In Week 3 of the 2023 NFL season, Nick Chubb suffered a gruesome injury that we would all rather not revisit. That allowed Jerome Ford a clearer path to touches - including in that Week 2 game where he had over 125 yards from scrimmage and score. Ford had interesting deployment for the remainder of the season as he remained the starting back and preffered option on pass downs but the Browns decided to sign Kareem Hunt and use him as the goal line back and to close out games. Hunt actually finished with 9 rushing TDs to 4 for Ford. The real question at the end of the day here is whether Nick Chubb will return to full strength and when that might happen. The Browns did sign D'Onta Foreman so we could see Ford in his role from last year with Foreman in the Hunt role for however many games Chubb is out. And, even when Chubb returns, they might not want to give him the full workload right away after such a serious injury. That has Ford on our radar for Zero and Hero RB builds for sure.

I've been a long time Jeudy believer and in 2022 I thought we were finally getting his breakout season, even with the poor play of the Broncos offense has he finished with 67 receptions for 972 yards and six scores. And then 2023 happened…as the Broncos offense was even worse than the year before and Jeudy suffered tremendously, finishing with just 54 catches for 758 yards and two scores. 2024 sees him now playing in Cleveland along side Amari Cooper and there are still some serious questions that need answers. First, the QB situation in Cleveland doesn't look great with Deshaun Watson not even remotely looking like the QB he was during his Texans days and second being the Browns run heavy approach. At best Jeudy is the number two receiver in questionable offense and for that reason he is another guy going later in drafts with a lot of risk tied to him.

David Njoku set career highs in nearly every category last year including targets, receptions, yards, and touchdowns. A big part of that was the 20 tight end screens called by Alex Van Pelt and company, which was second only to Evan Engram's 21. The Browns backup quarterbacks also collectively targeted Njoku over 7 times a game. This year, Van Pelt is gone, Jerry Jeudy has been added via trade, and Deshaun Watson is back (who targeted Njoku ~5 times a game). So he'll have to fight to match the 123 targets he saw last season. 

 The Panthers paid Miles Sanders a good chunk of change in free agency last offseason which made it that much more surprising that Chuba Hubbard beat him out for that starting job. Sanders did deal with some injury issues but he managed to appear in 16 games still. Yet Hubbard still beat him out in virtually every stat from carries and targets to receptions, yards, and touchdowns. Following the nightmare 2023 season, the Panthers fired their entire front office and brought in a new regime in 2024 who promptly turned around and took the first RB off the board of the 2024 NFL Draft in the second round with Jonathan Brooks. Brooks is coming off an ACL injury and could start slow which leaves the door open for Chuba to potentially hang onto a role. And who knows - rookies don't always pan out so maybe Brooks will start slow himself this season. 

The Browns have paid Deshaun Watson a lot of money for him to average 184.8 yards per game with a 59.8% completion percentage over his first two seasons in Cleveland. Suspension and rust was the excuse in 2022 but last season he just did not look comfortable, making poor decisions with the football and then ultimately getting injured which ended his season after just six games. Watson enters 2024 with his stock extremely low, even as the Browns bring in yet another offensive playmaker in Jerry Jeudy to go with Amari Cooper and David Njoku. At this point, Watson is nothing more than a QB2 flier in drafts with hopes that he can rediscover the man that was a top five fantasy QB during his last season in Houston.