The Ringer’s NFL fantasy football podcast recently released an episode on “boring players who will win your league,” which inspired me to do something similar for this year’s CFB Best Bowl tournament over at Underdog Fantasy. Let’s examine five options that I think fit the mold of boring and unsexy but are 100% capable of helping you win the $20k.
Tahj Brooks, Texas Tech RB – ADP 22.9
There’s nothing more boring than Brooks providing value strictly due to volume. On top of that, it’s suspected that his volume will decrease in 2024. Brooks scored just ten times on 290 carries last season, so he’s certainly not a touchdown-dependent player either. Well, why draft him then?
Brooks can’t possibly possess a 3.4% touchdown rate in 2024, so I’m not bothered by him likely seeing 230-250 carries this season. The Red Raiders offense will be better with healthy and better quarterback play, which are both big positives for him. He should also continue to be used in the passing game, even if checkdowns resulted in 2.4 yards per catch. It’s certainly better than Kyle Monangai, who could easily end the season with single-digit receptions.
The “less carries” argument has legs but isn’t a guarantee. We could easily see Brooks see insane usage. You’re paying for his floor when drafting him at the end of the second round because offseason speculation doesn’t always work out the way we think it does.
Jordan Moore, Duke WR – ADP 87.2
I can’t imagine non-CFF fans know much about Moore and his abilities. This is easily explained due to Duke and his lack of jaw-dropping numbers. For fantasy purposes, though, his over 32% target share for the Blue Devils is eye-opening and something we should target in drafts. There’s the potential for a new scheme changing that, but Moore, to me, is the clear WR1 in the offense.
Maalik Murphy transfers over from Texas, which is a nice addition for Duke and Moore. He can’t be worse than we saw once Riley Leonard went down last season. One thing I noticed with Murphy at Texas was that he heavily targeted his WR1 in his limited action. We saw Xavier Worthy targeted 14 times in each of Murphy’s two starts in 2023. Murphy is the classic decent enough quarterback to play and be effective but not good enough to work through multiple reads. We should see Jordan Moore continue to hit big target numbers in 2024, and we need to be drafting a guy in the 7th to 8th rounds.
Cam Rising, Utah QB – ADP 108
Rising’s ADP is actually higher than I thought it’d be in the first few days of drafting. That doesn’t make him a sexy pick, though. He hasn’t played since January 1, 2023; we will benefit from this. They’re being conservative for us! Don’t forget his 2022 season, where he ran for 465 yards and six touchdowns to go with 3,034 passing yards and 26 touchdowns.
This is production that we love to see, and I believe it could be even higher in 2024. The injury doesn’t concern me because he’s had 20 months of recovery time. It’s nice to see the Utes being overly safe with Rising and Brant Kuithe. That Kuithe connection will be real again, and Dorian Singer is an impact transfer that had great chemistry early on and often this spring. What about the fact that Utah will not have the dominant running back to lean on consistently week over week? The best running back is Micah Bernard, who is great in the passing game.
Rising has big-time potential this season and is perfect for best-ball drafts. In that 2022 season, he had six regular-season weeks of three or more touchdowns and was positive on the ground in 10 of 12 games. When the Week 12 playoffs roll around, he also has a Colorado matchup you won’t want to be going up against.
Kaytron Allen, Penn State RB – ADP 160.3
There’s absolutely nothing cool about an RBBC, and often, it’s a situation we’re avoiding. I think there’s a case for Allen to be drafted and to be happy about it, though. This guy has potential upside if Nicholas Singleton gets hurt, but he also has a 1,000-rushing-yard upside regardless. His decrease in touchdowns year over year should change. As a freshman, he scored 11 times compared to 7 last season. Penn State has a super soft schedule and Drew Allar may be getting worse every snap he plays. The Nittany Lions will continue to focus on running the ball, and Allen is just as much RB1A as Singleton is in this offense.
One huge thing I like about Allen is his schedule. He has Week 3 and 8 byes, which is fairly unique and gets prime matchups in popular running back bye weeks. UCLA and USC show positive matchups in Weeks 6 and 7, while Washington and Purdue flash similarly in weeks 11 and 12. If you land Jordan James, Trevor Etienne, and/or Justice Haynes, then Allen’s Week 4 matchup is Kent State, a great option for these popular players with Week 4 byes.
Cade Klubnik, Clemson QB – ADP 167.6
Surely a former 5-star is a popular, sexy play, right? Not so fast, my friend. There’s nothing fun about Klubnik, but in this format, he possesses some nice value for us. He has Week 3 and 9 bye weeks with a playoff schedule of Pitt, Citadel, and South Carolina. If you landed a ton of Week 12 byes, Klubnik is certainly in play here.
You could argue that Klubnik should outperform his previous seasons, thanks to his second year in a Garrett Riley offense. Maybe we see more of what makes Riley a CFF asset as an offensive coordinator. There are a ton of outside receiver options to help improve this offense, and it wouldn’t be the most shocking thing for me to see Klubnik run for 250 yards and five touchdowns, along with 3,000 passing yards and 25 touchdowns in 2023. These numbers would be more than worth the ADP of the 13th-15th round.
