Devy Analysis
We all know the tight end position is the most difficult to get right in fantasy football, and we also understand the substantial advantage one has when owning one of the few “league-breaking” tight ends in fantasy (especially in tight end premium leagues). There are many names to comb through and analyze in college football, so I will be breaking this into three parts. For Parts 1 and 2, I will give you my Top 10 TEs that are draft-eligible in 2024 (the first five in Part 1 and the next five in Part 2). In Part 3, I’ll discuss which young tight ends we should invest in for Devy leagues in the 2025 and 2026 Draft classes. So, without further ado, let’s find those tight ends that could make an impact at the NFL level.
There’s no denying Brock Bowers is a generational college talent. He’s arguably the best tight end in college football history, and before the injury this season, he was pacing to break the career receiving yards record for Division 1 tight ends…in just three seasons. Bowers unfortunately suffered an injury in their victory over Vanderbilt on 10/14, requiring surgery to repair a broken ankle. This type of injury typically takes four to six weeks to recover from, so Bower will likely miss at least another week or two.
Looking for the Puka Nacua of the 2024 draft class? More than likely, that player doesn’t exist, as Nacua is putting up numbers we’ve never seen from a rookie, let alone a Day 3 draft pick. But, if you’re looking for a projected late-round rookie pick with massive upside, look no further than Colorado State WR Tory Horton. Not many Devy players are talking about him, but he’s quietly had one of the more productive collegiate careers in this 2024 class. Not playing for a Power 5 program has resulted in Horton flying under the radar. Most Devy ranking sites don’t have Tory’s name listed at all. But Horton has been a producer since his early days at Nevada, and he’s developed into arguably a top-ten WR in this class.
Devy players and film guys alike are saying this 2024 RB draft class doesn’t have the top-end talent that 2023 had with Bijan Robinson, and maybe not even Jahmyr Gibbs or De’Von Achane. Nonetheless, I think we have some talented backs ready to make that next step into the NFL ranks and a few you could justify taking in the first round of 2024 Superflex rookie drafts. So, who exactly are the front-runners for RB1 in this 2024 draft class? In my mind, there are three clear names at the top of this list, with a couple of “Dark Horse” players that could make the jump into this tier. Let’s talk college football and find out who the Dynasty RB1 in this 2024 class is.
Bo Nix is a 5th year senior QB for Oregon who has seen his NFL draft stock rise significantly since August. The Arkansas native attended high school at Pinson Valley in Pinson, AL. He had some truly phenomenal numbers in high school, surpassing 12,000 total yards, finding the endzone 161 times (127 passing, 34 rushing), and winning two state titles.
If you’re a college football fan, Michael Penix Jr. is a name you’ve heard for what seems like the past decade. His collegiate career started way back in 2018 for the Hoosiers, where he unfortunately suffered season-ending injuries in each of his four years in Bloomington. Since transferring to Washington in 2022, Penix has fortunately avoided the injury bug. Husky fans are praying their Heisman candidate remains healthy this season, as their team remains undefeated and their playoff hopes are still very much alive. Here’s a brief breakdown of Penix’s career by season:
In case you missed it this past weekend, Colorado traveled to Fort Worth to take on a ranked TCU team. The result was a 45-42 victory in a game that could end up being one of the best of the year in college football. Deion Sanders making the jump from Jackson State to Colorado has placed the Buffaloes firmly in the national spotlight, and he brought some fantastic football players with him. Perhaps the two brightest stars that joined Deion in Colorado are his son, Shedeur Sanders, and his favorite playmaker, Travis Hunter.
College football is finally back, and last Saturday, we got to see 2022 Heisman winner Caleb Williams lead his USC Trojans to a dominant win versus the Spartans of San Jose State in Week 0. Caleb showed us why he’s the heavy favorite to hoist the Heisman trophy again in 2023, posting 18/25 passing, 278 yards, and 4 TDs in the game. We’ve come to expect this from the future 1.01 in 2024 Superflex rookie drafts. I mean, just look at the play below; is this not Patrick Mahomes-esque? Williams turned a potential disaster of a play into a homerun ball and made it look easy.
I decided to expand on my Evan Stewart Devy Profile piece and do a comparison article on the three WRs in this 2025 class who appear to be vying for that WR1 spot in Devy. These three players are Luther Burden, Evan Stewart, and Barion Brown. First, let me give a brief overview of each prospect profile coming out of high school.
We all know Marvin Harrison Jr. is the unquestioned WR1 in the 2024 draft class, but what about 2025? Evan Stewart is a name that has been on Devy players’ radars since his junior year of high school, and the hype has only increased since then. According to our expert Devy rankers at Dynasty Football Factory, Stewart is the WR5 overall in Devy and the WR2 in his class, behind Missouri’s Luther Burden. And Dynasty Nerds Consensus Rankings has Stewart valued even higher as the WR2 overall (behind MH Jr.) and the WR1 in his class. So just how good is this Texas native, and what can we reasonably expect from him at the NFL level? Let’s talk numbers to help answer that question.
For my first Devy article, I wanted to discuss the basic strategy behind a Devy startup draft. I’ve recently jumped into the Devy world, and I can safely say there’s no looking back. For those unaware, the Devy format is just a Dynasty league format, plus the addition of drafting current college players in a separate “Devy draft”. You roster these college players until they (hopefully) are drafted into the NFL, and you can place them into your weekly lineups. You can trade these players away like any other asset; they just won’t earn you points until they’re in the NFL (at least in standard Devy leagues).
