The 2020 rookie draft season is the craziest in recent memory. Player values were scrambled by an entertaining reality event. Generational prospect Jonathan Taylor fell to No. 41 overall and landed with a team that has both an established young starter and one of the better receiving backs. By contrast, Clyde Edwards-Helaire was the first back off the board into a dream landing spot.
The three other big-name RBs landed with the teams that ranked No. 30, No. 31, and No. 32 in receiving Expected Points to the backs. That’s not a misprint or exaggeration. They were literally the three worst spots in 2019 for RBs to score points through the air. Two of the three face solid incumbents, while Cam Akers squares off with an RB the Rams took in Round 3 just last year.
It gets even more muddled at wide receiver. The clear-cut top two receivers were a) not the first WRs off the board, and b) not the top receivers in the post-draft WR Prospect Lab rankings. And that’s not even the discouraging part. CeeDee Lamb and Jerry Jeudy land on the same roster with young alpha receivers, not to mention impressive peripheral targets.
How do you navigate such a crowded and disorienting first round? The Dynasty ADP app has already pulled in 345 classic FFPC rookie drafts and 58 Superflex events. With this context from high-stakes leagues, we can craft a strategy for picking when forced and trading back when possible. In this exercise, I offer player targets and trade-down options for every pick.
