3 Players To Avoid in Your Fantasy Football Drafts

As fun as it is to find the sleepers that will put you over the top its equally important to stay away from the players that will tank your team. In my opinion finding those bust players is much more difficult than finding steals or breakouts. These players I'm staying away from have had good fantasy finishes before but might be risky picks based on Average Draft Position and current situation.

Creator: John McCoy 

Tyler Higbee

2019 PPR Finish: TE8

2020 ADP: 8.04

Higbee finished the 2019 season with 69/734/3 but his last 5 games are why everyone is going crazy about him. During that span he saw 56 targets, 43 catches, 522 yards, 2 touchdowns. Four of those games were against teams that were bottom 7 in points given up to the Tight end with two of them being versus the Arizona Cardinals who gave up 16.1 points per game to the position.

So yeah, that's a great finish to any season. The reason I don't see the breakout everyone else see's is that during the time of Higbee's surge the Rams took Cooper Kupp and Brandin Cooks off the field. I know Cooks is gone but Kupp is the best wide receiver the team has. There's no doubt in my mind that Cooper Kupp will be on the field like how Robert Woods was used. I don't think McVay wants to take his best play-makers off the field more than he needs too. Gerald Everett was on the field more than Higbee was before week 13 and wasn't active for 4 of those big Higbee games and only played 4 snaps in the one he was active for.

To me the 8th round price tag is way to early for me when I can get a guy like Noah Fant and Jared Cook two rounds later.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Melvin Gordon

2019 PPR finish: RB22

2020 ADP: 3.10

Melvin Gordon wasn't able to get the offer he wanted in free agency but instead signed a 2 year deal with the Denver Broncos. Gordon enters a murky situation for fantasy football since the Broncos still have Phillip Lindsey who is coming off of back to back 1,000 yard rushing seasons. I've seen a lot of Gordon love on Twitter and I just can't seem to get behind it. Gordon's old quarterback Philip Rivers targeted the RB 33% of the time, which was the most in the NFL, while the Broncos, who have a capable pass catching back in Lindsey (70 catches in the last 2 seasons) only passed to the running backs 23% of the time. There's also the built in injury risk for Gordon as he's only played in 16 games once in his career (Lindsey has only missed 1 game).

This is not an endorsement for Phillip Lindsey, I'm just saying that this will be a Running back by committee situation that I believe will hurt you more than help you. Lindsey is a very capable NFL running back who I think will be on the field. Denver's running game will be really good in 2020, but its going to be a tough situation for Fantasy owners to navigate through and with the 3.10 price tag its going to be an easy pass for me.

Creator: Tim Heitman

Dalvin Cook

2019 PPR finish: RB6

2020 ADP: 1.05

This may come as a surprise to some. Dalvin Cook was good last season but he, as he always does, got hurt in week 14 and missed the rest of the regular season. Cook has missed 19 games in the last 3 seasons and with Alexander Mattison showing last season that he can replace Cook, Mattison could be in for an increased workload. Cook is a free agent after the season and has already threatened a hold out this offseason which could make it a little easier for Mike Zimmer to give Mattison some extra touches.

It's no secret the the Vikings want to run the ball (29.2 per game last season, 5th in NFL) so a player with Cook's injury history could be on a "pitch count" of sorts with Mattison and Mike Boone picking up some extra work. With a projected decrease in carries I also don't see Cook getting the passing work he did (53 scoreless catches for 519 yards) with Justin Jefferson coming in and the second year of TE Irv Smith Jr. Be cautious when staring down Cook in the first round of your Fantasy Drafts.

Stats by: Pro-football-reference.com , TeamRankings.com and Lineups.com