2025 Rookie Discussion

[averagejoe]

It looks like all of the drafts on this forum are done. Maybe we can start discussing the rookies now?

 

[SmokingMonkey]

It looks like all of the drafts on this forum are done. Maybe we can start discussing the rookies now?

Burden is falling too far into 2nd round in rookie drafts. His style of play reminds me a lot of AJB but with less route running chops.

Don't think you're getting an alpha WR1, but he's getting paired with Ben Johnson, one of best at scheming to get the ball in the playmaker's hands.

 

[TREFF]

Burden is falling too far into 2nd round in rookie drafts. His style of play reminds me a lot of AJB but with less route running chops.

Don't think you're getting an alpha WR1, but he's getting paired with Ben Johnson, one of best at scheming to get the ball in the playmaker's hands.

The crap landing spot did him in, much like Egbuka. Both are falling more than they would've had they gone to a team without two set in stone WR's. And I'm not sold on Caleb Williams supporting 2, let alone 3

I don't have him as a 'alpha' either, but he was my second favorite WR of the draft, right behind Egbuka, not counting T. Hunter- who will be a better DB than WR in this league anyways.

 

[SmokingMonkey]

The crap landing spot did him in, much like Egbuka. Both are falling more than they would've had they gone to a team without two set in stone WR's. And I'm not sold on Caleb Williams supporting 2, let alone 3

I don't have him as a 'alpha' either, but he was my second favorite WR of the draft, right behind Egbuka, not counting T. Hunter- who will be a better DB than WR in this league anyways.

Egbuka was my favorite pre-draft and going to TB was brutal for fantasy but one thing is for sure, if he earns snaps and targets over the in-house competition his rookie year, dude is legit.

 

[TREFF]

It looks like all of the drafts on this forum are done. Maybe we can start discussing the rookies now?

Extremely disappointing NFL draft for these guys.
There should've been 5-7 new starting RB's to flood fantasy rosters with. Instead we got 1 with a couple maybes.

The only bonafied, hands down no doubt 'cowbell' that survived the draft was Jeanty.

Hampton is a close second- but N. Harris is going to be there, f'n things up

Judkins was about to be a cowbell, until they drafted Sampson- who many experts considered a top 5 prospect at the position, more than a few of whom had him higher than Judkins- this is no slam dunk, and WILL be a committee backfield unless one or the other flops. 1 great landing spot, and it ruined 2 'bell cow' type prospects

T. Henderson, lands on a team with a RB who is already 40% of his team's entire offense, and is paid up with top 10 RB money. Another ' should be bell cow' in a committee.

RJ Harvey SHOULD have the lion's share of backfield touches in Denver.. but word around here is they're calling up the agents for Chubb and Dobbins. I'm not so sure they are 100% sold on him, or Estime/McLaughlin

Kaleb Johnson- again, committee with Warren. I imagine he gets the bigger half, but it's still not great. Not too mention that team looks to be worse than Vegas offensively with no QB, and not even a promising prospect in the roster for future hope

Giants took Scattebo, and he could realistically beat Tracy/Singleton, but even if he does, it'll still be a committee. Huge bummer, as he is a carbon copy of my personal hero, Rex Burkhead, but with more bulk/power. A bonafied example of what 'try hard' can achieve without a ton of raw physical talent- just like Rexy. I truly hope he wins the job, fantasy teams be damned.

Finally, my last two 'might be's' that had a shot at immediately being starting RB's...DJ Giddons and Devin Neal. Giddons lands buried behind the touch black hole of Jonathon Taylor. And Devin Neals ends up in NO carrying Kamara's jock strap. BOTH have long term appeal as 'heir apparents', both will be their respective teams' undisputed handcuffs by week one. But neither will be useful for anything fantasy wise until Taylor/Kamara get hurt, or move on.

All the rest- Tuten, Blue, etc., are all projected to be depth and if they do much of anything, it would've been a bit of a surprise no matter where they ended up.

Meanwhile Dallas did nothing with a wide open chart. KC did nothing, Cincy did nothing, JAX did nothing even though it's obvious they disdain Etienne, and Tank ain't 'that' guy.

Extremely disappointing landing spots overall.

WR's aren't even with talking about. The best one in the draft will be a better DB than he will be a WR. His numbers were ghastly inflated in the same manner Shaduers were- still in the v field, racking up yardage in blowouts, win or lose. Deon did these kids dirty in Boulder.

Tet MacMillan has bust written all over him.

