Fantasy Football: 5 Young NFL Stars Who Will Eventually Crack the Top 20 in Career PPR Points
Earlier this week, our own Mike Calendrillo created a bar-chart race detailing the top-20 NFL players in career PPR fantasy points from 1966 to today. Unsurprisingly, 76-year-old — no, sorry — 45-year-old Tom Brady tops the all-time list with 5,674.7 career fantasy points, while Drew Brees (5,193 points) and Jerry Rice (5,129.8 points) are the only other players in NFL history with more than 5,000.
A few young stars in today’s NFL are quickly climbing up the all-time list, but which five have the best chance of eventually cracking the top 20?
Josh Allen
Josh Allen is already a fantasy football superstar at the age of 26. The Buffalo Bills signal-caller has finished the last two seasons as the top-scoring quarterback in fantasy. He’s topped 395 fantasy points in each of the last two years. For reference, Brady has never reached 391 fantasy points in a single season throughout his 21-year career.
Allen needs just 3,277 career points to crack the current top-20 list, and he’s already more than a third of the way there with 1,294.3 points in four seasons. At this pace, he has a chance to catch Brady if he plays 15-plus years in the NFL.
Allen’s rocket arm and elite rushing ability make him a more dominant fantasy football weapon than Brady has ever been, and no one would blame you if you snatched him up before the third round this year.
Justin Jefferson
No wide receiver in NFL history has enjoyed a better start to their career than Justin Jefferson. His 3,016 receiving yards through two seasons rank first in league history by more than 260 yards.
Jefferson has also established himself as an elite fantasy WR at 23 years of age. He finished as WR6 in 2020 and WR4 in 2021 in PPR points, and he’s gunning for the top spot in 2023. With 604.6 fantasy points through two seasons, the Minnesota Vikings superstar is on pace to crack the top 20 by Year 11.
Patrick Mahomes
Patrick Mahomes has been the starting quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs for just four full seasons, but he’s already made fantasy football history early in his career. In 2018, which was his first year as a starter in the NFL, Mahomes put up the highest-scoring fantasy season ever for a QB with 417.08 points.
With 1,450.5 career fantasy points already, Mahomes should be able to crack the top 20 before his 10th season. He’s a prime candidate to finish his career as a top-10 or even top-five fantasy player of all time.
Lamar Jackson
Mahomes may be the quarterback with the most prolific fantasy season in NFL history, but Lamar Jackson isn’t far behind in that respect. The Baltimore Ravens QB put up 415.68 fantasy points in 2019 thanks to his 1,206 rushing yards and 43 total touchdowns. He’s currently at 1,146 points through four years.
Jackson’s dual-threat ability makes him a top-five fantasy QB every time he steps on the field, but injuries have cost him six starts over the last two seasons. If he can stay healthy, the 25-year-old should easily crack the top 20 by the time he’s in his early 30s.
Ja’Marr Chase
Jefferson’s two-year receiving record may only last for one season, as Ja’Marr Chase, his college teammate, recorded 1,455 receiving yards last year to top his rookie total by 55 yards. Chase also nearly doubled Jefferson’s seven rookie touchdowns with 13 of his own.
The LSU product is already an elite big-play threat in the NFL, and he’ll enter his second season as a consensus top-five WR in fantasy football. Chase has a special fantasy career ahead of him.
Bar-chart race made with Flourish.
All fantasy stats courtesy of FantasyData.
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