NFL Draft Preview Part 2: QB & WR Rookies

He retired one year ago. I'll say that. Last year was kind of just a... That was a paycheck. I'll take two years ago. All right. That was today's news and notes brought to you by Sleeper. Grab the Sleeper app. Look, if you hate your fantasy app, please check out the Sleeper app. They are the best. iOS, Android, get it today. I think it's time to get into some more rookies. Hi, rookie. Welcome to the NFL.

Quarterbacks wide receivers. I'm more excited to talk about the whiteouts, but we'll start with the quarterbacks. And we'll start with a guy that has a history of winning. Yes, he does. Kyler Murray from Oklahoma could end up being the second Oklahoma quarterback taken at the top of the draft in consecutive years. A monstrous season. When you look at the numbers, what he did on the field.

Heisman trophy winner. The only mark against Kyla Murray that stands out has been his stature. Right. 510, 207, dual threat, very accurate in college, 42 touchdown passes to seven interceptions. He was a machine in Oklahoma. For fantasy purposes, we expect him to be very relevant very soon no matter where he lands.

I'm not usually a draft a quarterback early in a rookie draft, but Kyler Murray's different because Kyler Murray is like, I know completely different build, obviously. But when you've got a guy like Cam Newton, who's going to throw a lot and he's going to run a lot.

Your fantasy points are just going to be through the roof. And you might say, well, you know, why am I high on Kyler Murray? And I am high on Lamar Jackson, but I worry about Lamar Jackson being injured. The difference is how Kyler Murray protects himself. Lamar Jackson's always looking for that extra yard, trying to pick it up. Kyler Murray knows that he's 5'10. And he, I mean, he'll be about to take a sack. He'll just go down. He's waiting to play the next down. He'll run out of bounds. He'll slide with three yards that he could pick up.

And he knows I've already picked up enough. He is the best, in my opinion, coming out of this year's class, he's the best passer in the draft. If you take away his running, he is the best pocket quarterback in the draft. And that's not fair to say pocket because he's great on the move, but he's the best passing quarterback. But then he's also the best rushing quarterback in this draft class. You get both wherever he goes for fantasy purposes, I will be very high in my...

dynasty rankings and my rookie rankings on Kyler. Okay, Mike, do you have anything you want to add on Kyler Murray? Yeah, the one red flag for me, I mean, obviously his size, but he was a starter for one year. And that's always a little scary to me. I know it was an incredible year, and he is, well, he at least looks like he's the best quarterback in this class, only starting one year.

it can be sketchy at best. By the way, I mean, this show, we talked about it on Tuesday. The purpose is to give you some name awareness so you can pay attention as a fantasy football fan in the NFL draft, guys that we like on film, guys that we believe have the ability to produce at the NFL level. So much depends on the fit. But at the top of the draft, somebody like Kyler, if he goes in that top 10 picks, he's going to likely be the day one starter.

coming into the NFL. Now, Dwayne Haskins is the next name I want to bring up from Ohio State, two-year starter. Really, predominantly his production all came in this last year. So he has the same problem as Kyler. 50 touchdowns, eight picks. He was the most disappointing to me on film. Now, I don't claim to be a world-renowned scout, but I have watched film of college quarterbacks over recent years. Haskins was extremely productive.

at Ohio State, and you're in a system and on a team that was one of the best in the country. To me, he took too many of the, the offense was set up in a situation where there was a lot of one read, a lot of screen game for Haskins. I didn't see him step into enough throws, step into the pocket. He didn't seem like he had the opportunity. Maybe it was the offense's fault to improvise and show me some of the things that I think are needed at the NFL level. Scouts seem to have followed this train a little bit more.

of late, with some saying he may drop into the second round, could be the fourth or fifth quarterback off the board. There are others who believe, you know, that Washington's going to trade up into the top five to try to get him. So I think the opinion is all over the board. He has the size that Kyler doesn't have, 6-3-2-31. When you guys looked at Dwayne Haskins on film, I saw a solid but not spectacular bottom half NFL starter. Did you see a ceiling much higher than that? You know, I...

I wasn't 100% sure on your take, but I will say that I'm in complete agreement. I don't get Dwayne Haskins. And again, I'm not a professional scout. You know, we watch the NFL far more, but he's immobile. I mean, he is, he can move around the pocket a little bit, but I mean, he is not a mobile quarterback by any means. Josh Rosen could move around the pocket a little bit. And you would say, that's a liability.

And then his passing game, so much of his, you know, I just watched a couple games. It was just over and over. It throws three touchdowns. His numbers look great. It was a scream that Paris Campbell juke. Someone took it to the house. I did not see an accurate quarterback. I mean, he's got a strong arm. I think he's like a second round type of quarterback talent. So I've been surprised when I look up, you know, people that I respect and they've got him number one, you know, going into this year.

Yeah, he was kind of thought of as the one before Kyler Mania took over. Right, but even before Kyler Mania took over, when we weren't sure maybe he's not even an NFL player's going to play baseball, all I kept hearing was this is a really bad quarterback class. Well, I was going to bring that point up. There has to be a number two. There has to be a number three. Like in any class.

Whether it's Blaine Gabbard's class or... Whoa, woof, don't talk about that. This reminds me of that. Well, and I don't want to disrespect any of the things that Haskins did at the collegiate level because it was prolific. Yeah, it was monster production last year. Incredible completion percentage, I think, because of a lot of the design single route... 50 touchdowns. But I just am not at the level where I believe fantasy-wise or NFL-wise, you're going to see a huge impact in year one from Dwayne Haskins. I'm kind of in the middle. I see...

