Rookie Analysis
Can’t you feel the excitement as we get closer to the draft? With free agency winding down, we now start to see the core of what each of these NFL teams will look like when we get into the fall. There is still one more piece to the puzzle though and if you play dynasty then it is probably amongst your favorite NFL events of the year—the NFL Draft. While I have learned not to take too much from the landing spot, I think many of us are still hurting from Clyde Edwards-Helaire in 2020. It does have an impact though and we would be foolish to ignore it. I find the best practice is to have everyone divided into tiers before the NFL Draft, then move players within a tier instead of jumping them an entire tier based on landing spot. We also have draft capital to consider but that is beyond the scope of what we will be discussing today. Let’s dig in!
Hello again! Today, I want to project where I think some offensive skill position players are going to land in the first round of The NFL Draft. Some may be wishful thinking but I’m trying to stay objective.
Marvin Mims burst onto the scene as a freshman at Oklahoma with a stellar season of 610 yards and nine touchdowns. This put him squarely into the conversation as one of the top wide receivers in the 2023 draft class. Mims is a big play threat. His 20.1 yards per reception were the third most in the country for 2023. For PPR formats, he is not the most desirable archetype of a wide receiver. His reception totals are relatively low and this can lead to inconsistency in his game-to-game performance. In dynasty best ball formats he is of more interest.
At DFF our motto is #AlwaysBeBuilding. While that pertains to dynasty it also pertains to offering our members more benefits for their subscription. With that, I introduce you to DFF’s rookie draft Average Draft Position (ADP) resource. This will be available as a quick reference under the resources drop-down menu. You can directly link to it here.
It’s combine week! Time for all of our favorite prospects to compete in the underwear olympics. If you talk to different people, you will get different answers on just how meaningful the combine is. NFL scouts look for traits and this helps them determine that on a comparable scale. Here are the biggest winners from this week in Indianapolis and how it effects your preparation for dynasty rookie drafts.
Throughout this article you will see a tool called the Relative Athletic Score. This is a wonderful tool created by Kent Lee Platte to provide an overall size adjusted athleticism score utilizing inputs from combine results. It runs on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. Give him a follow on Twitter @mathbomb.
When analyzing wide receiver prospects, analysts such as myself, like to check boxes when a player eclipses a designated threshold for a certain metric. No prospect in this class checked more of these boxes across all metrics than Josh Downs. Downs was an uber-producer during his time at Chapel Hill. When Sam Howell or Drake Maye needed a big play, Downs was the unquestioned target. In this article, I will take you through the numbers and display why you should be targeting Josh Downs in your dynasty rookie drafts.
We’re two weeks from the combine and on the last leg of my trip around the rookie prospects by ranking tight ends. TE is the most frustrating position in fantasy to scout and find any kind of production. My regular data dump from our DFF Data Guru @ChrisMiles1017 will be left out for this reason and we’ll stick to the film until we get Combine numbers.
At this point in the off-season, I prefer to write articles on prospects that aren’t in that elite tier so that DFF members have a value-added when reading. After all most have likely heard quite enough about the top prospects in the class to make their decision one way or the other. For that reason, I haven’t done a deep profile on Jaxon Smith-Njigba. In my mind, he is a no-brainer prospect.
One of the most polarizing prospects in the 2023 draft class is Ole Miss running back Zach Evans. Today, we will use my personal prospect grading model to evaluate Evans as a prospect and see what kind of player he might become in the NFL.
One of the most respected draft experts, Lance Zierlein, set off a Twitter firestorm this week when he placed Jalin Hyatt as his first wide receiver off the board, 12th overall, in his first mock draft.
He states:
“Let me first start off by saying I believe this draft is very similar to the 2016 draft in terms of wideouts. I didn’t see any WR as a true WR1 for a team. Here was how I graded them. Obviously, Mike Thomas ended up being a dude but the rest? Here is how I had it (old scale)”
The Senior Bowl has come and gone and we move one step further in our off-season process. Thankfully, I’m one step closer in my own rookie evaluations with my first look at the 2023 rookie receiver class. We’ll use film analysis numerical data from the regular season and look at using KPIs based on DFF’s very own Chris Miles. Using the points from his model and tales from the tape, I’ll break down this highly touted rookie class by discussing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of each prospect.
Nathaniel “Tank” Dell is consistent with the new wave of undersized wide receivers recently ushered into the NFL. Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, Justin Jefferson, Chris Olave, Rondale Moore, and Elijah Moore are redefining what it means to be a “prototype” wide receiver. Route running and the ability to create separation are being prioritized over physical size.
Rookie scouting season is here and everyone is starting to research and prep for their rookie drafts. In this series, I will go through my process and scout different players for the incoming 2023 class. My process is mainly through an analytical view. This means I am thinking about hit rates, range of outcomes, and probabilities. I favor these things over whether I think the player is talented because that is not only subjective but also difficult. This consistent, numbers-only process allows me to play the odds and hit more than I miss with these rookies. So follow along as I go through Tulane running back, Tyjae Spears.
