With the 2020 fantasy season behind us, I wanted to take a look at the ADP draft values from last season. Using the articles I wrote in May and June to dive into how things went. The question is did anyone smash their ADP value and did anyone fail to live up to the price paid in drafts? Lets dive into the Draft round value recap, rounds 8-11.

I went through 15 rounds and picked one player from each round that I thought to be the best value for their ADP at the time. You can find rounds 1-3 here and 4-7 here.

The exercise wasn’t about filling a squad but picking who I thought was the best value in that round. Here’s how rounds 8-11 went.

Round 8 – Jordan Howard, RB, Miami Dolphins/Philadelphia Eagles

Well… I don’t even know where to begin with this pick. At the time, everything was pointing towards Howard being the lead guy in the Dolphins backfield. It wasn’t just me as his ADP was around the 94th overall pick and coming off the board as the RB 32.

Howard finished the season as the RB 90 with 35 attempts, gaining 60 yards and scoring 4 TD’s. He also caught 1 reception for -3 yards. A massive drop in expectations and a huge bust in real life not just in fantasy and draft value.

Howard started the season for the Miami Dolphins and in his first four games he scored three TD’s. Fantastic I hear you say but that went along with 18 rush attempts going for a massive 14 total yards in those four games. Howard then fell out of favour with the coaches and didn’t play again until week 9 where the stats still didn’t improve. 10 attempts for 19 yards and a TD.

That was the end of that in Miami as Howard was released and eventually found his way back at the Eagles. Howard played in week 13 and 16 getting 7 total attempts and going for 27 total yards without a TD.

All in all, Howard was a bust and fortunately the 8th round was high enough to not worry so much. Especially if you were able to jump on the waivers early for James Robinson or Mike Davis. It’s one to forget and move on from. Which is something we can do exactly the same for the next round too.

Round 9 – Keshawn Vaughn, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Just like Howard the round before, this pick was a massive bust. Unlike Howard though, Vaughn was a rookie and I was taking punt on him to carve out a role for himself. As it turns out Tampa rolled with RoJo and Fournette and didn’t give much time for Vaughn to do anything.

Vaughn was used sparingly and eventually finished as the RB 99. He rushed 26 times, gaining 109 yards and caught 5 receptions for 34 yards and 1 receiving TD. Vaughn suited up for 10 games during the season but only had rushing attempts in five of those games.

On the little work Vaughn did get, he finished the season with 4.19 yards per rush average and 6.8 yards per reception average. We are yet to see what the future holds for Keshawn Vaughn. For now though this pick was a bust returning no draft value at all.

Round 10 – Diontae Johnson, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers

Luckily round 10 gave me the opportunity to pick up Diontae Johnson. After two busts to start rounds 8-11, it was about time we got some draft value and boy did we get it. In the 10th round you are grabbing depth and bench guys and players with some good upside.

Johnson had that upside and it was on show all season. He eventually finished as the WR 23. Catching 88 targets for 923 yards whilst collecting 7 TD’s. If you grabbed Johnson in round 10, around 46 WR’s had already been taken and so you doubled your draft value with this pick.

In the original article I spoke about Johnson having the potential to be the Steelers number 2 WR. It turned out that Johnson ended up being their most targeted WR and he also racked up the most receiving yards on the team too.

Being able to grab a fantasy WR 2 in the 10th round was a massive steal and gave back a huge amount of value. That value was a one year deal. Johnson is now predicted to be coming off the board as the 21st WR and the 49th overall pick landing him at the start of the 5th round.

Round 11 – Preston Williams, WR, Miami Dolphins

Williams was all set for a return to the starting line up in Miami. His fantastic start to his rookie season ended with injury and looked to be back ready to roll in 2021. His sophomore year however started slow. He was only targeted 35 times in 8 games and with those he didn’t really produce either, catching only 18 of those targets.

Unfortunately, once again his season was cut short due to another injury and finished the season ass the WR 98. With those 18 receptions he went 288 yards and got 4 TD’s. The stats don’t tell the full story though as in week 5 he got 106 of those receiving yards which waters down the rest of his stats.

He never made it over 4 receptions in a game. This didn’t help fantasy owners when he was on the field. The volume was never there. He did however have the smallest of positives, finishing the season on 16 yards per reception. Even though his volume was low, he only had three games finishing below 10 yards per reception.

He also had two games where he averaged 15 yards per reception. Whilst in the remaining three games, Williams finished with an average of 20.5, 26 and 26.5 yards per reception. So when he did actually catch the ball he was able to make a big play for Miami. Unfortunately that doesn’t translate into fantasy value and for 2020, Williams was a draft bust.

Rush Nation that was a look at rounds 8-11. To finish off the series, I will be looking at the final rounds of the draft, 12-15. Here we will see if we could find any late round draft steals to smash their value at the end of the draft.

Until then, Keep Rushing!

Pittsy – @PittsyNFL