Fantasy Football Rankings 2022: Sleepers, breakouts, busts from model that called Taylor’s huge season
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on June 26, 2022
The 2022 NFL season is still three months away, but now that the NFL trade market has settled down, owners are starting to put together their 2022 Fantasy football rankings. Tyreek Hill was traded from the Chiefs to the Dolphins this offseason, and Fantasy owners are justifiably concerned about Hill’s production levels as he goes from Patrick Mahomes to Tua Tagovailoa. Could Hill outperform his current 2022 Fantasy football ADP of 52.00 after finishing as a top-seven wide receiver in four of the last five years?
A reliable set of Fantasy football rankings 2022 can help you answer that question and also help you identify the 2022 Fantasy football breakouts, sleepers, and busts who may define the upcoming season. Before setting your 2022 Fantasy football draft strategy, be sure to check out the 2022 Fantasy football cheat sheets from the proven computer model at SportsLine.
Last year, the model accurately predicted that Colts running back Jonathan Taylor was being dramatically undervalued. Taylor was being drafted behind running backs like Aaron Jones, Ezekiel Elliott and Austin Ekeler last season but the SportsLine projection model predicted that he’d outproduce all of those backs and be a fixture in your Fantasy football lineups. The result: Taylor led the NFL with 1,811 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns to finish as the overall RB1 in 2021.
The same model has a proven track record providing Fantasy football tips, also identifying A.J. Brown as another sleeper in 2020 and players like Julio Jones and JuJu Smith-Schuster as Fantasy football busts last season. Additionally, it’s called past Fantasy football sleepers like Derrick Henry in 2019, Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara in 2018, and Davante Adams in 2017. Anybody who banked on players like those made a run at their league title.
The model is powered by the same people who generated projections for all three major Fantasy sites, and it beat human experts last season when there was a big difference in ranking. The projections update multiple times daily, so you’re always getting the best Fantasy football advice.
Now, SportsLine has simulated the entire NFL season 10,000 times and released its latest Fantasy football rankings 2022, along with plenty of sleepers, breakouts and busts. Head to SportsLine now to see them.
Top 2022 Fantasy football sleepers
One of the 2022 Fantasy football sleepers the model is predicting: Cardinals wide receiver Marquise Brown. He had been a target monster in the Ravens‘ offense last season and was Lamar Jackson’s favorite option outside of tight end Mark Andrews. Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury loves explosive plays, and Brown has built his reputation in creating them.
Arizona’s receiver room is getting crowded, but veteran A.J. Green is aging, DeAndre Hopkins is coming off of an MCL tear and will be suspended six games, and Rondale Moore didn’t prove to be the weapon many thought he would be in his rookie season. Brown has had his own struggles with nagging injuries, but he played in 16 games for the Ravens last season and set a career-high for receiving yards before the catch with 620. In an offense that looks to pass often and play receivers into space, Brown has high upside, and the model predicts he’ll have a bigger year than others drafted ahead of him like Jerry Jeudy, Darnell Mooney, and Adam Thielen.
Top 2022 Fantasy football breakouts
The model is also projecting Jaguars running back Travis Etienne as one of its top 2022 Fantasy football breakouts. After winning ACC Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2018 and 2019, Etienne was the No. 25 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft as Urban Meyer reunited him with Clemson backfield mate Trevor Lawrence. Meyer then flirted with the idea of using Etienne as a slot receiver/running back hybrid, but the experiment ultimately never took place because he suffered a Lisfranc injury during the second preseason game that ended his season.
Etienne has been drawing rave reviews from offensive coordinator Press Taylor and head coach Doug Pederson. The current staff still plans to move Etienne around to make use of his game-breaking speed and open-field ability. The model sees him dramatically outperforming his current 10th round Fantasy football ADP 2022. It has him ranked ahead of backs like Ezekiel Elliott and Melvin Gordon, who are being drafted at least two rounds earlier on average.
Top 2022 Fantasy football busts
As for players to avoid, the model lists Bills wide receiver Gabriel Davis as one of its 2022 Fantasy football busts. Many expect a breakout this season after the departure of Emmanuel Sanders, even with the addition of Jamison Crowder and Tavon Austin.
Davis took a step back in production last year after recording 35 catches for 599 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie. He finished with one less score than he had in 2020 and 50 fewer yards on the same number of receptions in 2021. Davis took just 10 percent of the Bills’ total targets last season, but even in a prolific passing attack like Buffalo’s, it will be a toss-up as to who will be viable in the offense outside of Stefon Diggs and Dawson Knox. That’s why the model predicts that other players being drafted after Davis like Robert Woods, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Christian Kirk will all have more productive Fantasy seasons in 2022.
How to find proven 2022 Fantasy football football rankings
SportsLine is also extremely high on a surprising quarterback you aren’t even thinking about being taken in the middle rounds of 2022 Fantasy football drafts. This quarterback is listed as a shocking top-five option ahead of superstars like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. You can only see who it is, and the 2022 Fantasy football rankings for every player, at SportsLine.
So which 2022 Fantasy Football sleepers, breakouts and busts should you target and fade? And which QB shocks the NFL with a top-five performance? Visit SportsLine now to get 2022 Fantasy Football cheat sheets for every single position, all from the model that called Jonathan Taylor’s huge season, and find out.
The post Fantasy Football Rankings 2022: Sleepers, breakouts, busts from model that called Taylor’s huge season first appeared on CBS Sports.