Fantasy Football Draft: 2019 studs, sleepers and busts

Running Back – Sleepers

Latavius Murray, New Orleans Saints – ADP of 99th overall, RB36 

Don’t let that purple and gold fool you in the picture because the Saints have brought in Murray to potentially take the Mark Ingram role in this offense. They have had so much success using the two-pronged attack at the running back position with Alvin Kamra that I don’t think they stop that now.

They finished 13th in rushing attempts in 2017 and inside the top five last season. New Orleans has always been a little reticent to use Kamara as the “workhorse” back for strictly carries. He’s yet to top 19 carries in his career and they love using him in the receiving game(as they should). That means the “hammer” role is open and Murray should step in.

Murray hasn’t topped 50 receptions since 2015 in Oakland, but has proven to be a solid back throughout his career and one that has handled at least 195 carries in three of the last five seasons.

He fell to just 140 last year in part because Dalvin Cook was back and in part because the Vikings offense wasn’t quite as good as we thought, finishing 18th in points per game. There should be no concerns with that in the Bayou and Murray could be a screaming value.

Ingram finished with a pace to be right around the RB15 last year had he played the whole season. While I don’t think both backs can finish inside the top 10 like Kamara and Ingram did in 2017, I would be very surprised to see Murray not at least be near the top 25. The ceiling is even higher.

Kenyan Drake, Miami Dolphins – ADP of 54th overall, RB26 

The overall ADP doesn’t really qualify Drake as a “Sleeper” but when he’s going outside of the top 20 at his own position, people are sleeping on him. We already highlighted the low-level of touches that Drake got last season under Gase.

Even then, he still was the RB17 in half point formats and seems to be in line for 200 touches this year for the first time in his career and build upon his first 1,000 total yards campaign from 2018.

I will always gravitate to backs who have shown they can be productive in the passing game and Drake showed exactly that with 53 receptions last year. Miami stands to be behind on the scoreboard a lot this year, meaning even though Drake might not be the most efficient runner and might not get an overwhelming amount of carries, he could threaten for 75 receptions.

New head coach Brian Flores seems to be a big fan, as he told al.com - 

"“He’s athletic, he’s explosive, he’s fast, he’s a good route runner, he does a lot of good things,” Flores said. “How you defend him — we’ll let the opponent figure that out. It’s hard to defend him."

Not only that, there is hope that since Flores brought over Chad O’Shea from New England to be the offensive coordinator that O’Shea understands how to utilize backs in the receiving game. New England does that very well and now Frank Gore is in Buffalo.

Drake seems to have a clear path to more touches, less competition outside of maybe Kalen Ballage and coaches that believe in him. He’s simply going too late in drafts as of right now.

Other Fantasy Football Draft Targets – David Montgomery, Chicago Bears – D’Onta Foreman, Houston Texans – Matt Breida, San Francisco 49ers – Ronald Jones, Tampa Bay Buccaneers