I see the tools, but I also see the red flags as well. But it's hard to ignore a guy who completed 70% of his passes through for almost 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns. No doubt. Yeah, there will be people. Is there a fit for Dwayne Haskins that you see out of the gate that you're like, it would change that wishy-washy thought on him to, oh, man.

That's where he needs to go. Like if he walked into Oakland as the new starter, if he walked into Washington, I'm not excited. The only place that comes to mine at all, and it's not a joke, would be the Los Angeles Rams. If he drops in the draft and they draft him as I don't want to pay for golf long term and keep a rookie. But that's not going to happen. Yeah, you're trying to find a situation where you'd be excited. Where I'd be like, okay, he can play this style of game. Before we get to Drew Locke, who.

I like more than Dwayne Haskins. Oh, spoilers, man. I know. We love spoiling things. You might like him more. I might or might not stay, too. But hey, I wanted to tell everybody about a new cool sports podcast called Sports Wars. I'm seeing it everywhere. Everywhere. There's a saying most athletes abide by. Play like you're in first. Train like you're in second. Oh.

Well, in the new podcast from Wondry, Sports Wars, you'll hear what happens with some of the most elite athletes. Take that phrase to heart. And there's some great back and forth battles on these podcasts. Here's some examples. Veteran Brett Favre being challenged when Aaron Rogers was drafted. Or Isaiah Thomas's beef with Michael Jordan after he missed out on the dream team. Or Raphael Nadal's and Roger Federer's battle.

for the title of the greatest tennis player of all time. These are really cool stories. You like sports. You like sports stories. So subscribe to Sports Wars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you are listening now. Are they going to profile kind of like mine in your battle, the Winston, Matt Ryan's. Yes, we should. We should reach out wondering. That's getting to that level. Yeah, for sure. It's a little higher, but it's in that ballpark. All right, Drew Locke.

I think a lot of people are on different sides of the fence with Drew Locke, the Haskins side, the Lock side. I saw a lot of the things out of Drew Locke, like when I went through quarterback film that I didn't see out of Dwayne Haskins. I saw a player that had a lot more guts and frivolity to his game, downfield thrower. I do question whether he can take the next step, whether he's in the right system at the next level.

But I liked a little bit more out of the improv nature of Drew Locke to say, hey, if you put them with the right coach on the right team, maybe you have something a little bit with a higher ceiling, I guess, than where I saw Dwayne Haskins. Mike, your view on Drew Locke, Jason, what do you think? I just have, I have Haskins as my number two, but that's by like a hair over Drew Locke. It's, I don't think they. Like a lock of hair?

Oh, my man. You know what you're saying? That's what I'm saying. And so these guys are razor thin close to me. So in like you were talking about for the landing spot that you could get excited about. We're going to give our predictions here. But what are the obvious teams are Washington? Denver. Denver. They're sort of. But like the real obvious ones to me are Washington and Miami. And it's.

It's not a good spot for a quarterback to go. Well, that's going to be the case for the majority of the, like first year relevance, fantasy football relevance. We need to move through quarterbacks quick on this show because I want to talk about guys that will have potential year one impact at wide receiver. Is that fair? Yeah, that's fair. Drew Lock's my number two quarterback, but there's a gap between Kyler and him. I'm not super excited about any of the quarterbacks, but if I had to take a second guy, it would be Drew Long. Do you believe how many quarterbacks do you think go in the first round? I think it's four. Four.

I think three. Okay. Who do we have next on the list? Daniel Jones? Yeah. You want to talk about Daniel Jones? Not really. Who do you want to talk about? Wide receivers. Let's talk about wide receivers because Daniel Jones and Drew Locke. I mean, it's like you can watch it. You can see with Daniel Jones. You can see the tools. You can see that he has some of the NFL caliber stuff. But then you watch, he'll follow that throw up.

with what were you possibly thinking? He's the Mitcheribisky of the draft for me. Oh, really? Smaller school. Interesting. In terms of like competition and huge size. People like him because he's 6.5-221. He's the guy I most like or would most want to see on John Gruden's quarterback camp and have Gruden pull up these plays and go, okay, what were you supposed to do and why did you do this? I think he was the highest wonderlick score, wasn't he?

Okay, well, I would like to put him through my quarterback. All right, let's turn. We will. We'll fast forward a little bit. We'll jump into wide receivers. I think it's more important for fantasy owners to become aware of these names. Because of all the positions in the draft, you're going to see more high-profile wide receivers go in the first two rounds that have great relevance, I think, to the next five, six, seven years in the NFL than in any other position. Now, there's not a consensus guaranteed.

number one guy, at least by my estimation. I would agree. In this group, for a while there, Instagram-wise, McHaff is at the top of the list if you want to lean on Instagram photos. But we don't do that. So let's start with Negeal-Herry. Nikiel Harry out of Arizona State, 64-228. I think he, didn't he weigh in a little bit shorter than that? I'm sorry, not weigh in. That was a Jason moment.

Don't you like getting blamed for things that you don't even say? Nothing, and I'd still roll over. Yeah, but you thought he weighed in shorter, didn't you? I did. He waited at 6-3. He plays big, though. He plays big. He's shifty. A lot of opportunity at Arizona State to get the ball on the screen game and make something happen. He was involved in the return game there as well. He is a big boy. What do we like about Nikil Harry, and is there some fits that you think, you know, some...

some teams that you don't want to see him go to. Do you want to see him in a situation where he is thrown into a one or two role early? Or do you think he's somebody that needs to develop? Probably needs some time to develop, but I would not be mad at all if he got taken as a number one. He's my number one wide receiver for fantasy of this draft class because he has everything. He has two years of production of real solid production. He's an athletic monster and he's big.