Finally, after months of speculating about who would land where (except for Caleb Williams) and how high they would be taken in the NFL Draft (except for Caleb Williams), the incoming rookie class has landed.

Over in the Fantasy Index Discord server we have a set of superflex dynasty leagues with uniform lineups and scoring that we use to help calibrate value and sharpen our blades for our personal leagues – and also because it makes discussing and debating players with each other even more fun.

With our field of participants all champing at the bit to get their hands on these rookies now that they've found NFL homes, the FIDD (Fantasy Index Discord Dynasty) superflex rookie drafts started Sunday morning and wrapped up Tuesday night. Here is how they played out, with some of my commentary and opinion mixed in after each round.

After months of in-house debate over who the true 1.01 in the superflex rookie draft two-man top tier would and should be, Caleb Williams completes the clean sweep with Marvin Harrison Jr. predictably following him every time. The owner of the first pick in the paid league, “Boards”, had a much bigger need at wide receiver than he did at quarterback, but he still elected to go with the new face of the Chicago Bears.

The next four picks in the first round were still highly stable: Malik Nabers was selected with the 1.03 in every league except for one (and in that league the owner had both the third and fifth overall picks and knew there was little risk of Nabers going at 1.04, so still sort of the 1.03); Jayden Daniels went between the third and fifth pick in each league and Drake Maye went in that range in three of our four leagues; Rome Odunze was taken once each at every spot between 1.04 and 1.07; and JJ McCarthy was either the sixth or seventh player off the board, without fail. The one bogey from this tier was in FIDD-F2, where a surprise Brian Thomas Jr. selection at 1.07 helped to bounce Drake Maye all the way to Lou at 1.09. Reached for comment Lou had this to say: “To be honest, I couldn’t believe my luck when Drake Maye, the number three overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, fell to me there. I was so excited I couldn’t hit the draft button fast enough. A big shoutout to my league mates for making this possible.”

The third tier in the first round coalesced into a three-man unit: Brock Bowers went eighth in three leagues, Brian Thomas Jr. between seventh and ninth in three, and Bo Nix was glued to the board at either 1.09 or 1.10, mirroring McCarthy’s ADP clarity. The big outlier from this group happened in FIDD-M1, where a perfect sequence of needs-based picks from 1.08 thru 1.11 allowed Brian Thomas Jr. to jump way down the board to Boards all the way at 1.12 in the biggest shocker in any of the four first round draft results.

The fourth and final tier in the 1st round wraps around into the second. It is a very large tier to have so early on, speaking to the overall depth and quality of this rookie class at the skill positions: Ladd McConkey (ADP 11.5), Jonathon Brooks (12.0) Xavier Worthy (12.5), and Trey Benson (14.5) were the ones that made appearances in the first round.

Favorite picks: Drake Maye at 1.09 and Brian Thomas at 1.12 are the kinds of absurd value windfalls that you brag about for months, sometimes years later. Rome Odunze enters a very crowded offense, but his talent and that of the players around him is just too compelling to resist in the middle of the first round. And of course, Caleb Williams and Marvin Harrison Jr. at the top of the board should be more than capable of reversing the fortunes of even the most moribund dynasty rosters.

Suspect picks: Xavier Worthy at 1.09 would have been a fine pick in most rookie drafts, but not in this stellar 2024 cohort. Jonathon Brooks and Trey Benson have been my top two running backs in the class for months, but neither have any real business in the first round; the depth chart seas may not part for either in 2024. I’m definitely a believer in talent winning out over situation, but Malik Nabers could not have landed any worse. I understand sticking by him at 1.03, but I understand trying to buy low on him right before Daniel Jones’ last start for the Giants even more. Jayden Daniels' rushing floor is unimpeachable; nothing else about his game nor his new surroundings are.

I suspect the top half of the second round of superflex rookie drafts is where most will be won or lost when we look back a year from now: A bumper crop of incoming rookies means players that would normally have been late first rounders in other years are going to be crowded down into the second round in 2024. Because of this, I would strongly urge that you move to acquire early 2nd round picks for your Mike Williams, Raheem Mostert or Russell Wilson-caliber players. With no 2024 1st rounder in his possession dreamkiller read these tea leaves back in February, wisely packaging Deshaun Watson and some far future mid-rounders for picks 2.02 and 2.05 to pair with his native 2.03, allowing him to hoover up an excellent discount trio of Michael Penix Jr., Ricky Pearsall and Xavier Legette. Said dreamkiller, “I’m just happy I had three early second round picks who were all basically drafted in the first round. Looking back a couple years from now getting Penix at the 2.02 and Ricky at the 2.03 will be the best value picks. At 2.05 I liked the upside and opportunity in XL (Xavier Legette)”.

