Big Mike heads to the Big Apple 🍎

The Upper Hand Fantasy Rookie Draft Kit is back for its third year on April 1st –no joke! If you want to draft the next Puka Nacua and get your hands on players like Tank Dell before the rest of the field, look no further than the pages of the 2024 rookie draft kit.

What’s in store:

• Big Mike is headed to the Big Apple! 🍎 The former Chargers WR and cap casualty signed on for the Jets’ title push in 2024.

• The Browns shore up their RB depth with D’Onta Foreman. Could he have some early-season appeal with Nick Chubb still recovering?

• South Beach Odell in the near future? 🐬 The Dolphins reportedly have interest in the veteran receiver.

• Previewing the new-look 2024 Titans offense. Which Tennessee tandem will get more run: Pollard and Spears, or Hopkins and Ridley?

• Former Chargers WR Mike Williams signs with Jets on one-year deal worth up to $15M

  • The Jets are running it back to make the run that never happened last year in 2024, and they’re not dragging their feet in addressing the issues on the offensive side of the ball that plagued them in 2023. Blindside protector wasn’t able to keep their Hall of Fame quarterback upright for a single drive to begin the year? New York brought in former Cowboys and future Hall of Fame offensive tackle Tyron Smith to make sure last year’s four-play fiasco isn’t repeated. Signed a below average WR to an ill-advised, huge two-year deal at the flick of the wrist of that same Hall of Fame QB? The Jets released Allen Lazard after learning the hard way that he is entirely dependent on Aaron Rodgers to produce and acquired Williams to flank Garrett Wilson in the new-look Jets offense. It’s as explosive a roster New York has has on paper this century, and Williams has a chance to carve out a nice role for himself as the Jets’ downfield threat and contested catch specialist. Garrett Wilson is always going to eat first in this passing attack – he has easy top-5 potential as long as Rodgers can stay healthy – but there should be plenty of room for Williams to work in as a reliable fantasy WR2/3 behind him. This, of course, assuming that Williams can get back to 100% by kickoff, which isn’t a given considering he’ll be 30 years old in October. There’s a chance Williams could have to spin the tires a bit before he gets real, dependable traction in New York, but by the end of the year, Williams should have plenty of appeal and be a mainstay in lineups – even if that’s only as a flex or WR3.

• Former Bears RB D’Onta Foreman signs with Browns on short-term deal as depth

  • With Nick Chubb recovering from the gruesome knee injury that sidelined him for all but one and a half games in 2023, the Browns find themselves some experienced depth in Foreman to shoulder the early season load and help ease Chubb back into action. Foreman was most recently seen in Chicago as a decent spot start at times in a backfield that was all kinds of banged up last year, but he was a frequent no-show or healthy scratch when the other RBs in Chicago’s room (Khalil Herbert & Roschon Johnson) were healthy. It could be more of the same this year in Cleveland, but Foreman’s size could serve him well and help him challenge the incumbent Jerome Ford for valuable touches at the goal line while Chubb is getting right. He could be worth a look as a flier late in drafts, but staying tuned to Nick Chubb’s progress in his recovery will help to gauge just how much value can be squeezed out of Foreman in 2024.

• Free Agent WR Odell Beckham Jr. visits Dolphins Thursday; Miami reportedly has interest in signing veteran wideout

  • With Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle ahead of him (and potentially Jonnu Smith, who recently signed a two-year deal with the Dolphins), OBJ would prospectively slot into a relatively limited role should he sign in South Beach. Coming off a season where he made modest contributions to the Ravens passing offense, it’s clear the former Giants superstar is nowhere left to be seen at this point in his career. The odds of Beckham being a focal point of any offense is very low with regards to his fantasy value, and he very well may have just been released from the one destination (Baltimore) that he could have had a chance to compete for an established role. There’s name value here, but the stark lack of fantasy value should have Beckham Jr. off the draft radar as anything more than a dart throw late in drafts should he find a fifth NFL home in Miami.

With new HC Brian Callahan, the Titans should be moving away from an old school run-first scheme to a more modern 11-personnel balanced offense.

That means Tennessee will have three WRs on the field most of the time, so we should expect DeAndre Hopkins to run at X, Calvin Ridley to play his more natural position this year at Z, and… Kyle Phillips… or even Treylon Burks in the slot?

Ridley played on the line way too often last year as the X, so the hope is that he doesn’t have to fight off press coverage (his weak link) as much this year with Hopkins taking most of that responsibility (H/T Reception Perception). Burks is even worse against press coverage, so him working as a big slot and after the catch weapon would be ideal for him to finally gain relevance in the NFL, which is exactly how he excelled in college (H/T Reception Perception).

The big question is who will have the better season, Hopkins or Ridley? Ridley will probably have more favorable matchups, but I’m not sure overall pass volume will be there for both of these WRs to thrive.

Based on the offensive pieces, the Titans aren’t building to run the ball. Yes, they have two capable RBs, but grabbing Tony Pollard in free agency doesn’t give off a running identity. In Callahan’s five years in Cincy, the Bengals were in the bottom half of rushing yards and attempts.

Will Levis’ style is throwing down the field, too. That’s his strength – he barely checked it down. He was just launching balls downfield: 20% of his throws last year were deep balls, 1st by a big margin. He also ranked 4th in the NFL in big time throw % (per PFF), and 1st in the NFL in hero ball % (per Fantasy Points).

The only issue her is that Will Levis struggled outside of making big plays down the field. Among QBs with 250+ dropbacks, he was last in adjusted completion %, he was last in on-target %, so it’s going to be interested to see how they mitigate this.

The Bengals had one of the lowest rates of first down runs over the last two years with Callahan at the controls. This is what you want; it makes drives less predictable. They did it without Burrow, too… will they do with Levis?

Even with Burrow banged up and out for a chunk of the season last year, they were had the 4th highest passing percentage and 3rd highest passing percentage, even when leading by 7+.

We’re looking at a less predictable, more balanced offense. With more weapons now, it could help Will Levis take a step forward. But it’s not going be easy deciding between Pollard and Spears, and deciding between Hopkins and Ridley. We might have to wait on training camp nuggets to answer those questions.

Could Bucky Irving ‘buck’ his poor combine performance and become a fantasy-relevant ball carrier in the NFL?

There are some things heavily weighing against Bucky’s chances of being a very good fantasy RB, so let’s get those out of the way first. His athletic testing at the Combine was one of the worst ever, and RBs who score as bad as he did usually don’t become fantasy relevant in the NFL. Guys like Kyren Williams and Arian Foster have been those outliers, and I’m hoping that Irving can too, because I really like him. The other issue is his size. He’s been extremely productive in college, but he’s done it with the lowest BMI of this entire draft class. De’Von Achane held that title last year, but he’s a much better athlete.

The thing is, I think Irving is a very good football player. Outside of the above, I really like what he brings in both the run and pass game. He’s a plus receiver, ranking third in this class with 1.39 yards/route run on 94 career receptions (2nd in class and 25th most since 2014) for 768 yards (2nd in class and 34th since 2014). He was efficient in the run game, too; among 607 eligible RBs since 2014, his 3.8 career yards after contact/att ranked 51st, and his 0.36 career missed tackles forced/att ranked 7th.

He’s not a home run hitter, he’s not an amazing route runner, and he needs to work on his patience to allow holes to develop. However, he has the moves; he’s very elusive and runs with power. A bad showing at the combine likely moved him to Day 3, but I’d still take my shots on him as a RB who can thrive in the right system.