The post-draft rookie draft kit is here!

The Upper Hand Fantasy Rookie Draft Kit has been updated! The latest edition comes complete with rookie landing spots and analysis, updated positional rankings, and complete overall fantasy rookie rankings for the 2024 season! Don’t wait another second to claim the Upper Hand in your leagues – CLICK HERE to get your hands on your copy today and dominate your rookie draft!

What’s in store:

• Odell Beckham Jr. makes a small splash in Miami 🐬. The former Ravens veteran wideout is taking his talents to South Beach.

• Jonathon Brooks = receiving game ace? 👀 With former Buccaneers OC Dave Canales at HC, anything is possible…

• Could MarShawn Lloyd make noise in his rookie year? We’re a long way even from camp yet, but the Packers OC’ seems to be interested in unleashing him sooner rather than later.

• The Giants are giving us some serious deja vu 🫣. After taking Malik Nabers in the first round, we can’t help but remember…

• Dolphins sign former Ravens WR Odell Beckham Jr. to one-year deal worth up to $8.25M for 2024

  • Despite landing on a team named after aquatic mammals, the signing hardly makes a splash in a Dolphins WR room that already features arguably the league’s most dynamic WR duo in Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. With those two dominating the majority of the target share, OBJ will likely enter into a competition with the recently drafted WR Malik Washington for the Dolphins’ WR3 spot. Reports around the league indicate that HC Mike McDaniel was very fond of Washington throughout the draft process, so any potential battle for depth chart positioning could be an interesting one between him and the 31-year old Beckham Jr. Also working against Beckham Jr.’s odds of establishing an/or maintaining fantasy relevance on a weekly basis are RBs Devon Achane and Raheem Mostert, both of whom made significant noise in the receiving game in 2023. With all due respect to OBJ and his domination earlier in his career, he’s seen his role diminished to that of a role player over the past two seasons. After being unable to command a target share to make it worth starting him on a weekly basis in Baltimore, the odds are incredibly slim that he’s able to do that with clearly superb target competition in Miami. He’ll likely be a last-resort flex option with a little WR3 upside should one of Waddle or Hill miss time in 2024.

• Panthers HC Dave Canales says he wants to take advantage of rookie RB Jonathon Brooks’ ‘versatility’ in the receiving game

  • Is that music to your ears or what? If you aren’t encouraged by this from the new Panthers HC, just take a look at Rachaad White’s 2023 game log when Canales was his OC in Tampa Bay. Of course, the Panthers’ backfield continues to grow more and more crowded by the minute; Carolina added Brooks through the draft two weeks ago and signed RB Rashaad Penny as depth yesterday to a room that already featured Chuba Hubbard and Miles Sanders. However, the only two names that fantasy managers likely have to pay attention to at this point are Brooks and Hubbard, with Sanders losing out on touches down the stretch and Penny failing to see any meaningful action in 2023. Even if the Panthers want to utilize Hubbard in a short down and distance/goal line capacity (which wouldn’t be AMAZING), a receiving role for Brooks would help to make up for what he’s lacking in easy touchdowns with much more sustainable production through the air. Barring injury complications, Brooks should have a stranglehold on enough volume in the Panthers backfield as early as Week 1 to make him an attractive RB2 option in 2024.

• Packers OC Adam Stenavich says that he hopes to get rookie RB MarShawn Lloyd out on the field ‘as much as possible’ in 2024

  • Perhaps Josh Jacobs’ role in this offense isn’t as locked in as we first thought it would be. After replacing Aaron Jones seemingly 1:1 with Jacobs in easily one of the most surprising moves of the offseason, the general consensus was that the former Raiders bell cow would lead the way in a similar capacity for the Packers. However, Lloyd being drafted in the third round put the first significant crack in that foundation of thinking, and these comments by Stenavich seem to solidify that there’s a world where Jacobs isn’t granted the same bell cow role he had in Las Vegas in Green Bay for 2024. While it’s unlikely that Lloyd would fully unseat Jacobs for the title of lead back this season, he has a much better shot of challenging for a rotational role with him in the same way A.J. Dillon worked in with Aaron Jones. Speaking of A.J. Dillon, he remains on the roster as the presumptive RB2/3, and will likely have to go through Lloyd to see the field at this point. The bottom line here for Lloyd though is positive; we know there’s long term potential for Lloyd in Green Bay, but Stenavich’s comments offer us a glimpse into a world where he’s ready to contribute to fantasy teams as early as this season.

