While death and taxes hog all the glory as the only two certainties in life, any fantasy football manager will tell you there is, indeed, a third: Christian McCaffrey is the most valuable player in fantasy, and it isn’t even close.
Every year, more and more names — from Justin Jefferson to Ja’Marr Chase to even Travis Kelce — get thrown into the conversation regarding who should be the No. 1 overall pick in drafts, and every year, when the dust settles, it is McCaffrey standing alone at the top of the statistical leaderboards.
Those who draft him usually find themselves wearing the crown, and those who don’t find themselves working a lot harder to try to win.
With the 49ers holding out their starters for Week 18, we can accept McCaffrey’s 1,459 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns as a final for the 2023 season. The same goes for his 67 catches for 564 yards and seven receiving touchdowns. McCaffrey posted 12 games with at least 100 all-purpose yards and had five multi-touchdown games this season.
From a fantasy standpoint, barring any crazy bonuses your home league may have, McCaffrey’s 391.3 points in full-point PPR scoring formats leads the NFL, and, again, it isn’t even close.
Josh Allen sits at second more than 20 points behind, and the next-closest running back was Travis Etienne, who sits more than 120 points behind McCaffrey.
The numbers are staggering when you match it up, as he averaged 24.5 fantasy points per game with a weekly score in excess of 20 points in 12 of 16 games. It is the true definition of “league-winner.”
It is always amazing to hear the reasons people don’t draft McCaffrey first overall. Those who continue to hold on to the “injury prone” belief clearly haven’t paid attention to the fact that he’s played in 33 of a possible 34 games over the past two years. Did he hit a rough patch back in 2020 and 2021? Of course he did, but everyone gets hurt at some point in their career. No one is immune.
Then we have the Zero-RB crowd who insist running backs are overrated and you should be drafting high-end wide receivers. How did that turn out for those who drafted Jefferson? Even those who drafted Chase got burned indirectly by the injury bug. Stefon Diggs was a massive disappointment, and so was Kelce. Maybe the strategy has its merits, but none of these players should be taken ahead of McCaffrey.
The MVP acronym stands for the most valuable player. If you take him out of your lineup, what happens to your chances of winning? McCaffrey’s talent is off the charts, and he is the focal point of one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL. When you’re sitting in your draft room in 2024, remember what you’ve learned and make McCaffrey your top priority.
Howard Bender is the head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on X @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to Fantasy-Alarm.com for all your fantasy football advice.