Rookie stock watch

[CL3VELANDBR0WNS]

Burrow: Looked about as expected. I think the game plan was expectedly conservative as he appeared unwilling to take unnecessary shots under pressure that most rookie QBs make. Made one extremely cringe worthy shovel pass. He did rally and make big time completion after big time completion especially in a 2 minute drill. This is encouraging as once they take the training wheels off and go up-tempo, Burrow might be scary good. BS call on final pass, missed Green on a busted coverage, and John Ross had a brutal drop. Could have been a much bigger day. He could be this year's king of game script once they run into a legit offense.

Taylor: I think this will be the last opportunity to buy him ever again. Legit shot at a top-10 finish.

Akers: I loved the role. Drafted him in many leagues but he looked awful. I will stay patient as I bailed on fellow Seminole Dalvin Cook after similar early career struggles.

Shenault & Lamb: I think these will be the top 2 WRs this year depending on Sutton's health in front of Jeudy in Denver. Lamb is as advertised and Shenault could have a Deebo Samuel-esque rookie season with a clean bill of health.

[mild]

Taylor: I think this will be the last opportunity to buy him ever again. Legit shot at a top-10 finish.

The sort of owners that have already managed to get him are not selling. And triply so now with Mack gone.

I put a Chubb for Taylor offer out pre-week 1 and it was shot down. Told me all I needed to know.

[DynoScout]

Cephus looked like he belongs on the field. Someone just needs to remind Stafford that he’s 6’-01” not 6’-10”.

I agree on Cephus; pressed into duty W1 without a normal offseason and he looked like he belonged. He even looked bigger than his listed size, just not 6'10"! Stats aside, a promising first professional impression.

I think the Lions have a longterm contributor there. Time will tell if he contributes enough, and reliably enough, to ever be someone we want to start for our fantasy lineups.

[Kurt G.O.A.T.]

Credit where it's due, it's obv early but MikeH,the artist formerly known as MeUraH (sp?), seems to have nailed Henderson and now Akers. He was far below consensus on both.

mike hunt?

[TheNuts]

Just my thoughts, feel free to add your own. Doing this as much to get my thoughts on paper. Only including players I saw (or saw their team, in some cases).

QBs

Joe Burrow neutral: looked like a rookie QB: flashes of really good play and some horrifying rookie mistakes. I've always figured there would be some adjustment from being able to walk on water at LSU to playing in the NFL.

Tua Tagovailoa slightly up: he'll see the field sooner rather than later imo.

Justin Herbert slightly up: he'll see the field sooner rather than later imo.

RBs

Clyde Edwards-Helaire up: not possible to climb much higher than he is now, but week 1 did everything it could to justify the ADP.

D'Andre Swift slightly up: the drop was... Lions-esque, but he looks like a good route running and KJ looks like garbage. Swift will probably be the passing down back in Detroit with room to grow toward the end of the season.

JK Dobbins slightly up: I'm a huge JK fan but I won't read to much into the Ravens throttling the Browns. Goal line touches are a great sign, he blocked well for Lamar which is huge. I don't think he's "taken over" the backfield yet but he's already forced a RBBC.

Cam Akers slightly down: he looked like he lacked any vision and Brown looked really solid. They trust Brown way more atm and Akers didn't doing anything to change that.

Jonathan Taylor up: at the cost of Mack's career, probably (& disappointingly). He didn't look great on the ground, but who would have guessed he'd be the #1 rookie receiving back of week 1?

AJ Dillon neutral: Jones looked good. Dillon remains a hold for me.

WRs

CeeDee Lamb up: on the field for most of the game, looked explosive and reliable.

Henry Ruggs up: he got schemed touches and looked very at home.

Bryan Edwards down: he did about what we'd expect for any other rookie in his position, but definitely didn't play up to the hype.

I agree with most of these and love the idea of a thread tracking them. I disagree on Burrow. That was about as impressive a rookie debut as we could have hoped for. I love what I saw.

