Rookie Report Cards | Fantasy Football Live
The FFL team evaluates the performances of several rookies through the first eleven weeks of the 2023 NFL season.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: Let's get to a little bit of fun here on rookies. And everybody likes to do a rookie report card. But what if I told you we were going to do the rookie report card a little bit different? This time, we're going to flip the script. And instead of grading players on their season performance so far, we're going to look at some of the rookie flex plays and grade the rest of the season fantasy potential.
So we're judging-- we're grading based on where we think they'll end up. Matt, you get to go first. Josh Downs, give me a grade.
MATT HARMON: Oh, baby, Josh Downs. I mean, A-plus for Josh Downs rest of season. This guy is so good. Fitz, he has been one of the best separators in the NFL period, full stop. Not rookies. He's been one of the best separators in the NFL at the wide receiver position as a rookie. I mean, this guy gets open from the slot. He gets open from the outside. He can win down the field.
Obviously, if Anthony Richardson was there, if it wasn't Gardner Minshew, the ceiling would be higher. But I think he's going to be consistently productive. The bye comes at a perfect time. He's over there in Germany. He makes a couple of clutch plays, reminding us just how good he is at football. Makes a couple clutch plays, but he doesn't play very much because of the injury.
Now he gets the bye to get healthy, reset. I think this Colts offense is going to be competitive rest of season. Michael Pittman is one of the most, if not the most, underrated receivers in the NFL. Great duo there. Josh Downs, I think, is set up to thrive rest of season. A-plus for me.
JASON FITZ: We should at least educate the world that Harmon's throwing a little shade at me. Because I recently waxed philosophically about the terrible wide receiver play of the Colts. It should be pointed out Downs was injured during that point.
MATT HARMON: No, no.
JASON FITZ: So message received, good sir. Let's see how it goes the rest of the year. But yes, I think having him healthy, obviously, makes a difference to it. Andy Behrens, I can take the shade. I threw the heat. It can come back at me. Andy--
MATT HARMON: I like that you think I remember what we said last week. I mean, good lord. A week ago? That might as well be 100 years ago at this point.
JASON FITZ: Well, I'll let everybody else review it, and we'll figure it out. Andy, what are your thoughts on Jayden Reed? The rookie report card moving forward for Jayden Reed.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, I'm giving Jayden Reed a B-plus. And this is really a situation where I'm like the teacher who wants to incentivize a talented student. It's probably an A moving forward, but we're just going to say B-plus just to make sure he gets there.
I feel like if you ask just any random fantasy manager right now, or any random Packers fan probably, to tell you who leads Green Bay in receiving, they would get this wrong. It's Jayden Reed. He leads the team in yardage. He's second in targets, also has 4 touchdown receptions, which is which is 3 more than Christian Watson has through nine games.
Reed has played almost exclusively from the slot, and he rarely sees more than 35 snaps. That's the thing about Reed. He's barely playing. He'll play like 50% of the snaps in any given week. The fact that his playing time has been so unnecessarily limited gives him plenty of room to ascend. His second half can absolutely end up much better than his first.
JASON FITZ: All right, let's go next, Matt, back to you. Quentin Johnston over there in LA with the Chargers.
MATT HARMON: Oh, time to be a little negative here. I'm going to give Quentin Johnston a D-minus. And look, this is extra harsh. Because in order to project for the future and grade for the future, you've got to look a little bit at the past. And I think the results for Quentin Johnston have been really, I mean, nothing short of a disaster so far.
And frankly, the Chargers knew this was going to happen. Maybe not quite this bad in terms of his just complete lack of ability to get open. But they came into the year not wanting to play this guy. They did not want him to be anything more than their fourth receiver. They want him to be a long-term developmental X receiver behind Mike Williams, which is a huge project.
Because that is not the role, not what he did in college. He didn't thrive in contested situations. He didn't thrive against press coverage. Well, you know what, he's not doing any of that as a rookie in the league. This was a developmental thing. But oh, right, you have Mike Williams, who's injury prone. Josh Palmer gets hurt.
Now Quentin Johnston is forced into a big role. And I think people will get excited about that big role. But everything we've seen so far says this is not a guy who's ready to produce at the NFL level. Hopefully, I'm wrong. The Chargers really need me to be wrong because they need him to produce. They need him to stretch the field.
And so far, I mean, I'm not giving him an F because he's running a lot of routes with Justin Herbert, who's a really good player. But so far, the results on the individual player, not great so far.
JASON FITZ: And by the way, systems matter. We talk about it for quarterbacks all the time. They matter for wide receivers too. I think you make a really good point about what he was capable of, what he's being asked to do. All right, Andy, I think this will be a little bit more positive grade, Tank Dell. Grade moving forward for Tank Dell.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, we'll end on an uplifting note. Tank Dell has to be an A. He's currently the wide receiver 16 overall in fantasy. He's on pace for over 1,000 yards, 9 to 10 touchdowns. Easy A with a shot at an A-plus, honestly, by the end of the season.
Unlike Jayden Reed, Dell has already arrived at a point where he rarely comes off the field. 72 snaps last week, 61 the week before. He's seen a 29% target share over the past four weeks. It helps that his quarterback is in the MVP conversation, no doubt about it. CJ Stroud is playing-- I don't know-- years ahead of where we necessarily thought he would be.
Dell has also shown us everything that you could possibly want to see from a young receiver. Yards after catch ability, excellent hands. He's a good blocker. An ability to shed opposing corners. Dell has shown us absolutely everything. If you're a believer in CJ Stroud, you have got to be a believer in Tank Dell. I think he can finish this season exactly where he sits in the ranks right now as a really solid wide receiver two.