The draft is always the most fun part of the fantasy football season – aside from winning the league, of course. But you can’t win without finding some surprise players in the final rounds at the end of your draft. Last season featured some league-winning players in the final round, such as Raheem Mostert, Kyren Williams, Puka Nacua, and Tank Dell, who were very relevant for most, if not all, of last season.

For 2024 fantasy football, here are a few players that could have just as big an impact as last year’s late draft picks in fantasy football. Let’s dive right in.

Goals of the last round

Ray Davis (RB – BUF)

ECR: RB51

The Buffalo Bills spent most of last season looking for a strong complement to James Cook, grabbing octogenarians like Latavius ​​Murray, Ty Johnson and Leonard Fournette after Damien Harris was ineffective and eventually retired in the offseason. The Bills looked for that exact profile in last April’s NFL Draft and selected Ray Davis, who rushed for at least 950 yards at Temple, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Davis was 34th in Pro Football Focus (PFF) breakaway rate and 27th in yards after contact per attempt at Kentucky last season. He has a super-high minimum, a decent maximum and an immediate role in his own right in this Bills offense.

Join Ray Davis ????????

Available throughout the final rounds of your home league’s drafts pic.twitter.com/w216QzHsxS

– Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) 22 August 2024

While Davis will turn 25 midway through the season and may have already earned his NFL pension, since he’s an older running back, the minimum requirement for Davis is incredibly high. I made the optimistic comparison that Cook and Davis could be an arbitrage play with Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. The Bills may want to continue to rely on their $258 million quarterback Josh Allen to run as much as he does, so investing in Davis was also an investment in Allen’s continued health. Davis may go undrafted in his home leagues because he routinely lands in the RB50-RB55 range according to Average Draft Position (ADP) data, but he should come off draft boards where Blake Corum and Zach Charbonnet land.

The FantasyPros Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR) has Davis at RB51, so he’ll drop into home leagues as a “mystery” box option for rookies. Davis is someone who will play a role from the start, so grab him before your league mates do.

Dontayvion Wicks (WR – GB)

ECR: WR61

I’ll be more than happy to keep the steady Dontayvion Wicks drumbeat going for as long as anyone will let me. As odd as it is to see Wicks here considering he’s a super-hot name in best ball drafts, he’s still an unpredictable name in redraft circles and home leagues. If you’re in a league with your buddies who aren’t diehard football news fans year-round, the fact that Wicks is the fourth wide receiver on his own Due to his poor placement, he will slip into the last round of some drafts in the domestic league.

With Wicks, we’re talking about a questionable wide receiver room in Green Bay where it’s still very uncertain whether Jordan Love will get targets. Wicks is the WR72 in the fantasy football rankings behind teammates Jayden Reed (WR37), Christian Watson (WR45) and Romeo Doubs (WR54). You could certainly argue that he’ll be drafted much closer to Doubs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Wicks is a key player for the Packers this season.

He was closer to the top of the Green Bay Packers’ pecking order in many pass receiver efficiency and volume projection metrics:

Wicks is the classic “if only he ran more routes” receiver and sends a clear signal that he should be playing a lot more in 2024. At the end of redraft rosters with your last pick, Wicks is the perfect pick if you need a receiver with potential who can win efficiently and has all the traits of a “small-miss, big-hit” player. Wicks is one of the best receiver options available late in drafts when people are selecting the leftovers of Adam Thielen, Marvin Mims Jr. and Jahan Dotson

Jalen McMillan (WR – TB)

ECR: WR87

No matter what school you go to, it is incredibly difficult to get any of your wide receivers into the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. The University of Washington happened to get threeThe last of the three was Jalen McMillan at the end of the third round to Tampa Bay. From that point on, the race for the WR3 for the Buccaneers was on between McMillan and Trey Palmer.

Offensive coordinator Liam Coen has already said that Chris Godwin will return to the slot for the Buccaneers, where Godwin has scored most of his fantasy points throughout his career:

With Godwin in the slot and Mike Evans at one of the outside receiver positions as usual, McMillian has seemingly secured the other outside wide receiver in the starting lineup. according to Jenna Laine of ESPN. McMillan getting this job outright is huge, as the Buccaneers used the seventh-highest rate of 11-personnels last season under Dave Canales. With Coen as the coordinator of this offense, the use of 11-personnels could increase further, as Coen is a disciple of Sean McVay and the Rams (and other adjacent offenses like the Bengals and Vikings, which feature offshoots of McVay) use a tremendous amount of 11-personnels.

With the hard part of running routes behind him, McMillan now just needs to deliver. Given the attention Evans and Godwin are getting, signing a talented wide receiver on day two will improve the passing game across the board. I’ll sign McMillan anywhere I can.

Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | IHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast addict | TuneIn

Kevin Tompkins is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Kevin, check out his profile and follow him @ktompkinsii