2019 NFL Draft Guide: 6th & 7th Round NFL Draft Impact

We’re down to the bottom of the barrel. And we aren’t going to lie to you and tell you that there’s a ton of value in the sixth and seventh round of the NFL draft in terms of redraft leagues.  In fact, according to a study by Russell Clay over at FantasyGuru, only 8.2-percent of running backs drafted in the sixth round and 5.9-percent of running backs drafted in the seventh round ever have a 1,000 yard season from scrimmage and there’s no doubt it’s even more rare for that to come in their rookie year.  And that goes for wide receivers as well with 3.3-percent of wideouts drafted in the sixth and 6.0-percent of wideouts drafted in the seventh ever having a 1,000 yard season.  Pretty grim.

That being said, you don’t need 1,000 yards from scrimmage to contribute to fantasy success.  And we know that the ceiling for players from the last round is just “decent player” because we’ve seen the emergence of guys like Tom Brady , Antonio Brown , Terrell Davis, and Bo Jackson who are among the greatest to ever play the game.  All you need is a ticket to the show and the players we discuss here very well could be the next Julian Edelman or Marques Colston.  

As most redraft leagues don’t go much deeper than 18-20 rounds and none of these guys currently have a top-20 ADP, we are going to forego the previous format of players to draft, players to avoid, and players to watch.  Instead we are going to give you the names of players that you need to know and then tell you which ones we like best. In this article we’ll discuss them in the order they were taken in the NFL draft.  

Sixth and Seventh Round Rookies to Watch

KeeSean Johnson – WR, ARI

Johnson came off the board at pick 174 which was the very first pick of the seventh round, if that offers a glimmer of hope.  The bad news is that the Cardinals had already taken Andy Isabella at pick 62 in the second and Hakeem Butler at pick 103 in the fourth, not to mention they made another pick at 139 in between Butler and Johnson, so they couldn’t have had Butler and Johnson all that close on their board.  But, like we said before, Johnson got his ticket and a chance to compete. And, by a couple of accounts now, he’s making the best of it.  

Dexter Williams  – RB, GB

If landing in a new offense with a new QB is something we harp on in terms of opportunity for late round wide receivers, the equivalent for running backs would be landing in a runningback group with low draft capital.  In this case you have Dexter Williams , the 184th pick in 2019, landing behind Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams , the 182nd and 134th picks in 2017.  The Aaron Jones situation alone offers some hope for Dexter – he was drafted after Williams, slotted in behind him and Ty Montgomery , and, with the help of a couple injuries, he was able to get an opportunity and earn the starting role.  We know it's possible because we’ve seen it.  

Now, unfortunately for Dexter Williams , Aaron Jones has been incredibly efficient when he’s gotten in the game, average 5.5 yards a carry and contributing in the passing game as well.  Williams wasn’t a particularly prolific college player breaking 1,000 yards from scrimmage only once in his senior year with 1,128 total rushing and receiving yards. Jones is likely locked into the starting gig but we like Williams to potentially beat out the other Williams for the backup role and, if something were to happen with Jones, you’ll want to make sure you add the right Williams in an offense that always threatens to move the ball and score a lot of points.

Travis Homer – WR, SEA

Travis Homer is a guy who tested well having the second best vertical, second best broad jump, fifth best 40 time, and the sixth best three cone among running backs.  Had he been drafted earlier and to a different team we may be singing a different tune on Homer. However, he was picked late and landed on a team that already has a battle going between a late round pick who has shown success on the field in Chris Carson and a highly touted prospect that the team invested a first-round pick on in Rashad Penny.  At first glance it seemed that this pick was likely to just be special teams depth play but then John Schneider told Liz Mathews of USA Today that “He can play on third down - we actually had him in the third down category because he has such good hands coming out of the backfield.” He goes on to talk about his instincts and his pass blocking ability and that seems to have translated into the notion that he’ll compete with CJ Prosise and JD McKissic for the third down duties vacated by Mike Davis .  As we’ve seen with guys like Alvin Kamara , who was seemingly buried behind Mark Ingram , Tarik Cohen behind Jordan Howard , and even Austin Ekeler behind Melvin Gordon , the pass catching role gives you a much better opportunity to break off big plays on limited touches and could be Homer’s path to daylight in a seemingly crowded backfield. Once again, no need to draft him given his ADP but someone to monitor.   

Kelvin Harmon– WR, WAS

Here’s another guy who fell way later than a lot of people expected in the draft, including us.  And a lot of that is likely due to a mediocre combine as he did produce well during his time at NC State.  As with guys we’ve previously discussed in this series, if we can get beyond the fact that he fell all the way to 206, an argument can be made that he landed in a pretty decent spot.  Paul Richardson is likely plugged into a starting role given the money they paid him though injuries are a concern having played only one 16 game season in five years, missing nine games last season.  After Paul, there is pretty much an open competition between Josh Doctson , Terry McLaurin, and Kelvin Harmon for the other outside receiver role. And for those saying Doctson should also be a lock, here is a telling bit of info from long-time Redskin and current Redskins analyst, Chris Cooley.  

