Drake London

[Ray_T 591]

Hey, I ended up picking this guy in my keeper league draft

I decided to go in and look at some tape on the guy today and here is what I found:

1) great ball skills.   adjusts to the ball quickly and wins contested catches.    Saw one play that was a sure fire Pick as the DB jumped the route as the ball was thrown.  he saw what was happening and rushed in there and outmuscled the guy(who thought he had an INT)  for the football    very impressive.

2) great catch radius.  and great hands.   I guess this is a sub category of #1.

 

the bad:

I dont think hes THAT fast.   hes quick enough, but hes no burner.

when I saw the tape on him a lot of his catches he wasnt wide open.   most of them the coverage was good and he did not get the separation I'd like to see.   so I'm thinking there may be an adjustment to the NFL because coverage will be better than what we saw in college.     his ball skills will make up for a lot of it, but not as much as we saw in college. 

Where I think hes gonna be super valuable is in the red zone.   if you can tell him to go to a certain spot on the field and if you have a QB who can throw it to that spot so he can outjump whoever is covering him it wont be defendable.

the problem is I dont think Mariota is the QB to allow him to be effective in that role.

 

he reminds me a lot of Dez Bryant that way.   Romo would put the ball to a certain spot, and Dez would go there and out jump whoever was there and it would be just fine.

But Mariota is no Romo and I think he may not perform this year because of who he has at QB.

so I have actually dropped him from my lineup to pick up someone else.

 

I thought I"d post my analysis so you guys can make your own calls.  but there are plenty of highlight reels online.   watch them.  you will see the same things I see.

[jrokh 569]

5 minutes ago, Ray_T said:

But Mariota is no Dez 

Maybe but he throws a better ball…

 

[AxeElf 787]

Plus I don't think Mariota will be his QB next year when Drake begins to come into his own; it will probly be Ridder by then.

[Ray_T 591]

1 hour ago, jrokh said:

Maybe but he throws a better ball…

 

fixed.  sorry bout the typo

[Ray_T 591]

1 hour ago, AxeElf said:

Plus I don't think Mariota will be his QB next year when Drake begins to come into his own; it will probly be Ridder by then.

yeah, all I'm saying is hes not a great candidate in redraft leagues.   in my case it is a keeper league, but unless he puts up top 5 numbers as a WR hes unlikely to be kept in the format of my league.    I dont see that happening with Mariota at QB even if hes all that and a bowl of chips.

He may not even be rosterable until later in the year.

so thats why I've dropped him.

hes a top candidate for next year.    I just dont think hes the guy we want this year.

[craftsman 1,045]

London will be great. Let him get his knee in order. Don't rush him back. 

[weepaws 2,460]

I don’t think London will be great, I think he’ll be a good wr. 

 

[AxeElf 787]

It would have been cool if Big Ben could have been on the field with London.

Or if he were covered by safety Todd Franz--you'd see London, you'd see Franz, and then there'd be a good chance you'd see someone's underpants.

[Ray_T 591]

14 hours ago, weepaws said:

I don’t think London will be great, I think he’ll be a good wr. 

 

he will be good.   but he will be a beastly red zone target

[AintNoStoppinMeNow 68]

Does anyone who watched the game have any thoughts? Stats (caught 5 of 7 for 74 yards) were decent considering the tough matchup and it was his first NFL game after missing so much time. Not sure who was covering him since I'm sure the Saints were locked in on shutting down Pitts (who he matched target wise). 

[Ray_T 591]

41 minutes ago, AintNoStoppinMeNow said:

Does anyone who watched the game have any thoughts? Stats (caught 5 of 7 for 74 yards) were decent considering the tough matchup and it was his first NFL game after missing so much time. Not sure who was covering him since I'm sure the Saints were locked in on shutting down Pitts (who he matched target wise). 

I was surprised he did so well.

my suggesting hes not gonna perform came more from his skilset and his terrible QB who isnt good enough to take advantage of his skillset.

I will look at the tape to see if he warrants a change of mind as he is sitting there on the wire.

but I have my doubts that Mariota can hit him often enough to make him a weekly fantasy play.   Thats really the issue.   the talent IS there.   Just not at QB

[craftsman 1,045]

2 hours ago, Ray_T said:

I was surprised he did so well.

my suggesting hes not gonna perform came more from his skilset and his terrible QB who isnt good enough to take advantage of his skillset.

