2020 NFL Draft Dynasty Review: NFC West

A team from the NFC West has represented the NFC in the past two Super Bowls. Each team in the division is chasing the 49ers, and all added talent in the 2020 NFL Draft that should close the gap.

San Francisco went 13-3 and acquired Trent Williams over draft weekend, on top of adding more talent to the wide receiver position. Seattle went 11-5, returned to the playoffs where injuries limited their run, and are primed to go as far as Russell Wilson and a younger Seattle defense can take them.

Meanwhile, the Rams went 9-7 and just fell short of the playoffs and finally, the Cardinals finished 5-10-1, as Kyler Murray improved as the season progressed and the team swindled the Texans to add DeAndre Hopkins as a weapon for their star quarterback.

Gone are the days of David Johnson in Arizona, but now Larry Fitzgerald will be paired with Hopkins in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. The Seahawks added a tall tight end who likely won’t be stopped an inch short of the goal line. The Rams spent up on running back. The Niners improved the offensive line while bringing in a new target for Jimmy Garoppolo. Let’s take a look at the skill position players added to the NFC West during the 2020 NFL Draft.

ARIZONA CARDINALS

Eno Benjamin, RB Arizona State (ROUND 7, PICK 222)

The Cardinals spent earlier draft capital adding one of the elite defensive players in Isaiah Simmons, a 6-4 238-pound chess piece who will be wreaking havoc in the NFC West for the next few years. Importantly for dynasty leagues, they also added tackle Josh Jones, who was graded by Pro Football Focus as one of their best pass-protection tackles ever and allowed only two pressures on 325 pass-block snaps.

Benjamin was the only skill-position player the Cardinals drafted in 2020. He provides depth for Kenyan Drake and Chase Edmonds and also has the skills to hold down the position if either misses a significant amount of time due to injury. Benjamin is seen as a smaller back but has produced at every level. In high school, he rushed for 7,546 yards and scored 111 total touchdowns. He started slowly as a freshman at ASU but shined his sophomore season. He statistically dropped in 2019 with young quarterback Jayden Daniels under center.

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Stats courtesy sports-reference.com

Benjamin seeks out the home run far too often, ignoring short gains. He gets exposed trying to stop behind the line, seeking to bounce it outside, and needs to learn that it is ok to take the short gain when it’s there. Fantasy owners can take a late-round flier on him in deeper leagues, but he comes in behind the two backs mentioned above.

The DeAndre Hopkins trade

Arizona was able to ship off Johnson and his massive cap hit with a second and a fourth-round pick for Hopkins. An unknown off-season schedule might be the only thing slowing down the Cardinals offense in 2020.

LOS ANGELES RAMS

Cam Akers, RB Florida State (ROUND 2, PICK 52)

Los Angeles did not have a first-round pick this year after their trade to acquire Jalen Ramsey. With their first selection, the Rams targeted a running back. Having spent his college years running behind one of the worst-ranked offensive lines in the nation (129th overall), Akers is probably excited to jump in behind the LA line that dropped to 31st in PFF offensive line rankings in 2019

Akers has a chance to come in and immediately get work with Todd Gurley out the door. Malcolm Brown is still on the team and currently projects to be the main competition. While fantasy owners fell in love with Darrell Henderson after the Rams spent third-round draft capital on him in 2019, he only saw 93 total snaps on offense last year, which is just under nine percent of the team’s total offensive snaps. It says a lot that the Rams spent this draft capital on Akers.

Gurley being released frees up nearly 787 snaps at the running back position. This is something that Akers could easily step in and command a large quantity of.

Van Jefferson, WR Florida (ROUND 2, PICK 57)

The Rams added this pick when sending Brandin Cooks to the Texans, and turned it into yet another offensive skill player for Jared Goff. The trade of Cooks opens up approximately 700 snaps and 72 targets on offense.

Van has good bloodlines as his father Shawn Jefferson played in the league for 13 seasons and now works as an assistant coach with the Jets. Jefferson was clocked at 21.05 mph at the Senior Bowl, just a tick below the fastest 2019 in-game speed of 21.94 ran by Henry Ruggs. With numerous holes along the offensive line, it is intriguing that the team opted to spend such high draft capital on Jefferson.

