Dynasty Rookie Draft Advice: Jaylen Wright (2024 Fantasy Football)

This is what we’ve been waiting for, fantasy football enthusiasts. The NFL Draft is under way, and we finally get to see where the rookie prospects are going to launch their professional careers. And NFL Draft landing spots allow us to start to zero in on fantasy football and dynasty rookie draft pick values.

Throughout the draft, we’ll take a closer look at fantasy-relevant prospects, giving you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses, and assessing their fantasy value in both redraft and dynasty formats.

Let’s dig in.

Fantasy Football Rookie Draft Outlook

Fitz’s Fantasy Football Outlook

The Miami Dolphins have added one of the most intriguing running backs in the 2024 draft class to a crowded RB room, selecting Tennessee’s Jaylen Wright with the 20th pick of the fourth round.

Wright is a big-play runner with explosive 4.38 speed. He reached a speed of 22.2 mph on one of his runs last season — the fastest top speed for any college running back in 2024. Wright averaged 7.4 yards per carry in his final college season in Knoxville, carrying 137 times for 1,013 yards. With his explosiveness, Wright is flat-out lethal when he gets into open space. He’s terrific at making cuts without decelerating.

At 5-10½, 210 pounds, Wright is no mere passing-down scatback. He averaged 4.35 yards after contact per attempt last season and ran for 10 or more yards on more than a quarter of his rushing attempts. Although he’s known for big plays in the running game, Wright is a surprisingly proficient pass blocker.

Since Wright is a Tennessee running back with breakaway speed and considerable big-play ability, comparisons to Alvin Kamara are inevitable. And like Kamara, Wright was used somewhat lightly at Tennessee, averaging 11.3 carries and 12.3 touches over his final two college seasons. But Kamara was a much more accomplished college pass catcher than Wright, who had only 24 receptions the last two seasons.

It can be hard to evaluate skill players who come out of Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel’s gimmicky but effective spread offense, and Wright got to run against more than his fair share of light boxes. Wright doesn’t always run with good vision, and he can be too quick to bounce runs outside.

Wright could end up being a victim of the Dolphins’ speed addiction. Miami is an undeniably disappointing landing spot for Wright. The Dolphins got one of the best rookie running backs in last year’s draft class, De’Von Achane, who’s even faster than Wright. The Dolphins also have productive 32-year-old veteran Raheem Mostert and jack-of-all-trades veteran Jeff Wilson. It’s going to be tough for Wright to get on the field as a rookie, and there’s no clear path for Wright to become a lead back in a year or two.

Wright’s predraft FantasyPros Expert Consensus Ranking in half-point PPR redraft leagues was RB50, with an Underdog best-ball ADP of RB52. Given the bleak outlook for Wright to earn significant playing time as a rookie, I have him ranked RB60 for redraft

Expect Wright to be a late second-round pick in 1QB dynasty rookie drafts. He’ll come off the board somewhere in the back half of the third round in most superflex rookie drafts. I tentatively have Wright ranked RB7 among rookies, with an overall dynasty ranking of RB42.

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Thor’s NFL Draft Profile & Player Comp

Jaylen Wright (Tennessee)
5104/210 | RAS: 9.8
Player Comparison: Tony Pollard

Jaylen Wright is a home-run hitter with speed and explosion for days. You cannot let him get out in space. Once there, his wheels will begin erasing defenders’ angles.

The speed Wright showed on the track in Indianapolis at the NFL Combine is all over his film. Wright was clocked at 22.2 miles per hour (MPH) on one run last year, the fastest of any collegiate running back. The former Feldman Freak Lister had 35 carries of 10+ yards on only 136 attempts — a tick over 25%.

In space, Wright is a problem. Fortunately, he has tools to help him get into it. That starts with his explosion from a stand-still. Over half of Wright’s total rushing yardage came on breakaways (designed runs that ended in 15+ yard gains). In sum, Wright ranked top-five in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) with a 7.4 yards per carry (YPC) mark.

Like many sprinter types, Wright is an upright runner, limiting his ability to string together change-of-direction combinations in space. However, he does a nice job pressing the issue with his speed, putting defenders to decisions and shaking them with a hard cut in space.

Wright doesn’t lose momentum off these cuts, which becomes a problem for back-end defenders who must drastically alter pursuit routes to account for his speed when his path alters. And, like Benson, another linear sprinter, Wright has good contact balance, particularly when hurdling down the field at high speeds. He bounces off glancing shots while keeping his feet. Wright posted a strong 132.2 elusive rating last season.

During last year’s breakout campaign, Wright improved by leaps and bounds in the passing game. He is still learning his feel for route-running and developing a smoothness for converting from a receiver to a runner. However, he displayed soft hands and an urgency to make himself available to the quarterback. He needs more work in this area but there is exciting untapped potential to develop.

Wright’s 2023 tape also showed strong improvement in pass-pro. Wright is a competitive player who doesn’t mind scrapping. He could become strong in this area with more work on his setup and technique.

Wright also did well in 2023 to address his fumbling problem. In 2022, Wright fumbled four times, which got his playing time cut. Last year, on an increased workload, he only fumbled once.

Wright comes out of Tennessee’s gimmicky spread offense and the standard caveats apply — he was in an ideal situation last year to leverage his strengths. It is easier to find space against light boxes, which is what he mostly saw.

He won’t be able to win with pure athleticism as often in the NFL as he did in the SEC. The instincts he has in space were not always apparent on inside concepts, where he could be swallowed up. He needs to work on improving his vision and plan in constricted spaces.

Wright enters the NFL fresher than most running backs in this class due to being a part of a committee at Tennessee. He only touched the ball 20 times in two collegiate games. It would probably be best to have him initially be part of a committee as he fleshes out his overall skillset.

Wright’s package of athleticism and all-purpose skillset give hope he could in short order develop into a long-term three-down back who generates explosive plays in both phases with regularity.

Check out more NFL Draft profiles and player comps from Thor in our 2024 NFL Draft Guide