Fantasy Football 2018: Skill-Position Rankings and Top Sleepers

Fantasy football draft season is at hand, and as owners head into their drafts, it's all about focus.

Most players can get through the first couple of rounds without much problem in a traditional snake draft (picking 10th in the odd-numbered rounds means picking first in the even-numbered rounds in a 10-team league), but they can lose focus or get overexcited in the third round and beyond.

When a competitor chooses a player another owner had targeted, that player can't lose their focus, stomp around the room and forget why they came in the first place. Conversely, when a superstar is unexpectedly available, there's no reason to start celebrating like a five-year-old.

It's about filling the roster with as many productive players as possible. To that end, we offer our rankings on the top-10 quarterbacks, top-20 running backs, top-30 wide receivers and top-10 tight ends.

Quarterbacks
1. Aaron Rodgers, GB
2. Drew Brees, NO
3. Tom Brady, NE
4. Russell Wilson, SEA
5. Kirk Cousins, MIN
6. Philip Rivers, LAC
7. Cam Newton, CAR
8. Deshaun Watson, HOU
9. Matthew Stafford, DET
10. Carson Wentz, PHI

Running Backs
1. Le'Veon Bell, PIT
2. Todd Gurley, LAR
3. Ezekiel Elliott, DAL
4. David Johnson, ARI
5. Saquon Barkley, NYGA\
6. Alvin Kamara, NO
7. Melvin Gordon, LAC
8. Devonta Freeman, ATL
9. Leonard Fournette, JAC
10. Kareem Hunt, KC
11. Dalvin Cook, MIN
12. Christian McCaffrey, CAR
13. LeSean McCoy, BUF
14. Jordan Howard, CHI
15. Joe Mixon, CIN
16. Jerick McKinnon, SF
17. Alex Collins, BAL
18. Jay Ajayi, PHI
19. Lamar Miller, HOU
20. Derrick Henry, TEN

Wide Receivers
1. Antonio Brown, PIT
2. DeAndre Hopkins, HOU
3. Julio Jones, ATL
4. Odell Beckham Jr., NYG
5. Michael Thomas, NO
6. Keenan Allen, LAC
7. Adam Thielen, MIN
8. A.J. Green, CIN
9. Davante Adams, GB
10. Mike Evans, TB
11. Doug Baldwin, SEA
12. T.Y. Hilton, IND
13. Stefon Diggs, MIN
14. Tyreek Hill, KC
15. Amari Cooper, OAK
16. Allen Robinson, CHI
17. Larry Fitzgerald, ARI
18. Demaryius Thomas, DEN
19. Josh Gordon, CLE
20. JuJu Smith-Schuster, PIT
20. Marvin Jones, DET
21. Cooper Kupp, LAR
22. Brandin Cooks, LAR
23. Golden Tate, DET
24. Jarvis Landry, CLE
25. Chris Hogan, NE
26. Robert Woods, LAR
27. Alshon Jeffery, PHI
28. Corey Davis, TEN
28. Michael Crabtree, BAL
29. Sammy Watkins, KC
30. Robby Anderson, NYJ

Tight Ends
1. Rob Gronkowski, NE
2. Travis Kelce, KC
3. Zach Ertz, PHI
4. Greg Olsen, CAR
5. Jimmy Graham, GB
6. O.J. Howard, TB
7. Evan Engram, NYG
8. Delanie Walker, TEN
8. Kyle Rudolph, MIN
9. George Kittle, SF
10. Jordan Reed, WAS

Kirk Cousins has a chance to join the elite quarterbacks in the game as he plays his first season with the Minnesota Vikings. While Cousins never got the love he would have wanted from the Washington Redskins, the Vikings are committed to going with him.

Cousins has an accurate arm, reads defenses well and doesn't panic when under pressure. He also has much better receiving targets in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs than he had in Washington. 

The veteran threw 25 touchdown passes in 2016 and 27 in 2017. Expect Cousins to throw at least 30 scoring passes this season.

Saquon Barkley appears to be the kind of rookie running back who can dominate for the New York Giants—as long as he can stay healthy. Barkley has had a minor hamstring injury this summer, but the team does not anticipate the problem will linger into the regular season.

The Giants have had a horrific time running the football in recent seasons, but that should change with Barkley. He has explosive speed, as evidenced by his 4.40 40 time, and he has the toughness to run over tackles and make yards after contact.

He also has excellent receiving skills, and if he plays up to the level that most scouts anticipate, he will take pressure off of the rest of the Giants' skill-position players.

Keenan Allen had a remarkable year for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017 after two injury-plagued seasons. He has the ability to make remarkable acrobatic catches, and it is clear that Philip Rivers loves throwing to him.

Allen caught 102 passes for 1,393 yards and six touchdowns last year, and he is clearly Rivers' favorite receiver. Allen was targeted 10 times or more in nine games, and there's no reason believe that figure is going to shrink in 2018.

The only thing fantasy owners and Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn have to worry about with Allen is if the injury bug will rear its head again and keep him from playing a full schedule.

There's no reason to worry about any of the top-four tight ends, but Jimmy Graham is a boom-or-bust type this year as he moves to the Green Bay Packers.

On the surface, the marriage of Graham with Aaron Rodgers should be spectacular, but it took quite a while for Graham to establish a good rapport with Russell Wilson as a Seattle Seahawk. It may look easy from the outside, but it can take time for a brilliant quarterback and a talented tight end to establish chemistry.

Sleepers

QB Patrick Mahomes, KC
RB Jerick McKinnon, SF
RB Kalen Ballage, MIA
RB Royce Freeman, DEN
RB Rex Burkhead, NE
WR Will Fuller V, HOU
WR Sterling Shepard, NYG
WR Paul Richardson, SEA
TE O.J. Howard, TB
TE Trey Burton, CHI

Patrick Mahomes inherits the QB1 position for the Kansas City Chiefs, and there is every reason to believe he is ready for the job.

Andy Reid would not have let Alex Smith go to the Redskins if he didn't believe Mahomes was ready to win with the Chiefs this season. Reid is one of the game's foremost experts on offensive football, and he is eminently qualified to make such a decision about quarterbacks in particular.

Mahomes does not have a lot of NFL experience, but he completed 22 of 35 passes for 284 yards in a win over the Denver Broncos last year. Mahomes has a powerful arm, and he could become one of the game's next stars.