Who won The Athletic’s 35-player Heisman draft?

In May, The Athletic’s national college football writers got together for a fantasy draft: 2020 Heisman Trophy contenders. This was due, in part, to start early conversations about players with Heisman chances, to avoid sleeping on the next Joe Burrow.

A lot has happened since then. The COVID-19 pandemic left its mark on the 2020 season in plenty of ways we’re already familiar with, from cancellations to revivals, from players opting out, to wildly varied numbers of games played among programs, even those within the same conference. The wild season was mimicked in our straw polls, where the leaderboard changed often.

But the sport pressed on, as did those who played this season. A champion will be crowned next week, either Alabama or Ohio State. And a champion player was crowned Tuesday: DeVonta Smith won the 2020 Heisman trophy.

So which national writer won The Athletic’s Heisman draft? After all, no one even drafted Smith.

Here was the scoring system:

Heisman Trophy winner: 15 points
Second-place finish: 9 points
Third place: 8 points
Fourth place: 7 points
Fifth place: 6 points
Sixth place: 5 points
Seventh place: 4 points
Eighth place: 3 points
Ninth place: 2 points
10th place: 1 point
*Invited to New York City: +5 bonus
**Midseason Heisman leader: +5 bonus
*The Heisman Ceremony was held virtually. Writers who drafted a finalist received the +5 bonus.
**We went with Week 8 of 16 for this metric. Trevor Lawrence led our straw poll that week. 

And here was the randomized order of our snake draft: 1. Matt Fortuna; 2. Bruce Feldman; 3. Nicole Auerbach; 4. Max Olson; 5. Andy Staples; 6. Stewart Mandel; 7. Chris Vannini.

Here were their picks, and, in order from last place to first, the draft losers and winners.

T-7th: Nicole Auerbach, Stewart Mandel, Chris Vannini — 0 points

Auerbach: It’s wild to see this draft, knowing how little we knew about how the season would play out. Poor Max, using a first-round pick on a quarterback who would opt out of the season. Or Stew, with a quarterback whose season didn’t start until November! I, obviously, did not know that my third-round pick, Clemson’s Justyn Ross, would miss the entire season with a congenital fusion of the spine. I do stand by my overall strategy of picking all QBs with one stud wide receiver. (I just picked the wrong wide receiver.) And I didn’t realize Louisville would have such a drop-off in Year 2 of the Scott Satterfield era. Or that Arizona State would play only four games. Alas!

But I do have a follow-up question about this process: Can I keep my guys for the 2021 preseason Heisman draft? I’d like to. Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler will surely be a trendy Heisman pick entering next season considering the way he closed out the Sooners’ season, finishing the year with 3,031 yards, 28 touchdowns and a 67.5 completion percentage. UNC quarterback Sam Howell will also be a popular choice heading into 2021, coming off a season in which he threw for 3,586 yards (good for fourth best in the country) and 30 touchdowns (sixth). His 66 touchdown passes through his first two years broke Trevor Lawrence’s ACC record. My two top picks were among the best players in the country. They just weren’t the best of the best — or on College Football Playoff teams. That’s usually a prerequisite for Heisman consideration these days. But I feel better about ‘em in 2021, and I’d like to keep ‘em. Pretty please?

Mandel: Well, at least I had the instinct to draft an Alabama receiver in the second round. How was I to know Jaylen Waddle would get hurt in the fourth game of the season?

It’s interesting, though. The reason I chose Waddle at the time was specifically because of the longstanding assumption that a receiver can only win the Heisman if he’s an all-purpose guy like Desmond Howard, whose signature highlight in 1991 was a punt return. DeVonta Smith did have one punt return touchdown, but he won simply for being an amazing receiver, something Larry Fitzgerald and other all-time great pass-catchers couldn’t quite pull off.

But my entire draft was essentially cursed. Waddle and LSU’s Myles Brennan both missed most of the season, Kenny Gainwell opted out before the season and Kedon Slovis and CJ Verdell played in a conference that didn’t kick off its season until November, giving those guys no chance. Lesson learned: Don’t draft Pac-12 players in a Heisman draft.

