I broke down my opinion of Leonard Fournette and Corey Davis in the Dynasty Top 100 published on Monday. They're part of an elite tier that includes Christian McCaffrey. After that, buckle in.
I feel pretty solid about the next tier of four rookies even if the order is highly debatable. Joe Mixon is obviously a polarizing player and I suspect many will like Dalvin Cook more than I do. It's fairly easy for me to rank Mike Williams and John Ross ahead of the running backs in a vacuum because receiver is more reliable in both redraft and dynasty. Still, if I had a WR-heavy team I wouldn't hesitate to take Mixon as early as 1.3 based on talent. He's the home run play with a floor similar to Josh Gordon's.
I'd expect my most controversial ranking will be at No. 8, Josh Reynolds. To be clear, if you have the 8th pick you can almost certainly wait until the second round for Reynolds because no one is taking him in the first. I love his combination of red zone potential, deep ball ability and opportunity. He could immediately be Jared Goff's best red zone target and I would not rule out Reynolds becoming Goff's No. 1 by the end of 2017. One of the people I trust the most on evaluating college players is Matt Waldman, who helped sell me on Reynolds (If you want the most in-depth look at this incoming class available, check out his Rookie Scouting Portfolio).
Finally, I've taken a few questions about how low I am on O.J. Howard. It is not that I'm anti-Howard so much as I'm not particularly excited about using a mid-1st on a tight end. Tight ends are notorious slow starters and it's generally three years before they're giving you Fantasy starter production. Considering the low impact a mid-range TE1 has I would rather take a running back or wide receiver in most cases.
The complete Top 40 is below, we'll have more details on the 2017 prospects for many of these players in the coming weeks and months.
Dynasty Rookie Top 40 | ||||||||
Rank | Player | Team | Position | |||||
1 | Leonard Fournette | JAC | RB | |||||
2 | Corey Davis | TEN | WR | |||||
3 | Christian McCaffrey | CAR | RB | |||||
4 | Mike Williams | LAC | WR | |||||
5 | John Ross | CIN | WR | |||||
6 | Joe Mixon | CIN | RB | |||||
7 | Dalvin Cook | MIN | RB | |||||
8 | Josh Reynolds | LAR | WR | |||||
9 | ArDarius Stewart | NYJ | WR | |||||
10 | Curtis Samuel | CAR | WR | |||||
11 | O.J. Howard | TB | TE | |||||
12 | Samaje Perine | WAS | RB | |||||
13 | Jamaal Williams | GB | RB | |||||
14 | David Njoku | CLE | TE | |||||
15 | Chris Godwin | TB | WR | |||||
16 | Zay Jones | BUF | WR | |||||
17 | Carlos Henderson | DEN | WR | |||||
18 | Evan Engram | NYG | TE | |||||
19 | Kareem Hunt | KC | RB | |||||
20 | Isaiah Ford | MIA | WR | |||||
21 | D'Onta Foreman | HOU | RB | |||||
22 | Cooper Kupp | LAR | WR | |||||
23 | Juju Smith-Schuster | PIT | WR | |||||
24 | Alvin Kamara | NO | RB | |||||
25 | Patrick Mahomes | KC | QB | |||||
26 | Dede Westbrook | JAC | WR | |||||
27 | Deshaun Watson | HOU | QB | |||||
28 | DeShone Kizer | CLE | QB | |||||
29 | Adam Shaheen | CHI | TE | |||||
30 | Marlon Mack | IND | RB | |||||
31 | Jeremy McNichols | TB | RB | |||||
32 | Gerald Everett | LAR | TE | |||||
33 | Mitch Trubisky | CHI | QB | |||||
34 | Taywan Taylor | TEN | WR | |||||
35 | Jake Butt | DEN | TE | |||||
36 | Wayne Gallman | NYG | RB | |||||
37 | Donnel Pumphery | PHI | RB | |||||
38 | Joe Williams | SF | RB | |||||
39 | Jonnu Smith | TEN | TE | |||||
40 | Jordan Leggett | NYJ | TE |