May 12, 2021

Selecting Kenyan Drake in the top 18 picks of 2020 fantasy drafts was the epitome of bad process. His inflated ADP was a product of the incredibly high demand for running backs that seems to be a thing this year as well. I, too, fell victim to the pull of the "RB early no matter what" strategy even when I didn't actually like the RB. If you drafted Drake last season, don't let the disappointment of his performance scare you away this season. Drake is now in Las Vegas behind Josh Jacobs, but he also no longer costs you a second round pick. Drake is typically available somewhere in the round 8-10 range, which is a very fair price. Jacobs is a replacement level talent. He's not particularly athletic and he's seldom used in the passing game (just 3.0 targets per game in 2020). Drake wasn't targeted much last season, but in 2019, he averaged 4.9 targets per game. It wouldn't surprise me if Drake operated as the primary passing down back this season. Given the contract he signed, Drake is going to get work, even if it's not as a wide receiver like Jon Gruden mentioned. Drake is the ideal later round RB target because he is going to have standalone value, at least as an RB3 or low-end Flex, but also has high RB2 upside in the event of a Jacobs injury. He also doesn't necessarily need an injury to improve his stock as it's in his range of outcomes to push Jacobs by simply outplaying him. I'm aggressively targeting Drake as my RB4.--Jason Katz