We are on the home stretch. One week from today we have football. Real life actually counts football when the Ravens visit the Chiefs on NBC and Peacock. Which means we have no time to waste. We have to get right to the plugs. If you want amazing draft software, software to help you with waivers, trades, line-up decisions, parlay bets, DFS, pick’ems plus proprietary projections, a data suite, the exclusive Utilization Report and much more, check out the award winning FantasyLife+. We, and by we, I mean people a lot smarter than me, spent over a year building this suite of tools.
Fantasy Football Happy Hour, my show with Connor Rogers, Jay Croucher and Lawrence Jackson, airs Monday through Friday on the NFL on NBC YouTube page, every day at 3 p.m. ET and on demand on Peacock, 3 p.m. ET on Channel 85 on SiriusXM and of course wherever you get your podcasts. And then starting next Sunday, September 8 (the first NFL Sunday), Jay, Lawrence and I return with another season of Fantasy Football Pregame with Matthew Berry, which airs 11 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET on Peacock and the NFL on NBC YouTube page.
Other than plugs, you know what else is an annual preseason tradition? Ranks. Positional ranks, top 200 and of course, lists.
Lists of 10, to be specific. Here’s ten of them.
Time for the 2024 edition of… Ten Lists. Of Ten.
LIST ONE: Ten preseason storylines I’m buying
1. Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels will live up to the hype and more, both delivering on big seasons.
2. Diontae Johnson is going to be THE focal point of the Panthers passing attack and remains massively mispriced.
3. Taysom Hill is going be a big part of the Saints offense this year, and in leagues where he has TE eligibility, he is significantly undervalued.
4. The Titans are going to have a revamped, more pass-centric offense under Brian Callahan.
5. Xavier Worthy is the real deal and will be the legit deep-threat the Chiefs have been missing since Tyreek Hill left.
6. Keon Coleman and Brian Thomas Jr. are going to be full-time starters in Week 1.
7. Bucky Irving is the clear-cut RB2 in Tampa Bay. Braelon Allen is the clear-cut RB2 in New York. Tank Bigsby is the clear cut RB2 in Jacksonville.
8. Stefon Diggs, not Nico Collins or Tank Dell, is going to be the “WR 1” in Houston in terms of targets and will play the most snaps in the slot of the big three, although all three of them are going to get plenty of work.
9. Both Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle will see significant work in the Dallas backfield.
10. Ken Walker is going to be used as a bellcow RB in Seattle and will have a much bigger role in the passing game than previous years.
RELATED: Matthew Berry’s Love/Hate for the 2024 fantasy football season
LIST TWO: My ten “Chicken” players
A few years ago, Jim Harbaugh (at the time the head coach at the University of Michigan) famously told his team not to eat chicken because it’s a “nervous bird.” Although, as I always say, if you could be fried and chopped into something called a nugget, you’d be nervous too. But thus started this list. These are 10 big-name players I am just kind of nervous about. All talented players, all ranked where they should be. But as I’ve been drafting, when it comes time to pick that player, something about them just gives me nervous vibes and I find myself passing on them and drafting a different, similarly-ranked player.
1. Puka Nacua – same number of targets as Cooper Kupp in the full games they played together last season, missed majority of camp/preseason with knee injury, going multiple rounds higher than Kupp.
2. Davante Adams – bad QB, bad offense that will be run-oriented, turns 32 in December. Insane talent and should see massive target volume, but rather be out a year early than a year too late.
3. Saquon Barkley – can easily see how he has a huge season, but the opportunity cost where you have to draft him (and who else you pass on) is so high for a RB where I have concerns about both his goal-line and passing game roles.
4. Michael Pittman – PPR scam artist who has never been a big TD scorer. Taylor and Richardson will both be used heavily in the red zone and if Richardson’s accuracy issues continue, Pittman can easily lose his previously high floor.
5. C.J. Stroud – should have a great season, but pocket passers have a very narrow path to becoming league winners. Joe Burrow and Dak Prescott offer a comparable upside and often go a few rounds later.
6. Rachaad White – last year’s success was almost entirely volume based as his rushing metrics were abysmal. If Bucky Irving is what the Bucs hope he can be, White will no longer dominate backfield touches to such an extreme extent.
7. Rhamondre Stevenson – Very talented real life RB but significant concerns over the offensive line, an offense that will struggle to be in scoring position and the addition of Antonio Gibson might completely kill or severely limit his passing game role.
8. George Pickens – immense talent but so was Drake London and he never finished as a top-40 WR in PPG under Arthur Smith. I would like him more if Justin Fields were named the starter, but I’m generally avoiding Pittsburgh’s passing game altogether.
9. Brock Bowers – elite prospect but same QB/offense concerns I have with Davante Adams. And unlike Adams, Bowers isn’t going to see 150+ targets.
10. Brandon Aiyuk – Still hasn’t practiced yet, no idea what team (if any) he’ll be on, even if he returns to the 49ers, Brock Purdy is a different (worse) QB without Trent Williams on the offensive line and just seriously bad vibes around a player that, on Yahoo, is being drafted in the same round as guys like Devonta Smith, DK Metcalf and Mike Evans.
