We asked our top analysts to weigh in on every NFL team’s biggest fantasy football question. Andrew Erickson, Pat Fitzmaurice, Derek Brown, Ryan Wormeli and Joe Pisapia offer their insights on many of the questions that you have been asking heading into draft season.
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Biggest Questions for 2023 Fantasy Football
Atlanta Falcons
Can Desmond Ridder at least be good enough to let the superstar skill players shine?
Kyle Pitts. Drake London. Bijan Robinson. You won’t find a better trio of players 22 and younger anywhere in football after the Falcons spent top-8 picks in three consecutive drafts on skill-position superstars. But it didn’t lead to fantasy success in 2022, as the combination of injuries, Marcus Mariota and head coach Arthur Smith combined to significantly limit this passing game. But we’ve seen Smith lead a successful offense before, and he did start to open up the playbook a bit once third-round pick Desmond Ridder took over at quarterback midway through the season.
The Falcons chose not to add a veteran QB this offseason, so Ridder will have the keys to this offense. And it could be an incredibly fun offense, given it includes generational prospects at RB and TE and also an incredibly talented young WR1. But we’ll need to see a baseline level of competence from Ridder in order to unlock all three potential superstars. If we do, then Falcons games are going to be among the most fun to watch on NFL Sundays this fall. If not, we may be in for yet another disappointing season for Pitts and London managers, at least.
-Ryan Wormeli
Baltimore Ravens
Can Lamar Jackson flourish in a faster-paced, higher-volume passing offense?
Ravens fans rejoiced this offseason as the team finally moved on from longtime OC Greg Roman and hired Todd Monken, a veteran of both the NFL and college football and a potentially great fit for a Lamar Jackson offense. Monken is known for tailoring his offenses to his players, and he has the ultimate do-it-all chess piece in Lamar Jackson. We’ve never seen Jackson in a pass-heavy offense at the NFL level, so there is some question about how it will look. But early practice reports are that this offense is going to operate quickly (a welcome change from Roman’s offense, which was one of the slowest in football).
Baltimore also has its best group of pass-catching weapons of the Lamar Jackson era after adding Odell Beckham Jr., Zay Flowers, and Nelson Agholor to the returning Mark Andrews and Rashod Bateman. JK Dobbins looks to be finally healthy again, too, now that he’s another year removed from his knee injury, and the young RB was an excellent pass-catcher at Ohio State. If Lamar takes to the new offense quickly, the sky is the limit for this group, and we could see this offense look a lot closer to the record-breaking 2019 group than to the disappointments we’ve seen in the last couple of years. There’s a path to huge fantasy seasons each from Jackson, Dobbins, Andrews, and at least one of the top three receivers if Monken is the huge improvement as a play-caller that he’s expected to be.
-Ryan Wormeli
Chicago Bears
What is the ceiling for Justin Fields this year?
Justin Fields’ second NFL season was an unusual one. He finished QB5 in fantasy points per game despite averaging only 149.5 passing yards. Fields was dynamite as a runner, piling up 1,143 rushing yards and 8 TD runs. His passing numbers were less inspiring. In 15 starts, Fields completed 60.4% of his passes for 2,242 yards, with 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also took a league-high 55 sacks. Throughout the 2022 season, Fields ran aggressively and took a lot of shots downfield. (His 9.1 intended air yards per pass attempt was among the highest figures in the league.) But does Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy want to keep playing the same way? Perhaps not.
The Bears’ pass-catching group should be much better this year. The Bears acquired D.J. Moore from the Panthers in a trade that gave Carolina the No. 1 pick in the draft. WR Darnell Mooney is healthy again after missing significant time with an ankle injury. The Bears also bolstered a mediocre offensive line by taking Tennessee OT Darnell Wright in the first round of the NFL Draft and signing free-agent OG Nate Davis. Fields was an effective passer at Ohio State who threw 62 TD passes in 22 games for the Buckeyes and averaged 9.3 yards per pass attempt. It’s a good bet he’ll throw more in 2023 than he did last year when he averaged 21.2 pass attempts per game. If Fields can significantly improve on his 2022 passing numbers and maintain most of his rushing value, he could contend for the league lead in QB fantasy scoring. But if the passing skills Fields displayed at Ohio State don’t fully translate to the NFL, his ceiling might not be quite as high as his biggest advocates believe.
-Pat Fitzmaurice
Cleveland Browns
Can Deshaun Watson return to his old form?
Deshaun Watson seems like a potential fantasy football quarterback league winner if he can recapture a QB1 overall form from his days with the Houston Texans. His return in 2022 was horrible, but it’s excusable based on so much missed time. Also, you cannot overlook that several of the games he played occurred under bizarre weather circumstances.
For 2023, he has weapons ranging from Amari Cooper, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Elijah Moore, Cedric Tillman, Nick Chubb and David Njoku. Plus, Watson will benefit from an entire offseason to prepare as the Browns’ full-time starter in 2023. If he returns to his former self, every Browns player will be a fantasy value. I, for one, am in the camp that Watson CAN return to his top passing days because I don’t think he forgot how to be an elite quarterback. He will be just 28 years old at the start of the season. We saw Mike Vick come back after essentially three years removed from NFL football and finish as the fantasy QB1…four years after he was the fantasy QB2 overall. Watson has been a top-5 fantasy QB every single year that he has played at least 15 games. And he is being vastly undersold as a rushing threat. As bad as he was last year, he still posted a solid 175 rushing yards in 6 games. Extrapolating that number over 17 games leads to nearly 500 rushing yards. That would have ranked 6th among all QBs in 2022.
-Andrew Erickson
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.