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Ian Allan

2024 magazine

Ja'Marr Chase the latest to take on FFI Cover Jinx

Ja’Marr Chase is the coverboy on this year’s magazine. But does that mean we should all try to pick him? Or avoid him?

The history of previous players on the cover of the magazine, after all, has been, er, iffy.

In this century, 24 other players have graced our cover. None of them finished as the highest scorer at their position.

LaDainian Tomlinson has been our most successful cover player in this century; he finished 2nd among running backs in 2007 (that’s using PPR scoring). Five others have ranked 3rd in scoring at their position: 2002 Terrell Owens, 2011 Arian Foster, 2014 Peyton Manning, 2016 LeVeon Bell and 2018 Todd Gurley. I’ve got those players tagged with black dots.

But there have been way more misses than hits. Only half of the last 24 have ranked higher than 10th at their position.

Injuries have been a factor, with half of the 24 players missing at least five games.

But Chase is our guy for this year. Though not, let it be noted, the top wide receiver on our board. We like CeeDee Lamb more, but we couldn’t find a Lamb photo that we were excited about putting on the cover.

So it’s Chase, and definitely with fingers crossed.

FANTASY INDEX COVER JINX
YearPlayerTmMissed GRk
2000Kurt WarnerSt.L.513th
2001Daunte CulpepperMin.515th
2002• Terrell OwensS.F.23rd
2003Ricky WilliamsMia.09th
2004Priest HolmesK.C.818th
2005Tatum BellDen.124th
2006Shaun AlexanderSea.633rd
2007• LaDainian TomlinsonS.D.02nd
2008Tom BradyN.E.1561st
2009Larry FitzgeraldAri.05th
2010Chris JohnsonTen.06th
2011• Arian FosterHou.33rd
2012Rob GronkowskiN.E.55th
2013Adrian PetersonMin.210th
2014• Peyton ManningDen.03rd
2015Andrew LuckInd.927th
2016• LeVeon BellPitt.43rd
2017Ezekiel ElliottDall.612th
2018• Todd GurleyLAR23rd
2019Saquon BarkleyNYG311th
2020Christian McCaffreyCar.1354th
2021Patrick MahomesK.C.04th
2022Jonathan TaylorInd.633rd
2023Justin JeffersonMin.732nd
2024Ja'Marr ChaseCin.??

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index