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RB D’Andre Swift, CHI (4 Viewers)

gee, I guess  I missed him being in my FF lineups at the end of last year, oh wait he wasn't, because he was HURT.....and matt Stafford broke his back each of the last two seasons, so you need better examples man
Stafford started 136 games in a row...sixth longest streak in NFL history. gee. you need better counterexamples, man.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/matthew-stafford-reportedly-out-for-lions-ends-consecutive-starts-streak-at-136-games/

 
Yeah, I love Swift, just not enough to draft with 1.01. I also think Johnson was a darn good back when healthy and that he presents an impediment to playing time for Swift when he's right.
I'll be drafting Swift 1.1 in about 36 hours.  I thought he was clearly the best back pre-combine.  He tested well enough at the combine to maintain his position at the top imo.  Kerryon Johnson gets a lot of love, but in addition to being injury prone, he underwhelmed last year.  I think Swift is just better and Kerryon won't keep him from getting a stranglehold on the back field touches.

 
I'll be drafting Swift 1.1 in about 36 hours.  I thought he was clearly the best back pre-combine.  He tested well enough at the combine to maintain his position at the top imo.  Kerryon Johnson gets a lot of love, but in addition to being injury prone, he underwhelmed last year.  I think Swift is just better and Kerryon won't keep him from getting a stranglehold on the back field touches.
I'm not convinced anyone in the rookie drafts jumped out as the 1.01 at all. I traded down. That's how confident I was in all of the backs. I did like Swift the best at first, though, I will say that. I won't pooh-pooh any fans of his because you can see it there. I wonder when the narrative became that he does everything really well, just nothing exceptional. He looks like his balance is exceptional at times, that's for sure. He gives the best stick move I think I've ever seen. Guys pull their groins when he does it.

 
I'm not convinced anyone in the rookie drafts jumped out as the 1.01 at all. I traded down. That's how confident I was in all of the backs. I did like Swift the best at first, though, I will say that. I won't pooh-pooh any fans of his because you can see it there. I wonder when the narrative became that he does everything really well, just nothing exceptional. He looks like his balance is exceptional at times, that's for sure. He gives the best stick move I think I've ever seen. Guys pull their groins when he does it.
Yeah, I was kinda shocked to hear people say Swift was a jack-of-all trades/master-of-none.

The narrative would've been much different had he ended up in KC. We'd be hearing about his elite elusiveness, good speed, outstanding pass-catching ability, etc.

 
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Yeah, I was kinda shocked to hear people say Swift was kinda of a jack-of-all trades/master-of-none.

The narrative would've been much different had he ended up in KC. I'm betting we'd be hearing mostly about his elite elusiveness, good speed, outstanding pass-catching ability, etc.
I gently disagree. They were on him for some reason. PFF and a lot of the non-professional scout "analysts" were down on his game and it started back around the beginning of March or something like that. PFF was notoriously pooh-poohing the guy, not even putting him in their top five backs and having Zack Moss as number one on their big board.

Zack ####in' Moss.

 
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I'm lower on Swift than most. I don't like the landing spot, I don't like Keeron there (although I am not high on him), I don't like Patricia being the head coach.

 
Dalvin Cook is ranked around #5 in most Dynasty rankings.

So clearly Cook's injury risk is not viewed nearly as great as some in here are attributing to Kerryon Johnson. The way some in here are talking they apparently believe Johnson will be on the field for maybe one more play in his career.

Can you help me understand why the difference? TIA
Dalvin Cook is also the biggest sell high candidate in recent memory. Investors got their glorious workhorse season from him and now is time to bail IMO. 

I highly doubt it. Too bad it's the internet and none of this means anything. Moss is molasses, Swift just that.
Detroit scares me though. Lions RBs had 500 yards receiving last year, only 5 backfields produced less receiving yards. Maybe that was dictated by their personnel, but maybe that is also the scheme. The Lions offensive line was in the bottom third of the league last year in run blocking metrics and they lost their RT and RG who will now be replaced by a 3rd round draft pick and a career back-up. What is most likely to happen is a giant committee with Swift, Kerryon, Bo and maybe even Huntley involved. The coach and GM get fired at the end of the season and a new regime comes in. With the new regime comes lots of uncertainty about what players they like, the scheme they run, the future of Stafford, etc. I am not very high on Swift. 

