In this series, I look at ADP value in a 12 team, 15 round draft. Going into each round and finding a player that holds value at their ADP price. It’s not about filling up every roster spot, it’s all about finding a player that could help you win your draft and give you the advantage as you start the season.

If you missed rounds 1-3 and 4-7 you can find them here.

Round 8
Jordan Howard – RB – Miami Dolphins

Right now, Howard is coming off the board as the 94th overall pick and as the 32nd RB. Last season, Howard was having a standard season for him. He was involved in 9 games before his injury took him out for the rest of the year.

In the 9 games, he touched the ball, Howard picked up 525 rushing yards with 6 TDs. A nice little flex for the start of the season. That’s exactly where you are going to be using Howard again this season.

The 2020 Dolphins

This off-season saw the Dolphins pick up an exciting young talent at QB in Tua Tagovailoa. They still have veteran QB Ryan Fitzpatrick who when able to let loose is still a good QB. Either way they will have a nice QB to play alongside.

Miami also grabbed Howard and Matt Breida in the off-season. All signs point towards Howard being the lead back in the Miami system. Breida should vulture some carries but Howard will likely be the primary rusher and the goal-line option.

ADP value

Going into the 8th round you are looking at depth and solid bench players. With Howard being the number 1 back in Miami the volume is going to be there. That’s where we get our 8th round value from.

Volume in fantasy football is key. So being able to grab a flex guy who will be the lead back and most likely take the goal line work too just makes things even more appealing.

Round 9
Ke’Shawn Vaughn – RB – Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tampa’s new rookie RB has an ADP of 105th overall and the 39th RB off the board. By now in your draft you should have solidified positions and are now looking for good upside to give you a boost in the draft. Vaughn can give you that here.

In 2018 Vaughn averaged 7.9 yards per rush and racked up 1,244 yards with 12 rushing touchdowns. He also caught 13 passes for 170 yards pulling in 2 receiving touchdowns. 2019 saw Vaughn average less yards at 5.2 per carry. This saw a reduction in his rushing yards getting 1,028 yards with 9 touchdowns.

However, what brought the stats back up were his receptions, pulling in 29 for 286 yards and a touchdown too through the air. The 2018 season shows us he can run but more importantly, the 2019 season shows us he can catch and in today’s NFL that’s a very useful trait to have out of the backfield.

2020 Buccaneers

By now you already know about this crazy 2020 off-season that the Buccaneers have had. Brady and his best mate Gronk joined the team and are joining an already interesting cast of fantasy players.

You might say that this will have a negative effect for a rookie RB. I, however, see Vaughn as a better RB than RoJo and will be taking the RB1 slot away from him sooner rather than later.

RoJo only had 5 games in 2019 where he averaged over 4 yards per rush. With Peyton Barber moving on to Washington, the door was open for Jones to step up and really be the guy in 2020. Until the Bucs drafted Vaughn on day 2 in the 3rd round.

Taking a RB on day two of the draft usually means the team is taking them to be the guy and take over the backfield touches. Now that Brady is back there he will enjoy having a James White type catcher to dump the ball off to but also know he can be a powerful runner too.

ADP value

I know we don’t know the situation of the Tampa backfield right now but…

What we do know is there is potential to get a RB that can run and catch, in a team where the WRs are fantastic so will open up the options to run. With a QB that just the name value can make a defence question the right play calls.

Vaughn has the tools to take the backfield and start to produce. Getting all this from a RB in round 9 can be a great steal to bolster your RB depth.

Round 10
Diontae Johnson – WR – Pittsburgh Steelers

If you missed out on JuJu earlier on then picking up Diontae Johnson this far on could give you a nice lift at The WR position. Right now Johnson is coming off the board as the 114th overall pick and as the WR 47.

Going into his Sophomore year, Johnson has sneaky value as the potential Steelers WR 2. With Big Ben coming back from injury this Steelers offence is primed from a bounce back year.

2019 Rookie

Catching passes from Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges wasn’t quite the season Johnson was hoping for but he made the best of it. Johnson caught the ball 59 times and managed to turn those into 680 yards. That was the second highest yardage on the team behind Washington.

Not a bad season to say that Johnson was a rookie and the Steelers offence was drastically hindered by the QB play. The last 4 games of the season also started to show us that the coaches were starting to see the potential and use it at the same time.

Being targeted more and more and getting a steady increase in receiving yards.

2020 value

Moving into 2020, getting Big Ben back behind centre is only going to be a good thing for the whole of the Steelers offence. Benefiting from a full offence back together can be a value play for Johnson.

Granted the Steelers just drafted Claypool but the way Big Ben likes to throw the ball there is always going to be volume. Stepping up into last year’s system, catching balls from below grade QBs whilst still making a name for himself. Not bad for a rookie.

After a year learning and now getting a competent QB throwing the ball his way, Johnson can go from strength to strength. Grabbing a potential WR 2 in the 10th round sounds good to me.

Round 11
Preston Williams – WR – Miami Dolphins

Williams is coming off the board as the 130th overall pick and as the WR 52. Last season Williams was having a fantastic start to his rookie campaign until week 9 came along. He suffered a torn ACL on a punt return and therefore was ruled out for the rest of the season.

So 2019 wasn’t quite the year Williams had hoped for. Yes, he was in a Miami team that was once tanking and deemed one of the worst in history before they got things together.

But… when Williams was playing he was getting the volume and getting the yards.

In the 8 games Williams played, he totalled 32 receptions for 428 yards, averaging 53.5 yards per game and that’s as a rookie on a so-called bad team. He was also having his best game yet when he was injured. 5 receptions, 72 yards and 2 TDs.

Special talent.

Williams was an undrafted free agent before Miami picked him up. That’s when everything started to click. He worked hard and showed the coaches that he had something to give. It paid off in a big way.

The first step was to earn a spot on the 53-man roster. Something that’s pretty hard to do as an undrafted free agent. After getting his spot on the team, Williams found himself in the starting lineup in the season opener. A feat that no rookie free agent WR has ever done before for the Dolphins.

Just to top it all off he bagged himself a TD in his first rookie game too. Something that only 7 other Dolphins players had done in their first-ever game.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, Williams led the team in receptions after the first 4 games of the season and was on par with DeVante Parker for most receiving yards with 201.

2020 comeback.

With his ability and his ACL being fixed, Williams is set to be back in the line-up for Miami raring to go.

Looking at his ADP of 130 overall, Williams has a lot more upside than some of the WRs going just above him. For instance Breshad Perriman is the WR 49 going at 127th overall. Last year Perriman got 645 yards from 36 receptions. That’s only 217 more yards than Williams who only played 8 games.

You can even look at the round before at WR 44. Jamison Crowder is going at 109 overall. Yes, last year Crowder was Sam Darnold’s go-to man. However, the Jets just drafted one of the top WRs in this year’s draft grabbing Denzel Mims in the second round. This will only reduce Crowder’s volume and in turn affect his value. That and I also don’t trust Adam Gase as a head coach.

For me, looking at the ceiling of Williams compared to Crowder, I’d take the more interesting and exciting prospect of Williams every time. His upside at the time you are drafting him is what you are searching for so it can be a big draft win grabbing Williams in the 11th round.
There you have it Rush Nation, my ADP values picks for rounds 8-11. Next time we dive into the final rounds of the draft 12-15
Until then, Keep Rushing

Pittsy – @PittsyNFL.