cobb was previously miscast as Rodgers’ main option — Cobb is not capable of being a #1 — that’s no longer a concern. Davante Adams is the clear WR1 on the Packers. Cobb, however, is the clear WR2. Who exactly is going to take his targets? Jimmy Graham? I don’t think so. Graham is more of a red zone specialist. The running backs? They won’t be targeted anymore or less than in years past.
Cobb’s awful 2017 where he finished as the WR39 is clouding everyone with recency bias. He’s still the same player that had 60 receptions in just 12 games two years ago. 2014 Cobb is never coming back (91-1287-12), but 2015 Cobb (79-829-6) is well within reach. Those numbers would put him right at the WR2/3 borderline with the upside for more.
I toyed with leaving him off this list because I said injuries don’t count. Ultimately, decided to allow myself to circumvent my own rules because it wasn’t T.Y. Hilton that was hurt, but rather Andrew Luck. With a health Luck, Hilton led the NFL in receiving yards in 2016. How quickly we forget he was locked in as a late first, early second round pick in 2017 drafts until we realized Luck wasn’t playing football the first six weeks. Well, all signs indicate Luck will be ready to go this season. I anticipate Hilton’s ADP to course correct and rise along with Luck’s, as it should, because Hilton is going to return to 2016 form as long as there are no issues with Luck’s shoulder.
Hilton finished as the PPR WR32 last season. I like him to shatter that this season even if Jacoby Brissett is under center. But if it’s a healthy Luck, Hilton belongs right up there in the conversation for WRs to be selected after Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham, and DeAndre Hopkins are off the board.
This guy is way too talented to be irrelevant. I’m somewhat cheating again because although Matthews didn’t miss games, he certainly wasn’t healthy. The Eagles botched his shoulder recovery and it essentially cost him two seasons. The most prolific WR in SEC history that began his career with back to back eight touchdown seasons did not suddenly become bad at football.
JMatt joins a suddenly not so crowded New England receiving corps that shipped away Brandin Cooks and will be missing Julian Edelman for the first quarter of the season. Matthews projects to start alongside Chris Hogan and, for all we know, Edelman, being a 32-year-old slot WR who relies on lateral agility, is simply done following his ACL tear. There’s also the possibility Matthews just plays incredibly well the first four weeks and earns continued usage. Any way you slice it, I can’t fathom he doesn’t drastically improve upon his 5.7 PPR ppg from 2017. He’s being drafted outside the top 60 WRs. It may not necessarily be likely he achieves WR2 status, but he has WR2 upside for the cost of free.
McDonald was a popular sleeper last season. We were hoping for the breakout. It never really came — at least not in the regular season. McDonald did see 16 targets in the Steelers’ playoff game against the Jaguars. This season, he is entrenched as the main TE. Playing in one of the NFL’s best offenses with a QB who likes to utilize his TE, this could finally be the year for VMD. He also costs nothing to acquire in drafts and is a lock to vastly improve upon his whopping 38.8 fantasy points from 2017.
Subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | TuneIn | RSS
Jason Katz is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Jason, check out his archive or follow him @jasonkatz13.
