Dynasty Rookies

When surveying the rookie quarterback landscape, Watson easily finds himself in the best landing spot of this year's class. The Texans have gone to the playoffs in back to back seasons despite lacking a legitimate NFL signal caller, which made moving up in the first round to take Watson a logical choice for Houston. While Watson may not have the same ceiling as some of the other quarterbacks in the 2017 class, he has the experience and resume to compete for the starting job from day one. The expectation is that Texans could very well roll with Tom Savage under center to open the season, but he's not the long term solution. And although Watson does need to improve some areas of his game, the former Clemson quarterback did lead his team to the National Championship game in each of the past two season, helping the Tigers to capture their second National Title in school history this past season. He should get his shot this season, and if he plays well he's going to hang onto the job for a long time.

Moving up to draft Mahomes sent a pretty clear signal that the Chiefs have decided they've gone as far as they can go with Alex Smith under center. While not in line for immediate playing time, Mahomes has arguably the highest ceiling of any quarterback in this draft. He has good wheels, but is far more concerned with using them to prolong plays than to take off downfield. He also has the biggest arm in this draft class by far. The trick is going to be settling him down and getting him to stay in the pocket. He's a straight up gunslinger who always thinks there's a play to be made, and his natural ability and enough positive outcomes kept him improvising throughout his career at Texas Tech. He won't be able to get away with some of that stuff at the NFL level, but that said, he's also so good that some of it is still going to work. You couldn't find a more polar opposite of Alex Smith if you tried so it will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out, both with the coaches and the fans. Expect him to drive Andy Reid a bit insane early in his career, but if he develops he could be very very good.

The signing of Mike Glennon saves the Bears from having to throw Trubisky into the fire in Week 1. Still, it's hard to take a quarterback second overall in the modern day NFL and then leave him on the bench all season. Trubisky catapulted to top quarterback in the draft after just one full year as the starter at North Carolina. And while that does give some pause, there's little doubt that the physical tools are all there. He has a pretty high ceiling, but he's also not for faint of heart because there's virtually no floor here either. The situation reminds a bit of Carson Wentz last season, and frankly, their games are similar enough to make that a fair comparison. The top quarterback in the draft obviously needs to be owned in dynasty formats, even if there's no immediate path to playing time.

Going into the 2016 college football season, Kizer was the top quarterback prospect on more than a few draft boards. But a poor junior season in which he failed to live up to expectations, and was even benched at times, sent Kizer's stock tumbling to the point where many questioned his choice to leave school a year early. Still, Kizer looks the part of NFL quarterback at 6'4" and 235lbs, with excellent mobility and a big time arm. He's still a long way from fulfilling the Steve McNair comparisons that have been thrown around, but you can't teach size and athleticism. The expectation had been that Kizer would land in a spot that allowed him to compete in camp, but ultimately had him spend most of year one watching from the sideline. And while that still may be the case, reports out of Cleveland suggest that he may be in the mix for early playing time after all. The Browns have done a solid job of acquiring building block-type talent on both sides of the ball, and if they believe getting Kizer under center sooner will help speed up the clock on their rebuilding effort, with his dual threat ability the rookie could offer some interesting upside for 2017 and certainly needs to be on the radar of every dynasty owner. He's going to open camp competing with Cody Kessler for the starting nod and should garner the backup role unless he's thoroughly and completely outplayed by Brock Osweiler, which no one expects.