It was an awesome year for rookie wide receivers.
Six rookie wideouts finished with a double-digit best ball win rate, matching the total from the previous four years combined. As such, you can expect guys like A.J. Brown, D.K. Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, and Deebo Samuel to fly off the board fairly early in drafts this offseason.
But who’s going to be the unheralded sophomore who shocks the world by blossoming into a fantasy-relevant player? Who’s going to be the next Michael Gallup or D.J. Chark?
I’ll give you one guess.
If you said Mecole Hardman, congratulations, you read the title before clicking on this article.
At Hardman’s current ADP of 137.3 (WR53), he is possibly the best value in early best ball drafts. Hammer him at that price tag before the market corrects itself. It’s also important to note that we don’t have a huge sample of drafts at this point; Hardman’s ADP could change in a heartbeat if a few people decide to take him higher than consensus. Still, he’ll be a huge value even if his positional ADP goes up a few spots.
The Biggest Edge in Fantasy
Last July, Shawn Siegele wrote an article in which he called second-year WRs “the biggest edge in fantasy.”
Many fantasy players think Year 3 is the big breakout year for WRs, but it’s actually Year 2. As Shawn talked about in his article, second-year WRs have more total breakouts than all other years combined since 2000. The majority of these breakouts have been early-round NFL Draft picks, like Hardman. If you want to capitalize on the biggest edge in fantasy, Hardman is going to be one of the cheaper options out there.
