Who is the No. 1 Overall Pick for 2023 Fantasy Football? Making The Case for Austin Ekeler

Austin Ekeler dazzled this year and finished as the highest-scoring running back in the 2022 fantasy football season. While fantasy owners reminisce, Ekeler and the Chargers are preparing for their first playoff game in four years.

The most eager owners are getting ready for next year's fantasy football drafts and are beginning to assemble data to determine who some of the top picks and players might be.

Does Austin Ekeler possess enough upside to warrant drafting him as the first pick in 2023? Let's examine this further.

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How Did Austin Ekeler Perform in Fantasy Football This Season?

The 27-year-old back from Western Colorado tied Christian McCaffrey's 107-catch 2018 season for the second-most receptions by a running back all-time.

He also totaled a career-high 1,637 yards from scrimmage and led the league with 18 total touchdowns. Make it back-to-back years of Austin Ekeler leading the league in touchdowns. He's scored 12 more times than anybody over the past two years.

Ekeler finished as a top-eight running back in eleven weeks this year. His only game with under 10 points occurred in Week 18, a game in which he played three quarters. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts were the only players to outscore Austin Ekeler this year. He paced all backs with a 21.9-point per-game average in full-PPR format.

Is Austin Ekeler The No. 1 Pick For 2023 Fantasy Football?

With more than seven months to go before fantasy owners decide who their top pick will be in 2023, there will be plenty of ongoing debates about who deserves the top crown. The elite names included in these discussions for the 2023 draft are Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, Christian McCaffrey, Cooper Kupp, Ja'Marr Chase, Saquon Barkley, and even tight end Travis Kelce.

But which one should be chosen before all else? Depending on your league's format, there may be different answers to that question. Ekeler will turn 28 this offseason, typically the age when running backs decline sharply. The back-to-back Pro Bowl snub has shown no signs of slowing down.

His high receiving floor and red-zone dominance should assure fantasy owners that he will continue to be an elite running back. Austin Ekeler led the NFL with 68 red-zone touches and a whopping 16 of them went for a touchdown. He blew all running backs out with 128 targets. Other than a hamstring injury in 2020 that forced him to miss six games, Ekeler has a clean injury history. There's little stopping Austin Ekeler from producing another elite fantasy season in 2023.

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