My main dynasty league held its annual Rookie Draft over the weekend. Thought I'd post a recap to show how one group of 12 fantasy coaches viewed the incoming rookies.
It's a 12-team league, PPR scoring, but with TE-premium (1.5 points per reception for tight ends). Lineups are 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, and 2 Flex spots. K and Team D. Not an experts league, but most know what they're doing.
My picks are in bold, and I'll offer opinions and/or explanations as I go.
1.01. RB Jeremiyah Love
1.02. WR Carnell Tate
1.03. WR Makai Lemon
1.04. WR Jordyn Tyson
The top 4 picks in most rookie drafts this year. I expect the order of the WRs will change here and there. Tate was drafted earliest, Lemon will be the No. 2 after the Eagles trade away A.J. Brown, Tyson was drafted 2nd-earliest but has an injury history. Not gonna spoil the Rookie story in the magazine beyond saying this is not the order.
1.05. TE Kenyon Sadiq
1.06. RB Jadarian Price
1.07. WR KC Concepcion
1.08. TE Eli Stowers
1.09. QB Fernando Mendoza
1.10. WR Omar Cooper
1.11. WR Denzel Boston
1.12. RB Jonah Coleman
I was hoping for Sadiq, with the track record of first-round TEs (and especially top-half of first-round) really strong lately. When he was gone, I debated Concepcion versus Cooper. Concepcion drafted earliest, could easily be the No. 1 sooner rather than later (Jeudy? Yuh), something of a dual-threat. It was a tough call, with the significant drawback both face of joining the Browns and Jets looming over them.
TE-premium, so both Sadiq and Stowers, as the top TEs in the draft, have tremendous appeal. Mendoza arguably the only appealing draft pick at quarterback, might start right away, and the team that took him, his son goes to Indiana, might have been a factor. And he needed a quarterback, with his current QBs Dak (fine) and Anthony Richardson (not so fine). Jonah Coleman already has more dynasty appeal than RJ Harvey as the more likely heir apparent to J.K. Dobbins.
2.01. WR Germie Bernard
2.02. WR De'Zhaun Stribling
2.03. RB Kaytron Allen
2.04. TE Max Klare
2.05. WR Antonio Williams
2.06. WR Chris Bell
2.07. WR Ted Hurst
2.08. TE Oscar Delp
2.09. RB Nicholas Singleton
2.10. WR Chris Brazell
2.11. RB Emmett Johnson
2.12. Malachi Fields
Eagle-eyed readers may note that there were only six running backs taken in the first two rounds and I took 2 of them. Do not construe this to mean I think it's a great class of running backs, it isn't. But it is where I saw the value at those picks, which I'll discuss below.
I like Bernard in Pittsburgh and might have taken him. Ran for 101 yards and 2 TDs in addition to his receiving, I'm a sucker for trying to land the next Deebo or Percy Harvin. Stribling, I would not have drafted, the 49ers really haven't earned a lot of credibility with their recent early picks at running back and wide receiver. Allen (pictured) was just a sixth-round pick, so clearly not viewed highly, but he's a solidly built thumper who became Penn State's all-time leading rusher and he goes to an offense that has only Jacory Croskey-Merritt (on my roster) and Rachaad White (basically on a minimum deal) and there's a quick path to him being the main runner there. Averaged just over a catch per game but not clear that he can't do it, if asked. Speaking of Washington players, Antonio Williams looks like their current No. 2 WR, at least until Brandon Aiyuk ends up there.
Bell (Miami), Hurst (Tampa Bay) and Brazell (Carolina) are all Day 2 draft picks going to teams with questionable receiving depth charts. "Questionable" is putting it mildly with the Dolphins; the negative with Bell is he tore his ACL in November. Tampa Bay has an opening with Mike Evans gone and Carolina has McMillan, Coker and ? (sorry, Xavier).
Klare is an athlete who goes to a Rams team that has four other tight ends under contract, one of whom is last year's second-rounder. It's dynasty, being patient is understandable, but it's hard to accept the amount of waiting that will be required. Delp has no college production to speak of, but he was on a roster with Brock Bowers for a while and might play quickly as the in-line tight end for New Orleans.
