A.J. Brown and N’Keal Harry are the class of the NFL Draft. D.K. Metcalf is clear tier 2 prospect.
Hakeem Butler is more similar to Emmanuel Hall and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside than many NFL Draft analysts believe. How do you grade Darius Slayton vs. productive small school players?
2019 running back rookie class has been panned pretty much all off-season. Being a numbers focused fantasy football player, I’m assuming much like yourself if your reading this, I tried to think of a way to either confirm or dispel this narrative.
Overall, this running back class does not compare favorably with running backs who finished as fantasy starters in previous seasons. Only six running backs in the 2019 class display advanced metrics similar to the average of the historical top 24 running backs in the PlayerProfiler database. More importantly there are clearly no elite level prospects. The narrative on draft twitter is confirmed.
Latavius Murray is like an oversized Tevin Coleman, and landed on the perfect offense to compliment his skillset. The Superdome is the Coors Field of the NFL, and Murray in New Orleans is like Vinny Castilla in Colorado.
The arrival of Murray and a pass-first attack would virtually guarantee a second year breakout for Christian Kirk, who flashed the most impressive age-adjusted college dominance among the 2018 NFL Draft WR class. Specifically, Kirk posted an absurd 1009 receiving yards as a true freshman at Texas A&M while sharing a field with Josh Reynolds.
What makes D.K. Metcalf so intriguing is his size. Compared to the wide receiver mean, he’s tall, big, has a towering wingspan, tree trunks for arms and has better than average hand size. He is überfast and is explosive.
However, one thing he is not is agile. His Three-Cone and 20-Yard Shuttle were so bad that his 11.88 Agility Score places him in the 4th-percentile. Although Metcalf’s 32.1-percent College Dominator is above average (58th-percentile), what is most concerning is the fact that he only has 67 receptions to his name. There is a possibility that this athletic phenome might turn out to be a colossal bust.
Matt Lacosse and Jacob Hollister are not draftable Gronk replacements. Treat Tyreek Hill as if he is radioactive until further notice.
Sammy Watkins has not been efficient since 2015 and that matters. Chris Conley’s squandered 2018 season was unforgivable.
Miles Sanders has the best athletic measurables across the board. He has receiving capabilities at 211 pounds. Sanders flashed his upside his junior year, rushing for 1,200 yards and catching 24 balls and has proven he can handle a significant workload, averaging 18.7 touches per game in 2018.
Miles Sanders has the best athletic profile in the 2019 running back class across the board, because he possesses an all-purpose skillset and has the best shot at becoming a bell-cow back at the next level.
Ty Johnson is the best sleeper running back in the NFL Draft. Darrin Hall, Jeremy Cox, and Kerrith Whyte are highly athletic no-name college running backs.
Mel Kiper thinks Terry McLaurin is a first rounder! You know who has outstanding comps? Scott Miller from Bowling Green.
The Jacksonville Jaguars spent the fourth overall selection on Leonard Fournette in 2017. After the 2018 season, with Fournette still on the roster, they have a whopping 59.3 percent of their total carries left up for grabs. Fournette looks like the biggest winners of the still young NFL offseason.
Chris Warren led the NFL in rushing yards during the 2018 preseason, racking up 292 yards on 58 attempts. However, his underwhelming 16.2-percent College Dominator Rating on 8.5 rushes per game for Texas combined with lackluster athletic profile suggests Warren is incapable of shouldering a primary back workload in the NFL.
Remembering Rob Gronkowski with a party. What should fantasy gamers be doing with Tyreek Hill this offseason?
Time to hope onboard the the Sammy Watkins train? Jerick McKinnon will make $3.7 million this year, and it doesn’t matter.
Riley Ridley’s draft stock has taken a nosedive after the NFL Combine. He posted poor athletic metrics across the board to pair with his minimal college production. With no redeeming qualities on his advanced metrics profile, Ridley will need to convince NFL teams that his routes are so good that they can ignore all the red flags.
Players like Ridley should never participate in the Combine as it only stands to hurt their stock. Either his agent doesn’t own a stopwatch or he is naive. He should be relieved of his duties for purposefully plummeting his players stock.
