The 2024 Cleveland Browns fantasy football outlook hinges on one man – Deshaun Watson. If he can return to even 80% of his former ability, the sky is the limit for the pass catchers in the offense. Sifting through their 2024 team projections, let’s find the best fantasy football takeaways for 2024.
Cleveland Browns 2024 Fantasy Football Outlook
Fantasy Football Values
Amari Cooper, WR
The year will be 2036. Amari Cooper will be fresh off another 1100-yard season, and we’ll still say “This is the year he doesn’t deliver”. And he’ll keep on doing it. Fresh off of a WR20 finish in only 15 games, Cooper is now being drafted as the WR28. What’s the case against him? He averaged 17.2 PPG with Watson playing over 50% of snaps, so it’s not that they don’t have a connection. Cooper is a target hog who has had over 20% of a team’s targets in four of the last five seasons (with the one season he didn’t being 2021 in Dallas with some shmuck named Ceedee Lamb). If Watson is back to his former ability, Cooper goes to the moon. If Watson struggles, he’s still likely to pay off at WR28 prices.
Jerry Jeudy, WR
Okay, okay, Jerry Jeudy has burned some folks in the past. Now he goes to a new team with a shiny new extension and supposedly a quarterback upgrade. Last year managers drafted him as the WR29, he burned them, and he’s the WR61 this season in ADP. He’s free and projects to be the WR2 for this team. Maybe he’s nothing more than a flex play, but if Jeudy sticks to his historical precedent for target rate and YPT, he projects to have just under 1,000 yards receiving in Cleveland. There may not be a better target late in drafts than Jerry Jeudy in 2024 fantasy football.
David Njoku, TE
Draft David Njoku. Everywhere. Targets are earned, and this passing offense has three players who are projected to dominate the target share. Njoku is one of the most dynamic players with the ball in his hands with more missed tackles forced than George Kittle, and the most yards after the catch of any tight end in 2023. The concern with him is his splits with and without Watson, but as one of the last TE1s on the draft board (TE11) he’s worth a swing late.
Fantasy Football Traps
The Running Back Room
Will it be Nick Chubb? Will it be Jerome Ford? Maybe some D’onta Foreman? With each player lacking upside unless they fall into the end zone, it’s hard to expect any to be a starting caliber RB2. Admittedly, the Browns running game is strong enough to keep players afloat most weeks, but it’s almost impossible to know week after week which back it will be. It’s a better option in 2024 to find a running back earlier, or draft a handcuff for a better role on a different team.
Elijah Moore, WR
Early reports are that Cedric Tillman is taking the WR3 sets away from Moore. Even at his basically free prices, there are better players to target all over the board. Draft at your own risk.
Main Photo Credit: Andrew Nelles The Tennessean USA Today
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