 
Dalvin Cook is also the biggest sell high candidate in recent memory. Investors got their glorious workhorse season from him and now is time to bail IMO. 

Detroit scares me though. Lions RBs had 500 yards receiving last year, only 5 backfields produced less receiving yards. Maybe that was dictated by their personnel, but maybe that is also the scheme. The Lions offensive line was in the bottom third of the league last year in run blocking metrics and they lost their RT and RG who will now be replaced by a 3rd round draft pick and a career back-up. What is most likely to happen is a giant committee with Swift, Kerryon, Bo and maybe even Huntley involved. The coach and GM get fired at the end of the season and a new regime comes in. With the new regime comes lots of uncertainty about what players they like, the scheme they run, the future of Stafford, etc. I am not very high on Swift. 
I hate losing Glasgow but there is a decent chance this line outperforms last years combo. I’m not exactly on the swift bandwagon but just pointing that out...

 
When you break tackles as well as Moss does, his NFL arc is much more promising.
Ask David Montgomery that. Jury's still out on that. That's a PFF stat special, and we have no idea what it truly measures. We debate on here all the time whether that breaking tackles stat is at first a function of not being able to evade them by hitting the hole quickly or generally being quick and fast enough to avoid contact, assuming it's not caught in their other statistic, elusive rating. I don't think a back is something you can quantify like that, as so much depends on vision and the scout's own judgment at PFF as to what constitutes a quantifiable mark.

 
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I hate losing Glasgow but there is a decent chance this line outperforms last years combo. I’m not exactly on the swift bandwagon but just pointing that out...
Certainly possible, it wasn’t all that great last season so there’s a lot of room to improve. I’m just pointing out that is a pretty big unknown. As is the future of Taylor Decker. This could be his last year playing LT for Detroit.

 
Interesting that Swift is second to Burrow as the odds-on-favorite to win ROY (at least for one book).

I believe by the time the season rolls around, the FF community will be a lot higher on him (as a whole).

 
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Ask David Montgomery that. Jury's still out on that. That's a PFF stat special, and we have no idea what it truly measures. We debate on here all the time whether that breaking tackles stat is at first a function of not being able to evade them by hitting the hole quickly or generally being quick and fast enough to avoid contact, assuming it's not caught in their other statistic, elusive rating. I don't think a back is something you can quantify like that, as so much depends on vision and the scout's own judgment at PFF as to what constitutes a quantifiable mark.
Some good points.

The concern I had with Montgomery carries over to Moss to some degree. If your #1 asset in the NFL is breaking tackles, you better be one bad### ##er.

 
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Ask David Montgomery that. Jury's still out on that. That's a PFF stat special, and we have no idea what it truly measures. We debate on here all the time whether that breaking tackles stat is at first a function of not being able to evade them by hitting the hole quickly or generally being quick and fast enough to avoid contact, assuming it's not caught in their other statistic, elusive rating. I don't think a back is something you can quantify like that, as so much depends on vision and the scout's own judgment at PFF as to what constitutes a quantifiable mark.
PFF doesn't have a breaking tackle rating but they do have a missed tackle forced which they define as this: "Relatively self-explanatory, missed tackles forced examines whether a running back (or any ball carrier) did something to make a would-be sure tackler, miss said tackle."

Tex

 
Counting broken tackles doesn't tell the whole story.  It can be important or meaningless.

Montgomery broke a ton of tackles, but you could see on tape it was lateral dancing, sometimes several at a time, but he failed to move upfield while doing so.  You can break 5 or 6 tackles but if you don't get upfield, it doesn't mean jack.  His problem is he doesn't reaccelerate quick enough after the dancing.

The complete opposite of this is say, Earl Campbell.  He broke tackles at full speed, trucking dudes while moving upfield and getting additional yards.

As a stat its meaningless.  You have to look closer.  Swift makes his misses much more meaningful than Montgomery.  My main issue with him is he carries the ball loosely and hate the fit with the Lions.

 
Vandelay said:
Counting broken tackles doesn't tell the whole story.  It can be important or meaningless.

Montgomery broke a ton of tackles, but you could see on tape it was lateral dancing, sometimes several at a time, but he failed to move upfield while doing so.  You can break 5 or 6 tackles but if you don't get upfield, it doesn't mean jack.  His problem is he doesn't reaccelerate quick enough after the dancing.

