2022 Rookie Draft

JUOY 2022

2022 ROOKIE
DRAFT GUIDE

A NEWSLETTER PRODUCTION

YOU’LL FORGET THESE NAME BY
AUGUST

These Players Are
Younger Than You!

QBs Will Fall Tier 2 WRs This year’s Elijah

The NFL showed a lack of interest in this The top 3 picks seem locked in as Breece Mitchell?
years crop of QBs as Kenny Pickett was the Hall, Drake London and Kenneth Walker.
only QB taken in round 1. The rest of the QBs After these 3, there’s a large tier of WRs that Last year, Elijah Mitchell
fell to round 3 or later. Last season saw 4 QBs could go in seemingly any order. The group is emerged as an RB2 after
go in the first 2 rounds in the league rookie comprised of 5 first round picks (Garrett breaking through a
draft. Arguably all 4 of these QBs Wilson, Chris Olave, Jameson Williams, committee despite late
disappointed last year. Look for the league to Treylon Burks, Jahan Dotson) and 3 second round capital, The
return to the days of letting QBs fall. round picks (Christian Watson, George question on everyone's
Pickens, Skyy Moore). The ordering of these mind as a we look
James Cook Wildcard picks will come down to player preference through several late
and fan allegiances in the case of Burks and round backs in
Walker and Hall are a solid top 2. James Watson. committees is who is
Cook comes in a tier of his own between the next?
top 2 and several backup RBs. He has serious McBride a Sleeper?
pass catching upside in a PPR league. In a Dameon Pierce of the
league that is RB thirsty, Cook could go The Cardinals drafted Trey McBride as the Houston Texans seems to
anywhere from 1.04 to 1.12. first TE this year. He enters a pass heavy have a great chance. He
offense as a predominantly pass catching TE. has mediocre draft
With Hopkins on the decline and Ertz only capital in the fourth
being good at catching and falling, McBride round but his biggest
has huge potential. competition is a withered
Marlon Mack off an
Achilles tear.

These rumors may be fabricated simply to fill space RUMDOYLRNEAAMGSIUTLYEL
and build interest. They may also be lies sent out to
leverage trade negotiations. But they might also be WHAT WE’RE HEARING
very real info you should be paying attention to.

Do with this what you will

1.01 IS FOR SALE

Purely speculation, but Team Hall has a bevy of RBs
and a shortage of talent at WR. It's possible he
finds someone ready to give up haul to land Breece
Hall.

TRADE BACK FROM 1.03

Team Jongewaard moved up to 1.03 in the hopes
of landing a RB. If Kenneth Walker is taken 1.02,
there doesn't seem to be a prospect worth the
pick. We could see a conditional trade back
arranged in case Walker doesn't fall.

1.12 IS A CUTOFF

The options after 1.12 get dicey. You're left with
sketchy profile day 2 WRs and backup RBs. If you
want a solid profile rookie, you need a first round
pick.

WATSON AT 1.07?

Team Barber is low on WR talent but has a roster
ready to compete. Christian Watson is arguably the
highest upside player in the class. Team Barber
might look at Watson as the high upside bet his
roster needs to make the playoffs.

TREYLON TUMBLING?

Treylon Burks fell to the 5th WR taken in the draft
ad has a struggled at minicamp with conditioning
issues. He was drafted to replace AJ Brown but he
can't even stay in practice right now. With a rapidly
deteriorating situation in Tennessee, drafters could
be hesitant to take Burks over higher drafted
players or ones in better situations.

Round 1 Mock

1.01 (Hall): Breece Hall (RB, Jets)
The easiest pick in the draft. Hall combines an elite
profile and capital with the most valuable position in
fantasy.

1.02 (Bass): Kenneth Walker (RB, Seahawks)
Walker goes over London due to positional scarcity.
Team Bass has plenty WRs and can attack WR with
2.02 and 2.03.

1.03 (Jongewaard): Drake London (WR, Falcons)
He'll be disappointed this isn't a RB. But London has
an incredible profile and looks to be an elite alpha WR
in the NFL.

1.04 (Hall): Treylon Burks (WR, Titans)
Once touted as the top WR in the class, Burks steps
into a strong year 1 role and gives Team Hall much
needed WR depth.

