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We got together with the Footballguys staff members and asked a simple question: Which player -- generally taken in the third round -- do you least-like having on your team?
Here are their answers.
Jason Wood
My least favorite is easily Leonard Fournette. He's massively overrated this year because fantasy owners assume Year N+1 matches Year N (with better health). Fournette has been on thin ice in Jacksonville for years, remember they pulled his guaranteed money a season or two ago because of off-field issues. The Jaguars may not admit it publicly, but they're in full-on tanking mode readying to build around either Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields. I don't think this offense is going to move the ball consistently, and the last thing I want is to build my fantasy roster around a running back who needs a heavy workload who plays for a bottom decile offense. Hard pass.
Jeff Tefertiller
Three veteran running backs are priced too high. Fournette, Bell, and Gurley are far too risky compared to their counterparts at other positions. Fournette will only be worth this draft capital if he gets several receptions per game like last year. This appears doubtful with Chris Thompson now paired back up with Jay Gruden. Bell languished in a poor offense behind a bad offensive line in 2019 and not enough has changed to expect improvement. Gurley has knee issues and will only be worth this draft price if he gets more redzone carries than the Falcons usually give their tailbacks. All three are auto-rejects for my fantasy teams at this price.
Chad Parsons
Overall, I like more of the values here in Round 3 than Round 2 and generally can make good arguments for most of the players as quality selections. With that approach, I would highlight Kenny Golladay as the player I would not take in Round 3 by comparison. Marvin Jones, T.J. Hockenson, and now D'Andre Swift in the backfield represent substantial competition for targets and Golladay is on the touchdown rate regression hotlist from 2019 who I expect to fade down in the category (and not offset with a strong uptick in targets).
Ryan Hester
Fournette looks toxic. Last year's receiving value seems unsustainable, and he's a player that won't be back with Jacksonville in 2021.
Jeff Haseley
I have shared my thoughts on Gurley quite often this offseason, but ultimately, it comes down to him signing a short one-year deal, likely because Atlanta wants to know for sure if he is damaged goods. If he is, they didn't spend too much capital on him and can replace him easily in 2021. Gurley received his $2M signing bonus and now doesn't appear to be motivated to play hard, if at all, due to the NFL's process of keeping athletes safe. He may not opt-out this year, but I question his loyalty to a team he doesn't know well at all. I will gladly let someone else take a chance on the headache that could be Todd Gurley this year.
Andrew Davenport
It has to be Leonard Fournette for me. Jason pretty much hit the highlights, but one thing I was concerned about heading into 2020 was whether the usage in the passing game would continue. Nothing that has happened in the offseason has given me any confidence that this is about to happen again. Every single indicator so far from Jacksonville says that Fournette's job is anything but safe and I want nothing to do with him this high in the draft, or really at any point in the draft.
Jordan McNamara
Kenny Golladay is my least favorite player in the round. He was very dependent on touchdowns in 2019, with 11 touchdowns on only 65 receptions. That fueled 2.16 points per target, which is a half-point per target over the average on a stat that fluctuates wildly year to year. Detroit added DAndre Swift to a passing game that will also return Marvin Jones, T.J. Hockenson, Danny Amendola, and Kerryon Johnson, so I think expecting a significant volume increase in 2020 is a bad bet. Without more volume, Golladay is an avoidable regression candidate at is cost.
Matt Waldman
Melvin Gordon. He’s in a new offense with an odd offseason that will limit preparation for him to develop great timing with his line. Phillip Lindsay will still have a significant role, and he’s more familiar with the offense. Gordon is just a little too high on boards for my taste.
Jeff Pasquino
I'll echo a lot of the choices here. My least favorite is certainly Fournette, as lead backs on bad teams are rarely a good idea. Fournette - even if healthy - is playing for a team that Vegas projects to win the first overall pick next year, which severely limits the upside for the run game on a team with a strong likelihood of - at best - a 6-10 season.
Phil Alexander
I want no part of LeVeon Bell this year, and I don't think Adam Gase does either. Only seven running backs touched the ball more than Bell last season, but he couldn't muster more than an RB20 cumulative finish and three weekly finishes inside the Top 12. Not much has changed for the better in New York since last year, and the Jets added Gase-favorite, Frank Gore, as well as LaMichael Perine in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. If you pick Bell here, cross your fingers for an unlikely in-season trade.
Andy Hicks
Without wishing to pile on, it has to be Leonard Fournette, although I do have James Conner not far behind. The one ray of light for Fournette is that he may get traded as soon as a team desperate enough offers chump change to take him. On a new team, he could be motivated to play for a new deal. That said let’s talk about James Conner instead. Just like at wide wide receiver they keep drafting running backs in roughly the same every year. Since drafting Conner they have taken Jaylen Samuels, Benny Snell, and now Anthony McFarland. Conner looked like the future in 2018, but he took a huge step back in 2019 with injury, the absence of Ben Roethlisberger, and underachievement on his resume. In the final year of his rookie deal and with plenty of backups around, except the extension talk to remain just that, talk.
Justin Howe
I'm no big fan of Fournette's, though I'd still take him over Beckham here. I can't understand why the Beckham Mystique remains so strong - he hasn't finished as a WR1 (nor very close) since 2016, and it took him 169 targets from Eli Manning to do it. Since then, it's been a jumbled mess of injuries, inconsistency, complaining, and jumping teams, which looks more and more like a lateral move for Beckham. I'm not sure why everyone expects a quantum leap with Baker Mayfield, and I just can't get his projections up beyond the low-end WR2 range, so Round 3 looks like a fool's game for his value.
Bob Henry
Aside from the running backs not named James Conner, the player I like the least in the third round is Odell Beckham. Again, I'm not taking any of those running backs in the third - most likely - and I don't have Beckham ranked high enough for me to take him there either. I prefer A.J. Brown, Both Bucs WRs (as do most), JuJu Smith-Schuster, and even Calvin Ridley and Robert Woods over Beckham. If he's hanging on the board as we get into the fourth round, I'd gladly take him, but I'm targeting the players above as well as Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes II if they're on the board into the middle of the third.
Devin Knotts
Odell Beckham is the guy that I like the least here. Beckham has posted nearly identical numbers the past two seasons with the Browns and the Giants, and the year prior he was out with an injury. There is a little bit of Josh Gordon effect going on here where people are still drafting him on the off-chance that he returns to what he was four years ago. Last year should have been the perfect season for Beckham with Kareem Hunt suspended, David Njoku hurt/non-existent, the Browns wide receiver depth was decimated with injuries to Rashard Higgins and Antonio Callaway, yet Beckham only caught 74 passes. With more mouths to feed in Cleveland this year, it is going to be difficult if Beckham maintains the numbers that he produced last season, but if you're taking him in the third round you are expecting much more than a wide receiver #25 performance.
