Welcome To Our 2023 Rookie Prospect Profile Series!
We’re kicking off this year at Fantasy In Frames with our 2023 NFL Rookie Prospect Profile series, where each fantasy analyst will provide you with a 5-10 video breakdown of each prospect’s overall metrics from college, their strengths and weaknesses, and overall fantasy assessment heading to Combine and NFL Draft season. Once you’re done viewing this article’s comprehensive breakdown, head to our YouTube channel by subscribing here for more great fantasy football content. Here is our breakdown of 2023 Dynasty Rookie Prospect: Devon Achane!
Player Overview
Devon Achane has all the prerequisite skill and ability to be a big part of an offense as a third down back as well as “juice” guy that you can get the ball to in space. He was extraordinarily productive in his three years at Texas A&M University and will look to carry that productivity into the NFL.
While draft capital means a lot for running backs in general, it means even more for Achane. The reason for that is he doesn’t quite have the rushing skill to pop in practice and he needs that draft capital to be given a chance in the other aspects of the game. Overall Devon Achane has a great set of hands as well as the speed to be a killer in an NFL offense because they simply don’t make many humans that possess the kind of speed that he does; and as Al Davis said; “You can’t teach speed”.
Player Summary
Devon Achane had a productive but not overly efficient college career by the standards of many top 100 prospects. Simply put, betting on Achane to be successful is betting on an outlier, as guys with his size and build don’t often pop off for big time fantasy production. At 5 foot 8.5 inches tall and 188 pounds he is going to need to work harder than everyone else simply to stay healthy with the beatings that NFL Running Backs take on a weekly basis.
With his rushing efficiency going down each year in college as his volume went up he is going to have to make it in the NFL as a juice/YAC player. If you take a shot on Achane to be an outlier and be a productive NFL back it is understandable. Regardless of size the NFL doesn’t often come around athletes and players that truly have Olympic level speed. Achane has that and then some with his fastest 200 meter dash time (He was a track All-American at TAMU) clocking in a 20.20 seconds, for a little context that would have put him in 6th place in the gold metal heat of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games.
There are many things working against Achance, primarily size, but I am willing to take a shot on his uncommon speed and agility.
Fantasy Summary
Devon Achane is going to have to make his fantasy hay in the pass game. I can’t envision a team that wants him to last an entire season giving him more than 125 carries in a season, which equates to approximately 7 carries a game. This lack of size and rushing ability will limit his ceiling as a fantasy player. If I put on my rose colored glasses Devon Achane looks like a 500-500 guy that can account for 5-10 touchdowns a year and clock in close to 180 fantasy points a year. That 180 points would put him smack dab in the middle of the RB2 range.
Now if I remove my rose colors glasses and put on, I don’t know, whatever color you relate with a dreary outlook colored glasses; his outlook isn’t as good. He could end up being a return specialist and special teams gunner who doesn’t see the field hardly at all.
Personally, I lean more toward the rose colored outcome and see Achane has a flex worth backend RB2, high end RB3 until his speed starts to diminish. I will happily sit and take Achane in the middle to late second round and bet on him hitting his ceiling rather than his floor.
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