2023 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Top

With the NFL Preseason over, the next time we see NFL teams in action, it'll be for real. The next week is all about getting ready for our Fantasy drafts, and if you're drafting today, here are my latest rankings. You can find my rankings for quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and tight end here – and, of course, you can find Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings' rankings and salary cap values here, you know, if you want another perspective.

For more, including my updated overall top-200 with Salary Cap/Auction values, keep right on scrolling.

Rankings are for PPR leagues. Salary Cap Values assume a $100 budget.

There's no doubt who belongs in the top tier at the QB position for Fantasy Football in 2023. Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, and Patrick Mahomes were the class of the position in 2022, and little has changed in terms of how we should view them for 2023 - Mahomes is arguably the best passer in the history of the league, and he has improved weapons around him, while Allen and Hurts are elite rushers and goal-line threats, in addition to being terrific passers in their own right.

After that, things are wide open. Dave Richard has Joe Burrow as his No. 4 QB, while both Heath Cummings and Jamey Eisenberg have Lamar Jackson - all three have Justin Fields fifth, which means Jamey has Burrow at No. 6, while Heath has him at QB7, behind Justin Herbert.

Here's the top 12, and you can find my top 32 here:

Steelers running back Najee Harris has had a weird start to his NFL career. Since being drafted 24th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, he's finished third and 14th in PPR scoring in Fantasy, and yet most Fantasy Football analysts (and probably most players, too) view him as a pretty significant disappointment.

Or, maybe that's not the right way to phrase it. Harris has, for the most part, lived up to expectations in Fantasy Football. The problem is, he just hasn't seemed like a particularly good real NFL running back. Since his debut, he ranks 26th among 26 running backs with at least 300 carries in yards per carry; among 117 players with at least 100 targets, he ranks 116th in yards per target.

I wrote about why I'm starting to drop Najee Harris in my rankings, which you can see below, along with the rest of my top 60 at the position here:

This preseason has, thankfully, been mostly free of significant injuries that will alter the Fantasy Football landscape. Cooper Kupp's hamstring injury seems pretty much all healed up, and he's expected to return to practice this week, well in advance of Week 1. Kupp is back to being my No. 2 WR for the 2023 season, and he's a top-five pick in all formats for me.

That's not to say the preseason has been entirely free from injuries, of course. Kadarius Toney's breakout hype fizzled out when he left the Chiefs very first practice in training camp with a knee injury, and his status for Week 1 is still very much up in the air - allowing second-year wideout Skyy Moore to establish himself as a clear starter for the Chiefs, and a top-36 wide receiver in my updated rankings.

We also saw Terry McLaurin leave the second preseason game with a toe injury, though an MRI taken Tuesday indicated that it isn't expected to keep him out for the start of the season. That may not be the case for Seahawks rookie wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who suffered a broken bone in his wrist in the last preseason game and will require surgery to repair it. According to ESPN, the recovery timeline for that surgery may give Smith-Njigba a chance to be ready for Week 1 of the season, and you might be surprised to learn that I'm not really downgrading him in my rankings.

I wrote about why, along with the rest of my top 75 at WR here:

There probably aren't many tight ends with more Fantasy Football upside than Kyle Pitts. Pitts was the No. 4 pick in the 2021 draft, the highest a tight end has ever been selected, and then he proceeded to put together the second 1,000-yard season ever by a rookie tight end. He'll still be just 22 years old when the Falcons season begins against the Panthers in Week 1. That's a profile you typically want to bet on.

But I'm growing increasingly concerned about his chances of paying off on that bet. I wrote about why that is, along with the rest of my top 32 here: