Welcome to the 2024 fantasy football season! Our team of analysts wants to start the year with some spice and presents you with their boldest predictions for the upcoming season.

Zay Flowers makes his fantasy breakthrough in his second year

Flowers has 1,200 receiving yards and is a top 15 prospect at the position. You can believe that and think Rashod Bateman is a strong draft value, as I do. It seems like Flowers was a little undervalued, if not completely forgotten, during fantasy draft season. Most analysts see him as a targeted touch dealer because they only look at results-based metrics and rely on early-season usage from his rookie season.

When you actually watch him play, you see that Flowers is a wide receiver who can get through man coverage on long downfield routes, like a primary outside receiver. This is a holdover from Flowers’ college recordings, so it shouldn’t be too surprising if you know his game from more than just his rookie season. He was also the second-best player I recorded last year for reception awareness success rate against zone coverage at 85%, only Brandon Aiyuk was better. That’s crucial when paired with Lamar Jackson, as teams will play a zone-heavy defense against him given his scrambling skills. Flowers is an up-and-coming second-year player tied to a great quarterback. That’s the kind of receiver you want in fantasy. — Matt Harmon

Watson isn’t drafted as a top-40 fantasy receiver – in fact, he’s not even the Green Bay Packers’ best receiver in terms of ADP – but he has the potential to end up in the top 12 at that position. From an athletic perspective, Watson is unlike any other player in the Packers’ receiving corps.

Watson was a touchdown machine in his first two seasons, but the missing ingredients were health and availability. If he really puts the hamstring issues behind him, he will take off in his third season. — Andy Behrens

Jayden Daniels lands among the top five quarterbacks… as a rookie

I’ve not hidden my admiration for Daniels this offseason. He was the headline of my Rookie Breakout article earlier this offseason and was named one of the players I’m most afraid of being wrong about this year… in part because I’m so overly optimistic about the Washington Commanders rookie.

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Daniels comes into the league with almost as much running potential as Colts QB Anthony Richardson, except he has a more polished passing game in my opinion. He doesn’t have the depth at receiver that Richardson does, but the Commanders’ defense is projected to be among the league’s worst, which should be a huge plus given his volume of play. Given the likely volume projection for an offense forced to keep up with its opponents, and the likelihood that Daniels will go out and run the ball every time Terry McLaurin isn’t free, I’m fully confident in his potential as a top-5 quarterback. — Kate Magdziuk

Chuba Hubbard will be a fantasy factor all season long

Hubbard has been Carolina’s starting running back for most of the season and ranks in the top 20 at the position. At this point, I’m willing to follow Dave Canales into a burning building. Most of all, I’m excited to see if he can get Bryce Young going and if that leads to Diontae Johnson having a monster season. But any improvement in the passing game will help the running game as well.

I realize Jonathan Brooks is an exciting prospect, but since he’s coming back from a serious injury, it makes sense for Carolina to be cautious with him. I see Brooks more as a 2025 fantasy prospect; there’s no rush here. The underrated Hubbard is ready to crack his ADP. — Scott Pianoski

Smith-Njigba had a disappointing rookie season, but a broken wrist and coaching were the main culprits. Seattle rarely used 3WR sets despite drafting JSN in the first round, and his average depth of target ranked 95th among wide receivers. In fact, Smith-Njigba had by far the highest target percentage behind the line of scrimmage of any wideout.

JSN posted a 34.4% share of first-read targets on third/fourth downs as a rookie as his route participation increased dramatically. He should be a much bigger part of an improved Seahawks offense in 2024, led by aggressive new OC Ryan Grubb. Tyler Lockett is starting the year with an injury, but that may not matter at all. Smith-Njigba was a standout college star who could emerge as Seattle’s best wide receiver in 2024.

JSN ranks as a top 20 fantasy wide receiver. — Dalton Del Don

Diontae Johnson is recovering… big time

Hear me out – Johnson will return as a top-12 receiver in 2024! It’s been three seasons since we last saw Diontae Johnson as a WR1. It was during Ben Roethlisberger’s last hurrah and Johnson had a whopping 169 targets and averaged 13.8 fantasy points in half-PPR. Roethlisberger’s declining arm and penchant for the short game benefited Johnson and he could find the same use in Carolina as the Panthers look to put Bryce Young in comfortable, advantageous situations.

Johnson is very quarterback friendly and is best used as a high-volume receiver. Last season, the Panthers’ offense struggled in the air, but it wasn’t for a lack of volume. The Panthers had the 13th-most pass attempts in 2023. New head coach Dave Canales will increase the team’s efficiency and Johnson could be the biggest beneficiary of that. — Tera Roberts

Currently drafted as the RB25, Swift will finish the season as a top-five fantasy running back. Swift put up extremely solid numbers last year with the Eagles, rushing for over 1,000 yards on the ground. However, he only finished as the RB23 in fantasy football because he only scored six total touchdowns. Now that he’s in Chicago, where Jalen Hurts can’t steal one-yard rushing touchdowns off the tush push, I think Swift is ready for a fantasy football explosion.

The Bears gave Swift $15.3 million guaranteed as a free agent, which is more than any other running back in free agency, suggesting they want to use him as their lead wolf. I expect the Bears’ offense as a whole to benefit from the rising tide of Caleb Williams, and Swift also provides a decent pass-catching base. Add all that up, and Swift will be one of the biggest success stories in fantasy football in 2024. — Pranav Rajaram

Rom Odunze is the Bears’ WR in the squad

Odunze was drafted as the Bears’ third receiver this summer and often finished outside the top 40 WRs. But by the end of the year, Odunze will lead all Bears receivers in fantasy production. This season, he will compete with DJ Moore and Keenan Allen. Moore is coming off a career year, while Allen led the NFL in targets per game last season. It won’t be easy to outperform these talented receivers, but Odunze is The Good.

Odunze is a top-10 pick who impressed in college with both his size and technique. Odunze dominates at the line of scrimmage, wins at the catch point and is great after the catch. By Week 18, Odunze will have surpassed both Allen and Moore in fantasy. — Salt Glass

Geno Smith returns to the fantasy world

Smith, the 21st-ranked QB in Yahoo leagues, will finish the season as a top-10 fantasy QB. That prediction may not be bold enough, because in 2022, Smith finished the season as the No. 5 QB after throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 TDs while rushing for 366 yards and another touchdown on the ground.

The 33-year-old received a massive boost in the offseason when the Seahawks hired offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who proved during his time at the University of Washington that he is a dynamic playmaker who plays to his players’ strengths. Grubb will quickly realize that the strength of Seattle’s offense is its three-headed monster of receivers: DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Tyler Lockett, and he will let Smith throw early and often. — Fred Zinkie