Established Leagues - How did your rookie draft go?

[Kevin]

I think this was the first year where people drafted rookies before they played in the NFL, so it requires some scouting. How did your drafts go?

I have three teams. One thing I noticed about myself is that I'll like some guys in the draft and I end up drafting them in more than one league. That's great if the guy ends up being good and it's kind of a disaster if the guy is a bust. From a game perspective, I feel ike I should draft in each league independently, and if I like a guy I should draft him whenever it's feasible. From an overall strategy perspective, I probably shouldn't do that, to better ensure that I'll field competitive teams and not tank in all three leagues if my rookies don't pan out. I tend to put all of my eggs in one basket.

Here are my three rookie drafts. (First team in this post and then other teams in subsequent posts.)

Bengals1 League - Muncie Wolfpack.

This team missed the playoffs last year and had a number of holes to fill. In particular, I needed running help and linebackers.

1 – Breece Hall, RB. My team needed RB help bad. We got half a season of help, but the injury will really hurt us.
2 – Isaiah Likely, TE. I worried that I was overdrafting this guy, but the pre-draft reports were sensational. I think I overdrafted him, but he was still somewhat productive.
3 – Nakobe Dean, ILB. What the heck happened here? I thought he was going to win the starting job, and he barely needed a helmet this year.
4 – Tariq Woolen, CB. Instant starter.
5 – Leo Chenal, ILB. He was my biggest draft crush so I drafted him even though I'd just taken Dean two rounds earlier. He started slow, but was really making an impression in run defense by the end of the year.
6 – Ty Chandler, RB. I was hearing good things pre-draft and then got crickets. Maybe he’s developing.
7 – Cordell Volson, G. Starting guard at the end of the draft. That’s a win, though I thought I was drafting a tackle and I don’t know how well he performed given the Bengals’ pass protection problems.

Overall grade: C

Woolen is my big find. Hall was looking good until the injury, and I'm hopeful that several guys will develop in their second year. I'm optimistic that this will end up being a strong draft, but I'm getting less help than I hoped this year.