Fantasy Football Rankings 2021: Busts from proven model that called Smith-Schuster’s disappointing season

Since a rookie season in which he led the NFL with 2,028 scrimmage yards and scored 15 touchdowns, Saquon Barkley hasn’t lived up to the expectations of owners who spent a first-round pick on the Giants running back. Barkley missed three games and tallied just 1,441 scrimmage yards and eight scores in 2019, and then missed 14 games because of a torn ACL last year. Now that Barkley’s healthy again, should you consider spending another early pick on a potential RB1, or will Barkley be among 2021 Fantasy football busts?

Meanwhile, Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey is also returning from an injury-plagued season in which a shoulder injury and glute strain cost him 13 games. Can owners who were burned by McCaffrey’s injuries last season afford to put him atop their 2021 Fantasy football rankings? Before you go on the clock for your Fantasy football 2021 drafts, be sure to check out the 2021 Fantasy football cheat sheets from the proven computer model at SportsLine.

Last year, the model accurately predicted that Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster would be a bust. He had a fourth-round ADP, but the model ranked him as just the No. 14 receiver, behind players like A.J. Brown, Adam Thielen and Calvin Ridley. The result: Smith-Schuster finished 20th among wide receivers.

The model is powered by the same people who generated projections for all three major Fantasy sites, and it beat human experts last season when there was a big difference in ranking. The projections update multiple times daily, so you’re always getting the best Fantasy football advice. 

Now, SportsLine has simulated the entire NFL season 10,000 times and released its latest Fantasy football rankings 2021, identifying several potential Fantasy football busts. Head to SportsLine now to see them.

Top 2021 Fantasy football busts 

One of the 2021 Fantasy football busts the SportsLine model is calling: Bears running back David Montgomery. The former third-round pick out of Iowa State produced strong numbers in his second season, finishing as the No. 6 running back in Fantasy football for 2020.

However, Montgomery didn’t face much competition in Chicago’s backfield because of an early-season injury to Tarik Cohen and a lackluster depth chart. Now, the Bears will get Cohen back and also added former Chiefs Super Bowl hero Damien Williams and rookie Khalil Herbert to the fold. That would seem to indicate a dropoff in touches for Montgomery, a major reason why the model ranks the fourth-round pick behind sixth-round options like Myles Gaskin and Mike Davis.

Another bust that SportsLine’s Fantasy football rankings 2021 have identified: Cardinals receiver Rondale Moore. The former Boilermaker set the Big Ten ablaze as a freshman in 2018 with 1,471 scrimmage yards and 14 touchdowns, but he played in just seven games over the last two years due to injuries. He was drafted in the second round and goes to a deep receiving core in Arizona, with DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green and Christian Kirk all ahead of him on the depth chart.

His lack of durability and size (5-foot-7, 180 pounds) are knocks against Moore, and those will become even bigger concerns in the NFL. He has drawn undesirable comparisons to Tavon Austin as the similarly diminutive receiver was unstoppable in college but had far less success in the NFL, finishing outside the top 50 as a rookie in Fantasy positional rankings. Moore’s 11th round ADP is on par with players like Mecole Hardman and DeVante Parker, but SportsLine’s model has those two producing at a higher level than Moore.

How to find proven 2021 Fantasy football rankings

SportsLine is also down on a young quarterback who was one of the top Fantasy performers down the stretch last season. This quarterback is listed outside the top 15 in positional Fantasy football 2021 rankings, behind veteran options like Kirk Cousins and Derek CarrYou can only see who it is, and the 2021 Fantasy football rankings for every player, at SportsLine.

So which 2021 Fantasy Football busts should you avoid? And which QB fails to replicate last season’s production? Visit SportsLine now to get 2021 Fantasy Football cheat sheets for every single position, all from the model that called JuJu Smith-Schuster’s down season, and find out.