Dynasty Rookie Draft Advice: Audric Estime (2024 Fantasy Football)

This is what we’ve been waiting for, fantasy football enthusiasts. The NFL Draft is under way, and we finally get to see where the rookie prospects are going to launch their professional careers. And NFL Draft landing spots allow us to start to zero in on fantasy football and dynasty rookie draft pick values.

Throughout the draft, we’ll take a closer look at fantasy-relevant prospects, giving you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses, and assessing their fantasy value in both redraft and dynasty formats.

Let’s dig in.

Fantasy Football Rookie Draft Outlook

Fitz’s Fantasy Football Outlook

The Denver Broncos have added a rugged thumper to their RB room, selecting Notre Dame’s Audric Estime with the 12th pick of the fifth round.

The 5-11, 222-pount Estime is a no-frills power back who churned out 1,341 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns in 12 games during his final season with the Fighting Irish. Estime is a punishing inside runner who has some lateral agility and doesn’t go down easily. His hard-charging style makes him a natural candidate for goal-line duty, giving him some TD upside.

At the combine, Estime clocked a plodding 4.71 in the 40-yard dash, and a 4.61 at his pro day was only a marginal improvement. Estime recorded only 26 receptions during his three college seasons in South Bend, so he probably isn’t going to play much on passing downs.

In short, what you see is what you get with Estime. He’s an early-down hammer whose goal-line potential could make him a useful fantasy asset, but his limited skill set limits his ceiling.

The good news is that the Bengals have an unsettled RB depth chart following the trade that sent longtime Cincinnati lead back Joe Mixon to Houston. Veteran Zack Moss and second-year man Chase Brown sit atop the Bengals’ RB depth chart, but neither has a stranglehold on a large role.

Estime had a predraft FantasyPros Expert Consensus Ranking of RB66 in half-point PPR redraft leagues and an Underdog best-ball ADP of RB49. I tentatively have him ranked RB58 in redraft.

For dynasty, I have Estime ranked RB11 among the rookie running backs, with an overall dynasty ADP of RB49.

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Thor’s NFL Draft Profile & Player Comp

Audric Estime (Notre Dame)
5113/221 | RAS: 6.52
Player Comparison: Benny Snell Jr.

Straightforward north-south power back. Audric Estime was extremely effective muscling between the tackles in Notre Dame’s power-run concepts, posting a 94.2 PFF grade last year. But even though he’s still only 20, I’m tepid on his NFL projection because he lacks speed and explosion (4.7 forty) and won’t be a factor on passing downs. His skill set, unfortunately, is replaceable at the next level.

Check out more NFL Draft profiles and player comps from Thor in our 2024 NFL Draft Guide