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Fantasy Football Draft Targets: Justin Fields, Nick Chubb, CeeDee Lamb, Travis Kelce (2023)

Fantasy Football Draft Targets: Justin Fields, Nick Chubb, CeeDee Lamb, Travis Kelce (2023)

Here are players our experts are targeting in early fantasy football drafts. You can find our full fantasy football rankings below, along with those that the analysts are higher and lower on compared to the FantasyPros Expert Consensus and Best Ball ADP.

  • Best Ball Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE
  • Analysts Picks for Players to Target: QB | RB | WR | TE
  • Analysts Picks for Players to Avoid: QB | RB | WR | TE

2023 Fantasy Football Best Ball Draft Advice

Fantasy Football Draft Targets

Justin Fields (CHI)

Justin Fields was electric as a runner in 2022. If he can significantly boost his passing numbers in 2023, look out. Fields ran for 1,143 yards and eight touchdowns last season, averaging a league-high 7.1 yards per carry. He ran for 178 yards and a touchdown against the Dolphins in Week 9, breaking the single-game rushing record for a quarterback — then ran for 147 yards and two touchdowns against the Lions the following week. But Fields averaged 149.5 passing yards per game and topped the 200-yard mark only twice in 2022. In his defense, Fields was saddled by a mediocre offensive line and arguably the worst WR group in the league. The Bears have already traded for WR D.J. Moore and figure to bolster their offensive line in the NFL Draft, giving Fields a chance to make the same sort of quantum leap that Jalen Hurts made in 2022.

  • Pat Fitzmaurice

Nick Chubb (CLE)

Nick Chubb just put together the quietest 1,525 rushing-yard season in recent memory. The Browns running back averaged 5 yards per carry (again) and posted a career-high 13 touchdowns. He finished the year as the RB6 overall with a top 10 backfield opportunity share (64%), but most of his fantasy production came prior to Deshaun Watson returning to the lineup. During Weeks 1-12, Chubb was the RB4 overall and in points per game. From Weeks 13-17 with Watson at quarterback, he was the RB23 overall and RB33 in points per game. These splits likely won’t carry over into 2023 based on Watson likely boosting the offense’s overall efficiency making Chubb a near-bust-proof draft pick based on his track record of consistency. Chubb also can capture a more prominent role as a receiver with Kareem Hunt and D’Ernest Johnson no longer on the roster. 2022 5th-rounder Jerome Ford is pegged as the No. 2 RB. In Week 18, Chubb played a season-high 75% snap share, ran a route on 71% of dropbacks and caught 5-of-6 targets (22% target share) for 45 yards.

  • Andrew Erickson

CeeDee Lamb (DAL)

Lamb finished with the quietest 100 receptions (107) and 1,300 receiving yards (1,359) season in recent memory as the WR7 in fantasy. The “CeeDee Lamb alpha season” we have been waiting for finally came to fruition. He was seventh in target per route run rate and sixth in yards per route run as he broke out as one of the league’s elite talents. Even with Mike McCarthy calling plays in 2023, Lamb remains primed for another WR1 campaign.

  • Derek Brown

Travis Kelce (KC)

All hail the king of tight ends! Travis Kelce has finished TE1 in PPR fantasy scoring in six of the last seven seasons, settling for a runner-up finish behind Mark Andrews in 2021. The gap between Kelce and all other tight ends was a vast chasm in 2022. Kelce averaged 19.2 PPR points; the next-closes tight end, T.J. Hockenson, averaged 13.3 fantasy points. Kelce has strung together seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, and he’s averaged 8.4 touchdowns per year over that span. In 2022, he had a career-high 110 catches for 1,338 yards and 12 touchdowns. Age is the only real concern for Kelce, who turns 34 in October. But he’s been indestructible for most of his career. He missed a game in 2020 due to COVID-19, but Kelce hasn’t missed a game due to injury over the last nine years. Kelce is a worth first-round pick in fantasy drafts, and you can make a strong case that he should be a top-five pick.

  • Pat Fitzmaurice

Fantasy Football Draft Rankings

 

Dynasty Rookie Draft Kit


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