As we gear up to the start of the NFL season, Football Absurdity is going to bring you a comprehensive breakdown of every notable player that will be available in fantasy football drafts. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Ke’Shawn Vaughn in the third round, taking the Vanderbilt running back with the 76th pick. This comes two years after taking his primary backfield competition, Ronald Jones II, with the 38th overall selection. Who is Ke’Shawn Vaughn, and is he worth taking in your 2020 fantasy football drafts?
Ke’Shawn Vaughn ADP and AAV:
Standard Scoring ADP: RB44, 118 overall
PPR Scoring ADP: RB30, 70 overall
Average Auction Value: $2
Ke’Shawn Vaughn Statistics:
I just told you that he is a rookie, so I’m not entirely sure what you expected to find here.
Ke’Shawn Vaughn Overview:
Ke’Shawn Vaughn hits the hole hard and gets big gains when they’re there. He has great contact balance and will carry guys for several yards while they fully try to stop him. He has a good jump cut and pushes the pile hard. He’s athletic. Nothing jumps off the tape other than his exceptional contact balance and his ability to take a hole a long way. He caught enough balls to call it a part of his game, but not enough to get excited about it.
The big thing that will get him on the field is pass blocking: he was the most efficient pass-blocking running back drafted in 2020, according to PFF. That will go a long way toward keeping Tom Brady upright, which means he steals a lot of snaps from RoJo, who Bruce Arians benched last year for missing a pass-blocking assignment.
Ke’Shawn Vaughn Draft Strategy:
Ke’Shawn Vaughn Auction Value: $3
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming late June)
Ultimately, your investment in this guy comes down to your feelings in Ronald Jones II. Do you think Jones is a good talent who earned his top-24 RB finish last season, and who is likely to repeat that? Then you probably don’t want Vaughn. If you believe that RoJo2 is just keeping the RB1 seat warm for Vaughn this season, then you probably end up going out and getting Vaughn.
Me? Oh, I’m in the middle. I think this is going to be an overwhelmingly frustrating situation, where Bruce Arians ends up benching RoJo partway through games for pass blocking, only to go out and bench Ke’Shawn Vaughn and reinstate RoJo because Vaughn does a bonehead rookie move. To me, it seems like a back-and-forth headache that will lead to fantasy football anguish.
But, that means that you can find value in that backfield if you’re willing to exercise a little patience. The entire backfield can be had for a few bucks in an auction or a couple of middling picks in a snake draft. It could be a situation wherein you find great value if one of the guys steps up and solidifies the role, and you can have them with relatively little investment.
Best Case Scenario:
Ronald Jones plays like 2018 Ronald Jones and Ke’Shawn Vaughn snags the role early and we never look back with him.
Worst Case Scenario:
Ronald Jones plays like 2019 Ronald Jones and Ke’Shawn Vaughn never snags the role, and we turn our back on him.
[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com and airyards.com]
