Tank Dell, Keenan Allen, Chris Godwin (2024)

Fantasy football draft insider picks can make or break your season. If you miss the best insider picks, you’ll fall behind your competition. If you snag an insider pick, you’ll have an instant advantage. Here are a few late-round insider picks that make up our best 2024 fantasy football draft insider picks.

Insider tips from the Fantasy Football Draft: WR3s with WR1 potential

Finding wide receiver value in the middle rounds can take your fantasy football roster to new levels and make your team a contender in your league. In the middle rounds, you’ll typically find wide receivers on offenses that are expected to be subpar, undervalued veteran receivers, rookies, and wide receivers with undefined roles.

Last season, you could have drafted Brandon Aiyuk, DJ Moore, Michael Pittman Jr., Mike Evans and Zay Flowers from this rough sample of receivers and one or more would have likely pushed your fantasy football team even further forward. Who could be the 2024 receivers you need to catapult your fantasy team into the stratosphere?

Tank Dell (WR – HOU)

Tank Dell was a revelation in late-round fantasy football last season, with 2.22 yards per route run (YPRR) and 23% targets per route run (TPRR) before a leg injury ended his breakthrough 2023 season. That great season came after quarterback CJ Stroud told the Texans front office He wanted the team to choose Dellwhere Stroud complimented Dell on the way he runs his routes and the way he plays football.

The Texans went all out last season when they acquired Stefon Diggs from the Bills, adding him to the trio of Dell and Nico Collins. While the Texans’ pass percentage above expected value (PROE) was league average last season, the second year of Stroud and offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik should bulk up the 11 players Houston uses and increase the number of passes in all situations.

So why is Dell currently ranked WR29 in Consensus rankings from FantasyPros experts (EKR)? Well, his leg injury late in 2023 might have something to do with it, but the target distribution between these three excellent receivers is still very uncertain for 2024 as well. With the peripheral metrics of each receiver in the table above being pretty close, any of Collins, Diggs or Dell could lead the Texans in fantasy scoring, and that wouldn’t be surprising; considering Collins (WR7), Diggs (WR14) and Dell (WR19) were all among the top 20 wide receivers in fantasy points per game last season.

If you’re in doubt about having a trio of elite pass catchers, recruit the cheapest one. Dell as a 2024 fantasy WR1 is definitely in the realm of results. If he hadn’t broken his fibula, he could have accomplished that by now.

Keenan Allen (WR – CHI)

Staying on the theme of being part of a trio that should also improve their standing in fantasy football, the Chicago Bears not only selected quarterback Caleb Williams first in the 2024 NFL Draft, but also selected Rome Odunze ninth and signed Keenan Allen from the Los Angeles Chargers. Allen should give Williams a comfortable target to throw to right away. Although Allen is a bit older entering his 32nd season, he is still very strong.

Allen has been a model of consistency over the past few seasons, culminating in one of the best seasons across the board in 2023. Allen set career highs with a TPRR of 27.5%, a weighted targets per route run (wTPRR) of 0.69 that takes air yards into account, and his highest YPRR (2.36) since 2017. Typically, receivers who cross the 30-year mark see efficiency in all of these metrics drop off as they approach the line of scrimmage. Allen still maintained a healthy average depth of target (aDOT) of 9.9 yards and continues to resist Father Time’s stranglehold for another season, with the NFL’s best open score among all wide receivers in 2023according to ESPN Stats and Info.

With the Bears rolling out DJ Moore, Odunze and Allen, they loaded up Williams to give him the best chance to succeed in his rookie season. Unlike the Texans’ receivers above, the average draft position values ​​(ADP) for all three wide receivers are pretty affordable, with Allen offering the best value relative to draft cost as the WR31 in ECR. Given his cost on draft day, people will be scared of Allen’s age and the many mouths that need to be fed in Chicago’s burgeoning passing game. However, Allen represents one of the best values ​​at his position, where he finished as a WR3 with 21.5 fantasy points per game last season. Grab him and continue to reap the benefits.

Chris Godwin (WR – TB)

Lost in the resurgence of Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers’ passing game under offensive coordinator Dave Canales was Chris Godwin’s resurgence after multiple injuries over the past few seasons. After suffering a torn ACL late in 2021, Godwin returned for Week 1 in 2022, but then suffered a hamstring strain in that game. Godwin returned in Week 4, but it has obviously taken quite a toll on him to get back on his feet after those injuries, on the field.

In 2023, Godwin returned to form, managing a 10.3-yard aDOT – perfectly in line with his pre-2021 numbers. Godwin’s numbers seemed right in line with his previous full seasons, but one thing was worth noting: his lack of slot usage. Since 2019, Godwin has been a primary slot receiver, with as much as 63% usage in the slot from 2019-2022, but last season he ran just 37% of snaps in the slot – Godwin’s lowest since 2018.

New offensive coordinator Liam Coen and wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon both confirmed that Godwin would return to the slot, where Godwin was most productive during his career. Although Godwin was the WR28 in fantasy points per game, he could have been much better with some touchdown luck. If Godwin’s total of just two in 2023 were added to by a handful of 26 touchdowns from the rest of the Buccaneers’ pass catchers, the outlook for him in 2024 could be much brighter.

At WR35 in ECR, Godwin’s slot role and touchdown drop put him in a great position to add tremendous value and potentially return to WR1 territory for the first time since 2019 – Godwin’s first season as a full-time slot player.

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