I will look at the tape to see if he warrants a change of mind as he is sitting there on the wire.

but I have my doubts that Mariota can hit him often enough to make him a weekly fantasy play.   Thats really the issue.   the talent IS there.   Just not at QB

London was the best WR in this year's draft. Burks is #2. And Mariota doesn't suck. He is great back up quality QB but can definitely fill in for a while.  

[weepaws 2,460]

Mariota keeps running the ball 12 times per game , he’ll have a short season.  

 

[Serenity Now 44]

I’m buying the 20% target share and that this offense will be somewhat competent but trailing most games. Trying to get him as my WR3 on my teams that I went rb heavy.

[Ray_T 591]

29 minutes ago, Serenity Now said:

I’m buying the 20% target share and that this offense will be somewhat competent but trailing most games. Trying to get him as my WR3 on my teams that I went rb heavy.

usually fftoday posts data on snap share,  targets and target share after week 1 or 2 (I forget) its helpful info in terms of helping you decide who to dump and who to hang onto.

 

[weepaws 2,460]

3 hours ago, Serenity Now said:

I’m buying the 20% target share and that this offense will be somewhat competent but trailing most games. Trying to get him as my WR3 on my teams that I went rb heavy.

Wr3 wow I guess you went really rb heavy. 

[Ray_T 591]

3 minutes ago, weepaws said:

Wr3 wow I guess you went really rb heavy. 

or he just drafted terribly.

hard to say for sure.   but this guy is a WR4 or WR5 on most teams.    possible future WR3.    but not right away.

[weepaws 2,460]

Said that they drafted rb heavy.  

But I agree London as a wr3 isn’t a sold play.  

[AxeElf 787]

If you go to a Falcons game, you can see London, and you can see Franks, but you can't see someone's underpants.

[Serenity Now 44]

1 hour ago, weepaws said:

Wr3 wow I guess you went really rb heavy. 

Yeah, cause after the first 5 or so wrs are all jags.

20+% target share is great for wr3 territory.

[Serenity Now 44]

1 hour ago, Ray_T said:

or he just drafted terribly.

hard to say for sure.   but this guy is a WR4 or WR5 on most teams.    possible future WR3.    but not right away.

Third most points this week so I doubt it was a terrible draft, just realized how inconsistent  and replaceable the wide receiver 2 &3  position is.

[craftsman 1,045]

London will be great.

[AxeElf 787]

Too bad he never got to play with Big Ben.

[weepaws 2,460]

4 hours ago, Serenity Now said:

Yeah, cause after the first 5 or so wrs are all jags.

20+% target share is great for wr3 territory.

Who else do you have at wr? 

[bobby heenan 60]

I have London on my bench…pleasantly surprised by the output considering matchup and his injury status leading up…like to see it…hopefully bullish going forward

[Serenity Now 44]

7 hours ago, weepaws said:

Who else do you have at wr? 

Chase, Kirk, MVS, McKenzie, dropping Osborn for Samuel, traded Olave and Jeff Wilson for London.
 

The Kirk, MVS duo out scored most of the conventional early and mid round pairings.

WR2 and 3 are highly overrated during draft season. It’s easier to build a competitive wr core during the season and late round wrs have a higher success rate than late round rbs. 

[Ray_T 591]

12 hours ago, Serenity Now said:

just realized how inconsistent  and replaceable the wide receiver 2 &3  position is.

it actually is.

at my auction, I made sure to spend my money at RB and to make sure I got a legit #1 WR.   after that, its all about money vs production and the slope for production is fairly flat.

the difference between a #3 and #4 WR is not huge anymore.

[AintNoStoppinMeNow 68]

So anyone starting the young gun this week against the Rams? With some questionable WR's this week (Bucs WR's, Pittman, Tee Higgins, etc) I'll probably be playing him. Shot Caller's Report has him as a start this week. The Rams will be angry from the Bills beat down and who knows if Ramsay lines up against London or Pitts but I'm hoping for some garbage time production and a TD. 

[AxeElf 787]

6 minutes ago, AintNoStoppinMeNow said:

I'm hoping for some garbage time production and a TD.

I think they'd have to be behind to get garbage time production.