Developing Assets: Week Three

Austan Kas

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It’s hard to believe, but we’re already into week three of the college football season. We finally start getting into conference play and moving away from the boring, lopsided out-of-conference games which litter the landscape early on. In fact, there’s a full slate of SEC games this week, which is never a bad thing.

In this series, we take a look at future NFL players with a focus on the offensive skill positions to help those of you in developmental (devy) leagues. We’ll give you several games to watch, along with some key devy players who will be in action. For those in regular dynasty formats, this gives you a chance to start checking out some of the players who will be available in 2016 (and beyond) rookie drafts.

We have in-depth rankings for the 2016, 2017 and 2018 classes, which we update throughout the season. We also have a breakdown on what the heck a devy league is, in case it’s foreign to you.

Saturday

Wake Up and Watch: Illinois at North Carolina (ESPN2, 12:00)

The Tar Heels are the team to watch in this one. North Carolina features three players — Quinshad Davis, Elijah Hood and Juval Mollette — in our rankings.

Davis, a 6-foot-4, 220 pound senior, is ranked as the 23rd receiver in our 2016 class of draft-eligible prospects. He had 41 receptions for 470 yards and six touchdowns in 2014. He’s looks to be fully recovered from the broken right leg he suffered on North Carolina’s last offensive play of the 2014 season. Davis has eight grabs for 92 yards through two games.

Hood, Rivals’ fourth-ranked running back in the 2014 class, was fairly inefficient last season (3.9 yards per carry), although he was just a true freshman. He’s been much better in 2015, racking up 194 yards and two scores on 28 attempts (6.9 YPC). We have him rated as the 16th-best back in the 2017 draft class.

The Tar Heels also have Mollette, a true freshman wideout who Rivals rated as a four-star and the #34 receiver in the 2015 class. Reports out of preseason camp predict he’s unlikely to play much right away, though. Ryan Switzer, JohnathanBugHoward and Mack Hollins, a trio of junior receivers, are worth monitoring. Howard leads North Carolina with 151 yards on eight catches.

Illinois doesn’t have any players in our devy rankings, but they’re not completely barren of talent.

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Wes Hunt, a redshirt junior quarterback who transferred in from Oklahoma State, was highly recruited out of high school. Through two games with the Fighting Illini, Hunt has completed 44-of-65 passes for 478 yards and five touchdowns with one interception. Josh Ferguson is a fifth-year senior running back who has 115 yards and two scores on 25 carries. In addition to having an awesome name, 6-foot-4 senior wideout Geronimo Allison is averaging 18.1 yards per catch, totaling 10 receptions for 181 yards and one touchdown.

Other teams in action around the noon hour, along with some players to focus on, include:

  • Tulsa at No. 16 Oklahoma (Samaje Perine, Joe Mixon, Michiah Quick, Sterling Shepard), FS1, 12:00
  • Air Force at No. 4 Michigan State (Connor Cook, L.J. Scott, Macgarrett Kings), ABC, 12:00
  • Nevada at No. 17 Texas A&M (Kyle Allen, Speedy Noil, Ricky Seals-Jones, Christian Kirk), SECN, 12:00
  • Connecticut at No. 22 Missouri (Nate Brown), ESPN, 12:00

Midday Marquee: No. 18 Auburn at No. 13 LSU (CBS, 3:30)

This is the first of a pair of must-watch SEC West games on Saturday. It’s actually the first of a whole bunch of must-see SEC West games throughout the course of this season.

Per usual, LSU is stacked with talent all over the field and it shows in our devy rankings as the Tigers have five players listed.

Sophomore running back Leonard Fournette, our No. 2 overall prospect in the 2017 class, leads the way. A Rivals five-star phenom and the #1 running back in the 2014 high school class, expectations were sky high for Fournette’s 2014 freshman season. So much so that his 1,000-yard, 10-touchdown freshman season didn’t generate a ton of buzz. At 6-foot-1, 221 pounds, Fournette has the body of a bruising NFL back right now. He was a monster in LSU’s only game thus far, a 21-19 win at Mississippi State, running for 159 yards and three scores on 28 carries.