The tier that began at the end of the 1st round wraps around here and continues the WR binge, adding Keon Coleman (ADP 15.5) and Pearsall (16.5) and generally being followed quickly by Xavier Legette (18.0), Adonai Mitchell (18.25) and Troy Franklin (19.25). One player that a lot of us seemed to be trying to stash in our hip pockets by remaining tight-lipped about in the FI community server was Ricky Pearsall, whose surprise first round pedigree and landing spot catapulted up the board in the eleventh hour (a popular NFL rumor account on Twitter further exacerbated this on Monday with the veiled implication that a 49ers wide receiver was due to be traded to Pittsburgh any minute). My failed last-minute offer of Cooper Kupp for the Pearsall pick in FIDD-M1 was apparently one of a few such Pearsall fly-bys.

Michael Penix Jr. (17.5) and Ja’Lynn Polk (22.5) were the last two players who got off the board in all four leagues – Penix Jr. predictably all over the board, Polk always at either the 22nd or 23rd pick. Rounding out the 2nd round appearances were Jaylen Wright (22.25) and Blake Corum (22.25) thrice, Roman Wilson (24.0) and MarShawn Lloyd (24.75) twice, and lone wolf appearances by Malachi Corley (26.5) and Audric Estime (33.0).

Favorite picks: Boards doubled down on his good fortune after the late Brian Thomas Jr. selection Boards by adding a 2.01 buy on Ladd McConkey, who suddenly finds himself staring at top billing on a Jim Harbaugh team that should win games. Skeptical of him in the top 15, Trey Benson at pick 2.07 is a very strong value for a player with a tantalizing ceiling and a promising landing spot in Arizona – if not strictly for 2024 purposes then certainly beyond. Troy Franklin at 2.12 was tremendous value for a player that was a consensus late first rounder in fantasy drafts a couple of months ago and has been reunited with his college batterymate. Xavier Legette and Ricky Pearsall at 2.08 and 2.06 respectively are players who could easily have us laughing at ourselves for having outside the first round, come the fall.

Suspect picks: In a vacuum, Adonai Mitchell is a promising young receiver with a great college pedigree and basically flawless combine measurements. But given his lackluster college production, narrow route tree at Texas and the dreaded ‘effort level’ questions I don’t think he should be going at 2.04 ahead of guys like Legette, Franklin and Keon Coleman. While in general I’m a supporter of drafting talent more than circumstances, I still can’t see my way to MarShawn Lloyd at 2.12; he is utterly boxed out by Josh Jacobs for the foreseeable future and will be nearly 24 by week 1. I appear to be solidly in the minority on this front, but nevertheless I cannot condone even mid-second round picks being burned on Michael Penix Jr., whose best-case scenario has now become ‘the Falcons move on from Kirk Cousins in 2026 with $35 million in dead salary cap’ – if you want to speculate on a QB beyond 2024 there are much cheaper ways to do it at the tail end of the board. Malachi Corley was deserving of his buzz as something of a discount Amon-ra St. Brown YAC generator in the runup to the draft, and being the #65 overall pick is a nice draft capital endorsement – but I don’t love the landing spot with the Jets, especially in 2024. He boasts NFL workhorse size and finds himself in a very RB-friendly Denver ecosystem, but Audric Estime is solidly outside my top-35. Forty-yard dash times aren’t everything… unless you run a 4.7, then they kind of are.

The cascading effect continues into round three, with the sheer quantity of quality prospects in the 2nd round range pushing players that have real chances of being fantasy relevant into the third round. Malachi Corley was off the other three boards by the 29th pick; Jermaine Burton, a fiery deep threat from Alabama, was gone from all four of our draft boards in the first four picks of the round; the versatile playmaker Javon Baker came off the board in the middle of the third round four times; the third (or perhaps second) musketeer in the high-flying Huskies’ offense Jalen McMillan was gone everywhere by the middle-to-late third; and the number two and three tight ends got off the board here in all four leagues as well in Ben Sinnott and Ja’Tavion Sanders.

Probably the most shockingly aggressive ‘reach’ up the board in any of our rookie drafts came in FIDD-M1 when dreamkiller burned the 26th pick on little-known Kimani Vidal, a stoutly built 5’8 running back that was prolific for Troy last year. At his size the Blake Corum comparisons were inevitable – especially once he landed with the Chargers. With a reputation as a bit of a ‘sleeper guru’, once word got around the FI crew that Vidal had gone off the board that early (to the loud disappointment of his fellow guru Boards) that was more than enough to chase Vidal from potential undrafted territory up into the late 3rd to 4th rounds of the other drafts. He’s definitely an early favorite of ours.