One of the most challenging aspects of assessing the college landscape is projecting draft capital for players that will someday find themselves on our draft boards. It’s no secret that the higher up in the NFL draft a player goes, the better the chances that they become a valuable dynasty asset in the fantasy space.
With spring practices underway for NCAA college football it felt like the right time to highlight the current landscape of Devy rankings through the lens of my top 5 Devy players at each main skill position: QB, RB, and WR.
If you’re into Devy or just curious about the format this is the article for you! This is the second in a three-part series. The previous piece covered QBs, HERE. This piece covers RBs and the next will highlight my favorite Devy WRs, respectively.
It should come as no surprise that last year’s Heisman winner slots in at the top of the QB Devy list. Caleb Williams is a special talent that has his skills fully on display last year at USC. Had he been healthy toward the end of the season USC would’ve easily secured a playoff birth. But alas, that was not meant to be. Williams is a QB that can do magnificent things on a football field and he should dominate the NCAA again in 2023.
We go off-script today as @DynastyPatrolHQ offers up an alternative to traditional Devy Dynasty Football formats.
I’m choosing to highlight my personal favorite fantasy football format today: The Devy Superflex League. If you’re unfamiliar, Devy is a step up from Dynasty formats in that you select college players including incoming freshmen. In my favorite league we have 14 managers and the Devy Draft each year is 10 rounds. That means we’re drafting 140 new college players every year – exciting stuff!! Today I’m focusing on five under-the-radar Devy Superflex prospects that I think can make all the difference for your team.
With the collegiate regular season finally finished, the real work for us as dynasty managers has just begun. Even more so if your team is not competing in the playoffs. Later on in the offseason, we’ll deep dive into the 2023 prospects. But in this series, I’d like to profile the biggest names in college that we should be watching next year. We start with Freshman sensation, Quinshon Judkins.
As a three-star recruit coming out of Texas, Rashee Rice finally got his chance to be the WR1 at SMU. He was slated behind future NFL receiver Danny Gray. It is safe to say at this point that Rice seems to be the better of the two prospects. In his Junior season, Rice hauled in 64 catches for 670 yards and nine touchdowns. The stage was set for him to take on the WR1 role in 2022. In easily one of the most surprising starts of the season, the 6’2” 205 lbs. speedster caught 34 passes in four weeks. He is currently on pace for 90+ receptions, 1,400+ yards, and 10+ touchdowns.
As we move toward the halfway mark of the 2022 college football season, it’s a good time to see how the highly coveted 2023 running back draft class has produced so far. From our household names to our risers and fallers. Let’s dive in. We’ll start with the dynasty darling of the class, Texas RB Bijan Robinson. Widely considered the best running back prospect since Saquon Barkley and Ezekiel Elliot, Robinson has lived up to the hype thus far.
The former Penn State transfer arrived in Lexington (KY) in 2021, after never retaining a starting role with the Nittany Lions. It was a strange situation, as most would agree that Levis should’ve been the starter there, but it just never happened. The move to Kentucky though was also strange at first glance. Known to be a college basketball powerhouse, Kentucky is usually not the first or even second school that college prospects consider as an option. Will Levis, since enrolling, has started to change the narrative.
When we hear the term “X receiver”, what comes to mind? Tall, fast, strong, and with big hands, usually complete that prototype. That is exactly what we see from TCU WR Quentin Johnston. Standing in at 6 ’4” 212lbs., Johnston has asserted himself as one of the nation’s top receiving weapons.
A four-star recruit from Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, Braelon Allen burst onto the scene as a true freshman in 2021. Arguably the best two-way player in the state of Wisconsin coming out, Allen dominated the high school gridiron as both an All-Area Safety and All-Area RB. In his senior season, he averaged 14.6 yards per carry. Entering college, there was some doubt about whether Allen would play offense or defense at the next level. It was believed he could convert to MIKE LB, as his 6’2” 232 lbs. frame would suggest. Alas, RB would be Braelon’s calling and it was the right decision.
Josh Downs was a four-star prospect out of Suwanee, Georgia who put together 187 receptions for 3,019 yards and 32 TDs over his final three high school football seasons. He starred both on the football field and the track, as he finished third in the state in triple jump and fourth in the state in long jump before giving up track to focus on football. Downs comes from a pedigree as well. His father was an RB in the NFL after playing at North Carolina State. Furthermore, his younger brother Caleb is ranked as the number one Safety in the nation and just committed to Alabama for the 2023 season.
Nicholas Singleton comes into Penn State already equipped with an NFL build at 6’0” 210 lbs. and the data shows we can expect RBs to gain anywhere from 10-15 lbs. in college. When the time that he is draft eligible comes, he will have prototypical workhorse size. One of his best attributes is his burst through the line of scrimmage and his effortless lateral agility without decelerating to make defenders miss while still keeping that top-end speed.
In the first installment of “Undeclared Gems” I covered another transfer WR in the 2023 class in Jordan Addison. Jermaine Burton is someone I’m more intrigued with as a transfer player, however. The former four-star recruit from Calabasas, CA, possesses good size, listed at 6’0 even, 200lbs. He has blazing speed. Burton is an exciting prospect to me particularly because of Alabama’s success last season in bringing Jameson Williams in via the transfer portal. I believe Burton will be asked to do a lot of the same things as Williams and will be able to showcase his abilities with a Heisman trophy-winning QB, Bryce Young. Talk about an upgrade from Stetson Bennett. Despite the lack of usage at Georgia, Burton still put out a great tape and was used creatively in the scheme when given the opportunity to touch the ball.