Fantasy Football season is coming up soon and that means it's time to start speculating about which players to draft where. That means proper preparation before every single fantasy football draft. And part of that is assigning a value to each player before the draft even happens. It's particularly tricky to evaluate rookies, who come into unclear situations often. Last season, Ezekiel Elliot was one of those players. In 2017, a different rookie is receiving all the accolades.
Leonard Fournette.
Fournette was one of the most successful players in LSU history.
In 2015, he had nearly 2000 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns, unbelievable statistics for any player in college. Because of his huge success, Fournette was expected to be a very high draft pick after the 2015 season. He opted to play for one more year in college and his numbers dipped. It didn't stop the Jaguars from picking Leonard in the first round with the fourth overall pick. The Jaguars likely expect him to take over a majority of the workload in 2017.
Fournette's Fantasy Value.
Because Leonard is a rookie, it's difficult to place an exact value on him. However, the folks at Fantasy Football Calculator have Fournette as the 20th best player. He's ahead of players like Dez Bryant and Rob Gronkowksi!
Running backs do have more value because they are in short supply, but that's still a very high ranking. Ezekiel Elliot was also ranked this highly last year, but did deliver on his value.
ESPN ranks Fournette as their 26th best player in PPR, a bit lower, but not much. So people at both sites clearly believe that the LSU star will have a productive NFL career.
These websites are forgetting about one crucial detail: the team he plays for.
Jaguars Running Backs.
Jacksonville hasn't had a solid fantasy running back since Maurice Jones Drew. It's a bit surprising, given the success of Blake Bortles, but there is some reason to be wary of Fournette. Bortles often passes the ball, and the Jaguars are often playing with a huge deficit.
That eliminates the running game, which limits the potential fantasy production of running backs.
It's great to jump on players entering great situations (Ezekiel Elliot in Dallas), but Fournette's situation is far from a slam dunk. Fantasy football players looking to jump all over Leonard should do a little research before taking a huge risk with their second and third round pick. If fantasy players aren't careful, they could easily be left with a massive gap in their roster.
