Players who popped at the end of the season

  • The end of the season usually correlates towards future fantasy success at a higher rate than the beginning of the season, but similarly like in fantasy basketball, it can also be a big of a silly season.  The key is sorting through which were breakthroughs and which were outliers and if we are being honest, it’s not easy.  We are going to look at  unheralded players that went off from Week 15 to the end of season, but we will try and weight Week 18 less than the other three because it wasn’t relevant to fantasy and a lot of times, teams rested on both sides of the ball.  We are looking for players outside the top-100 who have a good chance to make the leap and finish inside the top-100 at worst.  We don’t want players who might play in the flex, we are looking players at the end of your bench who could be viable WR2/RB2 during the season.

    Week 15 -18 WRs

     

    Jalen McMillian, TB – The rookie averaged 16.8 points in PPR leagues across the four weeks and was one of the biggest league swingers in fantasy last season.  This was without Chris Godwin, but Mike Evans was on the field, so he doesn’t need to be the lone threat.  Now with Godwin back and Emeka Egbuka on the roster, it will be much more difficult for him to replicate those stats.  It’s a long season and Evans and Godwin are both older and now more injury prone.  At an ADP of 162, McMillian should not only be better, but has a ton of room to crush his ADP if injury should strike again.  During those four games, he had an 18.4% target share, 63.2 receiving yards per game, 2.09 yards per route run and he remains an elite option especially if you want to go heavy on the TB offense and grab one of the elite WRs earlier in your draft.

    Marvin Mims, DEN – Mims was the WR13 over the final four weeks of the season, but he really popped over the last two.  He had 35.8 of his 57.8 FPs over the last two games, so it’s more of a boom/bust situation for the speedy WR.  Over the Broncos’ last five regular-season games of 2024, Marvin Mims had 23 catches for 341 yards and five touchdowns, so he really did get hot and remains the deep-threat on what should be an explosive DEN offense.  Bo Nix really grew as the season progressed and his ability to hit the deep route is the best indicator for Mims’ future success.  Without Courtland Sutton taking most of the attention of the defense, there is an opportunity for Mims to grow his role and 52 targets which ranked 128th among WRs.  The worry is that DEN brought in Evan Engram, who can be a target hog (143 2023) and drafted Pat Bryant, who is really growing and getting praise from HC Sean Payton.  Mims is being drafted around the top-150 and he could be a frustrating player to draft this season.  DEN is a team I am all-in though an getting cheap pieces late in your draft is a great recipe for future fantasy success.


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