Top NFL Fantasy Football Landing Spots

Here are the best skill position situations for NFL rookies to enter.

Here are the best skill position situations for NFL rookies to enter.

Top NFL Fantasy Football Landing Spots

The 2021 NFL Draft kicks off tomorrow.

What I am looking forward to is seeing where these players land, the situations they find themselves in. Last year at this time I liked Clyde Edwards-Helaire as a rotational back with upside for the future. A day later he was my and just about everybody’s top fantasy rookie landing with Mahomes in Kansas City. Football is the consummate team sport, if you’re not surrounded by talent in the trenches and in play calling, it’s difficult to rise above to perform. It’s possible but the odds are against you. Sam Darnold is the most recent example of this, he’s been surrounded by mediocre talent and coaching. He maybe garbage, his confidence possibly shot, the point though we may never know what Darnold could have been because he landed in a terrible team situation.

The situations I am most excited to see are the following.

San Francisco QB — I believe Jimmy G will likely the starter in ’21. But he’s brittle and if you’re in a dynasty league, whoever is selected at #3 has the potential to be a QB1 in ’22. Great receivers (Kittle, Deebo, Aiyuk), great offensive line and Kyle Shanahan has been a machine at producing top fantasy talent.

Pittsburgh RB — The Steelers history at producing top 10 fantasy RB’s is unprecedented. Would James Conner have ever had a top 5 finish with any other franchise? I would argue Le’Veon Bell achieved his status as a bellcow in part because of the Steelers system. In short if the Steelers pick a player in the first three rounds, that person immediately walks into a RB1 possible situation.

Miami RB — The Dolphins have the pieces in place to ascend to the top of the AFC this year. Their one obvious gap is at running back, and with a coach who believes in a physical team mentality, the right selection could walk into a RB1 situation.

Denver QB — The Broncos aren’t a slam dunk situation like the above 3 but the situation is better than people realize. They have a stable of young, emerging pass catchers (Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, KJ Hammler, Noah Fant), good backs and offensive line. They have a new offensive minded coach. If the right guy lands here they could be explosive. There is no guarantee but I like the upside here for the right pick (e.g. Justin Fields).

Philadelphia WR — The Eagles selected a speedster receiver in the first round last year. They still need more firepower though, so for the right player, such as Kadarius Toney or as I like to say, “this year’s DK Metcalf”, that player could walk into 100+ targets as a rookie and deliver a sound WR2/WR3.

Chicago QB — This is a bit of a stretch but here’s the argument. Matt Nagy is a creative play caller who has had an above average offense with really mediocre quarterback play. The team has a sound offensive line, good core of pass catchers and backs, if they can trade up to get a player such as Mac Jones or Justin Fields who can plug into their system, we could see a nice immediate impact. This isn’t as strong a landing spot as SF or Denver but it’s pretty good.

What landing spots do I think are bad?

New England QB — The Patriots are in a full rebuild mode. Belicheck won’t tank and I am confident they’ll play competitive football, they may even be a wild card team build around a great defense and run game. However look at the pass catching weapons on this team, they’re as bad as any and there is no track record with this coaching staff to deliver production sans Tom Brady.

Houston Texans — The Texans franchise are a dumpster fire after a litany of poor personnel moves and the DWatson legal problems. This is a team that could go winless next year…legitimately winless, non-competitive style of incompetent offensive football. This roster sans Watson is as bad as any expansion roster in modern history. Stay away for 2021.

There will be plenty of pontification and hot takes tomorrow during and after the draft. But remember many of the best QB’s of all time universally weren’t 1st rounders (Tom Brady, Joe Montana; more recently Russell Wilson & Steve Young) and no one will know until 2023 or 2024 at how well these selections fair. So we’ll all read the draft grades and make our own opinions, just remember situation and circumstance are crucial.