It was a crazy first round of the NFL Draft, with 3 top-10 quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers getting Aaron Rodgers'd, and six wide receivers. But probably the first rookie selected in most fantasy drafts and maybe the 1.01 in rookie drafts was the last pick of the night, Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
I said here yesterday that I didn't think a running back would be drafted in the first round, and if one was, it would probably be one of the backs widely believed to be the top 2 in the class, either Jonathan Taylor or D'Andre Swift. But it's Edwards-Helaire going to the Super Bowl champs, and it's a pick that will be very interesting, both in 2020 and beyond.
Edwards-Helaire lacks the measurables you'd expect from a first-round running back. That's indisputable. He ran a 4.6 at the combine and is built like Maurice Jones-Drew or maybe Ray Rice at 5-foot-7, 207 pounds.
But MJD, of course, was a great fantasy back, starting out in a committee with Fred Taylor and then taking over that backfield. Rice too, stuck behind Jamal Lewis as a rookie and the lead guy a year later. And also like those players, Edwards-Helaire is a really good receiving back. (Another comp I'm seeing a lot of is Brian Westbrook, who Andy Reid was of course familiar with.) Factoring in both rushing and receiving, he was maybe the best three-down back in the draft class.
Last year 56 FBS college players rushed for 1,000 yards. Of those players, Edwards-Helaire caught the most passes. (Table sorted by receptions.)
| 1000-YARD COLLEGE RUSHERS, 2019 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | School | Run | TD | No | Rec | TD |
| Clyde Edwards-Helaire | LSU | 1414 | 16 | 55 | 453 | 1 |
| Kenny Gainwell | Memphis | 1459 | 13 | 51 | 610 | 3 |
| Eno Benjamin | Arizona State | 1083 | 10 | 42 | 347 | 2 |
| Jason Huntley | New Mexico State | 1090 | 9 | 40 | 192 | 2 |
| Torrance Marable | Coastal Carolina | 1085 | 11 | 38 | 295 | 3 |
| Travis Etienne | Clemson | 1614 | 19 | 37 | 432 | 4 |
| Jonathan Ward | Central Michigan | 1108 | 15 | 34 | 329 | 1 |
| Tra Minter | South Alabama | 1057 | 5 | 32 | 209 | 0 |
| Lynn Bowden Jr. | Kentucky | 1468 | 13 | 30 | 348 | 1 |
| Cam Akers | Florida State | 1144 | 14 | 30 | 225 | 4 |
| Zack Moss | Utah | 1416 | 15 | 28 | 388 | 2 |
| Ke'Shawn Vaughn | Vanderbilt | 1028 | 9 | 28 | 270 | 1 |
| Najee Harris | Alabama | 1224 | 13 | 27 | 304 | 7 |
| Pooka Williams | Kansas | 1061 | 3 | 27 | 214 | 2 |
| Jonathan Taylor | Wisconsin | 2003 | 21 | 26 | 252 | 5 |
| George Holani | Boise State | 1014 | 7 | 26 | 206 | 3 |
| D'Andre Swift | Georgia | 1218 | 7 | 24 | 216 | 1 |
| Gaej Walker | Western Kentucky | 1208 | 8 | 24 | 140 | 0 |
| Justin Henderson | Louisiana Tech | 1062 | 15 | 24 | 200 | 1 |
| Chuba Hubbard | Oklahoma State | 2094 | 21 | 23 | 198 | 0 |
| J.K. Dobbins | Ohio State | 2003 | 21 | 23 | 247 | 2 |
| Kobe Lewis | Central Michigan | 1074 | 12 | 23 | 164 | 0 |
| Darrynton Evans | Appalachian State | 1480 | 18 | 21 | 198 | 5 |
| Michael Warren II | Cincinnati | 1265 | 14 | 21 | 153 | 2 |
| Michael Carter | North Carolina | 1003 | 3 | 21 | 154 | 2 |
| Xavier Jones | SMU | 1276 | 23 | 20 | 90 | 2 |
| Rakeem Boyd | Arkansas | 1133 | 8 | 19 | 160 | 0 |
| Ben LeMay | Charlotte | 1082 | 9 | 19 | 242 | 4 |
| Kylin Hill | Mississippi State | 1350 | 10 | 18 | 180 | 1 |
| Tra Barnett | Georgia State | 1453 | 12 | 16 | 69 | 0 |
| Salvon Ahmed | Washington | 1020 | 11 | 16 | 84 | 0 |
| LeVante Bellamy | Western Michigan | 1472 | 23 | 15 | 55 | 0 |
| Brenden Knox | Marshall | 1387 | 11 | 14 | 129 | 0 |
| CJ Verdell | Oregon | 1220 | 8 | 14 | 125 | 0 |
| Jaret Patterson | Buffalo | 1799 | 19 | 13 | 209 | 1 |
| AJ Dillon | Boston College | 1685 | 14 | 13 | 195 | 1 |
| Josh Johnson | Louisiana-Monroe | 1298 | 11 | 13 | 122 | 0 |
| Kevin Marks | Buffalo | 1035 | 8 | 12 | 41 | 0 |
| Xazavian Valladay | Wyoming | 1265 | 6 | 11 | 211 | 2 |
| Joshua Kelley | UCLA | 1060 | 12 | 11 | 71 | 1 |
| Frankie Hickson | Liberty | 1041 | 12 | 11 | 96 | 1 |
| Elijah Mitchell | Louisiana | 1147 | 16 | 10 | 70 | 1 |
| Kennedy Brooks | Oklahoma | 1011 | 6 | 10 | 79 | 0 |
| Shamari Brooks | Tulsa | 1046 | 6 | 9 | 49 | 1 |
| Bryant Koback | Toledo | 1187 | 12 | 8 | 69 | 2 |
| Kevin Mensah | Connecticut | 1013 | 9 | 8 | 91 | 0 |
| Caleb Huntley | Ball State | 1275 | 12 | 7 | 25 | 0 |
| Charles Williams | UNLV | 1257 | 11 | 7 | 54 | 0 |
| Rodney Smith | Minnesota | 1163 | 8 | 7 | 70 | 0 |
| Tre Harbison | Northern Illinois | 1021 | 8 | 6 | 47 | 0 |
| Javian Hawkins | Louisville | 1525 | 9 | 4 | 58 | 0 |
| Kadin Remsberg | Air Force | 1050 | 8 | 3 | 24 | 0 |
| Jalen Hurts | Oklahoma | 1298 | 20 | 2 | 25 | 1 |
| Malcolm Perry | Navy | 2017 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Asher O'Hara | Middle Tennessee State | 1058 | 9 | 0 | -5 | 0 |
| John Rhys Plumlee | Ole Miss | 1023 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Several other players on this list will be drafted tonight. Swift, Taylor, Akers, Dobbins. Only Akers of those players caught half as many passes as Edwards-Helaire. Pretty good bet that was a major consideration in why Kansas City made this pick.
Kansas City has Damien Williams as its current starter. It also has Darrel Williams, last year's sixth-rounder Darwin Thompson (whose dynasty value just dropped to nil), Elijah McGuire and the recently signed DeAndre Washington.
But it's very difficult to look at this move by Kansas City and not think the team's best back this year will wind up being Edwards-Helaire. Early on it might be a committee in which Williams is the main guy. By Week 8? We'll see.
--Andy Richardson