Devy Fantasy Football Rankings & Analysis: Week 10

Travis May discusses devy fantasy football leagues in his weekly series for FantasyPros.

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Welcome back to Week 10 of Devy Weekly!

If you missed the ninth 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 simply 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 11 of the college football season!

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Quarterback

Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama
Justin Herbert, Oregon
Will Grier, West Virginia
Trevor Lawrence, Clemson
Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State

Running Backs

D’Andre Swift, Georgia
Travis Etienne, Clemson
David Montgomery, Iowa State
Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
A.J. Dillon, Boston College
Eno Benjamin, Arizona State
Darrell Henderson, Memphis
Cam Akers, Florida State
Damien Harris, Alabama
J.K. Dobbins, Ohio State

Wide Receivers

A.J. Brown, Ole Miss
Bryan Edwards, South Carolina
N’Keal Harry, Arizona State
Kelvin Harmon, North Carolina State
Dekaylin Metcalf, Ole Miss
Jerry Jeudy, Alabama
CeeDee Lamb, Oklahoma
Laviska Shenault, Colorado
Tee Higgins, Clemson
Hakeem Butler, Iowa State

Tight Ends

Noah Fant, Iowa
Kaden Smith, Stanford
Albert Okwuegbunam, Missouri
Caleb Wilson, UCLA
Irv Smith Jr., Alabama

What Changed?

If you’re comparing to last week, you may notice a couple new faces that joined or rejoined the lists.

Damien Harris (RB, Alabama), J.K. Dobbins (RB, Ohio State), Hakeem Butler (WR, Iowa State), and Irv Smith Jr. (TE, Alabama) all joined the top tier in their positional rankings. Bryce Love (RB, Stanford), Rodney Anderson (RB, Oklahoma), J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (WR, Stanford), and Jared Pinkney (TE, Vanderbilt) all dropped out. Let’s talk about the how and why.

Big games against tough opponents can skew perception, but they’re definitely an important piece to any prospect’s overall profile. Damien Harris’ performance against LSU is no exception. Due to Alabama’s dominance this season Harris hadn’t really been asked to do much thus far this year. But when he was called upon to step up in the toughest matchup of the season, he answered the call. Harris carried the ball 19 times for 107 yards and a touchdown, then added a few receptions as well. It may be cliché to tout Alabama running backs, but Harris sure looks like one of the best set to enter the 2019 NFL Draft class.

Just when you think J.K. Dobbins can’t get any worse, he goes off and does something like he did Saturday and totally redeems himself! Dobbins was an inconsistent embarrassment all season and needed a huge statement game. That’s exactly what he had. He posted 163 yards and three scores on the ground against Nebraska and looked like the solid running back that so many fell for in his freshman season. He needs to continue that dominance if he wants to stay in the top 10 for long.

Hakeem Butler is one of several humongous humans playing wide receiver likely entering the NFL Draft in 2019. It’s easy to overlook one or a few of these monsters, but Butler has just been too consistently dominant to ignore. Iowa State doesn’t even average 19 pass completions per game this year, but Butler has still eclipsed 100 yards receiving four times this year and scored in six of eight games. Butler shows impressive flexibility throughout his route tree and adjusting to the ball at the point of catch. He’ll dominate deep, then punch defensive backs in short spaces too. Butler’s stock is still rising.

Irv Smith Jr. looks like the real deal for Alabama at tight end. He’s scored in several games this season and just possibly had his best game of the year against LSU. Smith’s long touchdown came over the top of one of the best safeties in the country in Grant Delpit. Then he caught a few more balls as well. Smith has ideal size, solid straight line speed, and excellent awareness to play one of the toughest positions on the field at an elite level. If for some reason he doesn’t enter the 2019 NFL Draft, Smith is going to potentially rise to TE1 status in devy drafts next spring.

It’s time we finally address Bryce Love. It’s a little unfair to judge too harshly given he’s struggled with injury all year. However, that’s part of the problem with expecting success for Love in the NFL. He’s gained some weight, but it’s clear he will still be a tad undersized compared to the ideal NFL running back size. Last season when he posted ridiculous numbers, he would frequently get dinged up as well, but just pushed through. That is clearly not working as well this year and definitely won’t do in the pros. Hopefully, Love starts looking like himself. For now, Love cannot be ranked among the elite at his position.

Rodney Anderson did the right thing last week officially declaring for the NFL Draft. That was almost inevitable given how old he already is, but it’s good to know he’s officially thrown his name in the hat for the 2019 NFL Draft. Talent-wise he is without a doubt a top three running back in the class without even knowing who will declare. However, he will most definitely miss the NFL Combine drills recovering from injury and may struggle to be ready by Week 1 of his first NFL season. That’s going to suppress his value in all fantasy football formats. It’s best to leave him out of the elite ranks until his future clears up.

As soon as you talk someone up, they tend to let you down, and that’s exactly what happened with J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. He’s still a solid wide receiver, but he got absolutely shut down against Washington this past week. Arcega-Whiteside’s inability to create separation showed up the entire game as the Huskies defense decided to try and take him out of the game entirely. If he tests okay at the NFL Combine, it may make sense to get excited about him again, but until then every fantasy owner should doubt his upside on a healthy level.

The tight end landscape in college football has been getting more competitive just about every week. And Jared Pinkney isn’t dropping out of the top five because of something he did wrong. Irv Smith Jr. is just a noteworthy stud. Pinkney has impressed all year and could easily find his way to day two in the NFL Draft. Keep an eye on him as he finishes a strong 2018 campaign at Vanderbilt. If he stays one more year, Pinkney should rise near the top of devy rankings just like Smith for Alabama.

Other Notable Happenings from Week 9

Dillon Mitchell continues to prove that he’s one of the best wide receivers in the PAC-12. He scorched the UCLA secondary for eight receptions, 156 yards, and two touchdowns.

Antoine Wesley quietly grabbed another 12 catches for 199 yards last weekend for Texas Tech. He’s going to be a late riser in the draft season should he declare.

Trey Sermon apparently remembered how to play football for Oklahoma this week too. He put up a 206-yard, three-touchdown performance against Texas Tech. He wants a place back in my top-10 running backs list here. That’s clearly his motivation.

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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