What I Got Right in 2024 Fantasy Football: Jayden Daniels, Chase Brown, Bucky Irving & More

A lot went wrong for fantasy managers in 2024, but we have to celebrate the wins first!

If you believed in all the free agent running backs that landed on new teams, then you saw some great fantasy days from Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Aaron Jones and more. A few quarterbacks also came through for us — Joe Burrow (and what wrist injury?). I am personally sending a gift basket to Lamar Jackson for carrying some of my fantasy teams to the championship.

In this article, I will highlight some of the things I got right from the fantasy season — players I hope everyone was able to jump on… and some of the players I hope we all avoided, as well. It's always important during drafts to go and get "your guys," because at the end of the day you need to like the team you drafted, first and foremost.

See what Fantasy Life's Dwain McFarland got right in 2024 here

Fantasy football is a lot of strategy mixed with a lot of luck, but I hope you all enjoyed the 2024 season — I'm ready to start drafting again soon. Enjoy!

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What I Got Right in 2024 Fantasy Football

Jayden Daniels, QB, Commanders

It felt like the whole Fantasy Life staff was shouting to draft Jayden Daniels from the rooftops, but it proved to be a championship move. Daniels was being drafted way too late in offseason drafts, going often as QB12 off the board, but he was able to use his dual-threat ability to finish as the overall QB4 in overall fantasy points.

Coming into the season, drafters may have been scared off by Daniels entering the league on a team that has not performed in the past and with a new head coach and coaching staff. There were also questions surrounding his passing ability. Even our projections did not expect much from Daniels and had him tagged for under 3,500 yards because of supporting cast and scheme questions.

This is really where Daniels proved the doubters wrong — he ranked third in both turnover-worthy play rate (1.8%) and adjusted completion rate (79.7%), according to PFF.

And how could we forget that rushing upside? Daniels posted a 14% scramble rate and averaged 17% of the designed rushing attempts in college, which were both great signs for future rushing production. He finished the regular season with 891 rushing yards (a record for rookie quarterbacks) and six touchdowns.

In a year that was deemed a "rebuild" for the Commanders, here we are talking about them in the playoffs. That doesn't happen without Jayden Daniels. I hope you enjoyed the discount, because next season he will be in the same tier as the other elite dual-threat quarterbacks.

Chase Brown, RB, Bengals

Chase Brown managers had to wait for their moment to shine, but it did eventually happen this season — and thank goodness because I took him everywhere. I was worried at the beginning of the season that the Cincinnati Bengals would keep this a committee between Brown and Zack Moss, but an injury took Moss out of the equation in Week 8 and Brown's utilization really never looked back.

He took over the Joe Mixon role and finished the season with 990 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns. He averaged 4.3 yards per carry, but it was really the volume — both on the ground and through the air — that set him apart. It'll be interesting to see how drafters attack Brown for 2025. Zack Moss is under contract through next season, so there is a chance he returns to a role similar to Rachaad White's in Tampa Bay.

Bucky Irving, RB, Buccaneers

Speaking of Tampa Bay, can we all say a collective THANK YOU to Bucky Irving for an unreal fantasy season! This was one I was especially proud of. Irving was a Day 3 pick for the Buccaneers and also came in as the RB9 in our Rookie RB Model. But when drafts were going on, there was always this idea that Irving could unseat Rachaad White for a bigger role, just because we can all remember how inefficient White had been in the past (he also wasn't cheap, either).

This is another situation where patience had to come into play, but by the end of the season Irving actually Ied the position in yards after contact per attempt and was fourth in missed tackles forced per attempt, according to PFF. He capped off the 2024 regular season with 1,514 scrimmage yards and eight touchdowns.

I remember the week head coach Todd Bowles said that Irving had earned more snaps. Here's hoping that sentiment is true for the 2025 season — it was clear who the better running back was between Irving and White.

I don't think White will be going anywhere anytime soon because he still does have pass catching and blocking ability. However, if this team does turn to Irving as the true RB1, then the sky is the limit.

Travis Etienne, RB, Jaguars

Yeah, don't worry you're not seeing things. Yes, Travis Etienne is on a "thing I got right" list, but not for the reasons you think. I made sure to not take a single share of Etienne stock in 2024 drafts and I am thanking myself now and calling it a win. I believe a lot of people saw this coming, but it's still an impressive feat.

He had a phenomenal 2023 season, scoring 282.4 points and finishing as the RB3 in fantasy football. But the Jacksonville Jaguars season went bad quickly, and Etienne averaged just 8.7 points per game on 3.7 yards per carry.

Yes, he went down with a hamstring injury during the season, but with the presence of Tank Bigsby he also only saw 189 touches in 2024 after notching 325 in 2023. Overall, it was a horrible year for Etienne, who was being drafted as the RB8.

I'll be really curious what a new coaching staff in Jacksonville does with this backfield next season. They may see what Bigsby brought to the field and decide to give him a bigger workload. Overall, Etienne was unable to finish inside the top-20 weekly PPR scorers for the running back position. WOOF.