RELATED: Matthew Berry’s overall top 200 for 2024 fantasy football season
LIST THREE: Ten “unsexy” players who will help you win
These are players with no hype or buzz. They are snoozy and when you draft them, no one will say “Ooooh, great pick” like they will when you draft Malik Nabers or Jayden Daniels. But they will outperform their too low ADPs and help you win. In no order:
1. James Conner
2. Alvin Kamara
3. Christian Kirk
4. Joe Mixon
5. Raheem Mostert
6. DeAndre Hopkins
7. Najee Harris
8. Brian Robinson
9. Chris Godwin
10. Devin Singletary
RELATED: Matthew Berry’s latest positional rankings for 2024 fantasy season
LIST FOUR: The 10 Best Fantasy Team Names (That I Can Print!) from my followers on Twitter/X
Well, there was a definitely a theme this year and that theme is Hawk Tuah. Not since “Platinum Vagine” have I seen such unanimous embrace of a phrase. Brock Tua … Hock Tua … Pitts on That Thang. On and on and on. You guys hawk tuah’d all over my feed. Well done. But while that was a theme for many (I mean many) here are the best non-Hawk Tuah fantasy team names of 2024.
2. Etienne Good in the Nabershood
4. Rome Wasn’t Built In Odunze
5. Stroudy with a Chance of Deep Balls
6. 99 Problems But A-Rich Ain’t One
10. Love Thy Nabers (multiple)
RELATED: 2024 Draft Day Manifesto: The 7 habits of highly effective drafters
LIST FIVE: Ten Favorite RB’s going after the tenth round on Yahoo (in no specific order):
1. Jonathon Brooks
2. Chase Brown
3. Gus Edwards
4. Jaleel McLaughlin
5. Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott
6. Tyrone Tracy
7. Tyler Allgeier
8. Jordan Mason
9. Braelon Allen
10. Bucky Irving
RELATED: Matthew Berry’s 100 facts you need to know before you draft in 2024
LIST SIX: Ten Favorite WRs going after the tenth round on Yahoo (in no specific order):
1. Josh Palmer
2. Jameson Williams
3. Brian Thomas Jr.
4. Khalil Shakir (I also don’t mind some Curtis Samuel. Think both are productive this year)
5. Rashid Shaheed
6. Dontayvion Wicks
7. Greg Dortch
8. Josh Downs
9. Luke McCaffrey
10. Darnell Mooney
BONUS LATE ROUND TIGHT END NAMES: Taysom Hill, Noah Fant, Juwan Johnson, Zach Ertz (or a Ben Sinnott stash), Jonnu Smith, Chig Okonkwo.
RELATED: Matthew Berry’s 2024 dynasty rookie rankings for superflex and 1QB leagues
LIST SEVEN: Ten more: team names from Fantasy Life’s Best Fantasy Football Team Names for 2024:
1. April Showers Bring Zay Flowers
2. Better Call Hall
3. Big Nix Energy
4. For Whom Tank Dell Tolls
5. Geno Grigio
6. I Gotta Figure Out How To Make Mooney On This Thing
7. I’m just Ken!(neth Walker III)
8. Not Like Gus
9. This Is Your Final Warren
10. To Infinity and De’Von.
LIST EIGHT: Ten Leftover Facts from My 100 Facts Column:
1. Brandin Cooks saw 16 end zone targets in 2023 and scored 8 touchdowns.
2. In the 8 games in which he didn’t score, he averaged 4.3 PPG.
3. Christian Watson saw a league-high 54% of his team’s end zone targets last season.
4. Since 2014, Zach Ertz has not had a target share below 18%.
5. In his 7 games last season Ertz saw 30% of team red zone targets – the 2nd highest rate at the position.
6. In the 8 games Dallas Goedert has missed over the past 2 seasons, DeVonta Smith has seen a 28.2% target share and is averaging 17.9 PPG.
7. In the 25 games he’s played with Goedert during that stretch, he’s seen a 23.8% target share and is averaging 13.6 PPG.
8. In 31 games, Zamir White has a career target share of… 2%.
9. Over the last four seasons there have only been five wide receivers to have at least 225 fantasy points in every single season: Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs, Mike Evans and…. DK Metcalf.
9a. Under new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, Washington led FBS in passing yards per game from 2022-2023
10. Courtland Sutton scored ten touchdowns last year. Ten. And still finished as WR 38 in PPG.
LIST NINE: My Ten Most Rostered Players
I’ve done about 25 real season long drafts to this point (meaning I’m playing out the league this year and it’s not best ball) and here are the players I tend to wind up with the most:
1. Kyler Murray – Ride or Die, of course
2. Jayden Daniels
3. Isiah Pacheco
4. Derrick Henry
5. Brian Robinson
6. Malik Nabers
7. Diontae Johnson
8. Tank Dell
9. Trey McBride
10. Dalton Kincaid
Deeper leagues I have a lot of Tyrone Tracy, Greg Dortch, Luke McCaffrey, Khalil Shakir, Josh Palmer
LIST TEN: Ten players that are more valuable in Guillotine Leagues
Guillotine League is an amazing format that has become very popular the last few years. If you’re unfamiliar, basically the idea is that you have a league and everyone drafts a team like normal. You start a line-up, like normal. Twist here is you DON’T play head to head. At the end of the first week, the lowest scoring team is cut. Forever. Their season is over.
Here’s the other twist. All the players on the team that got chopped go back into the free agent pool so every week the waiver wire is filled with stars and starters. As a result, the goal of Guillotine Leagues (www.guillotineleagues.com) is floor, not upside. You’re not looking to win the league every week, just not finish last. So here are ten players that have more value in a guillotine league than they do in season long leagues:
1. Brock Purdy
2. Josh Jacobs
3. James Conner
4. Joe Mixon
5. Najee Harris
6. DJ Moore
7. Michael Pittman
8. Christian Kirk
9. Diontae Johnson
10. Evan Engram
