With the end of the NFL Draft inevitably comes the hype for football season. Everyone loves seeing their favorite teams take young, exciting rookies that can make an immediate impact. But some of these rookies will hit the field much sooner than others. We saw the Arizona Cardinals confirm everyone’s suspicions by taking Kyler Murray, the Giants made an interesting pick by taking Daniel Jones and the Patriots added a major weapon with N’Keal Harry. But, 29 other teams also made picks that will affect them next year and here are our thoughts on some of those picks. (Side Note – For the purpose of this article, we will be focusing on offensive pieces only as they will have the largest fantasy impacts.)
Dwayne Haskins – Redskins
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about my favorite pick of the draft right off the bat. I LOVE the Redskins and Dwayne Haskins match. The Redskins made the Giants look even sillier for not taking Haskins by keeping him within the division. That ensures that he will get a shot at revenge against the Giants two times every year for at least the next four years. Haskins will step right into the starting role in Washington with Alex Smith’s status unknown and he has the poise and pocket presence to be extremely effective from the get-go. My one knock on him, however, is that I think he is going to struggle with ball security during his rookie year. The NFL is a whole different level of speed, which will be a change of pace for Haskins. The Redskins have one of the weaker receiving corps in the league, which will also not do Haskins any favors either. But there are plenty of positives with Haskins as well. The Redskins solidified their line by drafting two offensive linemen which should help the pocket stay intact. Haskins posted a 134 passer rating when throwing from a clean pocket in college, which is pretty exceptional. If all things go right for Haskins, I project he will end up 15-20 range of fantasy QBs.
Offensive Linemen – Various Teams
For this next part, just for the sake of keeping things short, I’m going to group together a bunch of different guys who are all going to have decently the same impact in my eyes, and these guys are the first-round linemen. Jonah Williams (Bengals), Garrett Bradbury (Vikings), Andre Dillard (Eagles), Tytus Howard (Texans) and Chris Lindstrom (Falcons) are all going to have major impacts. All of the teams that drafted these linemen are notorious for having poor line play, with maybe Philly being the exception. But, in Philly’s case, Jason Peters’ injury history in enough reason to justify taking an additional lineman. I think that from these selected linemen, Howard and Bradbury will most likely have the biggest fantasy impact. Both will be stepping right into their respective teams’ offensive lines which should be a beautiful sight to their quarterback’s eyes. Deshaun Watson was sacked a whopping 62 times last year, most in the league in 2018 and Kirk Cousins’ struggles were well-documented, too. A little more protection should do wonders for both Watson and Cousins, making them even more effective than they were in 2018.
D.K. Metcalf – Seahawks
Does Russell Wilson finally have a top receiver? Not to knock Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett, but man, Wilson could use a top tier guy and I feel like this could be it. Metcalf was a 2019 NFL Combine standout and was projected to be drafted in the first round in plenty of mock drafts, but what happened? While receivers were apparently not on the top of any teams’ draft boards and many slipped into the second, Seattle took the opportunity to trade up and select Metcalf with the final pick in the second round. Metcalf weighs in at 228 pounds and ran a 4.33 time in the 40, the fastest 40 time of anyone 225+ pounds since 2003. Combining that speed, that size and Russell Wilson? That’s a dangerous dude. But for some reason Metcalf can’t seem to be able to change direction on the move. Poor times in the three-cone drill and short-shuttle raised concerns over Metcalf and created a cloud of criticism of his inability to run routes. Is any of that to blame on Ole Miss’ play calling? Will the Seahawks be able to move Metcalf around the field side to side rather than up and down? Honestly, I think Metcalf’s physicality, size and speed alone are enough to make this a player to keep an eye on in fantasy drafts in the late rounds.
Hakeem Butler – Cardinals
The last person we specifically want to talk about is Hakeem Butler. He is by far my favorite prospect of this draft class, and I think he is going to be crazy good. I was absolutely shocked when he fell all the way to the fourth round. Seeing guys like Terry McLaurin and Andy Isabella go before Butler had me very confused. Every team has different needs and all that good stuff, but Butler is seriously a freak of nature. At Iowa State last year, he posted 1,318 receiving yards on a ridiculous 22 yards per catch. Just for a reference point of how insane that statistic is – DeSean Jackson lead the NFL at 18.9 yards per catch. Butler averaged 3 more YPC than Jackson. Let that sink in. And Butler doesn’t even boast the next-level speed that DJax does. He is just a huge target downfield. I know that there are some questions surrounding his abilities after the catch and his route running, but with some mentoring and practice in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, he should be able to overcome these difficulties. There’s an old saying that say “You can’t teach size” and that is something that Butler has tons of. Standing 6’5” and 227 pounds, Butler has a massive frame. His size and physicality have also drawn comparisons to someone you may know, Calvin “Megatron” Johnson. Megatron has taken an interest in Butler, as well. The two worked together prior to the draft and Johnson said that he saw some of himself in Butler. What a compliment! Butler will also get to go to Arizona and play alongside future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald and I’m sure he’ll be able to learn a thing or two from him. I see Butler having a very solid rookie campaign in Kingsbury’s air raid offense, but still taking his rookie lumps. Kingsbury usually prefers to use smaller receivers as the main focal point of his offense, so that could be working against Butler also. But, in the more physical world of the NFL, sometimes a big bodied receiver can be a young QB’s best friend.
