#FreeKenyanDrake
I’m going to start this off by saying to the Dolphins, please, just trade Kenyan Drake. For one, maybe he’ll recapture some of that fantasy football goodness he had late in the 2017 season. Also, it’ll give us a good chance to see what Kalen Ballage has in him. What do you have to lose really? You’re already opting to bench Ryan Fitzpatrick (Fitzmagic) for Josh Rosen. If you aren’t going to give Drake 20-25 touches with Rosen under center then what are you really doing?
Okay, sorry about that mini-rant. Let’s get to how Drake has fared so far this season. The answer? Not well. The Dolphins are bad. What is he supposed to do? But also he isn’t getting any carries. He’s got 10 through two games, though his seven receptions on nine targets gives us a glimmer of hope. But not really. Drake has 75 total yards in 2019 but there are some positives. His snap count went up from Week 1, playing 34 in the blowout loss to the Pats. Plus, as I mentioned before, Drake did get looks in the passing game. But I mean, yeah, things are “not great, Bob!”
Fantasy Impact: My hot take of the week, though, is that some Dolphins players will have value. This is mostly for DFS purposes, but I imagine pretty much every Miami skill position player is on the waiver wire. So if you’re desperate, Drake isn’t a bad grab this week. Because of his usage in the passing game we know the game script won’t matter when considering his value. Let’s be real, the script for the Dolphins all season will read “playing from behind.” If coach Brian Flores wises up a bit, maybe Drake will get double-digit touches. The matchup vs. the Cowboys isn’t too imposing. Dallas is actually 22nd in Run DVOA and we’ve seen the Cowboys get off to slow starts in each of their games. Perhaps Drake opens up the game on a hot series and takes off. He could also crash and burn if you play him. For that, I’d look elsewhere. But I’ve still got this feeling ...
Recommendation: Sit
All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS contests.