Fantasy Football 2020: 10 Players You Shouldn’t Draft In First Round

Botching your first-round pick in a fantasy football draft is a good way to fasttrack your team to irrelevancy.

We’re here to help avoid some of those potential busts.

Here are some players to dodge in the first round of your fantasy football draft.

Joe Mixon, RB, Cincinnati Bengals
Mixon was really adversely impacted by the ineptitude of the Bengals’ passing game last season. Surely Joe Burrow will help rectify that issue, but Burrow making so big of an impact in Year 1 that it eases the pressure on Mixon seems like a big ask.

Kenyan Drake, RB, Arizona Cardinals
Drake played pretty well after getting traded to the Cards last season, and the departure of David Johnson only further paves the way for him to be the bellcow. But something tells us that the return in the Johnson trade, DeAndre Hopkins, is a sign they’ll get Kyler Murray to air it out more, which obviously impacts Drake.

Aaron Jones, RB, Green Bay Packers
Jones had some really dominant games last season, but he also had a penchant for going completely dark. And with Jamaal Williams and A.J. Dillon also likely to see touches, Jones might not be as impactful of a player this time around.

Rob Gronkowski, TE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
We’ll be honest, we don’t know if drafting the unretired tight end in the first round is on anybody’s radar. But please — PLEASE — do not take Gronk in the first round. Once upon a time that would’ve been realistic; not in 2020.

Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings
His chemistry with Kirk Cousins wasn’t great last year, and now teams will be able to zero in on him with Stefon Diggs in Buffalo. Maybe that puts Theilen in a position to thrive, but it also means he could regress.

Odell Beckham Jr., WR, Cleveland Browns
It really feels like Beckham has one foot out the door, and his first turn with the Browns was underwhelming. Maybe he regains the form he’s capable of reaching this season, but there are safer options.

Todd Gurley, RB, Atlanta Falcons
Most expectations for Gurley already are tempered, but he did pass a physical and is in a new situation where he could thrive. But the floor is just too low to reach on him.

Le’Veon Bell, RB, New York Jets
Although Bell still has the skill to be one of the league’s premier backs, the Jets offense as a whole is just so bad that it’s hard to envision him being able to really excel.

Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Let us first say, we love Ekeler and were bullish on him even prior to last season. But he isn’t a first-rounder purely because teams will be able to target him more this year with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback and Melvin Gordon gone — although the latter factor didn’t impact Ekeler all that much last season.

Literally any quarterback
Listen, the temptation will be there. But there are so many good quarterbacks you can get that if someone in your league wants to take Patrick Mahomes at seventh overall, let them. They’ll be begging to trade for a running back or wideout by Week 2.