Fantasy Football always carries surprises, leaving some pleasantly surprised and others fearing divine punishment. At this point in the season, we can, for the most part, tell who is going to play well and who is a fantasy bust. Let’s take a look at the breakout players and the lemons of fantasy football. Of course, there are injuries, such as Nick Chubb’s season-ending MCL tear or Justin Jefferson’s hamstring injury, but that is another subject for another discussion.
The biggest breakout player no one saw coming this year is Rams running back Kyren Williams. Entering his second season, he was expected to have a larger role in the Ram’s offense. But experts still pegged him as a borderline 12th-round pick in a 12-man league. However, at this point in the season, he is the RB 4, averaging 18.5 fantasy points per game. His heavy workload of about 20 carries a game and utilization in the red zone has led to many touchdowns for Williams. He is undoubtedly the biggest breakout player of the 2023 fantasy season! Another breakout player is star wide receiver DJ Moore. At the same time, many considered DJ Moore an elite receiver last year. He only caught 41 balls for 636 yards and five touchdowns. This year, he was traded to the Chicago Bears, where he is now the undisputed number-one wide receiver. While he had a slow start in week one, only scoring 4.6 fantasy points, he hasn’t scored fewer than 10 points per game since. He scored 27 points against the Broncos in week 4 and 49 points against the Commanders in week 5, a game where he scored three touchdowns and totalled 230 yards. DJ Moore has finally found the right situation and is doing his fantasy owners proud. DJ Moore is a league winner this year.
Two of the biggest fantasy lemons of this year’s 2023 season are San Francisco 49er’s tight end George Kittle and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris. George Kittle was picked in most leagues in the 3rd or 4th rounds of this year’s draft. Though he has been a top-five tight end for many seasons, he seems to be sliding down that list quickly. This year, Kittle is averaging just 10.1 points per game. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Kittle had one game where he scored 27.7 points, but if you exclude this outlier, he is scoring a disappointing 8.6 points per game. In three of those weeks, Kittle didn’t score above 5 points. While he does have the potential to bounce back, it is unlikely since he is, at best, the 3rd target in a stacked 49ers offense. Continuing this downward trend, Steelers running back Najee Harris has been atrocious this season. Most fantasy owners picked him in the 3rd round, yet Harris averages only 8.3 points per game as the Steelers starting running back. Harris’s situation is not good, as he splits the backfield with fellow running back Jaylen Warner. As a result of this, Harris has seen a lack of target share, but he also hasn’t done much with the touches he is given. I would expect slight improvement out of Harris of the bye week, but I don’t anticipate him being any better than a low-end RB 2 this season.
