Fantasy football drafts offer several paths to building a solid foundation in the early rounds. Attacking the mid- to late-rounds of 2021 fantasy football drafts is where many teams will separate themselves, rounding out rosters with players who are likely to outperform players selected earlier.
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The following are seven less-heralded players that fantasy football managers should be targeting in the mid- to late-rounds who could vastly outperform ADP in 2021.
RB A.J. Dillon, Green Bay Packers
Jamaal Williams now plies his trade in Detroit, which frees up 419 snaps and 150 touches for other Green Bay backs to accumulate behind Aaron Jones. Dillon has already been anointed by the coaching staff as the next man up, and the second-year back has some intriguing breakout potential.
In the one game that Dillon received double-digit touches last season, he rushed 24 times for 121 yards and a pair of scores in a win over Tennessee. Aside from this huge performance that won many redraft and DFS weeks, Dillon also racked up impressive PFF grades in several other categories.
Dillon ranked eighth among all running backs with an 84.6 PFF run grade, forced 17 missed tackles and broke five runs of 10-plus yards on only 46 carries. He also led all running backs with a 133.7 elusive rating (50 snap minimum).
The Packers have had great success trotting out a two-man rotation at running back, and Dillon has flashed some massive upside as both a runner and receiver late last season and through training camp. That makes Dillon one of the best middle-round young running backs to target in all formats this summer.
RB Michael Carter, New York Jets
Early reports out of Jets camp indicate that fourth-round rookie Michael Carter has looked like the best player in a backfield that also contains Tevin Coleman, La’Mical Perine and Ty Johnson. While Carter is no stranger to sharing touches, he has a 98th-percentile burst score and possesses a three-down skill set.