KC running back Johnson has some good-looking highlights and could be the No. 2 behind Kenneth Walker right away. Needs to beat out Brashard Smith, but that can happen, and he's a good receiver. It was a deep enough draft at receiver that I thought I'd get one I liked in the third (and so I did) but not a running back at that point.
Singleton goes to a Tennessee team looking for a future starter but notable that he averaged just 4.5 yards per attempt at Penn State last year while Kaytron was at 6.2. I know, YPC isn't everything, but Allen looks better (obviously the Titans felt differently).
3.01. WR Elijah Sarratt
3.02. WR Zachariah Branch
3.03. TE Tanner Koziol
3.04. RB Kaelon Black
3.05. WR Caleb Douglas
3.06. QB Ty Simpson
These picks speak to the WR depth in this rookie class, and why I went running back with my 2nd-round picks. Sarratt (Baltimore) and Branch (Atlanta) have the chance to be their new teams' No. 2 wide receivers right away. (Douglas does too, but I think I might be in contention to be Miami's No. 3. And I'm slow.) Sarratt was key for Indiana last year and I like his landing spot in Baltimore. Koziol is huge and goes to a good Jacksonville offense, but he was the second tight end they drafted and it's a crowded receiving corps.
In past years, a third-round running back drafted to a Kyle Shanahan offense would be a late first or early second round rookie pick. Thing is, they have been, for years, and all of those guys have sucked. Joe Williams was my personal misstep, while others have been wasting picks on Trey Sermon and Isaac Guerendo. It's not fair to Black to put that on him, but I wasn't going to be the one to chance it and clearly others felt the same.
Maybe Simpson is a future star and the Rams are geniuses. But 1) I doubt it, we've seen the undersized Alabama quarterback thing before, and 2) If Matthew Stafford doesn't get hurt and the Rams fall short of the Super Bowl the next couple of years, Los Angeles wasted a premium pick on a backup quarterback. It's the exact opposite of the way the team has operated for much of the McVay Era and I don't understand how it works out. Jordan Love is a nice quarterback but it didn't work out for Green Bay when they did essentially the same thing in the last few years of the Aaron Rodgers Era. Though I guess Love can still win a bunch of Super Bowls. Anyway, moving on.
3.07. WR Skyler Bell
3.08. TE Justin Joly
3.09. RB Mike Washington
3.10. WR Ja'Kobi Lane
3.11. Bryce Lance
3.12. RB Demond Claiborne
Bell was the wide receiver I was considering at 2.11. He goes to a crowded Buffalo receiving corps, but some of that is just short-term clutter in his way that he can move past in the next year or two. Caught 101 passes at UConn last year; I live in New York and maybe this is a homer pick, but it's fine. To me, a guy catches 101 passes for UConn, that's saying something. If anybody underestimated Harold Fannin a year ago because his huge receiving numbers came at Bowling Green, they aren't anymore.
Joly is just a fifth-round pick, but after the year Evan Engram just had, let's not rule out the possibility of Joly being Denver's best tight end sooner rather than later. I like Washington and might have drafted him myself had I not gone running back twice in the previous round. Unlike those guys, he will definitely, 100 percent be the No. 2 in Las Vegas, based on their current roster. Claiborne is small (5-10, 188), wasn't a big producer at Wake Forest and was just a sixth-round pick. But with Minnesota really only having wizened Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason ahead of him, he should get some run this year, at least as a change-of-pace and maybe more eventually.
We added a fourth round to the draft this year. As I write this, it's still going on. Two players (New England TE Eli Raridon, Baltimore RB Adam Randall) should be No. 2s quickly, have some appeal. Eli Heidenreich in Pittsburgh, you never know, but 7th-rounder out of Navy, long shot. Chargers wideout Brenen Thompson, GM compared him to Tyreek Hill and DeSean Jackson. Which is to say he's small and fast. Lofty comparison, we'll see.
Feel free to weigh in on what you think the reaches and steals were. We'll know for sure in, you know, a couple of years maybe.