Imho the best WR in the class, Egbuka, landed in TB, buried behind one surefire HOF and a second near elite WR duo, not to mention a third rising star already in town two. Give him a year or two sure, he'll probably be great, that doesn't help anyone today.
And L. Burden had essentially the same thing happen to him in Chicago, except the rising star in front of him is the #2, and he doesn't have to fight much for that third spot.
The rest? Who knows? Any of them becoming fantasy stalwarts is a crap shoot

 

[TREFF]

Egbuka was my favorite pre-draft and going to TB was brutal for fantasy but one thing is for sure, if he earns snaps and targets over the in-house competition his rookie year, dude is legit.

Agreed

 

[TREFF]

At least the TE's are mostly all good.
Warren, Loveland, Taylor Ferguson, and on and on.. all landed in slots devoid of decent 'pass catching' TE's.. even my personal fav ling shot, Fidone, could easily end up TE1 on the Giants.

Great year for new TE's in a league desperate for real talent at the position

 

[leftypower]

Great analysis @TREFF @SmokingMonkey - In addition to those mentioned already there are a few WR's I anticipate (hope) to do rather well. Specially, Tre Harris (LAC), Jayden Higgins (HOU) and given the chance WHEN Rice gets suspended, Jalen Royals. .... they aren't going to set the world on fire since they are with team having a true #1 but they should/could be useful fantasy assets as the season goes along.

 

[SmokingMonkey]

Giants took Scattebo....he is a carbon copy of my personal hero, Rex Burkhead, but with more bulk/power.

Love this comp

All the rest- Tuten JAX did nothing even though it's obvious they disdain Etienne, and Tank ain't 'that' guy.

Tuten is my under the radar guy this year that could carve out the lead role before the season is over. New staff could want to see their guy get a chance

 

[TREFF]

Love this comp



Tuten is my under the radar guy this year that could carve out the lead role before the season is over. New staff could want to see their guy get a chance

Fer sure- like I mentioned, that JAX staff obviously has little faith in what they've got. My only issue is, that, to me, Tuten didn't really have much that impressed me in film. But then again, neither did Bucky Irving, or countless others. I do think he'll be given the chance, and sometimes that's all it takes

 

[Shanemansj13]

The crap landing spot did him in, much like Egbuka. Both are falling more than they would've had they gone to a team without two set in stone WR's. And I'm not sold on Caleb Williams supporting 2, let alone 3

I don't have him as a 'alpha' either, but he was my second favorite WR of the draft, right behind Egbuka, not counting T. Hunter- who will be a better DB than WR in this league anyways.

Yeah Egbuka is falling in every draft and for a good reason but I am still curious about Godwin’s progress after the injury

I just don’t why everyone is saying Hunter will be a better DB. First off, he will be mainly playing WR and he has elite ball skills and is elite at contested catches and high pointing it. He has comparisons to Justin Jefferson for good reason.
The Jags are going to have an amazing pair of WR’s and still an underwhelming QB. If Lawrence can’t turn it around now, he has no hope

I would take Hunter at 4 in rookie drafts. I’m not taking him over Jeanty, Hampton or Judkins

 

[averagejoe]

What i found rather conflicting is while analysts said this was a deep RB class, seems like some of the RB who COULD become 3-down backs, werent necessarily at the top of the draft. As if teams were content getting a solid RB2 instead.

 

[leftypower]

I just don’t why everyone is saying Hunter will be a better DB. First off, he will be mainly playing WR and he has elite ball skills and is elite at contested catches and high pointing it. He has comparisons to Justin Jefferson for good reason.
The Jags are going to have an amazing pair of WR’s and still an underwhelming QB. If Lawrence can’t turn it around now, he has no hope

As a Florida native I've followed the Jag's since the beginning - and the one thing that has become clear over the years is to expect the unexpected from them. In other words, from a fantasy prospective there is no telling what they do with him - pick the most unlikely scenario and that's most likely what happens.

 

[TREFF]

Yeah Egbuka is falling in every draft and for a good reason but I am still curious about Godwin’s progress after the injury

I just don’t why everyone is saying Hunter will be a better DB. First off, he will be mainly playing WR and he has elite ball skills and is elite at contested catches and high pointing it. He has comparisons to Justin Jefferson for good reason.
The Jags are going to have an amazing pair of WR’s and still an underwhelming QB. If Lawrence can’t turn it around now, he has no hope

I would take Hunter at 4 in rookie drafts. I’m not taking him over Jeanty, Hampton or Judkins

D. Sanders used him to boost Shaduer's stats. A significant portion of Travis Hunters numbers were built when any other school would've pulled their starts in blowouts- wins or losses.
And he's not some uniquely gifted, highly polished route runner. I'm not saying he's not a good WR, good enough to succeed. But I think a ton of his 'net worth' as a WR prospect is over inflated value due to Deon trying to boost his own sons draft value.
Deon had nothing to do with him locking down opposing teams WRs though, that was 100% Hunter

He's simply a more natural, gifted corner, than he is WR. and the NFL ain't about what someone likes to do, they only care about how you equate to W's.. eventually that'll be as a DB, with gadget WR plays.. at least that's where I'm at on him

 

[TREFF]

What i found rather conflicting is while analysts said this was a deep RB class, seems like some of the RB who COULD become 3-down backs, werent necessarily at the top of the draft. As if teams were content getting a solid RB2 instead.