Vannini: With the last pick in the first round, I’d missed most of the big-name quarterbacks, so I decided to go with what I thought would be the best non-QB. After all, Travis Etienne had averaged more than 7.0 yards per carry in each of his first three seasons. He had a good 2020 season; Etienne averaged “only” 5.4 yards per carry, but did add 48 catches and 588 receiving yards, nearly equaling his first three years combined. His remarkable career ends with the FBS record for most games with a touchdown and the ACC rushing record. His 7.2 career yards per carry are 11th in FBS history. He didn’t end up in this year’s Heisman race, but looking back, it was a good pick here.

I expected the Aggies to have a big season and they did. But at the time of this draft, I also expected Texas A&M to roll through an original schedule that didn’t see Alabama and LSU until the final two games of the regular season, potentially giving the Aggies a top-five ranking heading into a showdown with Alabama, which could help a Heisman case. Instead, the Alabama game was moved up and the Aggies were blown out. Bo Nix was a risky pick. I thought Nix, with Chad Morris running the offense and a great group of receivers around him, could make a sophomore leap. Instead, Nix put up similar numbers as his freshman year, Auburn finished 6-5 and Gus Malzahn was fired. Whoops.

Rondale Moore opted out to prepare for the draft when the Big Ten first postponed the season this summer, but when the season came back, he decided to, too. Unfortunately, injury and other factors kept him to just three games this year. We’ll always have 2018. As for Shane Buechele, I wanted to make a Group of 5 selection with my last pick, but Memphis running back Kenny Gainwell and UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel were off the board. Buechele was the AAC’s best quarterback in 2019, and I thought he could have an even bigger year in 2020. He improved his passing yards per game (309.5), yards per attempt (8.4), completion percentage (65.4) and QB rating, but it wasn’t enough to get in the conversation.

4th: Andy Staples — 2 points

Staples: After Week 1 in the SEC, I was sure K.J. Costello was going to lead my squad to an easy win. I mean, come on. The guy threw for 623 yards and five TDs against the defending national champs. Of course, we know now that was a mirage brought on by a terrible coordinator hire at LSU. Costello didn’t even finish the season as the Bulldogs’ starter. Meanwhile, my No. 1 pick (Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan) was hamstrung by the Big Ten’s abbreviated schedule and another shaky coordinator hire. My guy averaged more than 10 yards an attempt in 2019 and dropped to 7.5 in 2020.

Meanwhile, I plan to draft D’Eriq King again next year. I’m confident he can rehab his torn ACL in time to lead Miami to another leap forward. Ian Book, who I thought was my biggest value pick, was the only member of my team to earn me points. So thanks to the five people who voted Book first, the five who voted him second and the 13 who voted him third.

In true Heisman Trophy prognosticating fashion, none of us picked the eventual winner. Stewart did pick an Alabama receiver, but he chose Jaylen Waddle. In retrospect, we should have paid more attention to the 2019 numbers. With Waddle, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and DeVonta Smith all healthy, Smith still led all Alabama receivers. That should have been our clue. This guy — who didn’t get the draftnik love because of his size — outplayed three surefire first-rounders.

Congratulations to Bruce for not outthinking the room. He nabbed Trevor Lawrence because at No. 2 he was going to get whichever of Lawrence or Justin Fields was available. Then he picked Alabama back Najee Harris and Alabama QB Mac Jones. That wound up giving Bruce three of the top five, and he destroyed us with them.

Justin Fields was selected first overall in our draft, but finished seventh in this year’s Heisman voting. (Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

3rd: Matt Fortuna — 4 points

Fortuna: As they say, with great power comes great responsibility. To which I say, good luck, Jaguars: Picking No. 1 is never as easy as it seems.

Forty percent of my picks opted out of the season before it even began. Another 40 percent of my picks had their season canceled until the Big Ten reversed course. Then there was Chuba Hubbard, who started off hot — 93 or more yards in each of his first four games for the then-undefeated Pokes — but also ultimately opted out with two games left, and after missing the previous two games because of nagging injuries. We’ll just pretend that my Sean Clifford pick never happened. (At least that was my approach until my editors asked me to defend myself here.)

