Who would you start this week between Caleb Williams and Malik Willis? I've been starting Willis, but OU is playing a weak defense in Kansas. Meanwhile Liberty is playing North Texas, which is one of the better defenses they'll face.
There have been multiple posts asking about Damion Willis' value over the past week or so. Rather than posting another question, this post is a comment on what his current value should be. Some discussion on this topic got swallowed up in posts that didn't gain much steam and wanted to put this out there and start a deeper discussion on Willis as a prospect.
To start the conversation, I'd like to use Preston Williams and Jakobi Meyers as frames of reference for Willis . The three of them are all UDFAs who have garnered attention this summer, although Williams and Meyers have received much more attention. That makes sense given Williams being a prospect that dropped mainly due to off-field concerns and Meyers being on the Patriots. These days, the Bengals aren't a team that generates much excitement.
Let's begin with some quantitative metrics. As the image below shows, these 3 prospects compare favorably. Each had breakout seasons in 2018 and each have similar career totals. Williams and Willis have favorable Speed Scores compared to Meyers, while Willis has smaller than ideal hands compared to the other two.
Stats and metrics for the three UDFA prospects
Now let's turn to more qualitative, subjective considerations. Here I will focus on Willis as there have been numerous posts that focused on Williams and Meyers already. I posted this originally as a comment in https://www.reddit.com/r/DynastyFF/comments/cygxei/whats_willis_worth_for_dynasty/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x.
Some quotes on him from this preseason:
- Said John Ross: "I told him, 'I haven’t seen anyone as talented as you with no buzz in a long time.' I just told him you keep working. I told him that the first week. I think his game has no limits. That’s what makes him special. And he catches the ball really well. He makes tough catches. He’s smart, the kid can play. I told him, 'just keep that mentality and you’re going to be really good,' because I don’t think a lot of people are blessed with the things that he has."
- “Damion Willis won’t play this week (in the preseason finale against Indianapolis at home on Thursday night) because he’s solidified himself as the starting 'X' receiver going into W
https://twitter.com/outlandtrophy/status/1048241411655589892
http://www.sportswriters.net/fwaa/news/2018/outland181005.html
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