The Rookie Draft Kit is almost here! 💪

Happy Friday, everyone! Things have been pretty quiet this past week as far fantasy football goes, but it’s worth mentioning: The Broncos, Lions, and Texans are all getting uniform updates this offseason. A little something to be excited about in the lull.

What’s in store:

• The Broncos add some depth at WR behind Sutton. Josh Reynolds is heading to Denver on a surprisingly lucrative two-year deal.

• It’s a running back room reunion in LA! ⚡️ The Chargers are reportedly hosting former Ravens RB J.K. Dobbins for a visit in the near future.

• Your 2024 rookie RB preview. Faraz covers the biggest names in this year’s class and outlines his expectations for each.

• Avoid this running back from a Hall of Fame bloodline? No, it’s not Marvin Harrison Jr. But don’t get caught up in the name value with this player.

• Former Lions WR Josh Reynolds signs with Broncos on two-year, $14M deal

  • The Marvin Mims hive won’t take kindly to this news, as Reynolds will likely clog the once clear pathway he had to the opportunity to ascend to WR2 status in the Broncos’ offense. Reynolds signs the multi-year deal on the heels of his most productive season since his days with the Rams, posting a respectable 40608/5 in 2023. With the quarterback situation in Denver far from figured out and WR Jerry Jeudy off to greener pastures in Cleveland via trade, the outlook for any Broncos pass catcher is treacherous at best as of today. Regardless of who wins a potential battle between Reynolds and Mims, they’ll be competing for the role of second fiddle to Courtland Sutton, who is in line to spearhead the passing attack following a season where he set a career high in touchdown receptions with 10. Regardless of whether the Broncos draft a quarterback or sign a veteran to bridge to 2025, the ADPs of these Denver receivers project to be quite low heading into 2024 – and for good reason.

• Former Ravens RB J.K. Dobbins set to meet with Chargers in the near future

  • It’s a Ravens ground game reunion, and everyone’s apparently invited. The Chargers have already scooped up former Ravens OC Greg Roman and RB Gus Edwards via free agency, and now they’re trying to get the whole band back together by hosting J.K. Dobbins for a visit. The meeting was announced shortly after Dobbins was cleared for full football activity early this week while he continues to recover from the brutal achilles tear he suffered in Week 1 of the 2023 season. As Dobbins looks to put not one, not two, but now three major injuries behind him at just 25 years old, it’s fair to speculate about just how effective Dobbins can be despite a career 5.8 yards per carry. If he’s going to land anywhere in 2024, though, his best shot at fantasy relevance very well may be in the familiar system of his former OC. The Chargers backfield is wide open heading into the new year, and whichever running back ends up leading it will be coveted for fantasy purposes – even if it’s just as a touchdown dependent RB2. There’s little precedent for running backs returning to any type of dominant fantasy role after coming back from two ACL tears and an achilles tear, but it would be difficult to not at least be slightly intrigued by the prospect of Dobbins heading up a Harbaugh run game should he ultimately sign in LA.

• Jaguars HC Doug Pederson doubles and triples down on comments about reducing RB Travis Etienne’s workload

  • Pederson did so by driving the point home that Jacksonville is adamant about making Tank Bigsby a larger part of the backfield rotation following an uninspiring rookie season. The comments about reducing Etienne’s workload from last year have resonated from the immediate days and weeks following the end of the 2023 season into the weeks leading up to the draft, so it does appear that the Jaguars are for real when they say so – the question that remains is just how involved Bigsby could be in his role as the relief runner. Whether that work comes in the receiving game (it shouldn’t) or in the form short yardage/goal line work will only be revealed in due time, but Bigsby’s dynasty managers can breathe a sigh of relief given that the Jaguars seem to be very committed to giving the former third-round pick another chance to get his career on track. The Jaguars offense lacked punch for much of the second half of the season with QB Trevor Lawrence in and out of the lineup with injury, so some consistency once again in 2024 should serve the entire offense some good.

The two favorites to be drafted first are Jonathan Brooks out of Texas and Trey Benson fro Florida State – and I believe the NFL is getting it right with these two potential workhorses. Sure, Brooks is still recovering from an ACL injury and hasn’t participated in the NFL Combine or Texas Pro Day… but there is optimism he’ll be ready for training camp. He wasn’t overly productive in college, but he was very efficient with his touches, including as a receiver. He leads this class in career yards after contact/attempt and yards/route run.

The other top ball carrier, Benson is extremely athletic and his 0.39 missed tackles forced/attempt ranks 3rd among 607 qualifying RBs since 2014. He’s also a big play machine, with more than 50% of his rushing yards coming as a result of a 15+ yard gain. He’s capable enough in the receiving game, as well.

The rest of the notable names that can expect to have their names called in this year’s draft on days 2 and 3:

Let’s start with Blake Corum: I’m a little worried that he’s being drafted too early. He had a big workload and he was on a championship team that got a lot of attention, but he was also one of the most inefficient RBs in this class, falling in the 50th and 41st percentiles in yards after contact/attempt and missed tackles forced/attempt, respectively, over the last 10 collegiate seasons.

The two RBs who stand out to me in this group are Jaylen Wright and MarShawn Lloyd. Both have untapped receiving upside, and both were efficient enough in the run game over their careers.

Lloyd is a big play machine and moves a lot nimbler and is more athletic than his bigger body would indicate. He’s a little older than the other RBs going around him, and also needs to correct fumbling issues.

Jaylen Wright is an extremely athletic RB with great size and big play ability. He had an amazing 2023 season, leading this class with 7.4 YPC and 4.35 yards after contact/attempt.

One final note: Bucky Irving had one of the worst NFL Combines ever for a RB and is undersized, but it’s still really hard for me to completely fade him. I really like him as a player, and he is good enough to be uber-efficient on his touches even if he’s not a workhorse at the next level.

It’s always tricky evaluating players outside of the Power 5 since the competition isn’t up to par, so take that into account with Gore. He had an extremely productive career, racking up 832 touches for 4680 total yards; only Kimani Vidal had more total yards among this entire class. Gore doesn’t have ideal size at the RB position, but you can’t say anything about him not being able to sustain a workload; it’s gone up each of his four years, and he’s averaged 235 touches over his last three. The way I would describe Gore is solid, average, but well-rounded. If he gets opportunity, he can produce, but he doesn’t have any traits that will wow you.

His plus traits are contact balance and vision - he will follow him blocks and take what you give him; unfortunately, he had to do a lot of them given his subpar offensive throughout his career. He has a compact body with a BMI of 31.5 despite being only 5’7”. However, he lacks explosiveness and burst; also, even when he gets a hole, he gets caught more often than not. His 3.7 yards after contact/attempt, 0.3 missed tackles forced/attempt, and 1.15 yards/route run are all solid numbers, and falls in the middle of this class, but you’d hope it would be more given his level of competition.

Because he didn’t stand out off the page in a non-Power 5 conference, and because of him likely being a later Day 3 pick, he won’t be anything more than a flier for me in Round 4 of rookie drafts as someone who can fill in as a RB2 if given opportunity. The good thing is that he’s a capable receiver who can fill that role if needed.