2024 fantasy football breakouts - Eight players to watch this season - ESPN

The air is starting to smell and breathe just a bit different.

Almost every notable free agent has a home, and the NFL draft is behind us. That means fantasy football season is getting closer.

It's about to be a busy few months of content before we're traveling at full speed for the 18 weeks of the season, as we'll dive into a ton here on ESPN.com to get you ready for drafts.

So, let's dig into a handful of fantasy football breakout candidates for the 2024 season.

Field Yates: The term breakout can be taken a lot of different ways but generally applies to players due for a huge leap forward in production relative to last season or however many years they've been in the league. This isn't just out-of-nowhere diamonds in the rough, as you might already know a lot about many of the players on this list. For the purposes of this piece, we'll stick to non-rookies.

Because I'm feeling gentlemanly today, I'll go first and start with ...

… Jets WR Garrett Wilson. If you're a loyal reader of this annual column and are saying, «Wasn't Wilson near the top of this list last year?» — the answer is yes. Wilson has back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons to begin his career and 178 catches to his name already, but he has done so with poor quarterback play. The conceit of the pitch around Wilson last year was that he'd play with a four-time NFL MVP quarterback who should make Wilson a more dangerous and efficient receiver with more touchdown opportunities. Wilson had nine games last season with at least 10 targets but had just three touchdowns (after just four as a rookie). The reason Wilson hasn't had a top-20 season in his career has zero to do with him and everything to do with his surroundings. A healthy Aaron Rodgers means a