Steelers fantasy football: Which players should you draft this year?
By Luke Sawhook
Running back
Najee Harris is one of my favorite picks in fantasy football this season. Currently going as the 13th player off the board overall, and the 10th RB off the board Najee Harris is an incredible value with tremendous upside for your fantasy teams this season. He has the blueprint for a monstrous breakout season for the Steelers and your fantasy teams.
What makes this all come together? Workload + talent + receptions = fantasy superstar. Najee Harris checks all the boxes. Make sure you snag him in your fantasy drafts, I have him ranked as my RB 8 this season. He’s in for a huge year!
Wide receiver
Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and JuJu Smith-Schuster are 3 very valuable fantasy football WRs this season. Let’s dive in and see if one of these young wideouts is a star waiting to be born this fantasy season.
First up, let’s talk about our number one target, Diontae Johnson. Last season Diontae was peppered with targets and was a monster option in PPR scoring format leagues. Finishing as the WR 21, DIontae had a breakout fantasy season, establishing himself as a household name in the fantasy football community. This season Diontae is being drafted as the WR 22 off the board, basically identical to his season finish from a year ago.
Personally, I love the value of Diontae here, I believe that he presents a great value assuming his number of drops are reduced this season, causing his efficiency to rise significantly. DJ is an awesome WR 2 or WR 3 target for your fantasy team this season, scoop him up all over.
Next up, we have the trickiest WR on the team. JuJu finished last season as the WR 16 in PPR leagues last season which is WAY higher than it feels like he should be. Benefitting from a high catch % and 9 touchdowns, JuJu feels pretty risky this season as a fantasy WR due to the lack of TDs being a non-sticky stat. However, I still LOVE JuJu for fantasy this season, because he still is being drafted as the WR 30 off the board, an AMAZING value! I’ve been drafting him all over the place this season as my WR 3 on my teams who has top 20 upside every single week, it’s amazing.
Lastly, we have Chase Claypool. Claypool finished last season as the WR 23 with an incredible amount of TDs on a low usage rate throughout the back half of the year. I can’t believe that Claypool is only going as the WR 25 off the board, which is crazy low in my opinion. Claypool is my favorite breakout pick of the season for several reasons, but this comparison to DK Metcalf is my favorite.
Both WRs are big body guys with lightning-fast speed who coming out of the draft were told they couldn’t run routes very well, had very very good rookie seasons with high TD numbers. Last season we saw DK Metcalf set the world ablaze for the first half of the season for fantasy football as a top 3 WR before their bye week.
Can this happen for Chase Claypool? Absolutely, sure he may not be a top 3 WR due to a lack of volume, but Chase is bound for a huge season in my opinion. Last season Mapletron passed the eye test in every single way and I think he has legit top 10 upside this season. Draft Claypool as your WR 2/3 with monstrous upside everywhere you can.