The 2018 NFL season starts in earnest on Thursday. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting for this day since February. And, if you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting until the last possible moment for your fantasy football draft. You can’t very well have the best draft possible before you know who has been injured, who has been cut, and who’s had a surprising fall from grace, right?

One of the biggest names on the fantasy radar this season is Miami Dolphins running back Kenyan Drake. And for good reason. Drake burst onto the scene last season after Adam Gase sent incumbent running back Jay Ajayi packing for Philadelphia mid-season. The move worked out well for Ajayi, as he was able to become the starting running back on the eventual Super Bowl champions. The move didn’t work out too shabby for Drake either. Once inserted into the starting role for good, Drake was one of the more prolific running backs in the league, and in fantasy football.

That 12-game stretch, along with coming into the season as the established number 1 option, has many fantasy owners chomping at the bit for Drake. Many owners view the young Dolphins running back as one of the better mid-round options at the position for owners who miss out on the obvious heavy hitters — Le’Veon Bell, David Johnson, Todd Gurley, and Zeke Elliott, for example. Right now, Drake’s ADP (average draft position) is as RB19 in standard PPR 12-team leagues, according to Fantasy Football Calculator. But is that good value for Drake? Maybe not.

Avid fantasy football players know there’s a plethora of different scoring systems and league formats in fantasy football. The one I most often play is the full PPR, 12-team league format, so that’s the scope through which I view players as fantasy options. As a Dolphins fan, I’ve heard non-stop chatter about Drake’s fantasy value. I may be in the minority, but I think there’s reason to steer clear of the talented Dolphins running back.

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