Fantasy Football Player Notes

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.

Arguably the best pure passer to ever play in the NFL, Patrick Mahomes enters his age-28 season at the height of his powers. Mahomes led all players in fantasy scoring last season with 428.4 points, giving him his second QB1 finish. In his five full seasons as a starter, Mahomes has averaged 303 passing yards and 23.95 fantasy points per game. Playing his first season without WR Tyreek Hill, who left for Miami, Mahomes finished the 2022 season with a career-high 5,250 passing yards and a league-high 41 TD passes. Mahomes is the safest bet you can make at quarterback.

Isiah Pacheco's outstanding season as a 2022 7th-round pick should not be understated. From Week 10 through Week 17 (when Pacheco cemented himself as the team's starter), the former Rutgers running back was the RB21 in points per game and ranked sixth in total rushing yards. Both he and Jerick McKinnon were top-21 scoring RBs over this stretch, but Pacheco kicked his performance into high gear as the Chiefs made their postseason run. He averaged 13 touches for 65 rushing yards to McKinnon's seven touches per game. The aggressive runner capped off his rookie campaign with an impressive Super Bowl outing (15-76-1) that helped clinch victory for Kansas City. Even as a 7th-round pick, Pacheco should be viewed as the early-down starter for KC as he heads into Year 2, with room for his role to grow should he see his pass-game usage expanded. His six-catch game versus the Bengals in the conference championship suggests a boosted receiving role is firmly in his range of outcomes.

Chiefs TE Noah Gray is destined to have limited fantasy potential as long as he's playing behind Travis Kelce. But Gray, a fifth-round pick in 2021, is an athletic pass catcher whose career is worth monitoring. Gray had 28 catches for 299 yards and one touchdown last season. He'd be a hot waiver wire pickup if Kelce were to ever get hurt.