Pick it Apart!
The Draft is in the books and the dust has settled. But how well did your team do in the first round?
We are taking a look back at every selection in the first round and giving you the lowdown on the pick; Was it a reach? Was it a steal? We’ll tell you and give you the impact for fantasy football….
Pick: 20
Player: Noah Fant
Drafted by: Denver Broncos
Grade: A-
Analysis: Lots of people excited about this pick and it’s absolutely great value here. Denver obviously didn’t fancy Devin Bush at 10 after trading out of the spot with Pittsburgh. Denver acquired the Pittsburgh 2nd round pick and a 3rd rounder in 2020 on top of Fant here at 20 and dare I say it, John Elway had a good draft for Denver
Noah Fant, the Robin to TJ Hockenson’s Batman at Iowa comes in to a great spot here with statue Flacco under Center (for a week at least). Fant’s pass catching ability, route running and speed are of elite levels and whilst his contested catch rate could do with improvement (along with his strength and blocking ability), he is a guy that could potentially come in day 1 and produce for this team.
Fant produced a star studded show at the combine, finishing top for the TE class in all but 3 categories. He had the fastest 40 time along with broad and vertical jump gold medals.
He will be a Red Zone monster ( has a 1 TD every 4 passes caught ratio at Iowa) but will also be a guy that finds plenty of space often.
Another interesting fact, Fant wants to be an orthopaedic surgeon once his playing days are over.
Fantasy Football Impact:
Fant had 78 rec for over 1000 yards at Iowa (13.9yd avg) and in the current landscape of Tight Ends in Fanatsy, there will be many GMs (especially in dynasty) willing to take the shot on Fant. You could say they are Fant-asizing about what he could do for them. In his first year, expect a few games here or there of fantasy relevance, but needs to up his strength and contact abilities before becoming a stud.
Joe Flacco has never finished higher than QB 11 (2010) in fantasy but that doesn’t mean he can’t support fantasy relevant players.
Joe Flacco made average players relevant at tight end; Dennis Pitta, Todd Heap, Nick Boyle are all guys that got way more action than they should have done, all because of big Joe.
I fully expect Joe to show Noah some love even in year 1. Fant only has Jeff Heuerman and Tony Fumigali to surpass on the depth chart. Taking it one step further, Rich Scangarello has come over from San Francisco…we’ve just seen the season George Kittle has just had. Add to that, Emmanuel Sanders is coming back from a torn achilles and the Wide Receivers of Courtland Sutton and DaeSean Hamilton are entering year 2 in the NFL so Fant could quite easily become a go to in this offence. Don’t be surprised to see 100 targets for Noah in year 1, that could Fant-astic production for a position that usually takes a year or 4 to get embedded in to the league.
Get excited. He should be your TE in dynasty drafts and could be a late round value in redraft unles the hype train sells out of tickets.
