DRAFT RECAPS - 2ND PICK

2ND PICK – MAKE KAMARACA GREAT AGAIN - KEV

Rounds 1-5:

For the second year in a row, Kev drew the 2nd pick this year. Let’s hope this year is a little different though….. Kev picked Leveon Bell at 2 in 2018. Anwyays the pick was Alvin Kamara and I can’t say anything bad about it. Kamara is a robot/gifted freak and all he does is score TDs. As I mentioned in the last recap – 31 in his first two seasons alone. Over the last two years only Todd Gurley has more TDs than Kamara. He can do it on the ground – 200 carries, 900 yards. He can do it through the air – 81 catches 700 yards. And did I say touchdowns? 14 rushing, 4 receiving last year. He plays on a great offense that isn’t afraid to feed him the rock and that’s all you can ask for in your workhorse back.

He took Antonio Brown in the 2nd round and….. yeahhhhhhhhhh….

The pick didn’t look too bad on draft day - sure AB has lost his mind but he’s a superstar WR and had 15 TDs last year. Sure he’s an incompetent jackass, but he has 6 straight seasons with 100 or more catches, 1,200 or more yards and 8 or more TDs. Given the upside I was fine with this pick, but this pick has aged as poorly as I have. Maybe Kev should stay away from the malcontent Steelers players in future drafts.

Fortunately for Kev he took another WR1 in the 3rd round – Mike Evans of the Bucs. He doesn’t catch a ton of passes like the Michael Thomas’, Adam Thielens or JuJu’s of the world, but he averages about 80 per year which is top tier. What he lacks in reception volume he makes up in yardage. Last season he totaled over 1,500 receiving yards which was 3rd best in the NFL behind Julio and DeAndre. Once AB is back Kev will have the best #2 receiver in the league.

After a long wait Kev took Patrick “You Like to see Mahomos Naked” Mahomes (Lamone for the win). I don’t like this pick - I love this pick. This is the latest I saw Mahomes go in any draft and SPOILER ALERT – is why I have Kev making it to the semi-finals this season. Mahomes was the #1 player in fantasy last year and put up just shy of 500 points. The next closest player had 60 fewer points (Matt Ryan) and the closest non-QB had 82 fewer points. I still can’t believe the stat-line he put up last season: 5,000 yards, 50 TDs, 66% completion rate, nearly 300 yards rushing, 2 rushing TDs and only 12 picks. I think he has another big year and goes in the 2nd round of all 2020 drafts. He’s phenomenal.

Kev got another steal in the 5th round with Robert Woods. Little known fact - Woods is the #1 receiver on the Rams. He led the Rams in receptions, yards and receiving TDs last year, so prove me wrong. Also, despite missing 4 games in 2017 he was #2 among Rams WRs in catches, yards and TDs. He had 130 targets last year to go along with 86 catches, 1,200 yards and 6 TDs. I think that’s a reasonable expectation for this year as well.  

Rounds 6-10:

Kev picked up some RB depth in the 6th and 7th rounds with Tarik Cohen and Kenyan Drake. Cohen isn’t your prototypical back, but he did finish as RB13 in our scoring last year. He ran 100 times, caught 71 passes (6th most receptions by RBs) and accumulated over 1,200 all purpose yards. The Bears offense is supposed to be even better this year and Cohen looks to be in line for another top 20 season.

Drake in the 7th round was a solid pick, no arguments here. He had a “down” season in 2018, but still scored 9 TDs and had nearly 1,000 rushing+receiving yards. I honestly just think he was a victim of Adam Gase’s crazy ass – how could such a talented RB only get 173 touches? The Dolphins will stink this year, but I expect Drake to produce – if nothing else I expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 carries and 60 catches which equates to 70 points on volume alone.

Things went a little off the rails in the 8th and 9th rounds – so far these are the only picks I don’t like from Kev’s draft. Jordan Howard isn’t a huge risk in the 8th, but I’m not very high on him this year. The Eagles backfield was a complete mess in 2018 and by all accounts Miles Sanders will end up being the #1 guy there. I could see Howard putting up 500-600 yards and 4-6 TDs, but I don’t see him doing much more. At the risk of piling on - the Eagles reportedly tried to trade Howard to the Chargers yesterday. Eek.

Larry Fitz was the 9th round pick and as with Howard I just don’t see him doing much this year. He’s old and the Cardinals spent 3 draft picks on WRs and 1 on a TE at the draft this year. That was after taking Christian Kirk in the 2nd round the year before. Kingsbury is notorious for spreading the ball around and we have no idea what Kyler Murray will look like so – meh.

Kev’s 10th round pick was David Njoku and it’ll be interesting to see how this works out. Njoku is a gifted athlete, but he was inconsistent last year and struggled at times. He also had a shitty preseason this year and is likely the Browns 4th target. He’s currently on Kev’s bench so he’s more or less just a flier.

Rounds 11-15:

The Njoku pick segues nicely to Kev’s starting TE – Austin Hooper. Hooper was taken in the 13th round and is a much better value than Njoku. Hooper caught 71 passes last year which ranked 4th among TEs and he was available in the 13th? Sign me up. His 660 receiving yards were 7th best and while he only scored 4 TDs, he still finished as TE6 last year. If you’re going to wait on TE, this is how to do it.

Backpedaling a bit here – Kev took a kicker and a defense with his 11th and 12th round picks. The Rams D should be a great unit behind Aaron Donald who is not only the best defensive player in the NFL, but maybe the best player period (NFL’s Top 100 thinks so at least). They should be a strong unit yet again.

Kev took Kaimi Fairbairn as his kicker and fun fact of the day – Fairbairn was the #1 kicker last season. He may not repeat that, but you could do worse at kicker.

Make Kamaraca Great Again ended his draft by taking Mitchell the Bitchell Trubisky and Adrian Peterson in the final two rounds. Trubisky was just a depth piece and will likely be dropped considering Mahomes doesn’t have a bye until Week 12. Adrian Peterson is more interesting to me though. Another fun fact of the day – AP rushed for 1,042 yards last year which was 8th best in the NFL. Derrius Guice is supposed to be the #1 back in Washington, but he’s coming off a torn ACL. Kev may have landed a starting RB in the 15th round – touche.

Grade:

A-

Prediction:

I predict Kev goes 8-5, makes the playoffs and finishes in 3rd place. He’ll lose in the semis but win his money back. Kamara is a top RB and Cohen/Drake provide plenty of upside. While Antonio Brown is being a bitchboi, Mike Evans should hold the fort down. If he gets AB back he may have one of the better receiving duos in the league (Keetz prob holds that honor). He has a solid TE and top 3 players at kicker and defense. Oh… and Patrick Mahomes. I think he’ll win the MVP this year and while he may not put up 50 TDs again, 40+ is a strong possibility. Mahomes and Kamara will carry this team all season.