4 NFL Stars You Should Avoid in Your Fantasy Football Draft

An athlete can be the best player at their position in the world, but that doesn’t mean they’re worth being picked in the early rounds of a fantasy draft. In fact, they could be someone you don’t want at all, and you’ll be glad when some other sucker in your league takes him.

First of all, before we even get to the stars that you shouldn’t even think about drafting, let’s get one fact straight: You have to take a QB with your first pick unless the top five QBs are off the board.

If you have a late-round pick in the first round and Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees are taken and for some reason Maurice Jones-Drew or another stud running back is still there, take Matthew Stafford or settle for Cam Newton and snag a running back on the turn. If Newton is gone by the time you're picking, then you'll probably want to go in another direction, but if possible, you want to avoid entering this fantasy football season with an average quarterback.

This is a passing league and you’ll have a real chance of making the playoffs if you can go into every week-to-week matchup with an advantage or at least a tie at the QB slot.

You might think that it’s worth it to draft Arian Foster over Aaron Rodgers, but that will be a mistake 9 times out of 10. Running backs are not reliable for two reasons: They are more injury-prone than any one else on the field and sometimes they just regress.

The prime examples for last season are Jamaal Charles and Chris Johnson who were two of the top five running backs. Charles missed 14 games after tearing the ACL in his left knee and Johnson was mediocre at best, finishing the season with only four touchdowns.

Now let’s take a look at four stars that you should pass on this season.

1. Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals) 

It is a shame that one of the most physically gifted wide receivers to ever play the game of football is on such a bad team. It seems like a century ago that the Arizona Cardinals were in the Super Bowl, but now they are probably the worst team in the NFL.

Instead of having a torrid Kurt Warner at starting quarterback, Fitzgerald will have to catch passes from either John Skelton or Kevin Kolb. Furthermore, Anquan Boldin is no longer on the opposite side of the field and Beanie Wells is no Edgerrin James, so teams will likely double cover Fitzgerald on every passing play.

Because of his ability to pluck the ball out of the air whenever it is somewhere near him, he will be able to haul in touchdowns and have a few games where he racks up over 100 yards receiving this season. However, his point total will be unreliable due to poor quarterback play, so he isn’t worth an early round draft pick. Let someone else make the mistake of taking Fitzgerald in the second round.