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Justin Carter highlights some rookie wide receivers who should be late-round targets in dynasty league rookies drafts. These WRs could bring great fantasy football value in 2019 and beyond at low ADP cost.
With the NFL Draft behind us, it's rookie draft season for dynasty owners. You probably have some good ideas of who you'll be taking early in those drafts, but what about in the later rounds? Who's your fourth-round rookie pick going to be? How will you ever make sense of the guys available that late?
Well, one way is to let your friendly RotoBallers help you out, which we'll be doing here this month. You can see our full consensus rookie rankings right here.
Today, we're going to look at the wide receivers who were drafted on Day 3 of the NFL Draft who you should be targeting in your dynasty rookie drafts. (Note: Hakeem Butler was a fourth-round pick, but I'm leaving him off because most people still have him as a high pick in rookie drafts.)
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Riley Ridley - Chicago Bears
I can understand some frustration with this landing spot because the Bears have a pretty solid receiver rotation, but this is an up and coming offense and Ridley has a chance to earn snaps down the line, especially with some decent outs from Taylor Gabriel and Allen Robinson's contracts in 2020.
Ridley's athletic. He can be good route runner. He struggled with drops at times in the past, but hands are a thing that can be worked on at the pro level, and he already looked better at that last year. Ridley could give the Bears a real long term threat as the number-two outside guy, but I do drop him down a little in my dynasty rankings because of situation. Can he beat out Anthony Miller for snaps?
In our staff's first rookie mock, Ridley went at 4.09 in a 10-team mock. I think that's an incredible value for a guy with the skill to be an impactful receiver at this level, and while I don't think he's got the ceiling to be a number-one guy, solid WR2s are an important part of building your dynasty squad's depth.
Hunter Renfrow - Oakland Raiders
I wasn't initially thrilled by Renfrow ending up with the Raiders since the team had just spent the offseason rebuilding their receiving corps, but the more I think about the fit, the more I like it from a long term perspective.
Yes, Renfrow's road to immediate impact is blocked. Antonio Brown, Tyrell Williams, and J.J. Nelson are all new additions to this team who should see plenty of targets, and the team also brought in Ryan Grant, who'll likely see most of the slot snaps. Renfrow's got a lot of guys to compete with if he wants to be this team's slot receiver, especially because the Raiders can use any of those first three guys in the spot if they need to.
But aside from Brown, none of those names feel like long term solutions for Oakland. Grant and Nelson are both on one-year deals, so an impressive camp from Renfrow could very likely lead to a 2020 depth chart that has Brown and Williams outside with Renfrow in the slot. He'd give Derek Carr -- or, if the Raiders move on from Carr, a rookie quarterback -- an extremely reliable short-yardage option, which would make him valuable in PPR leagues.
Darius Slayton - New York Giants
Slayton's in a good spot because the Giants basically have two wide receivers -- Golden Tate and Sterling Shepard -- who absolutely need to get snaps, and then they've got a huge glut of underperformers or unknowns. Anyone from this group could wind up playing a key role for this team, which is part of the appeal of Slayton as a late rookie draft flier.
Slayton's big skill is his speed. Slayton runs a 4.39 40-yard dash and also boasts a vertical jump that places in the 98th percentile of wide receivers. He's middle of the road in terms of height, so while he's not going to be a jump ball, contested catch guy, his combination of speed and hops can help him carve out a role as a deep threat for the Giants, a guy who can help Eli Manning or Daniel Jones stretch the field. We'll have to see in training camp and the preseason if he's able to get his routes down and be more than just a vertical option, but if he can, meaningful snaps as the third receiver on this team are up for the taking at this point.
Kelvin Harmon - Washington Redskins
Before the Combine, Harmon was one of the top-ranked wide receivers, and then things went south. Harmon's workout metrics were catastrophically bad, with his percentile ranks among wide receivers ending up rough; he was in the 17th percentile in the 40-yard dash, the 16th in the vertical jump, the 28th in the broad jump, and the 17th in the three-cone drill. All this led to a fall from being a probable second round guy down to being a sixth-round choice by Washington.
But Harmon's still got a lot of upside. He's a good route runner and he's got good hands, two things should help make up for his lack of speed. Harmon's going to have to make his living as a possession receiver, and while the ceiling for possession receivers isn't as high as it is for other receiver builds, Harmon should have a fairly consistent floor, and his size should also allow him to be a good red zone option for Dwayne Haskins. I get the concerns with Harmon, especially in terms of how his lack of speed and his poor jumps that were showcased at the Combine will limit some of his effectiveness, but there's too much upside to not take a chance on him in dynasty leagues, especially when you take into account Washington's so-so depth at the position.
Scott Miller - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
So, look, y'all, I've got some bias here because I got my Master's degree from BGSU and it's not often we get offensive players drafted -- Miller is the first receiver from Bowling Green picked since two were selected in 1990 -- but I also see a decent path for Miller to future snaps in Tampa Bay with Adam Humphries no longer on the team.
There's a good piece from Anthony Amico that breaks down Miller in-depth, but the short of it is this: he's a speedy, undersized receiver who has the ability to get behind the defense, but who also should be able to make things happen in the short and intermediate passing game too. Has the ability to make players miss in open space. Fits a mold that I'm really liking these days, which is the Keke Coutee/Andy Isabella type who can be useful on sweep plays and use his speed on short passing plays, where he should be able to turn the corner and get past slower defenders. If Miller can get snaps on this Buccaneers team, he can be successful.
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