Top 5 NFL offenses to build your fantasy teams around

Fantasy football is different for everyone. Do you follow the NFL all year long? Do you wait a month before the season begins and start listening to podcasts and reading articles? Or are you the type that waits until the day of the draft and selects players you remember from the last couple of seasons being top-tier? No matter your style, I am the first option on the list of questions. 

Once your league’s draft has finished and you review your decisions, it’s most likely a range of emotions. You scavenge through your opponent’s selections to see what kind of team they have sewn together.

My job is to help you put a master plan together in the mid to late rounds, alleviating stress away from those decisions. When the well begins to dry up, and all the players you thought would be available have pulled a Houdini, stay calm with this cheat code.

The first few rounds are hit or miss by nature, and nothing can be done about it. Have you ever had a first-round pick sit out the season from injury? You didn’t make a poor decision; that is the cruelty of fate.

Here, I am providing a handful of teams that, if you have investments in them, there is a high chance for a payoff. Because the season is about to start, and I am overly excited about it, I will even give you a bonus team with an extremely high ceiling this year. So without further ado, let’s begin! 

Top 5 NFL offenses for the 2023 fantasy season

1) Kansas City Chiefs

Obvious? Potentially, it is impossible not to place them at number one, as this is the new Brady/Belichick combo. Andy Reid has proven himself to be one of the greatest head coaches ever and has one of the greatest QBs ever to touch turf. If anyone has doubted Mahomes, he has undoubtedly brought the anxiety levels down by showing year after year that his parents sent him to Earth from Krypton.

Speaking of being greatest at their position, it has become challenging to admit it, but Travis Kelce continues to dominate his position. How that man is always open is astonishing. Grab any WR or RB piece you can from this offense. If somebody gets injured, as mentioned earlier, stock prices will rise at a rate you may not be able to afford once the season is underway.

The Chiefs have scored the most points in the NFL for the last five seasons with 2,465. They are 295 points ahead of the second-place Buccaneers, who have 2,170 points. I know, right? The Bucs? They are my favorite team; I wouldn’t have guessed it. 

2) Buffalo Bills

Josh Allen adds a heightened level to the team that the Bills have not seen since Jim Kelly. I have always felt that their backfield was a concern. When I think of a great offense in this era, it has a one-two punch, a thunder-and-lightning dynamic at the RB position. Drafting James Cook last season was a great start. In the offseason, they assembled a bruising backfield with Damien Harris and Latavious Murray.

WRs Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis will be more centralized focal points with the release of McKenzie and Beasley, allowing Khalil Shakir to be third. He really should have been all last season. Diggs was tied for 2nd in receiving TDs and averaged 21.1 fantasy points per game. Davis commanded an 18.2% target share and was Josh Allen’s deep threat of choice, ranking 12th in deep targets and sixth in aDOT among wideouts.

TE Dawson Knox has been a dependable target for Allen, and now, with Dalton Kincaid being drafted, the limit for this team continues to grow higher. 

3) Cincinnati Bengals

It starts with QB Joe Burrow, the cold assassin. The triple threat at WR is the real-life version of rock, paper, scissors. Chase, Higgins, and Boyd bring different skill sets that create a nightmare for defenses. Chase only played 12 games and finished WR 11. The trio combined for 662.42 fantasy points, which averages 220.81 among the three. To give context, that would tie them for 22nd place. Only four teams have two WRs in the top 20.

RB Joe Mixon showed the world he can smash five TDs in a single game if they rest on his shoulders. Rookie RB Chase Brown will add a much-needed backfield dynamic behind a revamped and upgraded offensive line. TE Irv Smith is also the cherry on the new addition cake. The Bengals were 3rd in third-down completion percentage, and keeping the drive alive is a big part of getting all hands on deck in touches, rushes, and TDs.

4) Los Angeles Chargers

Before I lambast you with all the names and stats of this team’s offensive prowess, I want to point one player out first. Rashawn Slater. Now that you’ve googled him, I want to tell you something. Before his injury last year, Slater played 175 snaps and allowed only one sack, 113 were pass-blocking snaps, and he only allowed three total pressures. In his rookie season the year before, he only had three penalties called against him.

QB Justin Herbert fractured his rib cartilage and played through it. Both WRs Keenen Allen and Mike Williams were injured for multiple weeks. I feel like Bob Ross painting a picture for you, but instead of happy clouds, it’s the injury list that decimated this offense.

TE Gerald Everett had a career year in almost every statistical category, and 31% of his fantasy points came from inside the red zone. If you followed fantasy last season, you know Austin Ekeler finished as the number one RB. The ceiling is high, and all the players will contribute to their success this year. 

5) Philadelphia Eagles

As fashion icon Jacobim Mugatu once screamed at the Derelicte fashion show, “I feel like I am taking crazy pills!”

I had a challenging time putting the Eagles in the top five. I want to explain why before you scream at me through your screen.

Jalen Hurts finished as QB#3 for fantasy last season. A massive contribution came from 13 rushing TDs. Five of those came from the 1-yard line. Another four came from within the five-yard line. Hurts was fortunate to sneak all these away from the RB committee the Eagles employ. Hurts is ranked as the QB26 inside the red zone regarding passing. Last year they had the top-ranked offensive line, and they lost two of their five starters. Hurts was ranked 10th in passing yards and 14th in passing TDs.

There are a lot of talented players on this offense, and I am not trying to take away from that. I feel there is a need to tamper with the hype this offense is receiving. WRs A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are sure locks early rounds in your draft. The RBs will get their carries as they have proven they love running the ball. In the last three seasons, they are ranked 4th for rushing attempts. Dallas Goedert finished 10th overall for TEs and only had 3 TDs; he has a lot of potential. 

*BONUS* New York J-E-T-S JETS, JETS, JETS!

With the overwhelming athleticism, talent, and veterans, I am still cautious of this team and its ability to congeal together. The biggest problem is their division and schedule. This team has the potential to string together a season the ‘Gang Green’ fan base has not seen since 1998. That season they plastered 49 TDs against their opponents, the most in franchise history.

With QB Aaron Rodgers steering the ship, I only have one concern. Are all the pieces going to go together like an IKEA furniture set? With all this talent, the team should be hot, but we have all had a time where the thing we are supposed to be building sits there for a couple of weeks. I am confident enough that I will take any player I can from this team as I anticipate great things for the Jets this season.