The 2019 NFL Draft is in the rearview mirror, and it’s time for the next part of the NFL calendar. That’s right… massive, rampant speculation! They will go through drills in shorts, and we will endlessly project and prognosticate on their fantasy football futures. There are 78 guys who might have fantasy football relevance after their names were called in Nashville. Our goal with our Fantasy Football Rookie Roundup series is to give you a quick hit on every one of these guys. By the end, you’ll know these guys better than their mothers know them. Because it’s not like their mothers are necessarily good at fantasy football.
The Green Bay Packers had a disappointing 2018 season by regular football standards. Aaron Rodgers injured his knee in week one, and the team never really got right. They ended up 6-9-1, and missed the playoffs for the second-straight year. For fantasy football.. things could have been worse. Aaron Rodgers was a disappointment, but still a QB1. Aaron Jones was an RB2, and Davante Adams was the #2 wide receiver. Jimmy Graham was serviceable, and Geronimo Allison was on pace to be the #13 WR before he died in week five. The Packers added two fantasy football talents in the draft, but should you add these rookies in your fantasy football drafts?
Round 3, Pick 75 – Jace Sternberger, Tight End, Texas A&M
I have already pre-emptively put dibs on writing a 2020 Jace Sternberger fantasy football breakout piece. I love the kid’s talent. He does a great job of getting open, and his body control and hands are amazing. Everything he does on the field looks so fluid and natural. His performance is almost too perfect, like watching a video game cutscene. Everything is too perfect.
That having been said, I’ve already outlined the issues surrounding rookie tight ends. Unfortunately, the transition to the NFL chews up and spits out most tight ends. While I love Sternberger, I don’t see him as the type of transcendent talent that breaks the rookie tight end mold. That’s even without including the fact that there are a ton of mouths to feed in Green Bay, including incumbent Jimmy Graham (who garnered 91 targets last year). Sternberger is immensely talented but has the deck stacked against him his rookie year. Don’t expect much from him in fantasy football this year, but keep an eye on him for 2020.
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2019 OUTLOOK
Round 6, Pick 194 – Dexter Williams, Running Back, Notre Dame
He’s fine. That’s what I take away from Dexter Williams’s college film. He’s fine. He doesn’t have a glaring weakness other than a need to bounce it outside on every single possible run. He has good vision at the line of scrimmage and if you want someone to run behind the league’s best offensive line, he’s your man. The downside is that he needs to get up a head of steam to prevent getting tackled by someone’s pinky nail. While he usually falls forward, he usually falls. His contact balance is not great.
Williams isn’t overwhelmingly fast, or strong, or agile. But he’s not like a big old steamboat out there: big, slow, and hard to turn. He’s fine. And we’ve seen players who are just fine athletically turn in quality fantasy football production in the past in the right situations. Unfortunately, this isn’t the right situation. Dexter Williams sits firmly behind Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams in the pecking order. When one or both of these guys get hurt (Jones hasn’t played more than 12 games in a season yet), Williams can jump into a bigger role and guess what? He’s playing with Aaron Rodgers. He’ll be fine.
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2019 OUTLOOK
