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We got together with our Footballguys staff members and asked a simple question: Which player -- generally taken in the fourth round -- do you most-like having on your team?
Here are their answers.
Jordan McNamara
I like a lot of the players in this range. My favorite is JuJu Smith-Schuster. Smith-Schuster is rebounding from a lost season. In almost every way imaginable, his 2019 season went bad. He was injured and lost offensive weapons en masse. His Hall of Fame Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger only played two games before he was injured and missed the rest of the season because of injury. Through 41 games in his career, Smith-Schuster has played 30 games with Roethlisberger and 11 without Roethlisberger. When Roethlisberger plays, Smith-Schuster averages 16.14 PPG compared to 10.66 PPG without Roethlisberger. Over a 16 game pace, Roethlisberger would have been WR7 last year compared to WR37 without Roethlisberger, a difference of about two-thirds of a regular-season win. I expect a big bounceback in 2020.
Jeff Pasquino
I also like quite a few names here. I like Chris Carson (early) and Mark Ingram (late). Baltimore was far and away the top run team last year, and Ingram was a big part of it that is going overlooked right now. Carson has the Seattle backfield almost to himself (I don't see a push from perennial backup Carlos Hyde at all). Carson is in a contract year and is coming off of a fractured hip, but all reports have him ready to go for Week 1. Carson will be pushing to perform well once again in 2020 as he plays for a major contract to be signed next off-season, making him a solid RB2 with RB1 upside.
Jeff Haseley
The lack of an elite running back and removal of DeAndre Hopkins' targets means high volume involvement as a rusher and receiver for Johnson. In 2016, Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald combined for nearly 50% of the team's total targets which is rare to see, especially before the Christian McCaffrey era. The NFL is moving to a more versatile, multi-dimensional role of running backs and Johnson is in the driver's seat of the Texans utilizing this form of offense. The move to Houston is the break Johnson was looking for. He now has a chance to prove his worth once again and Houston is going to give him every chance. Side nugget - six running backs were selected ahead of Johnson in the 2015 NFL Draft including one Duke Johnson Jr, who is David Johnson's new teammate. Do you think David Johnson will let him sniff his role? I don't.
Jason Wood
My favorite player in this round is easily Chris Carson. The Seahawks aren't going to reinvent the wheel; they're going to win games by pounding the ball and playing attacking defense. Carson was fantastic last year until a late-season injury, and as long as he's a full go in training camp, he slots as a top-12 fantasy back in any format.
Matt Waldman
I agree with Wood with a hat tip to those touting David Johnson, who is my second-favorite option here.
The lack of support for Carson relative to last year’s production is possibly driven by the bias of NFL Draft capital. There is likely a portion of fantasy players who still can’t believe Carson is for real. They will likely place more weight on his fumbling issues than Carson’s production.
Ryan Hester
I echo Jordan's sentiments above on Smith-Schuster. All of the things that made him a candidate to be a "turn" pick between Rounds 1 and 2 last season are back in place this season. It can't be denied that his 2019 season was terrible, but everything went wrong for him. His quarterback played six quarters, the backups provided the NFL's worst quarterback play, and Smith-Schuster was injured during the year. None of those things could have been predicted then, and none are within a reasonable range of outcomes this season. Yet, they're all being baked into his price. Smith-Schuster is a Round 2/3 fantasy talent and situation being taken in Round 4. Enjoy the profit.
Dan Hindery
I am going to go off the board for my favorite round-four target with Terry McLaurin. You may get lucky and snag him in the 5th round on occasion but if you really want him, you are probably going to have to take him in round four. This feels a little bit like Chris Godwin last season. Godwin proved his talent the previous season and was obviously in line for a bunch of targets but his ADP never fully took off just because he had never had a huge fantasy season. McLaurin proved himself as a top talent last season. Even in an inept passing offense, McLaurin averaged 9.9 yards per target. Washington's passing game should improve in Dwayne Haskins' second season and McLaurin has very little competition for targets. If he maintains his efficiency and sees 130+ targets, he will end up being a steal in the fourth round.
Ryan Hester
That's a great call by Dan on McLaurin and a lesson in not being stuck to ADP when drafting. Looking at the list of players here, I prefer McLaurin to all but three of them. If you're picking in the early 40s and feel underwhelmed by this list of names, go get McLaurin (or another player that you like with a fifth-round ADP) because there's no guarantee that he makes it back to you in the fifth.
Phil Alexander
The more best-ball drafts I complete, the more David Johnson finds his way onto my rosters. In the late-third, or this case, early-fourth round, the list of running backs who can realistically touch the ball 300+ times has just about been exhausted. Johnson is the exception. Here's hoping he found a new pair of cleats. The cement ones he was wearing when we last saw him in Arizona didn't do him any favors.
Andy Hicks
Considering that in other discussions I was taking David Johnson at the end of the second round, he has to be an absolute steal in the fourth. It is very rare that a head coach essentially goes all-in on a player, but that is essentially what Bill O’Brien has done with the former Cardinal. Letting DeAndre Hopkins go at the peak of his career for a 28-year-old running back that has struggled in recent years is not the optimum look, but one thing is sure David Johnson will be given the ball an awful lot. A head coach doesn’t normally want to get fired and if Johnson plays great, O’Brien looks like he got a better than expected deal.
Andrew Davenport
I agree with the comments that this round is pretty stacked with guys I like. But my favorite is JuJu Smith-Schuster. Last year at this time he was being taken in the early second round and was in the discussion of the top players at the position. Sure Antonio Brown isn't there anymore, but when the story of his 2019 is written I concur with Jordan - everything that could go wrong did go wrong. He put up a respectable 6 catches and 78 yards against Stephon Gilmore, and then his quarterback went down. People tend to look at last year as some sort of proof that he was destined to fail without Brown. But it's easy to forget that he's only 24 years old and is a truly gifted player. If his quarterback is competent and he can avoid injuries he's got WR1 upside and a WR2 floor. I love him in the fourth round.
Devin Knotts
I completely understand everyone's prior points on Mark Andrews, but he is the tight end that I am targeting the most this season. I am a big believer in Lamar Jackson relying less and less on his running ability as he continues to develop which means that Andrews' opportunity will continue to increase. The Ravens made a significant move in the offseason trading Hayden Hurst leaving Andrews as the sole receiving tight end. Andrews is in rarified air when it comes to the red zone as he was 12th in the NFL last season in targets inside the red zone tied with George Kittle. Andrews is still just 23 years old and should continue to be the number one target in the passing game this season and is the only tight end that I can see that can challenge the top end of Kelce/Kittle. There certainly is regression risk, but there is risk with all of these players in this round.
Bob Henry
Round 3 is a tricky round because you can find yourself in spots where the players you target don't make it to you so you have to reach or even take a running back you don't want to roster. Round Four is not like that at all.
My favorite player in round four essentially becomes a function of my previous three picks (roster build), the remaining players of this list and actual pick in the round. I've targeted David Johnson frequently as a bounce-back candidate whose team is invested in him succeeding. I don't think he's quite as washed up as some have asserted based on him looking listless and playing through injury last year. Similarly, I like to have one of the top four tight ends if it makes sense and I'm not reaching to make it happen. The other players, aside from Johnson, that I have the most shares of are Robert Woods and Calvin Ridley. I prefer to go two backs out of the gate if the draft slot allows it. It's also preferable because I don't like the backs on the board around round three. So, I either target Woods/Ridley (preferably both) in this area, or if I do take a receiver in the top two picks, then I look at James Conner in the third or Johnson in the fourth.
