| | | | Friday, April 29, 2022 | | Given the way this offseason has gone so far, is it any surprise the first round of the NFL Draft Thursday was dominated by wide receivers? Six of them were taken in the first round, all in the first 16 picks, but that's not even what I'm referring to: The headline grabbing moves came with A.J. Brown and Marquise Brown being traded to Philadelphia and Arizona respectively. | | Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Amari Cooper, and now these two high-profile trades. Is Deebo Samuel next? That question is going to linger over Day Two of the draft tonight, too, and at this point, why bet against a wide receiver being traded? | | Otherwise, the first round wasn't exactly dominated by Fantasy-relevant names – the first five picks were defensive players, followed by two offensive linemen, and there was only one QB – Kenny Pickett, staying home with the Steelers – taken in addition to the six wide receivers. That wasn't exactly unexpected, though it was mildly surprising to see all of the Packers, Chiefs, and Bills pass on skill position players. | | We should see more of them come off the board tonight, and Dave Richard will be taking over the Fantasy Football Today Newsletter to react to everything you need to know about from tonight, so make sure you keep your eyes out for that. In today's newsletter, we're looking at winners and losers from the first round, including one QB who suddenly has massive upside, and some disappointing landing spots for some of the new wide receivers. But first, here's everything you need to know from the first round from the FFT crew: | | | | Pick reactions | | No. 8: Drake London to the Falcons No. 10: Garrett Wilson to the JetsNo. 11: Chris Olave to the SaintsNo. 12: Jameson Williams to the LionsNo. 16: Jahan Dotson to the Commanders No. 18: Treylon Burks to the TitansNo. 20: Kenny Pickett to the Steelers | | Trade reactions | | A.J. Brown to the Eagles | What it means for Jalen Hurts Marquise Brown to the Cardinals | | And now, here are the biggest winners and losers from around the NFL after the first round. | | | | Winners | | | | Jalen Hurts | | The Eagles have been looking for a new No. 1 wide receiver since before Hurts was even the starter, and now they might have two. Brown is a gigantic upgrade over Jalen Reagor, and he'll make life even easier for Devonta Smith after a very strong rookie season. It's not clear if all of those pass-catchers – including Dallas Goedert – are going to be must-start Fantasy options. However, if the Eagles increase their pass volume and efficiency with the addition of Brown, which seems likely, Hurts could take a big step forward. Heath thinks he might even challenge for the No. 1 QB spot. I'm not expecting that kind of leap, but there are parallels to Josh Allen adding Stefon Diggs heading into his third season. That's a good reminder not to bury Brown, who remains an elite talent. | | Treylon Burks | | When I read Dan Schneier's prospect profile of Burks before the draft, I told him it made me think of A.J. Brown, so there's some nice symmetry in him being the Titans big-bodied replacement for Brown. Now, I don't think Burks is going to step onto the field and take on Brown's 28% target share from last season, but there's clearly an opportunity here, especially if Robert Woods isn't 100% ready to go by the start of training camp coming off his torn ACL. It's a bit surprising Burks was just the fifth WR taken, but he proved he can be a focal point in college, and his tape shows a varied skill set that could see him put into action in a ton of different situations. One thing I love about Burks is that he ranked fourth in the nation last season in yards after the catch. He'll need that skill to thrive in a low-volume Titans passing offense. If we're talking about just 2022, I might make Burks the top rookie WR taken, even after landing in a low-volume offense. | | Drake London | | London consistently won on contested passes in college, and it's fair to wonder whether that kind of skill will translate against the much better, tougher, and more physical defenders he'll face in the NFL. But he's gonna get the opportunity to prove it in Atlanta, where he fills a massive need alongside Kyle Pitts. With Calvin Ridley suspended for the 2022 season, this was a huge need for the Falcons, and London figures to step onto the field as Marcus Mariota's No. 2 option alongside Kyle Pitts. That's going to be a nightmare duo for any defense that doesn't have some giants on their side. London was the top wide receiver taken Thursday and he might be the first one taken in Fantasy drafts. He figures to be a top-five pick in all rookie drafts and a WR4 to target for Fantasy in redraft. | | Devin Singletary (… for now) | | No running backs were taken in the first round, which means Singletary won't be competing with anyone with that kind of draft capital, at least. It still seems likely the Bills will add a running back in the draft, but if they make it through Day Two Friday without picking one, that would be a very good sign for Singletary. The Bills offense hasn't produced much value for running backs over the years – they were last in the NFL in PPR points by running backs across Josh Allen 's first three seasons and were still bottom-10 last season – so any kind of timeshare would render any back here to the fringes of Fantasy relevance. However, if the Bills really go into the season, with Singletary as their lead back and only a Day Three pick and/Zack Moss as his competition, he very well could be a viable RB2 in PPR leagues. He made it past the first checkpoint. | | JuJu Smith-Schuster | | The Chiefs may still add a wide receiver on Day Two, but the fact that Smith-Schuster won't be competing with first-round draft capital when the Chiefs had two first-rounders is a pretty good sign