Every single season, most fantasy managers are looking forward to the NFL Draft as well as their own rookie drafts spread out across their various leagues, and this year it is about the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft.

Drafting is often what fantasy managers enjoy the most, be it a startup or rookie draft for dynasty, or for redraft.

Why? Because it is exciting. It is a chance to fall in love with new players on your redraft team, or to add new shiny “toys” to your dynasty roster in the shape of rookies through your Dynasty Rookie Draft.

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Another reason that drafting is so much fun to a lot of fantasy managers, is because you need to apply different strategies depending on the scoring of your league, how the roster setup is, or, in the case of a Dynasty Rookie Draft, how strong and how deep the incoming rookie class is as well as what your roster construction looks like already.

There is no one right way to approach the rookie draft, but with the 2022 NFL Draft just over two weeks away, it is time for fantasy managers to start really thinking about their 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft, because chances are, many rookie drafts will kick off shortly after the NFL Draft is over.

In this article, I am going to be giving my 2 cents (Yep, Sully isn’t the only one with some cents on his pocket), on how I am approaching the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft in the leagues that I am in.

Approaching the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft
Kenneth Walker is going to be one of the top RBs going in your league’s 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft

Depth of the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft Class

When it comes to the depth of a rookie draft class, we obviously need to consider whether we are playing in a 1QB league or a SuperFlex league. This has a big impact as it often changes how many of the top picks are seen as good picks because SuperFlex pushes quarterbacks up the draft board in those leagues.

When it comes to the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft Class, there are 4-5 RBs, about 7-8 WRs, and 1 QB (still not 100% sold on 1 RB and 1 WR) that I want for 1QB leagues. This is a total of 12-14 players. In SuperFlex you can add 4 QBs, making it around 16 players that I want and 2 more that are currently buffers for me. You can see these players in my Dynasty SuperFlex Rookie Rankings.

In 12 team leagues, this means that I expect these players to be gone by pick 2.02 and 2.06 in 1QB and SuperFlex leagues respectively. Maybe one of these players falls one or two spots beyond those picks, but I am not counting on it.

After those players are gone, I think the rest of the second round is just as much of a dart throw as the middle of the third round. Yes, there are players I would like to take shots on, but not in the back half of the second round of a 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft.

Instead, I want to take shots in the third and fourth round, where I might get lucky and hit an upside player like we have seen in previous draft classes, like Elijah Mitchell in 2021 or Chase Claypool in 2020. Because there are a lot of interesting later-round players in the 2022 draft class, but not as many guys who project to be high floor guys that you should take in the second round.

Stand pat and make your pick

If you have picks within those 12-16 picks, my personal preference is to stand pat and take the best player available. If you can, I am not opposed to trading up to 1.01 for Breece Hall, however, I am probably unlikely to want to pay that price. I’ve seen people overpay to move up 2 or 3 spots, and I’m just not into that. Hall is my 1.01 in the class, but he is not so much better than everyone else that I want to overpay for him.

Instead, if I have 1.02 or 1.03 (in SF) I am okay taking either Kenneth Walker or Malik Willis (again, in SF). I believe that those 3 players will have the highest value in 2023 of all the players in the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft Class. As such, I am fine coming out of my drafts with either of those players. The remaining 10-14ish players I have split into two tiers, and after that, I have a massive tier of players, which is why I do not want to pick in the middle or end of the second round.

I have leagues where I’m rebuilding and have a top3 pick. If I can’t get to 1.01 at a reasonable price, I’m staying in my spot. In other leagues, I have late first-rounders, and there I do not want to trade up, because the talent is very similar late in the first round of 2022 Dynasty Rookie Drafts. I’m just going to pick between the players that fall to me, according to my rankings.

Approaching the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft
Treylon Burks might be the best fantasy WR in your league’s 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft

Flipping draft picks

With how I’m handling the first round and the start of the second round in rookie drafts, you are probably at a point where you are asking, “What should I do when I have a mid-second round rookie draft pick if you don’t like the rookie talent there?”.

The answer is you should be looking to flip those mid-to-late second-rounders. Maybe you have a couple, and you can package them to get a late first in the future or you can package it with a player. Maybe you have just one second-rounder, and you can “postpone” that pick by trading it for an equal pick next season.

Or maybe you can trade that second-round pick in the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft for a veteran, that the community is low on. Players like a Brandin Cooks or a Miles Sanders. This could be worthwhile even as a team in rebuild mode because you might be able to flip that player during the 2022 NFL season for a 2023 rookie draft pick at that point.

It doesn’t really matter if you are a contending team or a rebuilding team, I would prefer this approach on a proven talent rather than a complete unknown in what I see as quite a shallow draft class.

If none of these options manifests, you could always try to trade back and get more shots later in the draft. If you can acquire 2-3 rookie draft picks in the third or fourth round, that is a fine move because they will have close to the same chance to hit their upside as those late second-rounders.  Getting more shots means more potential to possibly hit on a late-round guy who could see a big value increase. If you hit on one late-round pick, that might be the difference in you completing your rebuild and contending faster.

Thank you for reading Dynasty Pulse 2022 – Approaching the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft

Remember, all of this is my approach to the 2022 Dynasty Rookie Draft. Your leagues are your leagues for a reason. You should be doing what you want, in order for you to have fun. You (hopefully) know your leagues much better than I do, and as such, the dynamic could be different, and perhaps you should do something entirely different from what I am proposing here. A quick disclaimer is also that this changes if you are playing in an IDP league.

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