Fantasy Football Top-100 Players of 2024 By WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
Elsa. Getty Images.Fantasy football season is now over. After a full 17-weeks, it's now time to recap the top-100 in a PPR 12-team typical settings league. We do this by wins above replacement (WAR), a stat I created that estimates how many wins your fantasy team was expected to provide you over a positional replacement-level player.
Not exactly a big reveal that Saquon Barkley back hurdled his way to the #1 player in WAR, but being worth almost half a win more than the #2 player (Bijan Robinson) gives some measure of how much better he was than everyone else in 2024.
Let's get things started with this top-100 list. Here's what the perfect 2024 draft would have looked like for the first two rounds (except for the six slot I guess as taking two QBs in Rounds 1 and 2 might not be advisable exactly)
Before I get to some notes on some player let me say a few words to my "Bell Cow RB" brethren: WE ARE SO BACK!
Last year was all about wide receivers dominating the top spots on the chart. But 2024 saw ten that should have been drafted in the first round of a 12-team draft. Props to JaMarr Chase for sneaking into the #5 spot. And St. Brown and Jefferson as well for not being complete disappointments. Aside from them, no one was really a week-in-week-out alpha dog at wide out.
Jahmyr Gibbs
It must be nice being a running back behind the Lions offensive line. Montgomery slipped down to rank #24 after missing the final couple weeks leaving Gibbs to romp for 25-plus points in each of the final weeks.
Lamar Jackson
Old Lamar was back and better than ever this season earning a middle-round 1 draft selection. Drafting a top-QB remains one of the biggest edges you can have that even most well-respected fantasy analysts undervalue. And that brings us to...
Josh Allen
If you're surprised Josh Allen was the 15th best player in all of fantasy football this season then you should be. He actually fell from his #4 WAR spot in 2023. And this is the first time he's not been worth a first round pick since 2020. Who would have thought you'd get such a value from this "casual" style of drafting top-QBs?
BTW - how right was I here?
Let's move on to the next group: here's the top-25-48:
Baker Mayfield
Kudos to anyone who rode with Baker the entire season. Maybe it was just my league, but my buddy that had him most the season seemed to always bench him for Jared Goff or some other middling streamer on the weeks Baker went to the moon. It was hilarious to watch. But if you stuck with him and got a top of Round 3 value at the end of your draft, then you can officially tell me to kick rocks when advocating to draft a top-QB again next season.
Trey McBride
Fun fact - McBride's one receiving touchdown all season trails Jonnu Smith's seven despite being ranked 21 spots ahead in WAR. Just a bizarre situation for the guy who was everyone's preseason breakout star. Could Kyler see him going over the middle? I'm not sure what the deal was but McBride made sure to wait until his teams were well out of playoff contention to score his one and only touchdown. That's fantasy football baby.
Travis Kelce
Rest in piece being a sure-fire middle first round pick. We all knew the run was sort of over but there was a chance he'd regress back towards his dominant self of old in 2024. But no dice. Even in a dark world of tight end production, Kelce only gave teams a little more than one win more than teams using a replacement-level tight end. Just ahead of Davante Adams to wrap up the fourth round.
Let's keep moving.
Terry McLaurin
Interesting season for Scary Terry. Four games with 8.2-points or less and five with 20-points or more. But all in all a great come-back season that should hopefully improve as Daniels enters year two. Pending any sophomore slump issues.
Chris Boswell
My man Chris Boswell showed that there's more to having an insane leg like Brandon Aubrey. You have to be on the most perfectly mediocre offense possible. And that's the Pittsburgh Steelers. Cherry on top is having a coach like Mike Tomlin play fourth down like a coward in most instances. Having two 24-point plus games from your kicker is always good stuff too.
Kareem Hunt
Kareem is hard to peg down value wise with just points since he was brought in after Pacheco's injury for Week 4. But WAR accounts for all we need to account for. Plugging in replacement-level RB values for all weeks missed, this helps Hunt's value at least earn him a Round 6 spot.
Alright, the rest of the top-100.
Pat Mahomes
For a while it was looking like Mahomes would be right at replacement-level for QB. But he finished the second half of the season pretty strong despite not coming anywhere close to his preseason ADP of 28 or so.
Jake Bates
Remember when Bates said 18-months ago he was a brick salesman? Look at this guy lay some brick now.
Sam LaPorta/Cooper Kupp
Bad years for these guys dealing with injuries but I think they'll be on my list of potential values for next season.
There's your top-100 of 2024. I'll be back soon for the biggest award of the fantasy football season once I finish crunching all the numbers on it: Troll of the Year.