If you like athletic receivers, LSU is a team for you — unless you like watching a good quarterback throw to those athletic receivers. Unfortunately, the wideouts’ numbers will be suppressed all season by the Tigers’ poor quarterback play. Travin Dural, Trey Quinn and Malachi Dupre were all big-time recruits and give LSU maybe the most talented receiving corps in the nation. With quarterback Brandon Harris throwing for 71 yards, no one did much in the win over Mississippi State.

Dural, a 6-foot-2 junior, averaged an insane 20.5 yards per catch in 2014, totaling 37 grabs for 758 yards and seven scores. Dural checks in as our No. 23 overall devy player and No. 16 receiver for the 2016 class. Dupre, a 6-foot-3 sophomore and the No. 2 wideout in our 2017 rankings, had 14 grabs for 318 yards (22.7 average) and five touchdowns last year as a true freshman. Quinn, another sophomore, made 17 grabs for 193 yards in 2014. We rank Quinn as 2017’s No. 16 receiver.

Tight end Jacory Washington, who is 6-foot-6 and 228 pounds, redshirted last year as a freshman. In the 2014 high school class, Rivals rated him as the fourth-best tight end. We have him as our No. 2 tight end among the 2017 draft eligible players.

Auburn was supposed to be an offensive juggernaut this season. They may end up being one, but they’re struggled in their first two games. Most of the issues fall on quarterback Jeremy Johnson.

Johnson, our #4 signal caller for 2016, showed well in limited opportunities behind Nick Marshall last season, connecting on 28-of-37 passes for 436 yards and three scores. He’s been a wreck this year, though, tossing five interceptions in two games. The Tigers even narrowly avoided a historic upset loss against Jacksonville State last week.

Auburn has a lot of highly-rated running backs, but it’s been Peyton Barber, who is fairly unheralded, leading the rushing attack. Barber has rushed for 240 yards and one touchdown on 47 carries (three times as many as anyone else). He had the game-winning touchdown, a four-yard run, in the overtime win over Jacksonville State.

Roc Thomas, our #8 back for 2017, has 49 yards on 14 carries. Thomas has added two catches for 73 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown. Kerryon Johnson is a true freshman and our # 8 running back for 2018. He has eight yards on two carries in limited work this season. Jovon Robinson, our 2016 # 8 back, was the nation’s top-ranked junior college running back a year ago. Like Johnson, he is slowly being worked into the fold with two carries for 16 yards.

D’haquille Williams and Ricardo Louis are Auburn’s top receiving weapons. Williams, our 2016 # 8 wideout, led the Tigers with a 45/730/5 line last year as a junior. He has five grabs for 62 yards thus far. Louis paces Auburn in catches (13) and yards (130) through two contests.

Other teams in mid-day action, along with some players to watch, include:

  • No. 13 Georgia Tech (Justin Thomas) at No. 8 Notre Dame (Will Fuller, Corey Robinson), NBC, 3:30
  • Northern Illinois at No. 1 Ohio State (Cardale Jones, Ezekiel Elliott, J.T. Barrett, Michael Thomas and Braxton Miller), BTN, 3:30
  • South Carolina (Pharoh Cooper, Shon Carson) at No. 7 Georgia (Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Keith Marshall, Jeb Blazevich, Terry Godwin), ESPN, 6:00

Primetime Play: No. 15 Mississippi at No. 2 Alabama (ESPN, 9:15)

No game thus far will feature as much NFL talent as this one. There will be future NFL players all over the field. The amount of draft prospects won’t be matched often this year, except for when both of these teams play LSU. Ahh, such is life in the SEC West.

LSU and Alabama have reigned supreme in terms of NFL talent in the SEC the past few seasons, but the Rebels — accounting for all positions, not just fantasy spots — may have the most NFL talent in the conference this season. Through two games, Ole Miss hasn’t done much to dispel that notion, averaging a video game-like 74.5 points. The AI settings will be bumped up a few levels this week.

