2020 DLF Staff IDP Rookie Mock Draft

Adam Tzikas Posted On May 3, 2020

The first DLF IDP rookie mock draft is complete! To match up with the current “standard” of IDP leagues, this league is a superflex league and has balanced scoring similar to what’s known as NPLB scoring. You can find the entire draft and league settings here. Obviously there are a multitude of different IDP combinations and settings, so you may have to tweak these to fit your league setup. Let’s dive in.

1.01 Joe Burrow, QB CIN

1.02 Jonathan Taylor, RB IND

1.03 Tua Tagovailoa, QB MIA

1.04 Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB KC

1.05 D’Andre Swift, RB DET

1.06 Cam Akers, RB LAR

1.07 Justin Herbert, QB LAC

1.08 JK Dobbins, RB BAL

1.09 CeeDee Lamb, WR DAL

1.10 Jerry Jeudy, WR DEN

1.11 Jalen Reagor, WR PHI

1.12 Justin Jefferson, WR MIN

This is a pretty standard first round – you are not seeing many IDPs taken in the first this year. I do think there is a case for Chase Young to get in here to an EDGE-needy team, but this is pretty standard.

2.01 Chase Young, DE WAS

Young is a great pick here. I think this range is exactly where he is going to go in a lot of drafts. What he can bring on a down-to-down basis in the NFL is good or better than every top EDGE prospect in the last couple of years. I do think his rookie year might be a bit slower of a start than people think as the Redskins have a good number of talented EDGE rushers, but we will be seeing Young’s name at the top of sack lists for the foreseeable future.

2.02 Patrick Queen, LB BAL

Queen is exactly what the modern NFL is asking of linebackers. He is extremely rangy with a willingness to get into gaps quickly. He may be a bit undersized but he is a perfect fit for a Ravens defense that has been absolutely lacking linebackers of his quality in recent history. I think it’s slightly early of a pick as there are other good skill positions to be had and you can get linebacker later, but I think for an LB-needy team, it’s a sure-fire pick of the LB1.

2.03 Henry Ruggs, WR LV

2.04 Tee Higgins, WR CIN

2.05 Zack Moss, RB BUF

2.06 Michael Pittman, WR IND

2.07 AJ Dillon, RB GB

2.08 Ke’Shawn Vaughn, RB TB

2.09 Laviska Shenault, WR JAC

2.10 Jalen Hurts, QB PHI

2.11 Denzel Mims, WR NYJ

2.12 Antonio Gibson, RB WAS

3.01 Brandon Aiyuk, WR SF

3.02 Isaiah Simmons, LB ARI

All the way down into the third we finally see another IDP off the board. I think you can expect to see Simmons a lot higher and potentially the first linebacker taken. His rare blend of athleticism and football acumen is going to do wonder for the Cardinals. He will be on the field close to 100% of the time. I do worry about his raw production with other talented tackle hogs – Jordan Hicks and Buddah Baker – lining up with him on every down. The “fall” here speaks to the depth of offensive talent in this draft.

3.03 Jordan Love, QB GB

3.04 Bryan Edwards, WR LV

3.05 Kenneth Murray, LB LAC

Currently the top-ranked rookie linebacker here at DLF, Kenneth Murray comes off the board just four picks after Simmons. I love what he’s got to his game. He might not be as rangy as Simmons is but he can still cover sideline to sideline and be a force in the run game. The Chargers have been looking for a true middle linebacker for a long time and they moved up (at great cost) to get Murray. I expect him to slot in right away. Waiting for a potential LB1 down here in the mid-third is easy value.

3.06 Chase Claypool, WR PIT

3.07 Willie Gay, LB KC

Linebackers have started flying off the board here in the “traditional” IDP round three. The next selection up is Willie Gay out of Mississippi State. The landing spot couldn’t be more perfect for this late second-round NFL selection. He walks into KC as the most athletic linebacker by a country mile and has all the juice you ask for in today’s NFL. He is a nice consolation prize if you didn’t get one of the top three linebackers and is dripping in upside.