Brycen Hopkins, TE Purdue (ROUND 4, PICK 136)

The Rams drafted a flex tight end similar to Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett. This is probably just a pick towards letting either Higbee or Everett leave in the future, therefore Hopkins can probably be on the bench in all but the deepest of dynasty leagues.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

Brandon Aiyuk, WR Arizona State (ROUND 1, PICK 25)

Coming out of Sierra College as a JUCO transfer, Aiyuk emerged from N’Keal Harry’s shadow in 2019 as the former made the leap to the NFL. Measuring in at 6-0 and 205 pounds, he ran a solid 4.5-second 40-yard dash. The team had limited draft capital in 2020 but spent some of that to move up and select Aiyuk as the 25th overall player selected.

Aiyuk is a tough runner who excels in yards after the catch. Pro Football Focus tracked that he averaged 9.9 yards YAC, best in the 2020 NFL draft class. He adds another dimension as a return man where on kickoffs, he averaged 31.9 yards per return.

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Stats courtesy sports-reference.com

Aiyuk is coming in at a value for owners and should be a solid complementary piece to Deebo Samuel in the 49ers offense. Aiyuk seemed to struggle at times with press coverage so going against Richard Sherman each day at practice will be beneficial for the young wideout.

Charlie Woerner, TE Georgia (ROUND 6, PICK 190)

Woerner was a top ten positional recruit coming out of high school. During his time at Georgia, he was not a compiler of stats and did not start much till his senior season. In fact, it wasn’t until his final season that he scored a touchdown for the Georgia Bulldogs.

Woerner is a solid blocker and flexed in as a fullback at times in some of Georgia’s formations. He could be seen as a player groomed to replace Kyle Juszczyk later.

Jauan Jennings, WR Tennessee (ROUND 7, PICK 217)

He is another big, strong wide receiver for the 49ers. Jennings was unimpressive at the Combine and comes in as an older prospect after spending five years at Tennessee. Was briefly cut from the Volunteers after blasting the coaching staff on social media. I don’t see much more than him being a depth piece behind the other 49er wide receivers.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

Colby Parkinson, TE Stanford (ROUND 4, PICK 133)

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is always seeking out athletes. A believer that you can’t teach size and speed, he will search for skill players with unique athletic and physical attributes. You can’t help but think he found that with 6’7″, 252-pound Parkinson.

Parkinson is not an inline tight end and currently projects more as a field-stretching flex who can attack over middle and down the seam. He will face an uphill battle coming in behind free-agent acquisition Greg Olsen and incumbent starters Will Dissly and Jacob Hollister but can be stashed away in deeper leagues.

DeeJay Dallas, RB Miami (ROUND 4, PICK 144)

The biggest winner in Seattle for fantasy owners is likely Chris Carson when the team failed to spend early draft capital at the running back position. With Rashaad Penny still recovering from a late-season leg injury and Carson rehabbing from a hip injury, Dallas does have a unique opportunity.

Looking at Dallas in the DLF Player Combine Performance App, he grades out as a lower-tier athletic performer. His speed score is similar to Carson’s but he lacks the lower body strength that shows up in their broad jump and vertical scores.

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Dallas was recruited as an athlete after playing quarterback in high school and originally coming in as a wide receiver before switching over to running back. Dallas should make the team with his special team ability and return talent. Carson is expected to be ready for week one, while Penny is expected to start the season on the PUP list. With a late-round ADP, Dallas could be an interesting stash with Carson on the final year of his rookie deal if the team does not extend him.

Freddie Swain, WR Florida (ROUND 6, PICK 214)

Swain is a good combination of size and speed for the Seahawks. Similar to Dallas, he has an early opportunity and chance to make the team as another option at WR. However, this will hinge on what he can contribute on special teams. Swain showed flashes of legitimate upside but needs to stop with his body catches and improve his route running.

Stephen Sullivan, TE LSU (ROUND 7, PICK 251)

Sullivan is another athletic tight end and his addition brings the total number of tight ends on the Seahawks roster to six. Seattle also traded a 2021 sixth-round pick to get back into the draft to grab Sullivan. Look for Sullivan to be targeted as a practice squad in Seattle in 2020.

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