Fantasy Football-Rookies to keep tabs on

NFL training camps have begun, and even though there will not be any preseason games to showcase players, here are three intriguing players that are worth following throughout camps and heading into the season.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire (RB) Kansas City Chiefs
Early last week, Chiefs’ starting RB Damian Williams decided to opt-out of the 2020 season, opening up opportunities for the rookie from LSU, Clyde Edwards-Helaire. The Chiefs took Edwards-Helaire, the only RB to go in the first round, even though they certainly did not need any offensive skill players.

The LSU Tigers were the best offensive team in all of the NCAA last year. They won the NCAA title and broke almost all team offensive records, but the running game was certainly overlooked since all the hype went to number one overall pick and Heisman Winner Joe Burrow.

Edwards-Helaire’s 2019 season (Rushing:1414YDS 6.6AVG 16TD, Receiving: 55REC 453YDS 8.2AVG) was enough to motivate him to declare for the draft as a junior. With the potential of the Chiefs’ offense and how well rookie RB’s tend to do, you might have to take Edwards-Helaire as high as the first or second round. Keep an eye on Chiefs’ camp to see how he is gelling with the offense, and keep an ear out for what Reid says about him. So far, there are no real RBs behind him to steal touches making Edwards-Helaire a true third-down back with the potential to end the year as a top-five back by the end of the season.

Justin Jefferson (WR) Vikings
Justin Jefferson is another rookie to watch from the same explosive LSU offense. Jefferson fell into as good a position a rookie WR can be in. The Minnesota Vikings have had one of the best WR tandems in the league, Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, for the past four years. But this offseason, the Vikings decided to trade Diggs to the Buffalo Bills. Diggs spent five years with the Vikings, where he averaged 106.8 targets per year. A lot of targets that Jefferson figures to be the biggest beneficiary.

Jefferson was in a loaded class of WR that came out of this year’s draft; he was one of six WR to get. Even though Jefferson was not the first WR taken of this group, he could be the best of the whole draft class. Jefferson did almost nothing his freshman year, only appearing two games. In his Sophomore year, Jefferson showed promise (13G 54REC 875YDS 16.2AVG 6TD), but it was his Junior season (15G 111REC 1540YDS 13.9AVG 18TD) that he got noticed. Jefferson now gets to come in and (hopefully) start alongside Adam Thielen, one of the best WR in the league and somebody Jefferson can learn a lot from. The Vikings may have let go of superstar Diggs, but Jefferson has the potential to put up better numbers than Diggs, so make sure to keep an eye on the Vikings camp to see where Jefferson lines up this year.

D’Andre Swift (RB) Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions have had their fair share of RBs (Kerryon Johnson, Ameer Abdullah, Mikel Leshoure, Jahvid Best), and none seemed to have worked out, so they decided to take D’andre Swift in the 2nd round of the 2020 draft.

Georgia running backs have a good track record of being productive, Todd Gurley comes to mind, and any team would be overjoyed with getting Gurley-like production from their backs. Swift will not be held to the same expectations as Gurley when the Rams jumped up to grab him in the first round. Swift was taken in the second round and should be able to take over lead back duties in camp from Kerryon Johnson.

Swift had a magnificent career (440ATT 2885YDS 6.6AVG 20TD 73REC 9.1AVG 666YDS 5TD), at Georgia, where they usually run a two-back system splitting time 50/50. People will point to this as a negative and say Swift will not be able to be a three-down lead back, but that only means he has only taken half the beating. The one thing that would worry me about Swift is whether he can catch the ball out of the backfield; if he can, Swift did not show it off at Georgia while he was there. A big thing to keep an eye on depending on the kind of league you are in. If Swift earns the first spot on the depth chart, people may overlook him because of the Lions bad history with backs, but Swift should be taken as a solid RB2 or a great flex option.