Ladd McConkey – NFL Draft Sleeper Alert
Jay Felicio
Bettings
The 2024 NFL Draft is nearly here, and FTN has you covered with mock drafts, bonus mocks, and, of course, the 2024 Rookie Fantasy Scouting Guide from Jeff Ratcliffe.
To celebrate rookie-mania, we’re doing our final pre-draft best ball piece on … rookies! We’ll take a look at which rookies rose the most during all pre-draft drafts on Underdog Fantasy. And we’ll give you a sneak peek at those rookies from the RFSG.
To get the full 2024 Rookie Fantasy Scouting Guide, sign up for a Fantasy+ subscription.
These are the names you want to circle twice in your best ball leagues. We’re comparing ADP from Feb. 23, 2024 to April 21, 2024. All data comes from FTN’s Underdog ADP tool and the ADP Exploration Tool.
| ADP – Feb. 23 | ADP – April 21 | % Change | |
| Adonai Mitchell | 134.2 | 88.1 | +34.4% |
Sheesh! Mitchell is now going in the first round of some mocks – to the Chiefs at No. 32 overall in NFL.com’s latest mock – and that would cause his ADP to shoot up even more.
Mitchell is the No. 5 WR in Jeff Ratcliffe’s 2024 Rookie Fantasy Scouting Guide – and No. 7 rookie overall. The comp he gives: George Pickens.
As for best ball and immediate 2024 contributions, Ratcliffe writes: “His height/weight/speed combination along with his ball skills make him a high-ceiling option who will contribute right out of the gate at the pro level.”
| ADP – Feb. 23 | ADP – April 21 | % Change | |
| Xavier Worthy | 142.1 | 94.7 | +33.4% |
No WR wowed more at the combine than Worthy, who set a new combine record with 4.21 speed in the 40-yard dash. He tied Usain Bolt! (Ignoring the fact Bolt was retired, wearing sweatpants, and gym shoes, and clearly not trying. Imagine if Bolt played in the NFL? I digress…)
Worthy checks in as the No. 7 WR in the RFSG, and his ADP for 2024 best ball has leapt into the top 100. It wasn’t just the combine that led to the juice. Worthy has continued to climb even in April. He was going around 103 overall three weeks ago.
| ADP – Feb. 23 | ADP – April 21 | % Change | |
| Jaylen Wright | 195.8 | 137.2 | 29.9% |
Wright broke the scale on our linear trendline in the ADP Exploration Tool. His ADP went from nearly-undrafted (196 overall) to the Round 12 range (137 overall). So he’s still a late-round flier, but not a late-round punt.
In the RFSG, Ratcliffe writes that Wright is among a trio of RBs that “are the best bets for success,” calling Wright “dynamic and explosive.”
With that said, Ratcliffe writes that Wright is “undersized, so don’t expect a bell cow role.” Perhaps that’s why his meteoric rise in ADP tapered out around Round 12, and it really hasn’t moved in a month.
But he has pass-catching chops (22 receptions last year) and ran a 4.38 forty, one of the fastest times at the combine. An immediate role in the NFL likely awaits.
| ADP – Feb. 23 | ADP – April 21 | % Change | |
| Trey Benson | 136.6 | 100.2 | +26.6% |
Ratcliffe gave Benson the comp of DeMarco Murray in the RFSG, and Murray was one of the top fantasy RBs in his prime. He ranks as the No. 1 rookie RB in Ratcliffe’s rankings, and we often see him get mocked in the second round. Such draft capital would make him likely to be a starter from Day 1.
| ADP – Feb. 23 | ADP – April 21 | % Change | |
| Ricky Pearsall | 204.7 | 153.3 | +25.1% |
A fan favorite on fantasy football Twitter (or X, I suppose), Pearsall has risen from virtually undrafted to a 13th/14th round pick. So drafters aren’t exactly expecting him to smash, but more faith is being put in the rookie than veterans like Darnell Mooney and Adam Thielen.
Pearsall falls in Ratcliffe’s Tier 3 in the RFSG – but the player comp (Christian Kirk) gives the slot man a nice ceiling fantasy players can dream of. Of course, Kirk didn’t smash right out of the gate (43-590-3 as a rookie in 12 games), but he did prove later in his career he had WR1 capabilities and posted over 2,000 yards over the course of the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Pearsall’s 4.41 speed at the combine helped put him more on the map in fantasyland, but Ratcliffe warns that speed “doesn’t always show up on tape.”
To get the full 2024 Rookie Fantasy Scouting Guide – including 150 player profiles and more fantasy-relevant rookie information than you’ll find anywhere else – sign up for a Fantasy+ subscription.