for his value. That's assuming he'll be the No. 2 target behind Travis Kelce and ahead of Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Mecole Hardman, but that's a bet I'm willing to make, seeing as he's the only one of those players who has shown real difference-making ability. It sure looks like we're going to find out how much of Smith-Schuster's collapse the past two seasons – he's averaged just 8.6 yards per reception – was his fault vs. Ben Roethlisberger's. Patrick Mahomes is a pretty significant QB upgrade. Don't be surprised if Smith-Schuster ends up in the first four rounds in ADP by the summer. | | Kyler Murray | | In the end, the Cardinals effectively replaced Christian Kirk with Marquise Brown, and I think that's a pretty significant upgrade. Brown hasn't quite blossomed the way we hoped in his first three seasons in Baltimore, but there's still a lot to like about him, starting with the fact that he can get open down the field with regularity. With DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green, and Rondale Moore already established on the depth chart, Murray needed a real deep threat. Brown struggled to get on the same page as Lamar Jackson at times, but Murray already has a rapport with him from their time together in college, so hopefully that'll carry over. Murray hasn't quite made the leap we were hoping for as a passer, but Brown gives him by far the best complimentary piece alongside Hopkins he's ever had. Murray still has overall QB1 potential. | | Marquise Brown/Rashod Bateman | | Brown vs. Bateman debates raged on Fantasy Twitter, all offseason, when it turns out, this was the answer all along: | | | | Bateman gets the opportunity to step in as Jackson's No. 1 (or 1b to Mark Andrews) option, while Brown goes to a higher-volume passing offense with a quarterback he's already had success with. I'll take Brown ahead of Bateman, but both have WR2 upside now. At least from a Fantasy perspective, this was a best-case scenario for both. | | | | Losers | | | | Amon-Ra St. Brown | | St. Brown was already going to have to prove his late-season breakout wasn't just the product of a lack of competition when T.J. Hockenson and D'Andre Swift are healthy next season, and now he'll be playing alongside Jameson Williams, the fourth wide receiver taken Thursday and arguably the most talented in the whole draft. Williams could be worked in slowly as he's coming back from a torn ACL suffered in January, but you have to imagine the Lions took him with the expectation he would be the No. 1 option before long. There could still be room for St. Brown to be a must-start Fantasy option, too, but between him, Swift, and Hockenson, it seems likely someone is going to be disappointed, and St. Brown seems like the most likely candidate. He's more of a WR3 in PPR now, at best, unless Williams isn't ready for the start of the season. | | Garrett Wilson/Elijah Moore | | The Jets are going to give Zach Wilson every opportunity to prove they didn't make a mistake in taking him second overall a year ago, and the addition of Wilson gives them a pretty talented receiving corps along with the bigger Corey Davis . Moore and Wilson aren't identical players, of course, but they're both fast receivers who are on the smaller side, so there could be some overlap in their usage. The likeliest outcome is probably that the Jets don't have a single obvious No. 1 wide receiver, at least to start the 2022 season, and given that we still don't know if this offense is going to be any good, that'll make it tough to trust anyone here as a starting Fantasy option. Wilson and Moore both seem like WR4s to me. | | Chris Olave | | Between the return of Michael Thomas, the re-signing of Jameis Winston, and now the addition of a WR with the No. 11 pick – a pick the Saints traded up for – maybe the passing game is coming back to New Orleans. For Olave's sake, it had better, because the Saints attempted the third-fewest passes in the league a year ago, and it wasn't just because of Taysom Hill 's starts. They didn't trust their quarterbacks to open up the offense consistently, and maybe the lack of pass-catching options was the reason why. However, Olave will be competing with Thomas for targets, and there may not be many of them to go around. I won't be drafting Olave expecting I can start him in Fantasy early on, at least. | | Jahan Dotson | | Relative to where he was expected to be taken, Dotson going 16th is actually a pretty big win. However, he's going to be catching passes from Carson Wentz on a team that already has Terry McLaurin, Curtis Samuel, and Logan Thomas. Maybe the latter two don't matter so much, and there have been whispers of some discontent with McLaurin, but what it comes down to is that I just don't think this is going to be a very good offense in Washington . Wentz has to earn my trust back, and that makes Dotson more of a late-round flier for 2022. However, for Dynasty, he's a sneaky buy with the potential to emerge as the team's top option if they choose not to cede to McLaurin's contract demands. | | Aaron Rodgers | | I mean, it may not matter, because it's Aaron Rodgers, but the Packers once again opted not to use a first-round pick on a wide receiver when it looks like their biggest need. And they had two picks! Right now, Allen Lazard and Sammy Watkins look like Rodgers top two options, and while he's been pretty good with pretty middling weapons in the past, it's asking an awful lot of Rodgers to continue to be a high-end Fantasy option in that context. You never want to bet against Rodgers, but I'm viewing him as a fringe QB1 at this point. Maybe they change that early on Day Two, though they aren't scheduled to pick until 53rd overall. | | | | | | | | 24/7 Sports News | | UEFA Champions League | ✔Scores & Highlights
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