FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume VI, Issue XI

Welcome to our 221st edition of the FDH Fantasy Newsletter, as we continue to bring you weekly fantasy sports updates in addition to our usual content on FantasyDrafthelp.com. Our archive of past editions is available right here on The FantasyDrafthelp.com Blog and specific links to past editions are available at FantasyDrafthelp.com.

This week we bring you our 2013 NFL Rookie Fantasy Analysis, serialized from PRO FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2013, your ultimate guide to this year’s NFL Draft.

2013 NFL Rookie Fantasy Analysis

NOTE: Our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER web show will still appear from time to time in the newsletter, but sometimes we will opt for the written word instead.

The 2012 NFL Draft yielded some excellent fantasy QBs (Luck, RGIII, Hustle-Like-Russell), big-time RBs (Alfred Morris and Doug Martin) and … well, not as much at WR, although Josh Gordon got his career off to a good start.  Fantasy owners, however, will find the pickings much sparser when evaluating the rookies of 2013.

The highest-impact fantasy rookie of 2013 – and maybe, through the course of his career – is Notre Dame TE Tyler Eifert, a polished receiver who projects as a multiple Pro Bowl player.

Working our way back from there, WRs Tavon Austin of West Virginia, Corradelle Patterson of Tennessee, Keenan Allen of California and DeAndre Hopkins of Clemson project to make decent impact in the passing game, although all figure as WR3 at best at the outset.  USC’s Robert Woods, whose stock fell greatly in 2013, projects at the perimeter of this conversation.

The only RB with any discernible fantasy upside going into the season is Alabama’s Eddie Lacy, but he’s a bruiser likely to be paired with a third-down scatback in some team’s rotation.

Notwithstanding Russell Wilson’s success in 2012, he was an outlier in terms of being a third-round starter making an immediate impact.  Usually, drafting is destiny when it comes to rookie QBs: if you aren’t a high pick, at least in the first round, then teams will be reluctant to give you much playing time in your freshman campaign.  As such, there are only two passers with a decent chance of earning much playing time in their first year: Geno Smith of West Virginia and Matt Barkley of USC.  Neither is regarded as highly as Luck and Griffin a year ago, however, so even if they end up starting most of their games, they won’t be worth much more than a decent roll of the dice for a bye-week substitution.