3.08 Logan Wilson, LB CIN

Sitting at 3.08, I took Wilson from Wyoming, the latest third-round selection linebacker for the Bengals. It’s a bit of a messy situation and I have liked a lot of the other options, but Wilson is the right amount of boring they have yet to try out. He is at or above 50th percentile in every testing metric and was a tackle hog in college. I think he has the inside path to one of the starting jobs.

3.09 KJ Hamler, WR DEN

3.10 Malik Harrison, LB BAL

Another linebacker here at the end of the third makes the fifth one selected in this round and the sixth overall. Take all the things that make Baltimore a good landing spot from the Patrick Queen write up and apply them here to Harrison, just remove the range ability of Queen. Harrison is a talented run-stopper but needs to improve to play on all three downs.

3.11 Darrynton Evans, RB TEN

3.12 Yetur Gross-Matos, DE CAR

Finally, we see another EDGE player off the board all the way down at the last pick of the third round. I loved Gross-Matos coming into the draft and think this landing spot is going to be gangbusters. He can basically slot into a starting gig, with not a ton of young talent ahead of him and a new coaching staff selecting him in the early second round. He is a very well-rounded player who makes few mistakes. He may not have the massive upside of other EDGE rushers in this class, but he will be very solid for years.

4.01 Eno Benjamin, RB ARI

4.02 Javon Kinlaw, DT SF

We have a defensive tackle! The DeForest Buckner replacement in San Francisco comes off the board right at the start of the fourth, which I think is the right spot for Kinlaw. He is the perfect match for what they want to do there and will slot in great for IDP on that stellar D line. Obviously we don’t know if he will ever reach Buckner’s level, but Kinlaw is a very talented pass-rushing interior lineman and can hold his own on rush downs. Defensive tackle is a very shallow position so I wouldn’t be shocked to see him in the top ten at the end of the season.

4.03 Van Jefferson, WR LAR

4.04 AJ Epenesa, DE BUF

This feels like a good pick at a good time, as this EDGE class overall is very suspect. Right around this pick is when things get dire if you need a defensive end or EDGE player. Epenesa fell during the draft process after a pretty terrible Combine, but he has excellent film and excellent size for the position. A bit of a one-trick pony, Epenesa goes to a team that knows how to develop EDGE rushers and has a chance to get work early.

4.05 Jordyn Brooks, LB SEA

I loved Brooks during the pre-draft process – he was slotted in as LB4 for me and then a large drop after him. This pick was a head-scratcher at the time and is still one for me looking back at it. I think in the future, it could be seen as a very good one but at least for the first year, Brooks could be riding the bench. The Seahawks did take multiple good linebackers in the 2019 draft, at the same time Bobby Wagner is on the wrong side of 30 and KJ Wright is on a one year deal. The future could be bright for Brooks, but it might take some time.

4.06 Xavier McKinney, S NYG

The first safety comes off the board down in the mid fourth round. McKinney brings a lot of versatility to the Giants, but I second guess that this was an area of need for them. Likely a pick of best player available, McKinney can be very valuable on an NFL defense, but I worry about his overall production playing with Jabrill Peppers. I think he is destined for a free safety role, which has put up numbers, but I think there are better IDP options down here.

4.07 Jeremy Chinn, S CAR

Coming hot on the heels of McKinney is Chinn, my top safety in this class. He is a big-time hitter with the ability to stick in coverage on slot players or tight ends. He also walks into a safety room lacking a true strong safety and has the draft capital backing him as well as the backing of a new coaching staff.

