Gerald Herbert | Credit: AP
Why You Need to Avoid Xavier Legette in Your Rookie Drafts
Out of all the players in this 2024 draft class, Xavier Legette is by far my least favorite prospect. Legette is a walking red flag when you look at his profile, yet so many people continue to ignore these issues. Legette wasn’t productive in the slightest until his 5th year in college at 23 years old. For the most part, this is always a massive issue, but let’s do some more digging.
It’s not impossible for late breakout prospects to find success; look at Terry McLaurin. The big difference is that McLaurin was playing with top receivers at Ohio State. Legette couldn’t get on the field in his fourth year playing alongside 244th overall pick Jalen Brooks. Since Legette’s number one attribute is his size, it makes sense for him to dominate when he was playing against a ton of younger and smaller cornerbacks as a 5th-year senior.
I’ve watched the All-22 film on Legette, and I will say he looked great in 2023. Legette is very good at winning at the catch point and is a weapon with the ball in his hands. The reason Legette will likely be a second-round pick in the NFL Draft is because he’s a fast X wide receiver who can play on the outside. NFL teams need this build because even if Legette doesn't draw many targets, his ability to play outside and stretch the field opens up an entire offense. Legette may be a good NFL player, but I don’t see him commanding enough targets at the next level to become fantasy-relevant.
Xavier Legette - Jonathan Mingo - Hakeem Butler pic.twitter.com/6YeL0iWdMr
Why Jalen McMillan Is the Biggest Sleeper in the 2024 Rookie Class
Jalen McMillan is the biggest sleeper in the 2024 rookie class, and it’s not even close. As a prospect, I would rank McMillan as high as the WR6 if there weren’t any questions about his injury and draft capital. Draft capital is a crucial part of evaluating rookies, but it seems like McMillan will be a top-100 pick at the very least.
McMillan showed promise as a freshman and broke out as a sophomore, putting up a 79-1,098-8 statline. Washington loves to throw the ball, but even if you look at McMillan’s efficiency stats, he drew a 21.2% team target share as a sophomore. Unfortunately, McMillan suffered a knee injury in 2023, and he wasn’t playing at 100% until the college football playoffs. In those two games, McMillan caught a combined 11 passes for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
2022 Jalen McMillan ripping a contested catch away from Christian Gonzalez downfield. Hand eye coordination + hand strength + compete level. A great play vs one of the best CBs in the nation
pic.twitter.com/Wzc3cEycbh
The one knock on McMillan is that he’ll likely be a slot-only option in the NFL. In 2022, McMillan played 459/496 of his snaps from the slot; in 2023, that number went up to 231/259. Since slot receivers aren’t valued as much by NFL teams, McMillan will go after Legette in the NFL Draft, but in a PPR format, slot receivers are much better for fantasy. Jayden Reed, who is similar to McMillan, played 462/631 of his snaps in the slot, which led him to a 13.6 PPG rookie season.
Who to Draft: Legette vs McMillan
At the end of the day, I’m very comfortable passing on Legette to take McMillan, assuming nothing drastic happens. Of course, you need to be flexible based on their landing spots, but because of how strongly I feel about each prospect, it will be hard to change my outlook. It’s also worth mentioning that even though Legette has more upside based on his athletic profile, I would argue McMillan also has a ton of upside as well.
Going back to McMillan’s formation percentages, he actually played 273/319 of his snaps out wide in 2021. McMillan had a solid season that year, catching 39 passes for 470 yards and three touchdowns. If McMillan measures in at a true 6' 1" and 192 lbs at the NFL Combine, I have faith that he can play out wide more at the next level.
Although it’s not a huge sample size (10 drafts), Faceoff Sports Network has Legette going with an ADP of 25 versus McMillan at 38. Of course, you don’t want to sacrifice this much value, so I would recommend simply trading back a few picks, if possible, and taking McMillan. However, if you can't, “reaching” on a player in the third round of a rookie draft isn’t a huge deal, and I’d take McMillan over Legette straight up.