Laquon Treadwell is in the mix to be the first player off the board in 2016 rookie drafts. We have the electric junior receiver ranked first overall in the 2016 class. Coming off a gruesome leg injury, Treadwell has look healthy, recording nine receptions for 117 yards through two games. Amazingly, even though Ole Miss has scored 149 points and thrown for nine touchdowns thus far, Treadwell doesn’t have a touchdown yet. This will be an excellent chance to see him go up against a premier defense.

Evan Engram is our #2 tight end for 2016. A junior who stands at 6-foot-3, 227 pounds, Engram fits the mold of current NFL pass-catching tight ends. Somehow Engram has just one catch for five yards through two games, which seems impossible given the Rebels’ stats. Despite that, he’s still one of the top tight ends in football.

DaMarkus Lodge, Cody Core and Markell Pack round out the Rebels’ pass-catching group. Pack, our #16 receiver for 2017, has four catches for 73 yards and one score. Lodge, a true freshman, was Rivals #7 receiver coming out of high school. He’s caught one pass for a 12-yard touchdown. Core, a senior, has been the Rebels’ most productive wideout through two games, hauling in eight passes for 176 yards and two scores.

A mix of top-end running back recruits, elite offensive line recruits and great coaching has made Alabama a dominant power running team since Head Coach Nick Saban took over. Get the best players and coach them better than everyone else; it’s a pretty sweet formula. The Tide has produced Mark Ingram, T.J. Yeldon, Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy just since 2011 – that’s a decade’s worth of NFL running back prospects for some good football schools.

The assembly line keeps churning this year. Damien Harris, Kenyan Drake and Derrick Henry will all play in the NFL at some point, barring injury.

Henry is the lead dog right now and our #2 back for the 2016 class. Playing behind Yeldon last season, Henry still rushed for 990 yards and 11 touchdowns. Through two games, Henry has 31 carries for 233 yards and six touchdowns. Drake missed a majority of 2014 due to injury, but as a sophomore in 2013, he averaged 7.5 yards per carry and finished with 694 yards and eight scores. He profiles as more of an NFL third-down back than a workhorse. Drake has been Alabama’s top receiving weapon thus far, amassing seven catches, 139 yards and one score out of the backfield. He’s added 16 carries for 117 yards and a touchdown as a runner.

Harris was Rivals’ #1 running back in the 2015 high school class. He’s seeing the field early for the Tide, which is pretty dang hard to do, totaling 17 carries for 78 yards. He will probably have to wait until 2016 to see an extensive workload.

The pass catchers are a little more unknown. Not that Alabama is lacking talent in that area (or any area), but the Crimson Tide’s receivers are unproven.

Junior tight end O.J. Howard is our # 3 tight end for 2016 and one of the top pass-game weapons for Alabama – he’s made seven receptions for 105 yards in two outings. Sophomore ArDarius Stewart, sophomore Robert Foster and freshman Calvin Ridley are vying to replace Amari Cooper as the team’s top receiver. Ridley was the top-ranked wideout in the 2015 high school class, according to Rivals. Through two games, Foster has made eight grabs for 99 yards and two scores. Stewart has 10 catches for 65 yards while Ridley has hauled in seven passes for 59 yards.

Other teams with evening games, along with some players to focus on, include:

  • Florida (Demarcus Robinson) at Kentucky (Stanley Williams, Patrick Towles), SECN, 7:30
  • California (Daniel Lasco, Jared Goff) at Texas (Johnathan Gray), FOX, 7:30
  • Stanford (Kevin Hogan, Christian McCaffrey, Devon Cajuste, Austin Hooper) at No. 6 USC (Juju Smith-Schuster, Cody Kessler, Isaac Whitney, Justin Davis), ABC, 8:00
  • Rutgers (Leonte Carroo is suspended) at Penn State (Christian Hackenberg, Daesean Hamilton, Juwan Johnson, Saquon Barkley, Adam Breneman), BTN, 8:00

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