It’s easy to make a selection at the top of fantasy football drafts, right? Anyone can select Justin Jefferson, Christian McCaffrey, or Austin Ekeler. However, the further you get down the draft order, the more difficult the decision becomes.
It’s incredibly important to nail your first-round selection. You want to add a player who can be the cornerstone of your fantasy roster vs. drafting a bust that fails to make much of an impact!
We do the research here at Pro Football Network to make sure that you can walk into your draft confident that you’re going to assemble the best possible team out there. With that in mind, here are a few options to consider when you’re on the clock with the ninth pick.
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Top Players To Target With the No. 9 Pick in 2023 Fantasy Football Drafts
In this exercise, it would be easy to say to draft Jefferson or CMC with the ninth pick in your fantasy draft. However, it’s highly unlikely that either of them are there. With that in mind, we’re going to utilize consensus ADP to eliminate the first seven players off the board and go from there.
This means that Jefferson, McCaffrey, Ja’Marr Chase, Ekeler, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and Cooper Kupp have all presumably been selected. This leaves us with a few intriguing choices.
Bijan Robinson, RB, Atlanta Falcons
Drafting Robinson with a top-10 selection seems a bit rich, doesn’t it? After all, he has yet to play a single snap of NFL regular-season football. However, this is no ordinary rookie RB.
Robinson was unstoppable during his time at the University of Texas, and he has been one of the most highly anticipated prospects to come out of college at the position in quite some time.
Through his three years at Texas, Robinson ran the ball 539 times for 3,410 yards and 33 touchdowns! He wasn’t just a dominant rushing threat, though. Robinson also amassed over 800 total receiving yards and added another eight touchdowns through the air.
He’s a true dual-threat RB who landed in an offense that wants to run the football and run the football often. Additionally, the Falcons boast an elite offensive line in terms of run blocking, which will only help Robinson meet expectations from a fantasy standpoint in 2023.
There is some risk to drafting Robinson, as we have yet to see him produce in the NFL, but he’s going to be an electric player to watch each and every week, and he can easily be a cornerstone piece for your roster in 2023.
Saquon Barkley, RB, New York Giants
Speaking of highly anticipated RB prospects, Barkley was once in Robinson’s shoes coming out of Penn State, and he absolutely delivered on expectations in his rookie season.
Now, the veteran RB has experienced some ups and downs in the NFL, but he’s proven that he can stay healthy for a full season and that the talent that we all saw at Penn State is still there.
Barkley faced numerous questions going into the 2022 NFL season, but he absolutely delivered and proved that he still belongs in the “elite RB” conversation. Last year, Barkley averaged 103.0 yards from scrimmage per game, which was the fifth-best total at the position last season.
Heading into this year, the offensive situation surrounding Barkley is much better. While the scheme is already fantastic, the Giants added Darren Waller, Jalin Hyatt, and Parris Campbell to help take the pressure off of Barkley in 2023.
Knowing that he’s not the only threat that opposing defenses have to focus on should help open things up for the talented RB.
The durability concerns still remain with Barkley. It’s not a guarantee that he plays all 17 games. However, no RB is guaranteed to play for an entire season, and Barkley’s got the talent level — and workload — to push CMC and Ekeler for the overall RB1 title when it’s all said and done.
Stefon Diggs, WR, Buffalo Bills
It’s hard to find a more consistent WR in fantasy than Diggs. Since arriving in Buffalo, the veteran WR has averaged 161 targets. Additionally, he not only presents a high target floor, but he can also compete with the best of the best for the league lead in receiving touchdowns.
Very nice throw from Bills QB Josh Allen in a tight window to WR Stefon Diggs. pic.twitter.com/ldWjkBV8br
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulli) August 26, 2023
Last season, Diggs was targeted 12 times on passes inside the 10-yard line. That was tied for the second-most among all NFL WRs last season! These opportunities are what fantasy managers need to rest their hopes on vs. players that are more boom/bust.
Attached to one of the league’s best QBs in Josh Allen, with whom he has insane chemistry, there’s no reason to not consider Diggs with this selection.
Who Should I Draft?
This comes down to your thought philosophy and strategy for how you want to build out your roster. Do you prefer building with an early WR? Or do you prefer locking in the top-tier RB and then hammering the WR position in the next couple of rounds?
If this were my team build, I’d secure Diggs in the first round and come back around in the second to draft an RB. The floor that Diggs will provide me is more certain than the unknowns of both Barkley and Robinson.
While they’re fantastic picks, Diggs gets the vote of confidence from me here.
Who Should You Draft in Other Slots?
Have another league where you’re drafting in a different slot? Want to see what options might be available before or after your pick? We have you covered.
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