No love for Chubba Hubbard or Travis Etienne?
Before it became known that Etuenne would not declare for the 2020 he was being considered the top RB of the class by many. If he is selected before pick 31 in the 2021 draft it will back that up as well. While I do like the 2020 RB a lot draft position tells us that they valued the 2020 RB more similarly to 2013 and 2014 drafts, where there were no RB selected in the 1st round.
I totally don't get it with Taylor who I think is better than Fournette who was a top 5 pick.
Its an interesting angle though that we should explore some more. It is possible that the talent at WR caused the RB to drop down some in 2014 and 2020.
A lot of people have success with this strategy.
However the careers of WR are longer than RB. So if you stockpile WR then you only have to wait for a guy like you to need a WR and then you get the RB you needed and you still have a lot of WR left.
Every team needs to replenish RB every year because they are so fungable.
I think eventually we will find something to agree on. It definitely isnt Lamb either though!!
I like Etienne. Don't love him though.
I have him at "like" only because he improved his pass catching last year.
I still don't love the vision and think he is very linear as a runner. His pass catching improvements were promising (though he still is prone to drops) but his pass pro is still a big question mark. That's the case for every RB prospect coming out besides Zeke and to some extent Barkley, but Etienne is a bit further behind the curve than most at this point.
I had him as RB4 pre draft behind JT, Dobbins and Swift (CEH would have gone ahead of him too if I knew he was going to KC), but it's understandable why many had him at 1.
No one has the same home run potential every time they touch the ball and he is 100% going to shred the combine, but linear runners (think Ronald Jones) with vision issues and questions on effectiveness in the passing game who ran through wide gaps (which is what most of his tape is) cleared by a Clemson team that is so far above the rest of the ACC are a bit of a red flag to me. My last issue is that he didn't come out last year. It might seem minor and I'm sure he would have been a 2nd round pick this past year but a senior RB<a junior declared all else being equal
To be clear he is still my 2021 RB1 but even weighing RBs over WRs I would put him 4-5 overall behind guys I view as stud WRs: JaMarr Chase, Rondale Moore, Rashod Bateman, Justyn Ross if his spinal issue gets resolved and maybe Devonta Smith if he can step into Jeudy's shoes and produce without missing a beat.
Hubbard on the other hand I am out on. Very fun player to watch but he is similarly linear, even more unproven as a pass catcher with downright awful pass protection. But more than that: I can stomach a linear runner if they have near elite contact balance like Etienne does--Hubbard does not. He will also come into the NFL having take a very heavy load, which normally isn't a huge issue to me, but for his frame could present a real problem. Tevin Coleman like without the receiving impact (though this could definitely be improved later). The group behind Etienne for RBs is a bit murky but there are guys I am "meh" on like Kylin Hill of Mississippi State or Journey Brown of Penn State that I might consider over Hubbard. And plenty more WRs beyond the ones I already listed: Jaylen Waddle, Tarmarrion Terry, Tylan Wallace--to name a few
I can't be certain but I think the Draft will agree with me on this: with his production being as off the charts as he is, I think he is a guy that the dynasty community rates higher than the NFL will. I think he will be a 3rd round pick in the real NFL Draft--not a killer for dynasty purposes by any means: David Montgomery was a round 3 pick and a top 3 rookie pick in dynasty drafts, Kareem Hunt and Kamara were late first rounders--but also not where a "top RB prospect" gets selected.
As for drafting RBs vs WRs, it just seems to me like everyone always needs RBs. I somehow scraped to a championship last year with Zeke, Tevin Coleman and Tarik Cohen as my RBs, but had a treasure trove of WR depth of prospects and proven guys in MT, OBJ, Kupp, AJB, Sutton, Gallup, Kirk, Diontae, Cooks, etc. Balanced it out in the offseason but I had to try so hard to find deals where I wasn't getting ripped off and even those I overpaid with. Just seemed like no one really needed a WR that desperately while also having a surplus of RBs.
In a rebuild I'd try to take WR over RB if possible because a WR will still be in his prime when I'm ready to compete but otherwise I think going RB is the way to maximize value--especially considering that you generally need to pick early (whether by being bad or trading up) to land high end RB prospects whereas I think's it's easier to find quality WRs in the 2nd rounds of rookie drafts. Additionally, rookie WRs tend to struggle early (especially next season in light of Covid's impacts on preseason/camps), and are more likely to have a buy window (unless they ball out of course).
From your comment JT might be what we agree on! He was one of those guys that was a part of my balancing out. I really think he is the next Adrian Peterson. Overpaid big to go up and get 1.1 and took him over CEH despite being a Chiefs fan (though I paid up for 1.2 as well later to get both but still value Taylor higher)