The Jacksonville Jaguars are poised to have one of the better young offenses in the NFL this season, led by third-year pro Trevor Lawrence, who will have Christian Kirk, Calvin Ridley, Evan Engram, Zay Jones, and Travis Etienne as his experienced weapons. But what about his new ones? The Jags took three fantasy football-eligible players in the 2023 NFL Draft. What can we expect from these rookies in 2023? Let’s dive in.
FULL 2023 JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS DRAFT RESULTS
|
Rnd. |
Pick No. |
Player |
Pos. |
College |
|
1 |
27 |
Anton Harrison |
OT |
Oklahoma |
|
2 |
61 |
Brenton Strange |
TE |
Penn State |
|
3 |
88 |
Tank Bigsby |
RB |
Auburn |
|
4 |
121 |
Ventrell Miller |
ILB |
Florida |
|
4 |
130 |
Tyler Lacy |
DE |
Oklahoma State |
|
5 |
136 |
Yasir Abdullah |
OLB |
Louisville |
|
5 |
160 |
Antonio Johnson |
S |
Texas A&M |
|
6 |
185 |
Parker Washington |
WR |
Penn State |
|
6 |
202 |
Christian Braswell |
CB |
Rutgers |
|
6 |
208 |
Erick Hallett |
S |
Pittsburgh |
|
7 |
226 |
Cooper Hodges |
OT |
Appalachian State |
|
7 |
227 |
Raymond Vohasek |
DT |
North Carolina |
|
7 |
240 |
Derek Parish |
FB |
Houston |
Round 2, Pick 61 Overall: Brenton Strange, Tight End, Penn State (6’4” 247 pounds)
Depth Chart:
TE1 Evan Engram
TE2 Brenton Strange
TE3 Luke Farrell
TALENT
Strange is mostly indistinguishable from a vast multitude of tight ends in the NFL. They make up the extended blob, where they have enough talent to matter greatly if they get volume, and who can disappear entirely because they don’t demand volume. Imagine your Haydens Hurst, your Tylers Conklin, or your Tylers Higbee. As a pass catcher, he’s just fine, and his route running is not super exciting (though he demonstrates good athleticism), but he is a very good runner after the catch. All of that adds up to a guy who will have fantasy football relevance for years, but not necessarily someone who will break the rookie tight end curse during his rookie season.
2023 OPPORTUNITY
The Jaguars made retaining Evan Engram a priority, keeping him on the franchise tag this offseason. With that in mind, I doubt that Strange gets enough volume to matter this year. However, the Jaguars are helmed by Doug Pederson, who made hay of two tight end sets with Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz from 2018 – 2020. Ertz was highly productive as the lead tight end (the Evan Engram role), but Goedert still mustered 4.7 targets per game for 3.3 receptions and 35 yards per game in those three years as the #2 tight end. Unfortunately, Goedert’s rookie year saw him receiving just 3 targets per game, which he turned into 2 catches for 21 yards per contest. He also only topped 50% of snaps three times in his rookie year.
2023 FANTASY OUTLOOK
Despite any talent that Strange might bring to the NFL, he just won’t get enough opportunities his rookie year to matter, especially given Doug Pederson’s track record. His best chance to produce would be an Evan Engram injury, and Engram has missed just one game in the last three seasons.
TALENT
2023 OPPORTUNITY
2023 FANTASY OUTLOOK
Round 3, Pick 88 Overall: Tank Bigsby, Running Back, Auburn (6’0” 214 pounds)
Depth Chart
RB1 Travis Etienne
RB2 Tank Bigsby
RB3 JaMycal Hasty
RB4 D’Ernest Johnson
TALENT
Bigsby is above average at everything and is a jack of all trades and a master of none. He possesses quick burst to, and through, the hole, the ability to smash through short-yardage tacklers, and is a good processor. This all leads to him doing a great job in grinding out production. At the NFL level, he should be more of a two-down banger than a three-down guy thanks to his struggles with pass protection and just-okay hands. But, on the plus side, he maximizes cutback lanes and makes opposing defenses miss in close quarters thanks to it. Bigsby is a good football player but is of a dying breed in the NFL: a two-down back. That breed is also less-than-useful for fantasy football, thanks to the prevalence of PPR leagues.
2023 OPPORTUNITY
There’s a lot of hullabaloo about Tank Bigsby taking a ton of touches from Travis Etienne this season but, to be honest with you, it feels more like bull hockey. We did this last season with James Robinson, and Robinson surpassed 12 carries just once in two of his six games as a Jaguar, weeks two and three, where he had 40 total carries across the two games. But, he truly couldn’t pull it off, and Etienne showed that he was the better back. Still, I think that Bigsby has a role in the offense. He should end up around 12 touches or so per game, which makes him well worth a draft pick. Unfortunately, without an injury to Travis Etienne (who is a better running back) I doubt that I can find a path where Bigsby gets over 50% of the snaps or touches in this backfield.
2023 FANTASY OUTLOOK
Bigsby is well worth a double-digit round draft pick, just in case something happens with him and Etienne. Unfortunately, I don’t really see a world where he takes over for Etienne and vaults himself up into the top fifteen at the position, or even top eighteen. With touchdowns having a vastly outsized role in fantasy scoring, I won’t say he won’t be top-twenty, but I feel it in my loins. However, he has good weekly flex value and could easily be a volume-based top-20 play with an Etienne injury.
TALENT
2023 OPPORTUNITY
2023 FANTASY OUTLOOK
Round 6, Pick 185 Overall: Parker Washington, Wide Receiver, Penn State (5’10” 212 pounds)
Depth Chart
WR1 Calvin Ridley
WR2 Christian Kirk
WR3 Zay Jones
WR4 Jamal Agnew
WR5 Parker Washington
TALENT
Parker Washington isn’t the most athletically gifted receiver. He’s small and not particularly agile, but he does have good straight-line speed. Unfortunately, he has significant struggles against man coverage and is best as a short area zone beater out of the slot. Washington also has freakish focus, frequently hauling in deflected passes or making a catch with the second effort. He isn’t the best in the long game, but he looks like he could be extremely useful in the right situation to create a texture to an offense, like a less athletic Jarvis Landry.
2023 OPPORTUNITY
Unfortunately, a nifty piece of an offense’s texture doesn’t always make for a lot of opportunities to produce in the NFL. After all, he’s WR4, at best, on this team, and the last option on any play where he’s involved. There isn’t a combination of Zay Jones, Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk, Evan Engram, Brenton Strange, Tank Bigsby, Travis Etienne, and Parker Washington where I prioritize Washington. That doesn’t give him a whole lot of rookie-year upside.
2023 FANTASY OUTLOOK
It’s really not worth the effort to worry about a guy who needs multiple catastrophic injuries on the offensive side of the ball to find consistent fantasy relevance in his rookie year.
TALENT
2023 OPPORTUNITY
2023 FANTASY OUTLOOK