As we mentioned with other rookie wideouts, new QBs are typically a good thing as they don’t yet have favorites on the team and will be part of the decision of who gets playing time.  Unfortunately for Harmon, if/when Dwayne Haskins does take over the team, he will likely be favoring second round rookie Terry McLaurin who played with him at Ohio State. But, if what Cooley has been saying is true and Harmon is flat out better at beating the jam than Doctson, he could earn himself one of those three starting spots where he deserves to be on our radar.  

Darwin Thompson RB, KC

When it comes to Darwin Thompson, there is no shortage of hype material and he seems to be providing a lot of it himself.  Whether it be him saying he’s going to be “Chiefs Barry Sanders”.

Or him saying that he only squatted 500 pounds in this video because he couldn’t fit more weight on the bar.  

No one seems to be more confident in Darwin Thompson than Darwin Thompson.  Which is exactly the kind of attitude you need when this is your path to the league:

• Zero D1 scholarships

• Dominated at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M(?)

• Earned a scholarship to Utah State

• Didn’t get invited to the combine

• Was the 20th running back drafted on draft day

We talked earlier about liking guys behind shaky starters – well, as good as Damien Williams was filling in last year, he was an undrafted guy who did just north of nothing during his time with the Dolphins.  It makes you wonder if maybe the system contributed a little more to his success than his skillset. Then you have Carlos Hyde who will be turning 29 in a couple months and seems to be the guy that teams employ while they wait for their actual guy to come along.  If Thompson’s hands can get him on the field and he can make some explosive splash plays, the Chiefs may decide that he needs the ball more which will hopefully get us some more confident quotes from the man himself. And that’s the kind of fun player you want to root for if he does break out so make sure he’s on your watch list. 

Myles Gaskin – RB, MIA

The last guy we are going to touch on is a bit of a longshot to offer any value in redraft for a couple reasons but we wanted to get his name out there.  First, the bad. The Dolphins are expected to be nothing shy of terrible and running the football is typically the luxury of the winning team. Running is also the luxury of the starting back which all signs indicate will be Kenyon Drake.  And based on most reports, Gaskins is actually behind Kalen Ballage and possibly also Mark Walton and Kenneth Farrow in terms of pecking order to start camp. Add in the fact that Gaskin was literally the last running back drafted and you can see why we prefaced this as a longshot.  

The potential upside comes via the new head coach and it involves a little speculation on our part.  As you know, Brian Flores comes from the Bill Belichick coaching tree where he coached mainly on the defensive side of the football.  Bill Belichick’s running back philosophy is to treat it like two different positions – the running down back and passing down back. In Belichick’s years with the Patriots, he has never had a back that both had 200 carries and 35-plus receptions.  The last two Patriots backs to do that were in the 90s with Robert Edwards and Curtis Martin. Flores chose Patriots wide receiver coach Chad O’Shea as offensive coordinator and brought in Tiquan Underwood as offensive quality control coach so that’s a lot of Patriot-minded guys now running the fish.  If they do decide to split the position into two different roles, it really shortens the depth chart a bit in terms of Gaskin’s path to playing time. If he can weasel his way past Mark Walton (who has been arrested three times this year, for those keeping track at home) he would be the next in line for passing down duties behind Drake while Ballage handles the running down role.  And if the Dolphins are as bad as everyone thinks they will be, you want to be on that passing side of the depth chart.  

Studs from Rounds Six and Seven

KeeSean Johnson – WR, ARI

Darwin Thompson RB, KC

The word “stud” is a bit of a stretch in the context of this point in the draft but we’ve got a format going here and we’re sticking to it.  The idea of KeeSean Johnson potentially earning a starting role alongside Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk is tantalizing enough to make him the most interesting player in redraft leagues from rounds six and seven.  Its certainly something to monitor throughout camp though, if it is formally announced at some point, you will see Kyler Murray hype carry his ADP to a place we might not want to go. If it can remain an open competition for long enough that he can fly under the radar then he might be an interesting last round pick to see what the snap counts are like week one.  If he does earn the spot then hopefully the Cards give him the Keyshawn Johnson treatment and “just throw him the damn ball”.  

We were going to leave it at KeeSean Johnson but it felt wrong to leave Darwin Thompson off the “studs” list given his confidence and what he’s accomplished so far.  No matter what his career amounts to, he powered his way through adversity to the big leagues and nothing can take that away from him. What we’re hoping is that he can carve out a role soon in that Kansas City offense because, as we saw with Tyreek Hill and Alvin Kamara , explosive player + explosive offense = fantasy fireworks.