Fantasy Football: Yahoo Fantasy’s must-draft players for 2024

The team at Yahoo Fantasy is committed to ensuring you have a successful fantasy football season. That success (hopefully) starts at the beginning of your fantasy drafts. Here, our team identifies five of their “must-draft” players in 2024.

As a longtime resident of Pacheco Island, Kansas City’s featured back has found his way onto most of my rosters. I had Pacheco ranked as a first-round back for months. He was a huge and clear offseason winner, as the Chiefs never made a significant addition to their backfield.

Pacheco has always been a dynamic, hard-charging runner, plus he answered any questions about his receiving ability last season when he completed 44 of 49 targets. Simply put, he’s a talented back who’s attached to one of the NFL’s elite offenses. No reason to overthink it. — Andy Behrens

The Bears rookie wide receiver has been one of my favorite prospects of the last five years. Odunze is a do-it-all wide receiver who excels at speed and accurate route running, along with excellent contested catch chops. I can see why there’s a catastrophic ADP gap from Marvin Harrison Jr. (16th overall) to Malik Nabers (41st overall) all the way down to Odunze (84th overall) given the number of projectable targets.

That’s by no means a reflection on their respective talents, though. Odunze was as pristine a prospect as either of those. He’s paired with a talented young quarterback in Caleb Williams who already favors his fellow rookie in scramble-drill situations. Odunze is a value at WR38, and a guy who I’d wager will be the WR2 in this offense at worst by the end of the season. — Matt Harmon

It took the Chiefs a while to trust Rashee Rice last year, but he was a central cog in the team’s run to a championship. In his last 10 games (including the playoffs), Rice has posted a juicy 69-780-4 line; over a full season, those numbers would rank in the top five at the position.

There is obviously a risk of a holdout on Rice, but as the summer progresses, the tea leaves suggest that Rice could face a light sanction, or perhaps nothing at all until 2025. I feel like he has been mispriced all summer and he is a big part of my fantasy portfolio for 2024. — Scott Pianowski

Fantasy points per dropback is one of the best future indicators of fantasy performance, and Anthony Richardson just recorded the most FP/DB since Lamar Jackson’s historic 2019 season. Richardson averaged 29.2 fantasy points per four quarters as a rookie and tied C.J. Stroud in weekly top-five finishes despite playing just 10 quarters.

Richardson continued to show a strong ability to avoid sacks like he did in college, and last year’s full season would have led all quarterbacks in rushing yards (925), rushing TDs (26!), attempts (170) and designed runs (111). He easily led the league in designed rush rate in the red zone and has no plans to change his playing style in Year 2.

Shane Steichen is a certified QB guru and the Colts are playing at an incredibly high pace indoors (top five in plays per game with Richardson last year). Indianapolis is loaded with athletic weapons and has a top five offensive line. Richardson has as much fantasy upside as any quarterback in the league, but he’s available for plays after others come off the board. — Dalton Del Don

I understand your pain if you felt cheated by DeVonta Smith in 2023. Smith was coming off a spectacular sophomore season in which he finished as the overall WR10 in half-PPR in 2022. As a result, he received a significant boost in ADP and was drafted as a borderline WR1. Smith’s 2023 wasn’t a bust, but his WR20 overall finish and 11.7 fantasy points per game were disappointing.

Targets and consistency have been a major issue, but with Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator, Smith is poised for a huge bounce-back season and a return to the top 10. Smith is a perfect fit for Moore’s offense, drafted as a low-end WR2, a great discount for his proven upside. Moore will help accelerate the Eagles’ pace — which dipped toward the end of last season — and Smith should be a big beneficiary of an increase in targets. — Tera Roberts

Nabers used to go in Round 5 of fantasy drafts, but recently he’s moved up to the fourth round. Despite this, he’s still my favorite must-draft player in all of fantasy. I have him as a borderline second-round pick in my rankings, which makes him one of the best values ​​I’ve seen at the position in a few years.

Nabers has done everything that has been asked of him, whether that is dominating in team and collective practices or showing his skills in his limited preseason playing time. Nabers has a legitimate chance to break Puka Nacua’s rookie record for most targets in a season (159). His biggest competition this year will be Darius Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson and possibly a rookie TE in Theo Johnson. None of these guys have shown the ability to consistently earn targets in the NFL.

If you don’t know, Nabers was the sixth overall pick by the Giants in Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft, similar to AJ Green and Amari Cooper as a college prospect. He produced nearly 1,600 yards at LSU last year, then showed up at his pro day and ran a 4.35 40-yard dash.

By all accounts, Nabers is an alpha receiver; he’s the playmaker the Giants have been missing since Odell Beckham Jr. left. The QB situation is certainly scary, but in my opinion, it’s baked into his fourth-round price tag. Don’t leave the draft without Malik Nabers. — Salt Vetri