Before the draft I found it near-impossible to separate out the top receivers, but the Falcons went ahead and did it for me. MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images The path is there for stardom, though, and in a wide-receiver laden draft, he’s probably worth grabbing before moving on to the pass-catchers, even if it’s mighty close between him and the next guy. The biggest obstacle to Walker’s thriving immediately is Rashaad Penny, who dusted off years’ worth of cobwebs to basically be the league’s best running back in the second half of last season, but even with a guaranteed contract he’s still a perpetual injury risk and Walker’s nascent receiving skills make him useful as a 1B at worst. Now they have Drew Lock calling signals, at least until if/when they trade for Baker Mayfield, but I don’t think that makes much of a difference to the offense. The Seahawks have always wanted to run the ball, and for most of the last decade they’ve done so behind the best deep-ball thrower in the league. The important part there is who gets the goal line work. There are fears of a split with Michael Carter, and they’re fair, but Carter split time in college with Javonte Williams as a definitive, complementary productive 1B and I expect the same breakdown here. For all the hand-wringing about the Jets’ plurality of options on offense and how that could affect his usage, the lead running back (and he will be the lead running back sooner rather than later) on a team that might be able score but not play a lick of defense is a huge asset before you consider his considerable running skills, which have been favorably compared to those of Jonathan Taylor. That made Hall the 1.1 by a decent margin. I was already set to leapfrog the running backs above Malik Willis, then the NFL Draft came along and pushed Willis even further down the list. This is just one man’s collection of thoughts, liable to change at any moment. If that’s not your bag, simply adjust the numbers in your head. If this list is geared in any particular way, it’s toward teams that are not necessarily competing this year but plan to in another season’s time, which gives the running backs and quarterbacks a little bit more time to get seasoning. A team competing soon, while unlikely to be picking high, will have different needs than one competing later on, and past the middle of the second round anyway pretty much everyone is interchangeable, to a point. But it’s important to note that one size does not fit all. All of which leads to some major changes from my previous rankings, especially at the top. The NFL Draft is out of the way, and we finally have some context for rookie drafts.
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