2024 Draft Guide: Five Fades Series (QBs/TEs)

 Five Fades: QBs & TEs

By: Mike Johnson (@mjohnson_86)

Previously in our One Week Season “Daily Dose” Draft Guide series, I gave you my “Seven Sleepers” – players to target late in drafts whose upside could change your roster in a positive way. Something that is just as, if not more, important in a fantasy football league is avoiding those players earlier in drafts who can tank your rosters. To help you with that, we are bringing you our “Five Fades” series and today’s article will feature five total quarterbacks/tight ends that I am fading based on where they are being drafted and concerns I have about their outlooks:

1. C.J. Stroud, QB, HOU

This is a “love the player, hate the cost” situation. While Stroud is a terrific young player who should have another strong season and a great career ahead of him, I prefer taking shots on QBs (Kyler Murray, Anthony Richardson) with higher rushing expectations at similar draft position or waiting and taking similar pocket-oriented QBs (Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Joe Burrow) several rounds later.

2. Dalton Kincaid, TE, BUF

This is the guy on this list I am most afraid of getting burned by, but sometimes you have to live a little. Similar to Stroud, I expect Kincaid to have a fine season and very good career. However, I think the tight ends taken after him (Pitts, Kittle, Engram, Ferguson, Njoku) have similar outlooks at cheaper prices, and the other tight ends taken near him (Andrews, McBride) have a better chance at a top-3 finish at the position.

3. Joe Burrow, QB, CIN

Burrow is a very talented quarterback with great weapons, but there are some things keeping me from chasing him this year. His wrist injury from last year is “healed”, but he is not out of the woods as it is a complex situation that could flare up or cause compensation issues. Meanwhile, the Bengals’ division features probably the toughest three divisional opponent defenses of any team in the league.

4. Dallas Goedert, TE, PHI

Goedert has missed at least three games in four of the last five seasons. He plays on a great offense, but Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts are likely to hog the red-zone touchdowns while A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith dominate targets. A big part of the upside case for Goedert the past few years has been the lack of a reliable WR3 for the Eagles and lack of pass-game usage for the RBs. The additions of Barkley and Jahan Dotson are big hits to Goedert’s weekly floor and ceiling, and he’s no longer a “set it and forget it” weekly TE starter.

5. Pat Freiermuth, TE, PIT

The Steelers are going to try to win close games with defense and their running game. New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith infamously used Kyle Pitts in a TE rotation and preseason usage showed that Pittsburgh will likely employ a similar strategy, moving Freiermuth from a near every-down player to one who may play 50-70% of snaps. Losing snaps in an offense that already doesn’t throw much gives Freiermuth a very narrow path to usable weeks.