Favorite picks: Just a treasure trove of great values throughout here. Jermaine Burton was drafted into a roster-building situation very similar to Ricky Pearsall: Rookie on an elite offense that could trade one of the star receivers ahead of him at any time, but he’s a full round cheaper. Javon Baker makes things happen at every level of the field and creates on his own after the catch, and the target hierarchy in New England is entirely up for grabs. After Ja’Tavion Sanders spent the winter as the consensus TE2 in this draft class, Ben Sinnott’s combine results and solid college production have seen him slingshot up into that spot, I think for good. But I’d be skeptical of him staying outside the top 25 much longer – the Sam LaPorta comparisons are coming. Jalen McMillan is the last of the Husky receivers off the board, but he’s a high motor guy who nearly fought Rome Odunze to a stalemate in that offense’s pecking order before a knee injury reared its head. And I was thrilled when that same trade rumor that had pushed Ricky Pearsall up the board out of my hands helped Roman Wilson make it all the way to me at 3.05 on the otherwise brutally tough M1 draft board.

Suspect picks: It starts to get hard to throw too much shade at picks in this range… but I’ll give it a whirl anyway. While I’m definitely eager to see if he can still fulfill some of the potential that made him a five-star college recruit, Spencer Rattler has no business going at 3.08 over immediate potential contributors – the Saints couldn’t escape Derek Carr’s contract before 2026 if they tried. Braelon Allen is an absolute bull and only turned 20 in January, but finds himself trapped in a Jets backfield that does not lack for (superior) talent. Originally slated to pick at 3.04, I traded the pick to move back three spots and acquire a 2025 3rd before taking Devontez Walker the earliest he would go on any of our boards, passing up multiple very comparable talents (Corley, Baker, McMillan) for the privilege; if those names pan out and Walker crashes out of the league quickly that one could haunt me. And while it’s certainly an improvement over him going 24th overall and I don't want to pick on the guy, even 3.06 is too early for an old school, between-the-tackles battering ram like Audric Estime.

Even deep draft classes are pretty spent by the fourth round, and the 2024 class is no exception. Brenden Rice and Luke McCaffrey, the lesser-known legacy pledges in this rookie cohort, are a couple of moderately interesting lottery tickets that finally get their names called in all four leagues in the fourth – with PackFan managing to snag Rice all the way down at 4.10 in a league, a stellar end game find. Erick All and Theo Johnson are a couple of big, projectable tight ends that both find themselves on NFL depth charts that they will have the opportunity to ascend quickly if either can play. Isaac Guerendo was a total unknown three months ago, but a dynamite showing at the Scouting Combine changed that in a hurry – he could be our next Isiah Pacheco if he plays his cards right.

Echoing the sentiments of the always-wise Andy Richardson earlier in the week, I panned the Michael Penix Jr. mid-2nd ADP as a foolish warehousing of draft capital for the next two years at absolute best and mentioned a preferable, cheaper way of going about speculating on a team’s future at quarterback later in the draft – and that player has quickly become Jordan Travis for me, who stands poised to potentially serve as a bridge in 2025 if the grand Aaron Rodgers experiment craters. I was proud that our guys had the good sense to take him in three out of the four drafts (although to be fair our good friend Venthusiast quickly atoned by slapping down a hefty 50% FAAB bid to get him in the first batch of waivers after the FIDD-F2 draft concluded).

Bucky Irving and Will Shipley are a couple of third down back types that may have just enough juice to handle 8-12 carries a game at the heights of their NFL careers. Already 25 in November yet with only one year of experience playing running back to speak of, Tyrone Tracy nevertheless had strong efficiency as a sixth-year senior, showed very well at the combine and lands in a Giants backfield where a lot of work is there for the taking post-Saquon.

Favorite picks: I reached on him a bit in FIDD-F1, but after frantically trying to move up from my pick in the 4th to go get him again in M1 I was elated to see Devontez Walker make it to me at 4.02. The Baltimore passing offense may be no great shakes, but I think Zay Flowers is severely overrated and Walker has a similar ceiling to Adonai Mitchell for pennies on the dollar. Possibly the Sam Howell of the draft class, Jordan Travis was really pretty stellar in his last two seasons at Florida State (48:7 TD-INT ratio, 14 rushing TDs) before the unfortunate broken leg five months ago. Kimani Vidal and Isaac Guerendo are the platonic ideal upside plays at running back here, with the very athletic Brenden Rice my poster child fourth rounder among wide receivers. Theo Johnson has freaky physical gifts (4.57 40-yard dash at an official 6’6” and 259 pounds!), but I think I prefer the overall college production profile and certainly the NFL landing spot of Erick All – if he can keep the injury bug at bay.

Suspect picks: I do this for a living and even I barely know the name Rasheen Ali.

For a spreadsheet of these draft results, as well as an ADP chart for the top 48 rookies in these drafts, stop by the FI Discord server and go to the #fantasy-football-resources channel to grab a copy. And while you’re there feel free to hobnob with some of the guys about the 2024 rookie class in #the-watercooler!

--Luke Wilson