As of September 2, Malik Nabers is drafted as the 54th player in Round 5 of the ESPN ADP. He is drafted as the 24th player at the wide receiver position.

*Check out the full ESPN ADP at 4for4!*

Round 5 ESPN ADP:

According to the current 4for4 PPR rankings, these players are too high in Round 5 of the ESPN ADP:

Zay Flowers Outlook – As a rookie, Zay Flowers was the fantasy WR27, but per game WR34. The Ravens let Odell Beckham go and didn’t really replace him, so the team will likely have Flowers, Rashod Bateman and Nelson Agholor as its top three receivers.

Flowers should see plenty of targets in his second season and develop into a more reliable weapon.

Joe Burrow’s Outlook – Joe Burrow was QB17 for 10 weeks before suffering a season-ending wrist injury in Week 11. After a very rocky start – Burrow was QB31 for the first four weeks! – he found his feet and was QB6 from Week 5 to Week 10.

This performance was more in line with his QB4 finish in 2022 and his QB6 finish in 2021. We can probably write off these early-season struggles as an exception. The Bengals lost Tyler Boyd in free agency but picked up the talented Jermaine Burton in the draft.

At tight end, Irv Smith was replaced by Mike Gesicki, who will join mini-breakout players Tanner Hudson and Drew Sample in the tight end room. Burrow should be able to put up solid QB1-level numbers in 2024.

According to the current 4for4 PPR rankings, these players rank too low in Round 5 of the ESPN ADP:

Malik Nabers Outlook – From a target perspective, Nabers should see all he can handle and he has the talent to do so.

The problem is the quarterback situation, which currently includes Daniel Jones recovering from a torn ACL and Drew Lock, who is playing on one team for the third time in four seasons. As a top target in a suspect passing attack, Nabers will play in the WR3/WR4 mix this summer.

*Check out the complete set of 4for4’s award-winning PPR fantasy football rankings customized to your ESPN league here*

Why you should draft Malik Nabers ahead of ESPN ADP in the 2024 Fantasy Football Leagues

Those of us who have been following the series “Hard Knocks” know that GM Joe Shoen and head coach Brian Daboll had no objections to selecting a new quarterback at the start of the NFL Draft.

No deals would be made, leaving Daniel Jones and Drew Lock to do the fighting. In response, Vegas is projecting the team to score the fourth-fewest points (361) in the entire league and to score more than 21 points in just four games. Their offensive line could once again be a major problem, and their running back room is uninspiring.

These are all drawbacks for rookie Malik Nabers in a poor offensive environment, but he remains on the fantasy radar as he could have a massive target share. In recent years, we’ve seen rookies burst onto the scene in thin wide receiver rooms.

Puka Nacua earned a 26.8% target share while Cooper Kupp missed time last year, while Drake London and Chris Olave earned 27.7% and 24.3% shares, respectively, in 2022. In Jaylen Waddle’s only season before Tyreek, he also earned a 23.6% share.

These situations don’t seem too different from Nabers’ first season, which featured poor quarterback play alongside the aforementioned receivers. Of course, we’d much rather have Matthew Stafford or Tua throwing him the ball, but our concerns about Daniel Jones and Drew Lock are factored into the late fifth-round prices.

A WR26 prospect in the draft, Nabers could be your fantasy team’s WR3 or FLEX player and provide some big weeks thanks to his yards-after-catch ability. Last season, he led the entire FBS with 34 catches of 20-plus yards while recording 3.64 yards per route run.

There might be some problems along the way, but it’s a risk worth taking to get the win in a week.