2020 Pre-Draft Rookie Assessment

Looking back on what I’ve posted to this site, the articles that have made me cringe the most (by far) upon re-reading have been these Pre-Draft rookie articles.

When you try hard, being wrong hurts.

When you have Shar-Pei puppy level skin in the game via Dynasty and Bestball, being wrong hurts your wallet.

Thankfully my rookie assessment track record has been much more good than bad, and that’s all it takes to grind out profits season to season.

With the 2020 NFL Draft having a virtual twist this year, we get to witness the upper bounds of NFL production talent.

Teams of graphic designers, video and sound editors, tech and lighting wizards alongside experts at time-filling commentary must produce and organize a ton of moving parts with minimal error leeway during this live event.

Will I miss all of the the pomp and fanfare of recent NFL Drafts?

Dearly.

Will I miss all of the typical scout and twitter mock-draft groupthink?

Not at all.

Where’s the GO button?

Although it is quite hard to make long term judgments on some of the planet’s best athletes prior to knowing draft capital and team fit, this is the life we have chosen.

I’ll be slotting noteworthy players into one of two categories:

SPECIAL (Player projects to be a STARTER in FFPC style dynasty leagues within their first two seasons.)

DEPTH (Player projects to be ROSTERED at a high percentage in FFPC style dynasty leagues as depth.)

The remaining (very many) players that go unlisted here are those I feel that may be drafted in rookie drafts, but likely will be cut when we are forced to trim our dynasty rosters down to 20.

I’m sure there are much deeper dynasty league formats out there with more than 12 teams and more than 20 roster spots, but all they likely do is bench a ton more scrubs, and time in this life is limited.

SPECIAL

WR

CeeDee Lamb WR1 Oklahoma Sooners

Justin Jefferson WR2 LSU Tigers

Jerry Jeudy WR3 Alabama Crimson Tide

Tee Higgins WR4 Clemson Tigers

Henry Ruggs WR5 Alabama Crimson Tide

Denzel Mims WR6 Baylor Bears

RB

Jonathan Taylor RB1 Wisconsin Badgers

Clyde Edwards-Helaire RB2 LSU Tigers

D’Andre Swift RB3 Georgia Bulldogs

J.K. Dobbins RB4 Ohio St. Buckeyes

Cam Akers RB5 Florida St. Seminoles

QB

Joe Burrow QB1 LSU Tigers

Tua Tagovailoa QB2 Alabama Crimson Tide

DEPTH

(These are loosely grouped. I pushed the players I’m lowest on toward the bottom of each position group, but they are not listed in a strict order like the above list.)

WR

Brandon Aiyuk WR Arizona St. Sun Devils

Jalen Reagor WR TCU Horned Frogs

Tyler Johnson WR Minnesota Golden Gophers

Michael Pittman WR USC Trojans

Isaiah Hodgins WR Oregon St. Beavers

Laviska Shenault WR Colorado Buffalos

Bryan Edwards WR South Carolina Gamecocks

J.K. Hamler WR Penn St. Nittany Lions

Antonio Gandy-Golden WR Liberty Flames

Chase Claypool WR Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Lynn Bowden WR Kentucky Wildcats

Donovan Peoples-Jones WR Michigan Wolverines

RB

Darrynton Evans RB Appalachian St. Mountaineers

Antonio Gibson RB Memphis Tigers

Eno Benjamin RB Arizona St. Sun Devils

Zack Moss RB Utah Utes

QB

Jalen Hurts QB Oklahoma Sooners

Justin Herbert QB Oregon Ducks

Jake Fromm QB Georgia Bulldogs

I’m not as down on this Tight End class as most, but with how limited the rosters are in the FFPC, combined with how long they take to develop or gain in trade value, I’ve declined to list any here.

The swings in value begining with tomorrow night’s first round will both crush and elevate dreams. I can already feel the butterflies of anticipation.

Once again I’ll be using the wisdom of my higher stakes dynasty leagues (now over $6K in entry fees) to create a more exclusive ADP list for you here. There I will get a chance to really expound on how I feel about this draft class, sharing relevant data and opinion.

I’ll close with the lyrics of an old Don Henley song…

“This is the last…worthless evening…that you’ll have to spend…”

Tomorrow night will be bliss.