It’s the evening of Thursday, April 28, 2022 — and Mel Kiper Jr. is backstage at Allegiant Stadium looking into the mirror, trying to decide which angle to position his head in an attempt to make his hair look different this year than the 38 NFL Draft shows prior. From the shadows, Mark Davis approaches from behind and proceeds to ask Kiper what he’s doing at his (Davis’) backstage dresser. Kiper turns around, takes in Davis’ visage, and realizes he doesn’t look all that bad after all. The world is relative. And so it goes.

Now, to be fair, Kiper looks like my late grandmother after coming home from a perm followed by a McCafe iced coffee — on a good day. But he’s drastically different from Davis, both in appearance and in his ability to evaluate college football talent. As we all know, a Davis can’t tell a Crabtree from a Heyward-Bey, or a Ruggs from a Lamb, or a Ferrell from an Allen. But Mel can (sort of). And he’ll tell you, the same way I’m going attempt to do so today. The 2021 fantasy football season is winding down, and I already laid out some advice for your postseason push at the onset of December by detailing which players could boom during fantasy playoffs. Since we’re already ahead of the game, let’s make like MKJ and look ahead to the 2022 rookie class in an attempt to assess which players could emerge from college and become fantasy relevant one year from now. I’ll break down “The Cream” and “The Crop” of each fantasy skill position. Hopefully, you already know that the best crops are always grown by wholesome, small-town farmers. Buy local, people.