First of all, I don’t know what Zach is complaining about. He was given the two positions where players can make the biggest impact in fantasy football at the beginning of their careers. Leave it to such a millennial baby to complain about an opportunity to have his star truly shine. His complaining aside, Zach did a fantastic job previewing running backs and wide receivers, you can check it out here. Now it’s time to preview the quarterbacks and the tight ends we keep hearing and reading about for the 2017 NFL draft.
Fantasy impact is pretty tough to project without first knowing the landing spot of a prospect. So I’ll write about skill sets and best or worst fits for each of these players. After checking out this article, you can look forward to Zach’s first-round mock draft that he has longed to write up since he started blowing our minds with fantasy football knowledge. In the next couple of weeks, I’m going to put out a review of the actual landing spots for our fantasy relevant rookies…
Quarterbacks
Deshaun Watson
I think that Watson has the best shot at being the most fantasy relevant quarterback in 2017 out of this draft class. Deshaun’s most effective trait from his days playing college football might have been his mastery of the Clemson offense. Deshaun is a Jameis Winston like leader who lives and breathes football like Tom Brady. This leads me to believe he can learn an offense quickly and command a line of scrimmage with the best of them. Shame on that Alabama bar for kicking out such a profound gentleman just because they’re sore losers. Watson has great pocket presence and is a capable scrambler, buying his receivers time to get open.
There are a few gripes about Watson. He threw a lot of interceptions in college despite being surrounded by some of the best playmakers in college football. His inability to hit the downfield home run could be holding him back, not to mention his low velocity. It probably won’t happen, but the 49ers could use a voice of leadership as they try to rebuild into a winning franchise once again. Tom Coughlin’s recent comments about not having a quarterback could lead to an interesting landing spot for Watson in Jacksonville.
Patrick Mahomes
In fantasy football rookie drafts for dynasty leagues, this is your guy if you need a QB down the line. Mahomes has an absolute cannon with a nice touch on his throws to boot. Just like Watson, he has the ability to maneuver the pocket. Mahomes isn’t the secret that he was in January, he is almost surely going in the first round, if not, the beginning of the second.
If Mahomes lands with the Houston Texans, that would be a wet dream. The Texans have the built in playmakers on offense and are a quarterback short of scoring some points to go along with that stout defense. Or, could you imagine the Chiefs with a gun slinger at quarterback? No more Alex Smith? The possibilities are endless and I really hope it all comes together for this kid.
Mitchell Trubisky
This has all of the makings of a disastrous draft pick of the Cleveland Browns or New York Jets. I really feel like Trubisky needs to fall into the right situation in a solid organization to avoid becoming Jared Goff 2.0. Trubisky needs time to marinate in the league, he didn’t start very many games in college so his success is kind of overnight. The offense that he played for in college was not a very complex one, so how quickly can he pick up an NFL offense? How good with he be at reading defenses and seeing blitz packages?
Trubisky is great on short to intermediate throws how the rest of his game will translate is hard to say. Cleveland is already chomping at the bit to pick Trubisky so he is not going to make it into the teens of NFL draft picks which is unfortunate for him. I hope I’m wrong and that he has a fruitful NFL career.
Honorable mention: Deshone Kizer is a youngster (coming out as a redshirt sophomore) with some upside. Just looking at him, he has the ideal frame of an NFL quarterback. He was a good play maker at Notre Dame who can extend plays and make all of the throws. He doesn’t come to the league without issues. He lacks experience and good foot work, but he could be a steal for a franchise for the next 10 years. In fact, the Lord Tehol Beddict wanted to weigh in on Kizer.
“I’d like to begin by thanking the great Matthew Bowe for allowing me the great honor of contributing my opinion to what I have no doubt will be a stellar article.
If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for upside, but, and most analysts seem to agree that Mitch Trubisky has that in spades. If he’s the unanimous guy, then I have no problem with that, but I can honestly say I haven’t watched enough tape of the North Carolina product, to where I can fully put my reputation on the line by saying he’s a can’t miss prospect.
One young stud I’m highly intrigued with is DeShone Kizer. At 6’4”, 235 pounds, Kizer is a physical freak, with the kind of arm scouts froth at the mouth over. His forty time of 4.83 wasn’t quite what I was hoping for but certainly fast enough for a man of his size. Should he have stayed in college? Probably. Is it odd he didn’t win much at Notre Dame? QUITE!! This kid was brash enough to say that he was a potent mixture of Tom Brady’s intelligence and Cam Newton’s physical abilities. How can I hate on this? It sounds like something a young Beddict would say. Kudos to him for believing in his abilities. Never let haters bring you down!”
Tight Ends
O.J. Howard
This is probably the best tight end prospect that we have had in years. O.J. is the jack of all trades at the tight end position. But we are here to talk fantasy football and he will have quite the impact. He is 6’6 and over 250 pounds which is going to make him a wrecking ball in the slot. Imagine Jimmy Graham with the Saints, that could be Howard in a few years. His speed and agility make him a downfield threat and a red zone nightmare, if he pans out, which he probably will.
It will always be a mystery as to why Lane Kiffin didn’t use O.J. Howard to his pass catching potential in college. It’s like Josh McDaniels 86-ing Gronk, it just doesn’t make any sense. The Jets should take him at #6 and if they pass, I don’t see him lasting past the Tennessee Titans second first round pick.
David Njoku
Njoku is certainly making a lot of first round noise in the NFL mock draft community and for good reason. Ian Wharton compares Njoku to Travis Kelce. Travis Kelce has been quite the option for fantasy football players over the last few years. David has freakish athletic ability to go along with his great size. His best asset might be his abilities with the ball in his hand. He is great at breaking tackles to go along with being a red zone target.
A team who wants a playmaker tight end/big slot option and misses out on O.J. Howard could find that Njoku is the next best thing without losing too much value. Njoku, in fact, will not make it out of the first round. I think that Pittsburgh is a great fit to get the play making abilities that they have yet to get from the often injured Ladarious Green. The New York Giants or Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be a great fit as both teams try to put as many playmakers around their quarterback as possible.
Bucky Hodges
I’m sure that you can sense a common theme here as none of these guys are under 6’5 and 245 pounds. Bucky has a lot of the same traits as the previous two. He is extremely athletic, he can play out of the slot, and he is a red zone target. His mammoth strength helps him beat press coverage and allows him to get open.
Bucky doesn’t come without his problems. He isn’t good at catching contested passes and he isn’t as good at using his size to get position as he should be. So he is basically Austin Seferian-Jenkins without the drinking problem (maybe). He could be a late-round option in dynasty drafts if he lands in the right NFL draft situation.
Honorable mention:
I think it would be proper to include the Iowa Hawkeye tight end George Kittle in here as a sleeper impact guy down the line. Although he didn’t have a big season in terms of statistics, he tested well at the combine and has occasionally shown big play ability throughout his college career. Iowa has a history of putting out decent professional tight ends so don’t be surprised if your drafting him to your fantasy team in a couple of years.
As always, thank you for reading and I will talk to you in the comment section. You can also follow me on twitter.
