2024 NFL Draft: Day 2 Takeaways

Day 2 — and thus Rounds 2 and 3 — of the 2024 NFL Draft is in the books. There weren’t the headlines of Day 1, but there were still plenty of picks made Friday that will influence fantasy football in a big way in 2024.

So let’s take a look at the drama from Friday night and see what it means for us in fantasy.

Fantasy Football Fallout of the 2024 NFL Draft: Rounds 2 and 3

No More Quarterbacks

Six quarterbacks went in the first 12 picks Thursday, but that’s been it for the position in this year’s draft so far. That’s not a huge shock, as there was a clear group of six quarterbacks in this year’s draft class atop most people’s rankings, but after all six of them got steamed so early, there was some wonder whether the next guy up (for most people, Spencer Rattler) might rise as well. Instead, the position was dry Thursday.

There are still teams (namely the Raiders) that could use a quarterback, but at this point, a Day 3 quarterback is unlikely to be a factor in the NFL ever, let alone in Year 1. (Yes, I hear you, Brock Purdy and Tom Brady people, but it’s still true.) Rattler will go at some point, but it would be a pretty big surprise if he matters in 2024 — not that anyone thought he would before the draft.

4 Running Backs on Day 2

This was a bad year to be hoping for a difference-maker out of the backfield in the draft. There not only was no back like Bijan Robinson who might rise to the top of the draft, there wasn’t anyone who even got whispers of being a first-rounder. The first back off the board was Jonathon Brooks, going to the Panthers at 46 overall, the only back in the second round. After him, Trey Benson (3.66, Cardinals), Blake Corum (3.83, Rams) and MarShawn Lloyd (3.88, Packers) went.

Corum heading to Los Angeles is the most obvious handcuff pick. He’s basically a Kyren Williams starter kit, and now he backs up Williams. Translation: Absent a Williams injury, Corum isn’t going to do much for us.

Lloyd landed in Green Bay, where the Packers just replaced a 29-year-old Aaron Jones with a 26-year-old Josh Jacobs in free agency and re-signed AJ Dillon. Lloyd could easily supplant Dillon as the RB2 right away, but Jacobs is going to be the starter in 2024. That said, the Packers built outs into Jacobs contract after every season, so if Lloyd impresses in Green Bay, there’s a pretty easy way he could be the starter in 2025.

Benson is intriguing — he had an argument as the No. 1 RB in the draft, and he landed on a team whose only relevant back (James Conner) turns 29 next week, just had his first career 1,000-yard season and has missed multiple games in every season of his career. Conner will start for Arizona, but the team is clearly building toward a Connerless future, and that future should feature Benson … and that could start in 2024 if Conner gets banged up.

That leaves Brooks, who … you know what, let’s just hit the Panthers all at once.

What Are the Panthers Doing?

Carolina has had the kind of draft that is easy to turn into a positive if you are a fan or if you just want to. They traded up into the first round to get their quarterback a wide receiver. They traded up in the second for a running back who could start soon for them. And they grabbed a linebacker after promoting a linebacker to their GM role. You can make that sound exciting if you are so inclined.

Or, if you are not so inclined (hi, it’s me), you can say that the people who are excited about those picks (and perhaps the people who made those picks) are drafting like casual football fans. In Xavier Legette in Round 1, they took a 23-year-old five-year receiver who topped 200 yards exactly one time in college. Yes, Legette’s 2023 (1,255 yards, 7 touchdowns) was excellent, but doing that at age 22 when you haven’t done anything before that is a lot of grains of salt.

Brooks was comfortably my RB1 in this draft, so in a sense, getting him is good. But this is a Panthers team that might have had the worst roster in the NFL last season and has only made marginal improvements so far. The team had more needs than a running back (one who is recovering from a torn ACL), and there had to be a better use of resources than trading up for the right to do so.

Wallace isn’t a fantasy factor, so I’ll just touch on him here — he wasn’t seen as an obvious Day 1/2 pick, and a team overdrafting a linebacker with its only third-round pick is not what you want to see.

(All that said, this move could be exciting for fantasy — it sounds like Brooks will be healthy for the season, and he shouldn’t take much time to rise to the top of the Carolina depth chart. There’s room for Brooks to be a fantasy starter for at least some if not all of 2024.)

Intriguing Pass-Catchers

In the version of this piece after Day 1, I highlighted how the Chargers, Bills and Steelers all needed a wide receiver and hadn’t taken one in the first round. All three addressed the position Friday, with the Bills taking Keon Coleman with the first pick of the second round, the Chargers taking Ladd McConkey right after, and the Steelers circling back to take Roman Wilson with 3.84.

Coleman could, and McConkey should, immediately become their teams’ WR1s, though that says as much about the depth charts they are stepping into than it does about the actual receivers. Still, being the WR1 for Josh Allen or Justin Herbert is a heck of a thing for a Day 2 wide receiver. We’ll need to see a lot before we trust either as a fantasy starter, though at least McConkey could offer PPR value right away as the primary target in the Chargers offense.

Wilson will be behind George Pickens in Pittsburgh, battling with Van Jefferson, Quez Watkins and TE Pat Freiermuth for the secondary role. He’s not someone we’re targeting in fantasy right away.

Of the other receivers taken Friday, the most interesting are Ja’Lynn Polk heading to New England and Adonai Mitchell to Indianapolis. Like Coleman and McConkey, Polk should immediately become the WR1, either for Jacoby Brissett or new draftee Drake Maye, and like Coleman and McConkey, that says more about the depth chart he’s joining than it does about him. Mitchell is an interesting giant in Indianapolis (land of the giants), but he’s going to have to show far more than he did in college before we’re trusting him in fantasy, and even then he’ll be behind Michael Pittman in fantasy.

And then there are the tight ends, who still haven’t done a lot in this draft. After Brock Bowers went in Round 1, only two tight ends went Friday — Ben Sinnott to Washington and Tip Reiman to Arizona. Reiman will slot in behind Trey McBride in Arizona and looks like more of a blocker than a pass-catcher, so we’re not paying attention to him until he gives us reason to. Sinnott is slightly more interesting, lining up with Zach Ertz at the position in Washington and being the lightning to Ertz’ thunder for the Commanders. Sinnott might not reach his ceiling until 2025, but he’s got at least bye-week potential as a rookie.

What Comes Next

The Cowboys still haven’t taken a running back, but they have added two linemen (Tyler Guyton Thursday, Cooper Beebe Friday). They still have Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn atop their depth chart, which is another way of saying they are still going to be adding a running back. That is sounding increasingly like it’ll be a reunion with Ezekiel Elliott, but the team is still a good bet to draft a Day 3 back. If it’s someone early Friday, like Jaylen Wright or Ray Davis or Braelon Allen, we might have a borderline fantasy starter right away.

Meanwhile, the most surprising slide so far as a fantasy position has been Oregon’s Troy Franklin, who was a fringe first-round prospect on many boards and is still available as we head into Round 4. He’s tall and thin, arguably too much so on the latter, and the league clearly isn’t as high on him as the draft cognoscenti was. That said, there’s a reason so many were so high on him, and if he lands in the right spot Saturday, he could be someone to pay attention to, even as a fourth-rounder.