Dynasty Rookie Draft Advice: Kimani Vidal (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 Los Angeles Chargers waited quite a while in this year’s draft to address their sparse RB position, but they finally took one in the sixth round, selecting Kimani Vidal of Troy with the 181st overall pick. It might seem silly for fantasy managers to get excited about a sixth-round draft pick, but the marriage between Vidal and the Chargers seems perfect.

The 5-7½, 213-pound Vidal is a compact and productive runner who became Troy’s all-time leading rusher last year. After rushing for 1,132 yards and 10 touchdowns as a junior, Vidal went nuclear in his senior season, with 1,661 rushing yards, 201 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns in 14 games.

Vidal ran a surprisingly fast 4.46 at the combine and posted a Relative Athletic Score of 8.81. He’s built low to the ground and packs surprising power, using his leg drive to push piles. The shifty Vidal does a nice job of picking his way through traffic, and he saw a lot of it in his last two seasons at Troy, as opposing defenses loaded up the box in an effort to stop the Trojans’ top offensive weapon.

With 315 touches last season, Vidal demonstrated that he can handle bell-cow usage. He’s also a useful pass catcher who had 92 receptions during his four-year college career and impressed onlookers at Senior Bowl practices with his route-running.

The only real knocks on Vidal are that he’s not a burner in the speed department, and he’ll have to make a significant adjustment making the jump from Troy to the NFL.

The Chargers needed some help at running back. They have Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins on the roster, but Edwards is strictly an early-down/goal-line hammer, and Dobbins has endured a torn ACL and torn Achilles in recent years. Vidal has a chance to play a substantial role for the Chargers immediately.

Vidal is a favorite dynasty target of mine. I have him ranked RB7 among the rookies and RB37 overall. Despite the poor hit rate for sixth-round draft picks, I’m hoping to grab him in either the late second round or early third round of 1QB rookie drafts, or in the late third round of superflex rookie drafts.

Vidal was an afterthought in the predraft FantasyPros Expert Consensus Rankings, checking in at RB101. He has an Underdog best-ball ADP of RB78. I’m tentatively slotting him in at RB52 for redraft

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Thor’s NFL Draft Profile & Player Comp

5077/213 | RAS: 8.81
Player Comparison: Jaylen Warren

Kimani Vidal is another prospect off the bowling-ball-build assembly line. He’s also a favorite of mine and one of my flagplants in this class. For a guy with nearly 90th-percentile athleticism and 4,000 rushing yards in the FBS, he’s criminally underrated.

Vidal has a battering-ram style, low to the ground and hard-charging. He packs a surprising amount of power into his sawed-off frame, particularly once he’s begun accelerating. Very good contact balance — Vidal bounces off off-angle attempts and continues upfield.

Comfortable running between the tackles despite his frame. Vidal faced myriad stacked boxes in college as opponents attempted to stop him. Does not have joystick agility in space but Vidal is shifty and bouncy in tight quarters and is tough to square up. Vidal’s combination of agility and power led to 92 broken tackles in 2023, second-most in the nation. Tackle-breaking machinations include a nasty stiff-arm in space.

Proved he could handle bell-cow usage with over 300 touches last season. A tough, assignment-sound pass-blocker. He’s also a decent receiver who had either 22 catches or 200 receiving yards in all four years on campus. Showed slick route-running chops at the Senior Bowl.

Vidal is an underrated back who, like his doppelganger Jaylen Warren, could form a fabulous combo back. Warren also finished No. 2 in the FBS in forced missed tackles in his final season in college.

Our @thorku breaking it all down with Kimani Vidal, one of his top RBs at the Senior Bowl ? pic.twitter.com/E3NNt22ml7

— FantasyPros (@FantasyProsNFL) January 30, 2024