Fantasy Football: These ended up being the best draft picks of 2024

At the conclusion of every fantasy football season, it’s a good exercise to look back at what circumstances led to your ultimate fate — whether you walked away with a first-place trophy or reigned supreme in your league’s Toilet Bowl.

We’ve already commiserated in our worst picks of Rounds 1-10 in our 2024 fantasy drafts; now it’s time to celebrate our best. Here’s a look at fantasy football’s best picks, round-by-round, based on their average draft position and eventual PPG to close out the season.

Round 1: Ja’Marr Chase, WR, Cincinnati Bengals

ADP: 6.7, WR3
PPG finish: WR1

It should be no surprise that the overall WR1 (and our recently crowned 2024 Fantasy Football MVP) was the best pick of Round 1. It certainly wasn’t Christian McCaffrey!

Chase hit new career highs in fantasy points, receptions, receiving yards, touchdowns, catch percentage … the list goes on and on. His 2024 campaign was the fourth-highest-scoring fantasy season over the past 10 years. So, yeah, pretty self-explanatory.

Round 2: Saquon Barkley, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

ADP: 13.3, RB5
PPG finish: RB1

Fantasy football managers were either all-in or totally out on Saquon Barkley’s chances at a revitalized career with the Philadelphia Eagles. Those who bought in were handsomely awarded with his best campaign yet. Barkley topped 2,000 scrimmage yards for the second time in his career and his third consecutive season with 10+ scrimmage TDs. Barkley finished the year with seven weekly finishes as a top-five RB, including three weeks as the No. 1-scoring RB — along with back-to-back top-six finishes in the fantasy playoffs — the definition of a league-winner.

The most surprising fact of all? This isn’t even the best fantasy season of Barkley’s career; he actually scored more fantasy points in half-PPR scoring formats as a rookie with 340.3 points compared to 338.8 in the 2024 season, thanks to his 91 receptions and 721 receiving yards … even if it wasn’t quite as magnificent as what he accomplished this year with the Eagles.

Round 3: Josh Jacobs, RB, Green Bay Packers

ADP: 29.3, RB12
PPG finish: RB6

As it turns out, taking a risk on veteran RBs changing teams this season was the way to go. The preseason concerns for Jacobs were obvious; he was coming off his most inefficient season to date (3.5 YPC) and had totaled 260+ touches in each of five NFL seasons.

Could a change in environment really make that drastic a difference?

As it turns out, the answer is a resounding and emphatic, “YES!” with a capital Y-E-S. Jacobs reached a career-high 14 rushing touchdowns and the second-highest scrimmage-yard total of his career in his first season with a run-friendly Matt LaFleur scheme, finishing as fantasy football’s RB6 in PPG — the second-best fantasy season of his career, only behind his All-Pro season with the Raiders in 2022 where he topped 300 fantasy points on the back of a 2,000 scrimmage-yard run.

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Round 4: James Cook, RB, Buffalo Bills

ADP: 40.8, RB14
PPG finish: RB9

Despite being the RB1 for a Josh Allen-led offense, fantasy football managers were hesitant to buy into the hype with James Cook. After all, what about all of the rushing touchdowns Josh Allen was bound to steal? (12.) What about the chance for regression on offense without a true WR1? (The Bills ranked second in points scored, fifth in yards per play and had a league-low eight turnovers.)

Yeah … none of that mattered. Cook finished as the overall RB8 on the year, leading the league with 17 total touchdowns scored. The former second-round pick averaged 5.0 YPC and managed a career-high 3.33 yards after contact per attempt — impressive, especially for a speedy, relatively undersized back at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds. Though he averaged one fewer touch and 10 fewer scrimmage yards per game this year than he did last, touchdowns helped to carry fantasy managers to relevance all season long.

Round 5: Alvin Kamara, RB, New Orleans Saints

ADP: 49.2, RB17
PPG finish: RB6

Death, taxes and Alvin Kamara targets — the only constants in life. Fantasy managers entered this season understandably skeptical of what he’d accomplish in his age-29 season, but it turns out, we were in for more of the usual, including a full-time receiving role to pair with the second-highest carry total of his career.

Kamara could once again prove to be a value in 2025, too. Despite the fact that he’ll be another year older, the 5x Pro Bowler is coming off his most efficient season as a rusher (4.2 YPC) since 2020, and New Orleans signed him to a two-year, $24.5 million extension this year to keep him around through 2026. The Saints are in cap hell for the years to come, they might not be in a position to move on from Derek Carr and Kendre Miller doesn’t seem to have panned out to this point. As long as he’s still got two legs and is the starting RB for the Saints, Kamara’s fantasy managers should probably just settle in and enjoy the ride … even if it won’t feel great to click the “DRAFT” button next season.