Also, consider me now fully on board for voting on the Heisman after the Playoff. Something tells me that my Justin Fields pick would look a lot better after that all-timer of a performance in the semifinal win over Clemson — and it might even be an outright winner if Fields can lead the Buckeyes past ’Bama.

2nd: Max Olson — 13 points

Olson: Look, you can’t say Jamie Newman couldn’t have become a Heisman finalist! We’ll never know!

Honestly, what was I supposed to do with the No. 4 pick? That was an especially tough spot to pick from in this year’s first round. The other guy I debated taking there was Kedon Slovis, who would’ve been a better pick but ultimately wouldn’t have done much for me in this game, either. I’ll just say this in defense of Newman: The fact that Kyle Trask finished in the top four makes me think this pick could’ve worked out. If Newman leads Georgia to a win over Florida, maybe he’s the one getting the Heisman hype the rest of the way.

Yes, I took Sam Ehlinger in the second round after he fell in our draft. He didn’t have a terrible senior year (34 total TDs, 5 INTs), but he never really got into Heisman contention. This pick was only going to pay off if Texas won the Big 12. And Texas … (checks notes) … did not. If Ehlinger had not fallen to me there, I was honestly planning to take Najee Harris. But I knew going into this draft that I really wanted to land Mac Jones, and for some reason, I thought doubling down on Bama guys was risky. Why did I think that?! When Bruce took Harris two picks later, I had a gut feeling I’d made a mistake.

I selected Jones in the third round as hoped, which was, inarguably, the best pick of the entire draft. I figured he had so much talent around him that he couldn’t fail. At the time, it was sort of debatable whether Bryce Young was just as viable of a pick as Jones. If we do this exercise again for 2021, I have no doubt Young would be a first-rounder.

I wasted my fourth-round pick of Penn State’s Micah Parsons. I made that mistake because Chase Young’s Heisman finish in 2019 made me want to take a shot on possibly having college football’s best defender. Well, Parsons skipped the season and teamed with Newman to ruin my squad’s chances before the season even really kicked off. Oops.

My last pick was UCF’s Dillon Gabriel, who did end up leading the nation in passing yards per game while accounting for 34 total TDs with just four INTs. But because UCF fell out of the AAC race, the sophomore never really had a shot at finishing in the top 10. Maybe next year. In hindsight, the obvious pick there was Ian Book. Props to Staples for taking him one pick later.

Am I thrilled with how this went? No, I am not. But at least I got Mac Jones.

1st: Bruce Feldman — 32 points

Before I take any egotistical victory lap here, I just want to say I eagerly await the oral history of Max using the fourth overall pick on … (checks notes) … Jamie Newman. And, congrats Stew on having the guts to pick an Alabama wide receiver so high. Truth be told, some of this — my lopsided victory — was luck. If Fortuna wasn’t in front of me in the third round I would’ve taken Ja’Marr Chase instead of Trask. I do think it helped me that I did some story during the pandemic where I interviewed a bunch of analysts and scouts in hopes of IDing this year’s Joe Burrow, and Trask’s name came up. So thanks to those scouts and football minds, like our colleague Dane Brugler, who were on board with the Florida quarterback. Clearly, Max really took that piece to heart and went all-in on the Wake Forest transfer.

To me, Trevor Lawrence and Najee Harris were no-brainers. They were about as close to locks as being among the best players at their positions — and they’re both on the two teams everyone was almost sure was going to make the Playoff — at least in the middle of a pandemic. They were proven commodities who already had plenty of name recognition. I still can’t believe Max and Andy did what they did in the first round. In Andy parlance, this would be like going to Franklin Barbecue and trying to order the matzo ball soup.

And BTW, shout out to D.G., who, in the comments, predicted that “If Indiana’s Michael Penix stays healthy, he will have a big year.”

(Top photo of DeVonta Smith: George Walker / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)