A Decade Ago I Started Mocking “Devy” Drafts – Here’s How 2017 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.

So as to keep the quality of content high, I’m going to hold 2018+ until next offseason. So we will probably be back before The Winds of Winter.

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.

2017 was year 6 of the experiment. So the eligible players for the 2017 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.

2015 Draft Holdovers

• George Campbell, WR, Florida St.
• Dylan Moses, ATH
  It was clear at this point that Moses was going to be a linebacker, officially wasting the pick of the youngest drafted player in this series’ history.
• Isaac Nauta, TE

2016 Draft Holdovers

• Nick Chubb, RB, Georgia
• Royce Freeman, RB, Oregon
• Bucky Hodges, TE, Virginia Tech
• Luke Falk, QB, Washington State
• Najee Harris, RB, Alabama
  Alabama RB was a full-on institution at this point.
• DeAngelo Gibbs, ATH
  The beginning of a long run as a holdover.

2017 Draft

1. Saquon Barkley, RB, Penn St.
   Active 2018-Present; 1108 Pts
   Pro Football Network recently ranked Saquon as the 8th best RB prospect in NFL history. Getting the top spot for all Penn State RBs is notable enough, though he might be slighted a bit here falling one spot after Bijan. He was not particularly injury-prone in college so his career after season 1 has been fairly disappointing, but only compared to a very high bar.
2. Sam Darnold, QB, USC
   Active 2018-Present; 833 Pts
   God Emperor Quarterback of the United States might not be done as a starter in the NFL. He could make some noise in San Francisco. I was fully on the “trade the #2 pick and sign Darnold” side amongst the Jets fans going into the 2021 offseason. Doesn’t really matter today, but we’ll see who’s right one after Rodgers retires.
3. Josh Allen, QB, Wyoming
   Active 2018-Present; 1794 Pts
   I’m still shocked that a player with a career 56% completion percentage at Wyoming became Josh Allen.
4. Josh Rosen, QB, UCLA
   Active 2018-2021; 159 Pts
   Question: What do quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Joe Burrow, and Josh Rosen all have in common?
   Answer: They all starred as the subject of an episode of Peyton Manning’s ESPN show “Detail“.
5. Calvin Ridley, WR, Alabama
   Active 2018-Present; 770 Pts
   A worthwhile…gamble, this pick was!
6. Derrius Guice, RB, LSU
   Active 2018-2019; 60 Pts
   Bust.
7. Christian Kirk, WR, Texas A&M
   Active 2018-Present; 903 Pts
   2018 and 2019 were pretty big WR talent slumps, so this was a good Devy pic in retrospect.
8. Bo Scarbrough, RB, Alabama
   Active 2019-2020; 47 Pts
   Easily the most disappointing of the Alabama RBs, IMO. I saw him jogging next to Saban once and overreacted, forgetting Nick Saban is 5’6″ tall.
9. Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville
   Active 2018-Present; 1477 Pts
   One of the better value picks in the history of this series.
10. Mark Walton, RB, Miami-FL
    Active 2018-2019; 55 Pts
    For some reason I confused him once with Malcolm Grant, the PG who transferred from Villanova to Miami after his freshman year. Also don’t confuse him with Welsh footballer Mark Walton.
11. Akrum Wadley, RB, Iowa
    Active 2018; 0 Pts
    Fun fact: Pro Football Reference has no record of him being signed by an NFL team, despite photo evidence otherwise.
12. Courtland Sutton, WR, SMU
    Active 2018-Present; 689 Pts
    Like Christian Kirk, ended up entering the NFL as a B-grade prospect when there were no A-graders for the year.
13. Antonio Callaway, WR, Florida
    Active 2018-2020; 157 Pts
    Rumor has it he’s still living in Jarvis Landry’s basement.
14. Clayton Thorsen, QB, Northwestern
    Active 2018-2022; 0 Pts
15. Damien Harris, RB, Alabama
    Active 2019-Present; 407 Pts
    The other Harris brother is off the board.
16. James Washington, WR, Oklahoma St.
    Active 2018-Present; 355 Pts
    The James Washington hype train was active from 2018-2022, then retired.
17. Mark Andrews, TE, Oklahoma
    Active 2018-Present; 992 Pts
    Wait a second, is that a good Tight End picked here? Are you serious?
18. Dallas Goedert, TE, San Diego St.
    Active 2018-Present; 675 Pts
    Holy hell another one?!? 2017 was the year of the Tight End!
19. Kalen Ballage, RB, Arizona St.
    Active 2018-2021; 199 Pts
    Adam Gase took him with pick #5.
20. Ryan Izzo, TE, Florida St.
    Active 2019-2021; 61 Pts
    OK maybe not the year of the tight end, but at least a Tight End year worthy of a Wikipedia footnote.
21. Matt Linehan, QB, Idaho
    0 Pts
    It’s too bad that Idaho folk hero Matt Linehan didn’t pan out.
22. Deon Cain, WR, Clemson
    Active 2019-2020; 24 Pts
    Clemson isn’t WRU anymore.
23. Mike White, QB, Western Kentucky
    Active 2021-2022; 119 Pts
    Buy your Mike F’n White shirts while you still can!
24. Mike Gesicki, TE, Penn St.
    Active 2018-2022; 615 Pts
    Screw it, year of the tight end. Also not sure why Gesicki shows up under the “Mike Williams” search results on Pro Football Reference.
25. Dante Pettis, WR, Washington
    Active 2018-2022; 254 Pts
26. Sony Michel, RB, Georgia
    Active 2018-2022; 559 Pts
    Now retired, he’s still probably the 3rd best RB from Georgia over their RB Factory period (ahead of Swift, so far).
27. Baker Mayfield, QB, Oklahoma
    Active 2018-Present; 1128 Pts
    So get this, Kiper haters: Mel had Baker as the 5th ranked Senior QB entering his last season. Average that out with the draft slot at 1st overall and that’s about right for what he’s become in the NFL.
28. CJ Conrad, TE, Kentucky
    Active 2019; 0 Pts
    I am only tangentially aware of the Manga Berserk, but there is a character in the story named Conrad that seems to trigger a vague memory within me. As if I inappropriately saw the Anime when I was way too young, or something like that, and maybe it fucked me up a bit. CJ Conrad has done nothing to fix the name Conrad for me.

That’s it for 2017! I’ll leave you with the image of Jarvis Landry running through all the shit he has to hide in his house before Antonio Callaway shows up.

Continue with 2018 HERE.

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