Fantasy Football Predictions: Latavius Murray, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Adam Thielen, Saquon Barkley (2023)

Our analysts have put together fantasy football outlooks for all fantasy-relevant players. You can find them on our player pages and via our Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR). These will be updated throughout the preseason to help you navigate your fantasy football drafts utilizing our bevy of tools, including our FREE draft simulator and cheat sheet creator. We’ll cover players in different groups to help you identify those to target and others to avoid. In this series, our analysts took a look at some of the biggest storylines from 2022 and predicted players who could fit that mold in 2023. This means hyped players who busted instead of breaking out, unheralded sleepers who finished in the top tier of their position, rookie breakouts, and more.

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This Year’s Kenyan Drake

Latavius Murray (RB – BUF)

This year’s Kenyan Drake: A dusty RB who ends up having fantasy-relevant weeks out of necessity.

Latavius Murray has run for more than 500 yards in each of the last eight seasons, and he ran for 760 yards and six touchdowns last season at age 32. Now he’s part of an RB committee for a Buffalo offense that’s going to score a lot of points. No one wants to draft Murray, but it’s not hard to envision him becoming a popular waiver target at some point in 2023. – Pat Fitzmaurice

This Year’s Samaje Perine

Clyde Edwards-Helaire (RB – KC)

This year’s Samaje Perine: A completely forgotten backup RB who finally delivers when called upon.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire is one injury away from inheriting the early down or pass game role for Kansas City. Isiah Pacheco is a zero in the passing game, while Jerick McKinnon is a dust ball on early downs. Each player is confined to their specialty, which can’t be said for Edwards-Helaire. While the consensus will hate Edwards-Helaire for everything he hasn’t done, I will continue to draft him for everything he showed in 2022. Last year, he gave us a glimpse at a three-down skill set, ranking 23rd in yards after contact per attempt, 12th in zone success rate, 19th in explosive run rate, and 17th in yards per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). – Derek Brown

This Year’s Amari Cooper

Adam Thielen (WR – CAR)

This year’s Amari Cooper: WR who projects as the clear-cut No. 1 option on an offense that nobody wants outside the top-30 WRs.

I’m with the masses. I want nothing to do with Adam Thielen. He’s cooked at this point. Last year among all wideouts with at least 50 targets, he recorded the seventh-lowest yards per route run and the 13th-lowest target per route run rate (per Fantasy Points Data). If Carolina counts on Thielen to lead the way in 2023, Bryce Young could be in big trouble. – Derek Brown

This Year’s Najee Harris

Saquon Barkley (RB – NYG)

This year’s Najee Harris: A first-round pick who falls outside the top-12 at his position.

Barkley tore his ACL in 2020 and dealt with ankle issues in 2022. He had a nice rebound season in 2022, but his efficiency tapered off during the latter part of the season (3.9 yards per carry and only 3.5 yards per target from Week 10 on). Barkley’s pass-catching ability is a big part of his appeal. After all, he had 91 catches for 721 yards and four TDs as a rookie. But he hasn’t been effective as a pass catcher the last two years, averaging 6.1 yards per catch and 4.5 yards per target over that span. Barkley is a risky first-round pick. – Pat Fitzmaurice

If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Trade Analyzer – which allows you to instantly find out if a trade offer benefits you or your opponent – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.