2020 has been a year unlike any other. The COVID-19 virus has changed the way the world operates. The United States with over 160,000 deaths and over 5,000,000 cases has been affected in ways we as a society have not seen. One of the most impacted ways of our community has been sports. High school, collegiate, and professional sports have been devastated. One of the most impacted organizations is the NCAA.
The virus first impacted the NCAA by having to cancel March Madness for college basketball and all spring sports. Two Power Five conferences have canceled fall football. The Big 10 and PAC 12 will not have football this season. This really isn’t surprising as most universities don’t make a significant revenue like professional sports do, and the logistics of COVID-19 testing are much harder for the large rosters of football teams. The most likely end result is that all major programs will postpone their seasons.
Although college football and NFL decisions are not made by the same decision-makers; make no mistake that the cancellation of the season will affect both groups. Many collegiate players have and will decide to leave early because they have established themselves as sophomores or redshirt freshmen. Players like Rashod Bateman and Rondale Moore have already opted-out of returning to the NCAA to pursue the NFL dream. These types of decisions are important in devy and dynasty as it impacts the 2021 NFL Draft and 2022 NFL Draft.
2021 Draft Impacts
With the cancellation of the 2020 college football season, the 2021 NFL rookie class would largely be affected by the depth of the class being weaker. The expected stars of the class will most likely declare and the top senior will have enough tape to be judged upon. The issue at hand is what will the underclassmen who were expected to have big seasons but have not had a lot of chances yet end up doing? These underclassmen could have been behind superstars declaring this season or had been injured. These players will have a decision to make. They can gamble on their talent and declare or they can wait until 2022 and put another year of film together for NFL scouts. Ultimately, I think a lot of these young players will wait and declare for the 2022 NFL Draft and the 2021 NFL Draft will be top-heavy and not very deep.
2022 NFL Draft Impacts
Conversely, the 2022 NFL Draft will be affected by 2021 underclassmen declaring as seniors and the 2022 eligible underclassmen stars expected to declare as well. This will make the 2022 draft much deeper. Specifically, this will make the running backs and wide receivers classes very rich. There are some really talented players eligible in 2022. These players include wide receivers George Pickens, Garrett Wilson, David Bell, and running backs Breece Hall and Zach Charbonnet.
What does this all mean?
As a provider of devy content, it’s my responsibility to inform and ignite thoughts on the future of the NFL. The NFL will be impacted by any cancellation of collegiate football. The 2021 draft will have some really good players in it. These players include Najee Harris, Travis Etienne, Kylie Hill, Chubba Hubbard, and the previously mentioned Rondale Moore and Rashod Bateman. First-round rookie picks for dynasty leagues are still worth acquiring in rebuilds but as the rookie drafts go on, I expect the player depth to thin out. The long-term play and one rebuilding teams or contenders can achieve is acquiring early, mid, and late-round rookie picks in 2022.
I expect the class to be one of the deepest in years as at this point I expect a full season in 2021 collegiate football and I expect the senior class to be loaded from players opting to stay one more year. Acquiring mid-round or late-round rookie picks for 2022 could prove to be fruitful as contenders and close to contended will stack their benches for two years while those who slowly cut methodically add picks could have a great set of ammunition to pick from the anticipated depth or trade a stockpile of picks to move up and acquire higher picks. Players like Kenneth Gainwell, Zamir White, CJ Verdell, Max Borghi, Pooka Williams, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Brennan Eagles, and others could decide they have more to show or prove and decide to enter as fourth-year juniors or seniors.
The long-story, in short, is if you are truly playing the long game of devy/dynasty, this is the time to think strategically and futuristic while your league-mates stay focused more closer to the present. When it’s all said and done, if played correctly the 2022 draft could be the year you take full control of the league’s top spot for a long time.
Thanks for taking the time to read this article. You can interact with me on Twitter @Brennan316. I love to interact with the community on trades or hear suggestions of players that might be of interest to get my perspective on.
