A Decade Ago I Started Mocking “Devy” Drafts – Here’s How 2016 Went

Devy League:
A Fantasy League Where You Draft "Developmental/Devy" Players, i.e. players that are not yet declared for the NFL Draft 

If you want to go back to beyond “a decade ago” – see here for the 2012 opening piece. Picking up the pace here as I only published the most recent one last week!

To bring everyone up to speed…

I started a Devy League mock draft series back in 2012. I didn’t know that Devy Leagues were a thing at the time (were they?). Nonetheless it was something to look forward too as I would get a head start on the future year’s draft class, and start to imagine what it would be like to draft future fantasy football stars when whey were in high school and watch them rise through the ranks.

2016 was year 5 of the experiment. So the eligible players for the 2016 draft were any player:

1. With amateur status
2. That was not drafted in the previous Devy mock drafts

I’ll start with the players drafted in previous seasons that were not in the NFL yet, and get into the year’s picks.

2012 Draft Holdovers

• Ricky Seals-Jones, WR, Texas A&M
  To recap for those new to the series: It is apparently easier to draft a Tight End out of Receiver prospects than it is to draft a Tight End out of Tight End prospects. Yeah.

2013 Draft Holdovers

• Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU
  It’s unfortunate that he’s aged so much by his age 28 season this year (2023), but he was really the first pure high school prospect taken in this series.

2014 Draft Holdovers

• Speedy Noil, WR, Texas A&M
  Such an unfortunate bust.

2015 Draft Holdovers

• James Conner, RB, Pitt
  At this point in the James Conner story, he had been diagnosed with cancer, but had not yet returned to football.
• Evan Engram, TE, Mississippi
  Engram was a rare TE pick that would actually make noise in the NFL.
• George Campbell, WR, Florida St.
• Dylan Moses, ATH
  At this point, Moses was probably taking a “Monsters in Literature” class as a new senior in high school.
• Corey Clement, RB, Wisconsin
• Isaac Nauta, TE
  More like Isaac Naut-A-Great-Pick amiright?

2016 Draft

1. DeShaun Watson, QB, Clemson
   Active 2017-present; 1360 Career Points
   Really wondering at this point whether we’re going to look back on Watson as a good fantasy player or as a disappointing one.
2. Dalvin Cook, RB, Florida St.
   Active 2017-Present; 1347 Pts
   Now a Jet as of a few days ago! He was a stronger RB prospect at this point in his career, actually.
3. Brad Kaaya, QB, Miami-FL
   Active 2017; 0 Pts
   Obligatory ‘one of the 3 dragons is a doofus’ meme for how this top 3 went.
4. OJ Howard, TE, Alabama
   Active 2017-Present; 425 Pts
   Another TE that didn’t really pan out, what can you say…
5. Juju Smith-Schuster, WR, USC
   Active 2017-Present; 1091 Pts
   Does anyone else feel like Juju is 36 years old? He’s 26. Really.
6. Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford
   Active 2017-Present; 1712 Pts
   Best pick of 2016. Almost through he was going to have been a WR prospect when I reopened the file to compile the data here.
7. Jake Butt, TE, Michigan
   Active 2017-2020; 19 Pts
   The single greatest tragedy of football in the 21st century has been Jake Butt not panning out as a Tight End. But then again, what do I know about that?
8. Nick Chubb, RB, Georgia
   Active 2018-Present; 1205 Pts
   Getting Nick Chubb Insurance Solutions at pick 8 gives me the feeling that this was a deep draft. Chubb also got some time as Todd Gurley’s backup. I feel like Chubb falling a bit as a prospect, at least in relation to Sony Michel, mostly was because we got bored of him as a prospect.
9. Mike Williams, WR, Clemson
   Active 2017-Present; 953 Pts
   Fun fact: Since 1989, there have been 4 different Mike Williams WRs in the NFL. Our current one is clearly the best.
10. Royce Freeman, RB, Oregon
    Active 2018-Present; 348 Pts
    Between Royce Freeman, De’Anthony Thomas, and Lache Seastrunk, I hesitate before taking Oregon RBs now.
11. Malachi Dupre, WR, LSU
    Active 2017-2018; 0 Pts
    Yeah, maybe this draft wasn’t that deep after all.
12. Mason Rudolph, QB, Oklahoma St.
    Active 2018-2021; 159 Pts
    Someone out there had Mason Rudolph on his fantasy team and was super excited he was getting playing time…until the Myles Garrett incident happened.
13. Bucky Hodges, TE, Virginia Tech
    Active 2017-2019; 0 Pts
    Not to be confused with Devlin “Duck” Hodges, whom was a bit more successful in the NFL (and also spent some time directly behind Mason Rudolph).
14. CJ Beathard, QB, Iowa
    Active 2017-Present; 186 Pts
    CJ Beathard might be the world’s most boring backup QB from a fantasy potential standpoint.
15. Elijah McGuire, RB, Louisiana-Lafayette
    Active 2017-2018; 172 Pts
    I thought he was good for the Jets.
16. Corey Davis, WR, Western Michigan
    Active 2017-Present; 780 Pts
    I think he is was good for the Jets. Also pretty interesting how he spiked up to being a top 5 pick – maybe his Devy draft valuation was more accurate.
17. Kareem Hunt, RB, Toledo
    Active 2017-Present; 1125 Pts
    I know of a keeper league where they cancelled the keepers when one team ended up with Alvin Kamara and Kareem Hunt. That was a bit of an overreaction, obviously – nobody knows for sure how careers will play out.
18. Jehu Chesson, WR, Michigan
    Active 2017; 0 Pts
19. Travin Dural, WR, LSU
    Active 2017-2018; 0 Pts
20. Mack Hollins, WR, UNC
    Active 2017-Present; 332 Pts
    Talk about an unlikely turnaround from a player – Hollins didn’t record a catch until his 3rd season in the NFL.
21. Luke Falk, QB, Washington State
    Active 2018-2019; 12 Pts
    He was not good for the Jets.
22. Najee Harris, RB, Alabama
    Active 2021-Present; 538 Pts
    Najee was a recruiting prospect before Alabama teammate Damien Harris was, so he shows up in the Devy draft before him (while Damien entered the NFL earlier).
23. Jordan Leggett, TE, Clemson
    Active 2017-2018; 34 Pts
    He was not good for the Jets.
24. Justin Davis, RB, USC
    Active 2018; 1 Pt
25. Mitch Leidner, QB, Minnesota
    Active 2017; 0 Pts
26. DeAngelo Gibbs, ATH
    Upon googline Gibbs, the top question is “What happened to DeAngelo Gibbs?” He was the #1 ranked “Athlete” coming out of high school in the class of 2017. He is still not in the pros in 2023.
27. Donnel Pumphrey, RB, San Diego St.
    Active 2018-2019; 0 Pts
28. Travis Rudolph, WR, Florida St.
    Active 2017; 0 Pts
    A lot of donuts in the 2016 draft.

Before flipping the script to 2017, I leave you with the Pro Football Reference search results for Mike Williams…

Continue with 2017 HERE.

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