Round 6: Malik Nabers, WR, New York Giants

ADP: 55.5, WR24
PPG finish: WR7

No QB? No problem for first-round rookie WR Malik Nabers. As it turns out, the Giants un-retiring jersey No. 1, which has been off the shelf dating back to 1935, wasn’t such a bad move; it was the first retired jersey number, ever, in the history of professional football, and Nabers did it proud in its first year back. The rookie ranked fourth in receptions and sixth in receiving yards per game catching passes from … *checks notes* Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle.

If the Giants ever do find an answer at quarterback, look out. If they don’t, well … still, look out; it doesn’t appear to affect his upside for fantasy — especially when it counts. Nabers finished as the WR2 in fantasy championship week.

Round 7: Tee Higgins, WR, Cincinnati Bengals

ADP: 69.3, WR18
PPG finish: WR2

Chase ranked as the overall WR1 in fantasy with 19.9 fantasy points per game, but one could easily argue that Tee Higgins was the much better value, finishing as the WR2 in FPPG but selected much later, in the seventh round. Higgins was the only player to score double-digit receiving touchdowns in fewer than 13 games this year despite not being fully healthy early in the season, earning himself a tremendous payday come free agency this spring.

Most importantly for his value was his performance in Week 17, when he scored 34.6 fantasy points in Championship Week and tying Baker Mayfield as No. 2 scoring player at any position — only behind his quarterback, Joe Burrow. Higgins was the second most commonly rostered player on championship-winning Yahoo Fantasy Public League teams at 23.08%.

Round 8: Terry McLaurin, WR, Washington Commanders

ADP: 74.4, WR30
PPG finish: WR14

The real-life value of Terry McLaurin on the field has been well-appreciated throughout his career, but fantasy managers were painfully aware that poor quarterback play limited his scoring potential in our fake game. That all changed in 2024, when the Commanders did a 180° and found their future at quarterback at the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft — Jayden Daniels (more on him in a minute).

Commanders QBs (Daniels, plus Marcus Mariota on 26 attempts) combined for a 61.5% accurate throw rate that ranks as the team’s best since the Kirk Cousins Era, when Washingon QBs combined for a 60.7% accurate throw rate in 2015. McLaurin officially notched his fifth consecutive season with 1,000+ receiving yards and 12 touchdowns, finishing as fantasy’s overall WR6.

Round 9: Tony Pollard, RB, Tennessee Titans

ADP: 90.8, RB26
PPG finish: RB21

There wasn’t a huge discrepancy between Pollard’s draft rank (RB26) versus his PPG finish (RB21), but considering the other draft picks that went in Round 9 (Christian Kirk, Diontae Johnson, Harrison Butker, Brock Purdy) and positional scarcity, he feels like by far the best value to come out of this round. Concerns about a shared workload with second-year RB Tyjae Spears suppressed his ADP throughout the offseason, but he returned RB2 value through most of the season, including a top-five finish in Week 12.

Unfortunately, health caught up to him toward the end of the season, and he did eventually cede work to Spears, leaving fantasy managers with an RB45 finish in Week 16 followed by a Week 17 absence with an ankle injury.

Round 10: Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders

ADP: 97.1, QB12
PPG finish: QB4

Daniels was the overall QB4 on the year, but his tear through the playoffs (QB1, 30.9 FPPG in Weeks 15-17) earned him the spot as the best quarterback selection in 2024 drafts. The three quarterbacks who finished ahead of Daniels (Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow) were all selected between Rounds 3-7, so to have returned that kind of value is really saying something.

Daniels, a heavy favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year, broke Robert Griffin III’s rookie rushing record, ranked fifth in total passing + rushing yards (4,394) and eighth in scrimmage TDs (31) and still left more on the table. He suffered a rib injury midway through the season, which may have played into a decline in production in that span, but those who were patient were handsomely rewarded in the playoffs.

Bonus cheers to the greatest values of all!

Some of the best values of this year’s drafts didn’t make the cut for this article because they were selected outside of the top 10 rounds. Among them:

Brian Thomas Jr., WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

ADP: 113.4
PPG finish: WR9

Chuba Hubbard, RB, Carolina Panthers

ADP: 129.9
PPG finish: RB12

Chase Brown, RB, Cincinnati Bengals

ADP: 113.8
PPG finish: RB16

Jordan Addison, WR, Minnesota Vikings

ADP: 117.5
PPG finish: WR16

Bucky Irving, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

ADP: 130.2
PPG finish: RB20

Rico Dowdle, RB, Dallas Cowboys

ADP: 128.3
PPG finish: RB26