Travis May discusses devy fantasy football leagues in his weekly series for FantasyPros.
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Welcome back to Week 4 of Devy Weekly! If you missed the third installment, check it out here so you can get up to speed! Essentially, I’ll be taking a close look at the top (future NFL) playmakers in college football every week to help you stay one step ahead of your league mates. Whether you play in “devy” dynasty leagues or you love to learn about the next generation of NFL studs, this article series is for you!
So without further ado, let’s dive into my updated positional rankings as we head into Week 4 of the college football season!
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Quarterbacks
- Justin Herbert, Oregon
- Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama
- Will Grier, West Virginia
- Drew Lock, Missouri
- Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State
Running Backs
- D’Andre Swift, Georgia
- Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
- Cam Akers, Florida State
- David Montgomery, Iowa State
- Bryce Love, Stanford
- J.K. Dobbins, Ohio State
- Travis Etienne, Clemson
- Damien Harris, Alabama
- A.J. Dillon, Boston College
- Trey Sermon, Oklahoma
Wide Receivers
- A.J. Brown, Ole Miss
- Bryan Edwards, South Carolina
- Dekaylin Metcalf, Ole Miss
- Kelvin Harmon, North Carolina State
- N’Keal Harry, Arizona State
- CeeDee Lamb, Oklahoma
- Jerry Jeudy, Alabama
- Jalen Reagor, TCU
- Jhamon Ausbon, Texas A&M
- Collin Johnson, Texas
Tight Ends
- Noah Fant, Iowa
- Albert Okwuegbunam, Missouri
- Kaden Smith, Stanford
- Jared Pinkney, Vanderbilt
- T.J. Hockenson, Iowa
What Changed?
If you’re comparing to last week, you may notice a couple new faces that joined or rejoined the lists. Trey Sermon (RB, Oklahoma), Collin Johnson (WR, Texas), and T.J. Hockenson (TE, Iowa) hopped into the fold among the elite options at their position. Rodney Anderson (RB, Oklahoma), Ahmmon Richards (WR, Miami), and Caleb Wilson (TE, UCLA) dropped out. Let’s talk about how and why.
Trey Sermon has been thrust into the top running backs conversation by both his talents and increased opportunity over the past couple weeks. As I’ll get to in a bit, his teammate Rodney Anderson was lost for the season with an injury, so Sermon’s time to truly shine is now. Sermon already put together an impressive freshman season for the Sooners in 2017, amassing nearly 900 yards from scrimmage and averaging more than six yards per carry.
Now that Anderson is injured and may leave for the NFL Draft, Sermon should be featured and has been in a limited sample already. He just dropped 119 yards on Army this past week and should continue doing something like that every week for the rest of this season. Sermon should be one of a few elite backs entering the 2020 NFL Draft.
Collin Johnson just reinserted himself into the top wide receivers conversation thanks to his seven-catch, 124-yard performance against TCU. One of the things Johnson needed to improve upon was his down-to-down consistency. This past weekend, Johnson did just that as he caught a pass on each of the first four drives for Texas. At 6’6” with the flexibility to snatch the ball wherever it’s thrown, Johnson has a boundless ceiling of potential. If Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger keeps connecting with Johnson down the stretch this season, you’ll be hearing Megatron comparisons for this young stud wide receiver.
Yes, T.J. Hockenson is the second Iowa tight end featured as a top-five tight end prospect right now. That may seem like a little too much, but Hockenson currently has the third-most receiving yards in the nation among all Division-I tight ends (behind only Kaden Smith and Jared Pinkney). Hockenson has perfect pro tight end size, can block, catch, and run routes well. After Noah Fant (his Iowa teammate) leaves for the NFL Draft next spring, expect even more from Hockenson.
Sadly, I have to drop Rodney Anderson out of the top-10 running back prospects due to injury. And if it were only due to one injury his descent down big boards wouldn’t be so swift. However, Anderson has struggled with various injuries throughout his entire career. Yes, he has a feature back skill set, but even if he declares for the draft this year, he’ll miss all of the combine and NFL Draft season recovering. If he waits another year, he risks further injury, and he’ll be nearing age 24 as a rookie.
Ahmmon Richards is another injury-plagued potential star that has to drop from the elite rankings until he does something again. He kicked off his Miami career breaking Michael Irvin’s record for most receiving yards as a true freshman. But since then, he’s struggled to stay on the field for “The U.” Richards is a polished route runner that can get off press, win deep, and shows excellent body control throughout the catch process. He needs to stay healthy, and maybe he’ll creep back into the top 10 at wide receiver.
Lastly, Caleb Wilson dropped out of the top five at tight end, but he could easily return. UCLA was off this past week, but frankly, they have looked terrible. If they can somehow manage to get Wilson the ball some more this fall his stock should rise as the NFL Draft season nears. Wilson himself has looked great in small samples. He should eventually be a fine move tight end at the next level.
Other Notable Happenings from Week 4
Darrell Henderson had himself another 188-yard game, albeit against South Alabama. It’s getting more difficult every week to leave him outside of the top-10 running backs. Memphis doesn’t play anyone, so he’s hard to gauge.
Benny Snell inserted himself into the Heisman conversation scoring four touchdowns against a great Mississippi State defense. He’s still probably a mid-round prospect, but Snell has looked incredible for Kentucky.
The Ole Miss duo may end up being the best two wide receivers in the NFL Draft next spring. Both A.J. Brown and Dekaylin Metcalf had about 100 receiving yards again this week. It seems that’s all they know how to do.
Rondale Moore continues to shred college defenses for Purdue as a true freshman wide receiver. He caught another eight receptions for 110 yards and two more touchdowns. He’s currently accounting for about 40% of the Boilermakers’ receiving offense, and he’s only 18 years old. Moore could work his way into the elite conversation here soon.
I hope you enjoyed this installment of Devy Weekly! Again, feel free to reach out to me @FF_TravisM on Twitter to chat more about college or the NFL! Good luck in all of your leagues and expect to hear from me again here soon!
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