2017 George W. Bush League Draft Recap - 5th Pick

PICK:

5TH OVERALL

TEAM:

MARTY HUGGINS (REPEAT/UNNAMED), owned by H. Guy Ritch. Guy has not renamed his team for the coming year, but I imagine he’ll have another interesting name.

TOP 5:

After starting off our draft with the #1 pick in 2016, Guy had a long fall down to #5 this year. And guess what? He ended up with the exact….same…..player….. Earlier I said that Keetz was one of 2 guys to use his first round pick on a player he owned last year. Now I can say that Guy is the only person to use his first round pick on the exact same player he did last year. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

This was really the best direction Guy could have gone in. He took the best remaining WR off the board and the biggest playmaker/X Factor/difference maker available. Yes Odell is dealing with an injury and yes he’s usually a slow starter, but there’s no denying he’s a star. He’ll single-handedly win a few weeks for the Ritch Bros and for that reason, it was a good pick.

Guy got another huge difference maker in the second round, taking GONK with the 16th pick. It’s really hard to justify not picking an RB with either of your first two picks, but if you’re gonna do it then Gronk is totally justifiable. He seems to be healthy for the first time in a long time and I can see a 1,200 yard 15 TD season coming.

Guy finally took a running back in the third round and it was the most “Guy” pick ever. Seriously if I had to bet who woulda taken Marshawn Lynch I 1,000,000% would have bet on Guy. To be honest, I don’t really like the pick. Marshawn hasn’t played football in nearly two years and I feel like he’s kind of a side show at this point. He has a really good offensive line and could have a high touchdown total, but drafting him in the third round is risky.

Papa Guyo wrapped up the top 5 with two wide receivers – Golden Taint and Jamison New England Clam Crowder. Tate finished as WR19 last year and he certainly is talented, but idk that I’d feel comfortable with him as my second WR. He had 7 games with 42 receiving yards or fewer and only had three 100 yard games all year. He’s also another low TD type receiver – just 4 all of last year. Jamison Crowder is actually really similar to Tate. The volume should be there and he’ll get close to 100 catches, but I don’t anticipate either will score many TDs. Guy picked Golden Tate over Deandre Hopkins which is interesting to say the least. I would have preferred the Hopkins/Crowder mix but I guess Guy was scared away by the Texan’s QB sitch.

NEXT 5:

After some iffy picks in the first few rounds Guy got back on track in the middle portion of the draft. He took Martavis Bryant University, Mike Gillislee, Marcus Wariota, Tyrell Williams and LeGarrette Blount. I’ll break these into their respective positions for the review’s sake.

Running Backs – Gillislee could be the breakout player of the year with the Patriots. While I doubt he’ll match LeGarrette Blount’s 2016 stats (300 carries, 1,100 yards, 18 TDs), he could very easily end with 75% of those numbers. He’s averaged 5 yards per carry each of the last two years and looked really good in our third preseason game. From LeGarrette Blount’s replacement to LeGarrette Blount himself…… Guy got the Eagles anticipated starter in the 9th round. Copy/Paste from above – Blount will obviously not repeat last year’s numbers, but he could have a good year. Potential starting RB in the 9th round sounds good to me. Pretty funny Guy drafted Blount and the dude we got to replace him. Life’s full of these little ironies.

Quarterback - Marcus Mariota will start at QB for Guy’s team and he is expected to have a big year. The Titans have a good offensive line, good running backs and added Eric Decker/Corey Davis/Jonnu Smith to their passing game. All signs point to Mariota having a big year so this could be yuge for Howard.

Wide Receivers – Martavis Bryant hasn’t played football in over a year (sensing a theme here with Lynch), but he was a popular sleeper pick in drafts. Antonio Brown will draw plenty of coverage which will leave Bryant in favorable matchups all year long. He has 14 TDs in only 21 career games, which is a pretty nice little rate. Overall a nice pick. Tyrell Williams was another nice pick – a flier, but a nice pick. If I told you that Williams finished as a top 20 WR last year would you believe me? Probably not, but it happened. Although Keenan Allen will be the focal point, I can see Williams posting solid #2 WR numbers. Between Odell, Golden Tate, Crowder, Bryant and Williams Guy has a real nice WR group.

LAST 5:

Guy wrapped up his draft with a D/ST, a Kicker, a backup QB and some RB fliers. Bullet points? Bullet points.

- Vikings D/ST – the number 1 defense last year was 6th defense off the board this year. Steal.

- Mason Crosby kicks for Aaron Rodger’s offense? Sounds good.

- Tyrod Taylor to back up Mariota? Similar styles, similar added bonus of mobility/rushing yards. I like it.

- Samaje Perine – of course the one deep sleeper RB Guy picks is the backup to one of my RBs. Not exactly a great pick considering James White, Theo Riddick, Thomas Rawls, Derrick Henry, Jacquizz Rodgers and Matt Forte were still available.

- CJ Prosise – I like this pick a lot and I think Prosise is the best RB the Seahawks have. I guess he’s been hurt, but he could be a mid-season breakout if he sticks around on the roster.

STRENGTH:

Guy’s first two picks are definitely his strength and should be able to carry him all year. A rising tide lifts all boats and Gronk creates quite the tide. When your TE is capable of tripling the other teams TE that’s an advantage every week. Odell is also going to be a difference maker and could be the best WR when the season’s over. If Gronk and Odell go OFF on the same week, you may be digging yourself out of a 60 point hole.

WEAKNESS:

Guy’s RBs kinda suck, there I said it. I know Gronk will make up for some of it, but I wouldn’t feel very good going into the season with Marshawn and Gillislee as my two starters. Marshawn is definitely gonna lose some work to Deandre Washington/Jalen Richard and who knows if he’ll hold up for a full season. While Gillislee could have a big year with the Pats, there will be at least 4-5 weeks where he’s totally useless. Don’t tell me that Rex Burkhead, James White and Dion Lewis won’t tap into his workload. He’s pretty weak in terms of depth and when you look at his roster, he really only has one TRUE starting RB (Marshawn….. I guess you could count Gillislee or Blount maybe).

DRAFT GRADE, PREDICTION AND FINAL NOTES:

I will give this draft a grade of B- or about an 82 of 100. While I really like the Gronk/Odell picks, I really hated the Tate/Crowder picks. Aside from Gronk/Odell there aren’t too many things that scare me about Guy’s team. I guess that could change if Gillislee explodes, but we’ll see.

I predict that Guy will finish the season at 6-7 and miss the playoffs. Odell and Gronk will probably win him 3-4 games by themselves, but if either of them get hurt, underperform and/or have byes then Marty Huggins will struggle.