Welcome to Monday Mocks, where I’ll bring you (you guessed it), a new mock draft every Monday during the off-season. In my opinion, drafting is the best part of fantasy football, so I do as much of that as I can. This series will be filled with all types of mocks. We’ll draft startups, rookies, devys, and more. Obviously, I love mock drafts but not all mocks are built the same. There are varying purposes for mocks, whether you are a participant or simply an observer.
Years ago, I wrote an article here at DLF called “Rookies and Sophomores and Devys (Oh My!)” That mini-series would eventually become known as our Cornerstone Rankings, an idea that was so popular it has been accepted and repeated by multiple other sites and content creators.
The idea behind our Cornerstone Rankings is to combine the most recent rookie class, the current rookie class, and the players eligible for next year’s rookie class. That means the players eligible for these rankings are adjusted every year, around this time. Recently, we’ve removed the rookie class of 2021 and added players likely to be drafted in 2024.
As the name suggests, these young players can often serve as the cornerstone for a dynasty team. Build teams around these players and set your team up to compete for league titles for years to come. The Cornerstone Rankings can be very valuable as they offer perspective as to how we should value next year’s picks, seeking to weed through the ongoing rookie hype that engulfs dynasty players on an annual basis.
This week, I’ll share a one-man mock, my view of how the players in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 rookie classes should be ranked compared to one another. To match our Cornerstone Rankings, I’ve used the superflex format for this mock.
ROUND ONE:
As impressive as the rookie crop from last season was, the top-valued player in this group still has to be the incoming rookie back Robinson. After a dominant college career, displaying all the traits you’d want from a workhorse runner, Robinson is expected to be the first-round pick in the NFL Draft, likely the consensus 1.01 rookie pick in all formats and he has a very good chance to enter the league as the dynasty RB1 already.