Each year I use an established analytical process (The WR1 Model) to forecast who the future dynasty elite wide receivers will be. You can find a detailed explanation of the process here. While some of the nine metrics utilized in the model (relative athletic score, film grade, and draft capital) are not yet finalized, we can begin to get a picture of who the players you want to target are.
We’ve officially passed the NFL draft declaration date and we know who exactly our fresh batch of rookie picks will be. That means no more Twitter speculation and narratives about who will declare. (Looking at you Stroud.) Sure it’s a little early to rank without draft capital. Luckily, we have plenty of numerical data from the regular season we can look at using KPIs based from DFF’s very own Chris Miles. Using the points from his model and tales from the tape, I’ll break down this highly touted rookie class by discussing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of each prospect.
Rookie scouting season is approaching and what better way to prepare than to get a head start on your league mates and get to work before the NFL season ends? In this series, I will go through my process and scout each of the potential incoming rookie QBs for the 2023 class. My process is mainly through an analytical view. This means I am thinking about hit rates, range of outcomes, and probabilities. I favor these things over whether I think the player is talented because that is not only subjective but also difficult. This consistent, numbers-only process allows me to play the odds and hit more than I miss with these rookies. So follow along as I go through Florida quarterback, Anthony Richardson.
The fantasy community has adopted a strange tradition – hyping up a draft class a few years down the road, only to completely discredit them the year they’re to be drafted. Maybe not ‘completely’, but it certainly feels that way. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is one of the most recent victims of our yearly tradition. I want to discuss why that is and see if we can draw any significant conclusions about our views on slot usage and production.
Rookie scouting season is approaching and what better way to prepare than to get a head start on your league mates and get to work before the NFL season ends? In this series, I will go through my process and scout each of the potential incoming rookie QBs for the 2023 class. My process is mainly through an analytical view. This means I am thinking about hit rates, range of outcomes, and probabilities. I favor these things over whether I think the player is talented because that is not only subjective but also difficult. This consistent, numbers-only process allows me to play the odds and hit more than I miss with these rookies. So follow along as I go through Alabama quarterback, Bryce Young.
Rookie scouting season is approaching and what better way to prepare than to get a head start on your league mates and get to work before the NFL season ends? In this series, I will go through my process and scout each of the potential incoming rookie QBs for the 2023 class. My process is mainly through an analytical view. This means I am thinking about hit rates, range of outcomes, and probabilities. I favor these things over whether I think the player is talented because that is not only subjective but also difficult. This consistent, numbers-only process allows me to play the odds and hit more than I miss with these rookies. So follow along as I go through my first rookie, Stetson Bennett.
Welcome back from yesterday’s article and the 2023 rookie RB ranking countdown. We still have plenty of numerical data from the regular season we can look at using KPIs based from DFF’s very own Chris Miles.
As the 2022 Fantasy Season comes to a close we get to shift to off-season Twitter topics that leave us arguing with strangers about a likely UDFA QB until our feet go numb on the toilet. Yes, folks, it’s time for rookie talk before we even have draft capital!
We at DFF hope all your 2022 dynasty football league dreams came true. But the grind never stops. We have a saying at DFF #AlwaysBeBuilding. It’s time to beckon in the new year by strategizing your approach to the 2023 rookie draft.
What if I told you that the QB1 of my rookie QB model for the 2022 class was now one mistake away from becoming a starter? What if I also told you that this QB would have been QB4 of the 2021 class, ahead of Zach Wilson, despite being drafted in the 5th round of the NFL draft and not the first? These statements should cause excitement for the Washington Commanders rookie QB, Sam Howell.
Pickett showed true confidence throwing the ball downfield, something we hadn’t seen out of Mitchell Trubisky. Pickett’s willingness to let it fly is a great sign of his fantasy value. The Steelers have a great group of offensive weapons, headlined by second-year RB Najee Harris. Inserting Pickett into the lineup will only open up more opportunities for Harris. This move increases the stock for every pass-catcher in the offense as well. Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and Pat Freiermuth should at least be getting more big-play chances. The biggest winner, however, is rookie WR George Pickens. The 6’3” field-stretching receiver saw the ball come his way much more frequently in the short time he had playing with Pickett under center. We saw what Pickett was able to do at Pitt last season, supporting a Biletnikoff award-winning WR in Jordan Addison. “Pickett to Pickens” is going to be a call we could be hearing for years to come.
Historically, rookie wide receivers have taken the beginning of the season to integrate themselves into the passing game plan and develop chemistry with the quarterback. However, two of the five aforementioned rookies, London and Wilson, fast-tracked the proverbial rookie wide receiver waiting period with eye-popping performances through two weeks. Let’s look at them as prospects and dive into their peripherals to see if this start is sustainable.