The Giants took Malik Nabers in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. If it felt like you’ve seen this story play out before, it’s because it already did.

It was 2013. Two years removed from their unprecedented Super Bowl XLII victory over the Patriots, the Giants hobbled to a 7-9 finish that saw them field the fifth-worst scoring offense in the NFL. Eli Manning looked like a shell of himself going into his age 33 season after averaging just 10.7 fantasy points per game to go with a -0.052 EPA/play (9th-worst in the NFL that year).

They needed help - specifically, at wide receiver. No Giants pass catcher had more than 1000 yards or 6 touchdowns in 2013, and Victor Cruz led the way in PPR fantasy scoring at 13.8 PPR points/game (WR24). If New York was going to get Manning back on track, they needed a difference maker on the outside –and they went and got him in the 2014 draft.

The Giants drafted Odell Beckham Jr. The third wide receiver off the board behind Sammy Watkins and Mike Evans, Beckham landed in New York at 12th overall to a team that had a struggling veteran in Eli Manning under center. Could Odell overcome the less-than-ideal quarterback situation and make a fantasy impact in his rookie year?

The answer: a resounding yes. Despite Eli Manning’s struggles the year before, Odell beckham Jr. broke out as a fantasy WR1 in Year 1, pacing the league in PPR points per game (24.6) in 12 games played. But it wasn’t just OBJ that found success – with his new stud WR, Eli Manning finished as the QB14 in points per game (16.8), up from 10.7 the previous season.

Fast forward 10 years later, though…

...and the Giants find themselves experiencing deja vu. New York is coming off a 2023 season that saw the team field the third-lowest scoring offense in the NFL en route to a 6-11 finish. Their quarterback this time, Daniel Jones, posted a negative EPA/play (-0.211) and averaged 10.5 fantasy points per game in six starts. Sound familiar?

They needed help (again) - and again, the Giants turned to the draft to get themselves a difference maker. Just like they did in the 2014 draft a decade earlier, New York took an LSU wide receiver in the first round – Malik Nabers. The question is already swirling in the fantasy community: can Malik Nabers overcome a bad situation and make some noise in Year 1?

It’s happened before, but this situation is a little different from OBJ’s historic 2014 season. Daniel Jones is coming off a season-ending knee injury; Eli Manning was not. The last LSU wide receiver to be drafted in the first round to New York was OBJ, and he finished as the overall WR7 in PPR points that year. Which has us wondering...

Can lightning strike twice for Malik Nabers and the Giants in 2024?

Corley needs the right landing spot to show whether he can be Deebo 2.0. The yards after catch ability is serious, but he didn’t play against Power 5 competition.

Corley’s a tricky evaluation because he didn’t face the level of competition all of these WRs saw being outside the Power 5. With that being said, he did look good to me at the Senior Bowl in 1 on 1s, and that’s not even his strong suit. So if he can hold his own in press coverage, I’d say he added an element to his game that I just wasn’t sure he had coming into Senior Bowl week.

Where Corley will make his money is after the catch - a Deebo-lite type of player. He was extremely productive in college with 259 career receptions (2nd in class), 3016 receiving yards (3rd in class), and 29 TDs (3rd in class).

Why’d I mention Deebo? He’s a former RB, and he’s as physical as can be. His 8.2 yards after catch/reception is 3rd best since 2014 among qualifying high-volume WRs. His 0.27 missed tackles forced/reception is 7th best since 2014 among the same WRs. He ran in the slot 92% of the time throughout his career and was targeted on 28% of his routes, which is 4th best in this class.

Corley is extremely landing spot dependent, but if he lands with the right coach and QB, we could see a high-volume PPR option at some point. Boom/bust at the next level.