4.08 Devin Duvernay, WR BAL

4.09 Albert Okwuegbunam, TE DEN

4.10 Anthony McFarland, RB PIT

4.11 Lynn Bowden, RB LV

4.12 Davion Taylor, LB PHI

It was a bit of a reach here from the Eagles on the athletic prospect out of Colorado. Taylor has all the athleticism you want from a modern NFL linebacker but needs a ton of refinement to succeed at the NFL level. I expect we see him get work on special teams before he makes a large impact on Sundays. That being said, he can develop into a very special player, so I like the upside pick here at the end of the fourth.

5.01 K’Lavon Chaisson, LB JAC

One of the highest ceiling EDGE rushers in this group, I expect he goes a lot higher in normal rookie drafts. Chaisson blends sudden explosions off the snap with a plethora of different pass rush moves. The issue with him right now is that currently he has the linebacker tag on MFL, leaving him to be dropped down the ranks as many linebackers will outproduce him. If he is able to get DE designation or you play in a True Position league, he will be much higher. I expect him to enter the role that was vacated by Yannick Ngakoue, who had DE designation in 2019 (assuming Ngakoue sits as he has indicated, or gets traded) . It’s a good upside shot pick any time from the third round onward.

5.02 Jacob Eason, QB IND

5.03 Derrick Brown, DT CAR

The first NFL defensive taken on draft night, Brown gets selected here in the fifth round. I expect him to go much higher in normal drafts, based on name value alone. While it is a very good fit in Carolina and the path to snaps is clear, Brown can spend time as a two gapping, space-eating, nose tackle, which is bad for IDP. However, I think his ability to destroy double teams and his relentlessness in rushing the QB, while still put up points at a very shallow IDP position. This is a very good pick this late.

5.04 Cole Kmet, TE CHI

5.05 Antonio Gandy-Golden, WR WAS

5.06 Akeem Davis-Gaither, LB CIN

A very popular linebacker with draft Twitter, Davis-Gaither out of Appalachian State was one of the biggest Combine snubs of this class. He is a smooth operator on the field, able to provide range, coverage, and a heady aspect to any linebacker room. There were some concerns to knee and foot issues that do concern me as well, but as an upside pick in a very athletic deficient linebacker group for the Bengals, I love this pick.

5.07 Antoine Winfield, S TB

Winfield out of Minnesota gets drafted into a very nice situation in Tampa Bay, but I worry about his path to snaps and overall IDP production. While I do think he is better than some of the other guys in Tampa, he is contending with similarly high draft capital players. Winfield is, however, a very versatile player who can play in the box and stick on tight ends in coverage, so he could be a do-it-all type safety if he climbs over others on the depth chart.

5.08 Zack Baun, LB NO

While I am not enamored with the player, I took Baun here in the mid-fifth round. Another player I expect to go a lot higher based on some people’s love for him and the idea that it is a plus spot in New Orleans. I see a player whose size is a question as a pure edge player and has not had a lot of work as an inside, off-ball linebacker. He has all the explosion and athletic traits you want, really at either spot, but likely is in a tweener role that won’t be overly productive for IDP. If he can transition to a pure inside linebacker role, this could be a steal in every draft.

5.09 CJ Henderson, CB JAC

We end on a weird note here with the final IDP selection as a cornerback. I do think if you wanted to take one, Henderson might be the first one I think about. He is just okay enough to play right away for Jacksonville, and still a project player, meaning he will see a good number of targets. At the same time, he is a corner so not a primary position in IDP, even in a balanced scoring setup like this mock.

5.10 Tyler Johnson, WR TB

5.11 Joshua Kelley, RB LAC

5.12 Adam Trautman, TE NO

Other players I would consider in the top five rounds are:

Jacob Phillips, LB CLE

Darrell Taylor, EDGE SEA

Kyle Dugger, S NE

Julian Okwara, EDGE DET

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Adam Tzikas

Contributor at Dynasty League Football

Adam "StickyZ" Tzikas burns in the South Florida sun while he contemplates tweets no one will read. He is an avid nerd and hosts an IDP podcast with a bloke from the UK.