The 'deep' class is at least part of why so many weren't in the upper part. There were 2 that were head and shoulders better than the rest, and they went were the should've.
Then there was a log jam of about 5 or 6 dudes who 'profiled' as 'potential' 3 down backs- Judkins, Sampson, Henderson, Giddons, Harvey, K. Johnson, maybe Skattebo.. and when there are that many options available, just like in our drafts.. if there's a dozen tier two WR's, and only a couple tier 2 RB's available, the WR's get bypassed... so some of them fell.

But, 5 backs drafted in the first 2 rounds is still pretty darned amazing. Just wish they would've went to teams that needed them

 

[wilwhite]

Extremely disappointing NFL draft for these guys.
There should've been 5-7 new starting RB's to flood fantasy rosters with. Instead we got 1 with a couple maybes.

The only bonafied, hands down no doubt 'cowbell' that survived the draft was Jeanty.

Hampton is a close second- but N. Harris is going to be there, f'n things up

Judkins was about to be a cowbell, until they drafted Sampson- who many experts considered a top 5 prospect at the position, more than a few of whom had him higher than Judkins- this is no slam dunk, and WILL be a committee backfield unless one or the other flops. 1 great landing spot, and it ruined 2 'bell cow' type prospects

T. Henderson, lands on a team with a RB who is already 40% of his team's entire offense, and is paid up with top 10 RB money. Another ' should be bell cow' in a committee.

RJ Harvey SHOULD have the lion's share of backfield touches in Denver.. but word around here is they're calling up the agents for Chubb and Dobbins. I'm not so sure they are 100% sold on him, or Estime/McLaughlin

Kaleb Johnson- again, committee with Warren. I imagine he gets the bigger half, but it's still not great. Not too mention that team looks to be worse than Vegas offensively with no QB, and not even a promising prospect in the roster for future hope

Giants took Scattebo, and he could realistically beat Tracy/Singleton, but even if he does, it'll still be a committee. Huge bummer, as he is a carbon copy of my personal hero, Rex Burkhead, but with more bulk/power. A bonafied example of what 'try hard' can achieve without a ton of raw physical talent- just like Rexy. I truly hope he wins the job, fantasy teams be damned.

Finally, my last two 'might be's' that had a shot at immediately being starting RB's...DJ Giddons and Devin Neal. Giddons lands buried behind the touch black hole of Jonathon Taylor. And Devin Neals ends up in NO carrying Kamara's jock strap. BOTH have long term appeal as 'heir apparents', both will be their respective teams' undisputed handcuffs by week one. But neither will be useful for anything fantasy wise until Taylor/Kamara get hurt, or move on.

All the rest- Tuten, Blue, etc., are all projected to be depth and if they do much of anything, it would've been a bit of a surprise no matter where they ended up.

Meanwhile Dallas did nothing with a wide open chart. KC did nothing, Cincy did nothing, JAX did nothing even though it's obvious they disdain Etienne, and Tank ain't 'that' guy.

Extremely disappointing landing spots overall.

WR's aren't even with talking about. The best one in the draft will be a better DB than he will be a WR. His numbers were ghastly inflated in the same manner Shaduers were- still in the v field, racking up yardage in blowouts, win or lose. Deon did these kids dirty in Boulder.

Tet MacMillan has bust written all over him.

Imho the best WR in the class, Egbuka, landed in TB, buried behind one surefire HOF and a second near elite WR duo, not to mention a third rising star already in town two. Give him a year or two sure, he'll probably be great, that doesn't help anyone today.
And L. Burden had essentially the same thing happen to him in Chicago, except the rising star in front of him is the #2, and he doesn't have to fight much for that third spot.
The rest? Who knows? Any of them becoming fantasy stalwarts is a crap shoot

Agree with almost everything.

I think the Browns took Sampson only because what the hell was he still doing there, but he'll hurt Judkins' ff value anyway. Not sure why the Broncos took Harvey in the second.

Golden will be very good I think, and he'll be good this year; might be the best rookie WR, though Egbuka may overtake him in later years. He'll get all the chances to be.

Not sure what to make of Hunter. He'll focus on offense first, apparently. But do the Jags make an effort to keep him fresh for defense? How many snaps on each side can he play?