The hype on Edwards was out of control. His value isn't down in my eyes, but I didn't expect him to be a big part of the offense in week 1. He might be down a little in terms of market value.

I think Moss' value is slightly up simply because of how the snaps played out.

Kelley, Robinson, Shenault, Van Jefferson all up a bit in my opinion.

We need to remember Derrick Carr is his qb. He doesn't feature any receiver in the offense.

[CGW]

Guess it's time to add Claypool. Crowded WR core, but he's made a couple nice catches. Probably not bumping him up, but definitely not fading him.

[Jigga94]

Guess it's time to add Claypool. Crowded WR core, but he's made a couple nice catches. Probably not bumping him up, but definitely not fading him.

I think behind Juju, it will be very competitive. I agree with your assessment of Claypool

[FantasyFreak]

We need to remember Derrick Carr is his qb. He doesn't feature any receiver in the offense.

Has nothing to do with Carr. It's the system Gruden runs. Carr threw plenty to Crabtree and Coop a few years ago. Ruggs will be targeted enough. They love to spread the ball around, by design, though. Not sure about Edwards. He's a little raw, still. He wouldn't have been starting without the Tyrell injury.

[M-Dub]

Credit where it's due, it's obv early but MikeH,the artist formerly known as MeUraH (sp?), seems to have nailed Henderson and now Akers. He was far below consensus on both.

mike hunt?

Don’t you have some pre-algebra homework to finish up?

[Chwf3rd]

Don't totally get the Akers hate when compared to the other rookie RBs.

The only one of the big 5 rookie RBs that produced on the ground was CEH.

JT - 9 carries for 22 yards
Dobbins - 7 carries for 21 yards
Swift - 3 carries for 8 yards
Akers - 14 carries for 39 yards

Biggest difference I think is that Akers played in primetime so most people actually watched the entire game.

[murphysxm]

I think it is a tad unrealistic to judge rookies this early when they had an abbreviated off season and no preseason. I am mostly just looking at useage. That atleast tells me what the staff thinks of the talent

[CGW]

Don't totally get the Akers hate when compared to the other rookie RBs.

The only one of the big 5 rookie RBs that produced on the ground was CEH.

JT - 9 carries for 22 yards
Dobbins - 7 carries for 21 yards
Swift - 3 carries for 8 yards
Akers - 14 carries for 39 yards

Biggest difference I think is that Akers played in primetime so most people actually watched the entire game.

I didn't see Dobbins, but I think people are just excited about him getting goal line work on a team that scores a ton.

The biggest concern for JT was his involvement in the pass game. There is obviously no concern anymore as he went 6 of 6 for 67.

Swift was also targeted in the passing game and would have likely been the game "MVP" if he didn't drop that TD in the 4th.

I don't think Akers should be faded, but also not really targeting him either. I think people are just now seeing that it may be some time before he beats out Brown, who looked like he was rushing vs a completely different team than Akers.

[IR1]

I wasn't real high on Akers before the draft and the Rams didn't really boost his value for me. That said, if I can get him cheap, I'd be interested

[jenkins.math]

I think it is a tad unrealistic to judge rookies this early when they had an abbreviated off season and no preseason. I am mostly just looking at useage. That atleast tells me what the staff thinks of the talent

I think that this line of thinking is going to limit, or even eliminate, the typical buying window on disappointing rookies we usually get in the offseason this year.

[PR0v3]

I think it is a tad unrealistic to judge rookies this early when they had an abbreviated off season and no preseason. I am mostly just looking at useage. That atleast tells me what the staff thinks of the talent

Agreed. I don’t believe the coaches made Akers the starter and gave him 14 carries for no reason. There has to be at least some level of faith/trust in him to do that in game 1 of his career with a limited offseason. They certainly never showed rhat kind of confidence in Henderson. It’s still a wait and see situation for me.