1.05 (Lackey): Skyy Moore (WR, Chiefs)
He gets cute taking an analytics darling from a G5
school and later draft capital than other remaining
players. Feels on brand.

1.06 (Hall): Chris Olave (WR, Saints)
Wanted to give him Garrett Wilson, but that felt like a
lot riding on the Jets. Instead, he gets fellow buckeye
Olave who seems pro ready and born for PPR.

Round 1 Mock

1.07 (Barber): Garrett Wilson (WR, Jets)
Great value as Wilson falls. Could be the best WR in
the class falling all the way to 1.07. Team Barber
sprints the card to the podium.

1.08 (Brooks): Christian Watson (WR, Packers)
Team Brooks is ready to contend so he shoots for the
moon. If he hits, Team Brooks has an absolute
superstar in the physical freak Watson.

1.09 (Ablondi): Jameson Williams (WR, Lions)
Williams' slide ends with Team Ablondi who has the
depth to wait for him to return from injury. Williams
has the X-Factor to pay off this pick in a huge way.

1.10 (Thompson): James Cook (RB, Bills)
Team Thompson has a huge need at RB and fills it
with Cook who has nice PPR upside in a pass heavy
offense.

1.11 (Brooks): Jahan Dotson (WR, Commanders)
The last remaining round 1 WR. His ceiling is lower
with McLaurin resigning long term but a round 1 WR
this late is too good to ignore.

1.12 (Jongewaard): George Pickens (WR, Steelers)
The Steelers have a long track record of successfully
drafting WRs. With rumors DIontae will be gone in a
year, the door is open for Pickens to emerge.

VIEWS
FROM THE
DESERT

I know I love to give my opinion on
things and you should probably ignore
them because I'm an idiot. But you
know who isn't an idiot? Oddsmakers.
They routinely take all my money and
have a vested interested in making
accurate predictions. I thought it would
be interesting to see how Vegas
projects the rookie WRs to perform
based on their receiving yards prop
bet. Unfortunately, not all rookies
currently have a prop bet listed.

1.Treylon Burks O/U: 795.5 Yards
2.Drake London: O/U: 764.5 Yards
3.Garrett Wilson: O/U 749.5 Yards
4.Chris Olave: O/U 719.5 Yards
5.Skyy Moore: O/U 680.5 Yards
6.Jahan Dotson: O/U 611.5 Yards

The folks in the desert really like
Treylon Burks this year and it's easy to
see why, especially if Robert Woods
struggles to get back on the field and in
game shape coming off a torn ACL.

Rookie Profile:
Christian Watson

In these sections, I will be detailing the pros and cons of
several controversial players. You don't need me to tell you
Breece Hall and Drake London are good. We know that. But I
thought it would be interesting to look deeper into more
polarizing players for this class. Where better to start than
Christian Watson.

The Good

The man is an absolute freak of nature. His combine metrics
were almost all 95th percentile or better and he did that at 6'4
and 208 pounds. There just aren't many human beings like this
in the world.

In the pre-draft process, he seemed to answer level of
competition questions by dominating the Senior Bowl. The
Senior Bowl is also where Terry McLaurin and Cooper Kupp
showed they belonged in the NFL.

He also recieved excellent draft capital after the Packers
moved up to draft him with the second pick of the second
round.

The Bad

Watson is an older rookie. He entered college at 19 and did not
declare until he was a senior making him 22 at draft time.

He also played in one of the more bizarre situations for a WR in
college given NDSU was so dominant on the ground and only
had an 8 game season when he was a junior. This led to him
only getting over 40 receptions one time in his career. This is
all despite playing with a top 3 pick at QB at an FCS school.
Did they just not need him? Or he was he just not good enough
to demand volume?

The Verdict

If you adjust his stats to Yards Per Team Pass Attempt
(dangerous to extrapolate but it's what we have), his profile
actually looks pretty strong. The only weakness is that he was
older and played as senior but his still clears the threshold. The
combination of college production, freak athleticism and
potentially being Rodger's number 1 option I'd say I'm in on
Watson and could argue that he is a top 3 WR in this draft
class when you piece this all together.