2024 Off-Season Mock Draft: Post-Combine Superflex Rookie Draft
Welcome back to another edition of my off-season mock draft series. This mock was one of the first superflex mocks following the NFL Scouting Combine, so we’ve seen some movement compared to the pre-combine mock I wrote about earlier in the month. I had the second pick in this draft, and knowing Caleb Williams was locked into the top spot, I had a tough decision to make. Let’s dive into it, see who I selected, and see how the remainder of the draft played out.
Round One
As I suggested before, Williams obviously went 1.01, and I was faced with a tough decision at 1.02. Do I stick with consensus and pick the players everyone else is picking, or do I follow my gut and my personal rankings? I chose the latter, went with my superflex rankings, and selected JJ McCarthy with the second pick in the draft. Based on DLF’s most recent superflex rookie ADP, McCarthy has an ADP of 7.5, which includes my outlier pick in this draft. The earliest he went in any other superflex mock was seventh, and he went as late as tenth too.
I have McCarthy as my QB2 in this class, and honestly, I’m not a huge Caleb Williams fan. I believe the NFL likes McCarthy more than the fantasy community does, and he gets top-15 NFL draft capital, making him significantly more valuable in dynasty drafts. I also think he’s an underrated rusher who brings much more with his legs than most people realize. In hindsight, I maybe should have gone with Marvin Harrison Jr, but when I participate in these mock drafts, I imagine my team, and if I’m picking second in a draft, my team probably stinks, and in superflex, that likely means I need a quarterback, so I took my highest ranked quarterback remaining.
The remainder of the first round was pretty chalky; the top eight picks have been the top eight in some order for the entire off-season, and nothing from the combine changed anything. Once we got out of that top eight, Xavier Worthy gets a bump as the ninth overall pick, and I have to believe it is primarily based on his lightning-fast 4.21-second 40-yard dash. The only other eye-opening pick in this draft was Bo Nix at 1.12. Nix’s draft capital is going to be very important when it comes to his dynasty ADP, and it has been reported that some NFL teams love him, so while this pick looks a little weird to me today, there is a world where this looks like a steal in hindsight following the draft.
Round Two
The second round kicked off with one of my favorite players, Ladd McConkey. He was my target at 2.02, but with him gone, I went with my top running back, Trey Benson. Prior to the combine, Benson was already my RB1, and after his performance at the combine, he locked himself into my RB1 spot, and I was thrilled to get him at 2.02.
At pick 22, Keon Coleman was selected. He was viewed by some as one of the combine’s biggest losers. This was reflected in this draft, as 22nd was the lowest he was selected in any mocks over the last two months. In February’s superflex mocks, he went as early as eighth overall. In February, he had an ADP of 12th overall; in March, he has fallen to 19th.
Bucky Irving was another outlier in this draft. Drafted at 2.11 as the 23rd player off the board, he looks like a big reach based on ADP. He was selected 40th in more than one mock this month and has an ADP of 32 so far, so 23 is nine spots ahead of consensus thus far. On the other hand, Jaylen Wright at 24 was a massive value. This was the latest he went in any post-combine mock draft. I think he gets drafted early on day two in the NFL Draft, and his ADP sneaks into early round two in dynasty drafts and might even crack round one in a few leagues.
Round Three
This class is deep! Typically, by pick 15, I start humming and hawing about who draft. As we get through picks 25-36, I still like a bunch (if not all) of these guys. At 3.02, I took Braelon Allen, who I selected as high as 1.12 in a previous single-quarterback mock. That earlier 1.12 selection impacted me here, as I probably liked several players who were still on the board more, but I felt like Allen was too good of a value to pass up. In hindsight, I was probably wrong.
Spencer Rattler might be the QB5 in this class in the eyes of NFL scouts, so having him fall into round three might look ridiculous two months from now. That being said, this was the second-earliest he went in any post-combine superflex mock, so with his ADP of 33 as QB7, maybe I’m way off base, and this was actually a reach.
As I look through these names, I will try to not be an unreasonable, gushing, fanboy, but I would love so many of these players on my teams. Roman Wilson, Jalen McMillan, Malachi Corley, Luke McCaffrey, Ja’Lynn Polk, and Ricky Pearsall would all be welcome additions to any of my rosters. That group featured a couple of overdrafted players (McMillan and McCaffrey) and a few underdrafted players (Pearsall and Polk), but for the most part, it was close to consensus ADP. If I had accumulated multiple third-round picks via trade heading into this draft and could leave a draft with four of those six receivers, I would consider that a huge win.
All that value, and I didn’t even mention Ja’Tavion Sanders at 36 to close out the round. His March ADP is 26th, and he’s gone in the second round three times this month. For him to nearly fall into the fourth is almost unheard of, as the latest he went in any other mock was 29th, making 36 a tremendous value. I typically never draft rookie tight ends, but at some point, everyone becomes too good of a deal to pass on, and I would have gladly pulled the trigger on him at 36, too.
Round Four
The incredible values didn’t stop in round three. Seven of the 12 selections are players I hope to get some shares of across all my leagues. I nabbed one of my favorite running backs in this class, Ray Davis, at 4.02. The latest he was selected in any of the March superflex mocks was 38th, but I’ll take what I can get. Sometimes, real drafts play out this way, too.
I was thrilled to land Davis, but I would have been happy with Jacob Cowing, Brenden Rice, Johnny Wilson, Dylan Laube, Jermaine Burton, Cody Schrader, Jamari Thrash, or Dillon Johnson in round four, too. We’ve got known commodities lingering until pick 48 this year; it’s an incredibly deep draft class, especially at receiver.
I’m typically more of a single QB guy myself, but I have to say, this was one of the most enjoyable mocks I’ve participated in. With a few reaches, values seemed to fall quite a bit, and every pick wasn’t a battle between which player I hated a little less, as it’s been in years past. I had hard decisions to make through all four rounds between multiple players I liked. That’s a good problem to have, and I think more and more of us are finding that this will be an enjoyable draft season.
- Final Rookie Report Card: Quarterbacks - January 11, 2025
- Dynasty Rookie Report Card: Michael Penix and Keon Coleman - January 4, 2025
- Dynasty Rookie Report Card: Drake Maye and Kimani Vidal - December 28, 2024
