Anyone who has worked with me at Dynasty Football Factory knows I’ve always banged the drum on deeper dives. Our audience doesn’t need us to tell them that Josh Allen is a stud. It’s the more difficult decisions that provide meaningful and actionable value. In the previous installments of The Factory Fight Club Chronicles, I focused on my mindset, team building, and general perception of our startup landscape. Today, I feature Part 1 of my favorite selections from each league mate Round 7 or later.
Michael Mayer | 10.01
Michael Mayer was the second TE selected by Jim after taking Trey McBride at 4.01. Locking in his top 5 TE early meant he could take a shot at the upside with Mayer downstream. The rookie out of Notre Dame was valued in Devy circles as the TE1 for nearly two years before being drafted. He has the realistic potential to pull a Trey McBride in Year 2 after showing flashes last season, and if Vegas upgrades the QB position, as most Draft Experts believe, MM is thievery in the 10th.
Khalil Shakir | 13.11
I’ve known and worked with Carl long enough to constantly torment him about his misses with Jalen Reagor and David Bell, but I never leave a Startup or Devy/Rookie Draft with him where I don’t kick my own ass for missing on his great pick. I promised we’d stick to Round 7 or later, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Carl’s outstanding double tap on Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy at 3.09 and 3.11.
Grabbing Khalil Shakir at 13.11 is the move we should all be considering as Buffalo figures out the WR position. They’ll undoubtedly address the issue in the NFL Draft, but for now, Shakir is WR1, with Dalton Kincaid and Curtis Samuel splitting the WR2/2A spot. Even if Buffalo moves up to grab one of the top 4-5 WRs they’ll still need to develop the talent on a team whose Super Bowl window started closing yesterday. Shakir should be Allen’s target hog, and big ups to Carl for grabbing the value.
Bucky Irving | 14.04
This is my first draft with Evan, who also happens to be our Commissioner. As a result, I had no idea how he’d approach the startup from a strategic standpoint. Based on his Devy acumen, I believe he’s going to slaughter the Campus component, but grabbing Bucky Irving at 14.04 was intriguing to me. I get that he’s a rookie and didn’t test particularly well at the NFL Combine, but Irving is someone I feel I should have in more leagues. Landing spot and Draft Capital are everything with this year’s RB class, and Bucky in the 14th is set to pop if someone like Carolina or Dallas gets him in Round 3 or Round 4 of the NFL Draft.
Isaiah Likely | 14.11
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@BigWiggyStyle and I have been gushing over Isaiah Likely since his Coastal Carolina days and what Likely was able to do with Mark Andrews out of the lineup the last two seasons screams TE1A value in Round 14. Likely isn’t going to supplant Andrews as the primary target in Baltimore anytime soon, barring catastrophic injury, but he fits alongside Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman as a nice secondary or tertiary option in a revamped offense that gave Lamar Jackson a bit more freedom to sling the ball around the field. It reminds me a little bit of when Andrews was behind Hayden Hurst in the Baltimore offense, but in a way where we’re probably going to see more 12 Personnel going forward from the Ravens, and Likely has also become a nice red zone threat. Stock is heading up on the third-year TE.
Troy Franklin | 8.06
Speaking of Cody, I respect the hell out of this dude. We’ve been friends and Dynasty Fantasy Football combatants headed into our 5th season together. As much as I love him, I can sometimes hate his guts, as I explained with his one-two punch grabbing Jonathon Brooks and Trey Benson at 8.07 and 9.07, respectively. But Troy Franklin at 8.06 is extremely compelling.
At the time, I remember thinking it felt a bit early on Franklin even though I’m in on him as WR4/WR5 in this rookie class. But having seen Cody take Franklin in several Devy Drafts but then pass him up for Bo Nix in our most recent league, I wondered if he’d lost a tick on his love for Troy as a prospect. To be fair, it’s a 14-team league where he’d lost Justin Fields for the moment and trading for a QB in that league requires extra arms and legs. I can’t help but imagine Franklin somehow ends up in Buffalo and provides immediate production in that offense while eventually ascending to WR1 at some point in the next 2-3 seasons. He could also get buried in a place like Houston, where they’ve become WR Central, making this 8th-round selection all the more curious. Interested to see how this pans out…
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Previous Series Articles: The Factory Fight Club: DFF C2C Chronicles V1, The Factory Fight Club: DFF C2C Chronicles V2, The Factory Fight Club: DFF C2C Chronicles V3