The complete opposite of this is say, Earl Campbell.  He broke tackles at full speed, trucking dudes while moving upfield and getting additional yards.

As a stat its meaningless.  You have to look closer.  Swift makes his misses much more meaningful than Montgomery.  My main issue with him is he carries the ball loosely and hate the fit with the Lions.
You are my spirit animal.

I've always said that the number one asset I look for in a RB is their ability to maintain their speed while breaking or eluding tackles.  I love those thunder thighs where defenders bounce off a guy while the RB maintains nearly full speed.  It's one of the reasons I was so high on Kareem Hunt when he came out.

Reggie Bush is another classic example of what you mentioned with Montgomery.  For him it was eluding tackles rather than breaking them, but the outcome was the same.  To much directly lateral movement to avoid tackles.  He could make a sweet move to make a guy or even two miss but it was all for nothing as he was soon getting gang tackled by 5 guys with no yardage gained from it all.

Saquon is one of those rare guys that has both, but most of his biggest runs come on plays where he makes subtle cuts and runs through arm tackles rather than the highlight reel cuts.

ETA: I am very high on Swift because he makes explosive subtle cuts and runs through tackles without losing much speed.  The landing spot was poor but the way I see things it just gave me the opportunity to get a guy that I like but thought I'd never had a chance at getting (I don't have any top 3 picks) prior to the NFL draft.

 
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You are my spirit animal.

I've always said that the number one asset I look for in a RB is their ability to maintain their speed while breaking or eluding tackles.  I love those thunder thighs where defenders bounce off a guy while the RB maintains nearly full speed.  It's one of the reasons I was so high on Kareem Hunt when he came out.

Reggie Bush is another classic example of what you mentioned with Montgomery.  For him it was eluding tackles rather than breaking them, but the outcome was the same.  To much directly lateral movement to avoid tackles.  He could make a sweet move to make a guy or even two miss but it was all for nothing as he was soon getting gang tackled by 5 guys with no yardage gained from it all.

Saquon is one of those rare guys that has both, but most of his biggest runs come on plays where he makes subtle cuts and runs through arm tackles rather than the highlight reel cuts.

ETA: I am very high on Swift because he makes explosive subtle cuts and runs through tackles without losing much speed.  The landing spot was poor but the way I see things it just gave me the opportunity to get a guy that I like but thought I'd never had a chance at getting (I don't have any top 3 picks) prior to the NFL draft.
Yet, he may be allergic to pain.

 
You are my spirit animal.

I've always said that the number one asset I look for in a RB is their ability to maintain their speed while breaking or eluding tackles.  I love those thunder thighs where defenders bounce off a guy while the RB maintains nearly full speed.  It's one of the reasons I was so high on Kareem Hunt when he came out.

Reggie Bush is another classic example of what you mentioned with Montgomery.  For him it was eluding tackles rather than breaking them, but the outcome was the same.  To much directly lateral movement to avoid tackles.  He could make a sweet move to make a guy or even two miss but it was all for nothing as he was soon getting gang tackled by 5 guys with no yardage gained from it all.

Saquon is one of those rare guys that has both, but most of his biggest runs come on plays where he makes subtle cuts and runs through arm tackles rather than the highlight reel cuts.

ETA: I am very high on Swift because he makes explosive subtle cuts and runs through tackles without losing much speed.  The landing spot was poor but the way I see things it just gave me the opportunity to get a guy that I like but thought I'd never had a chance at getting (I don't have any top 3 picks) prior to the NFL draft.
Agree completely about Saquon.  I was more realistic than the majority regarding Bush when he came out.  Just felt like he mostly blazed around guys and it wouldn't be so easy at the next level.  Thought he'd be a good player for sure, just not the phenom he was in college.

I like Swifts game and think it will translate fine to the pros, but the Lions fan on the previous page really struck a cord with my Redskins fandom and I dropped him below Akers as a result.  Just sounds all to familiar to me. I'd take him 6th-8th in this class, behind Lamb and maybe Jeudy and Jefferson depending on team needs, which means I probably won't have him anywhere.

 
Kenny Golladay laughs in the face of regression as the safest fantasy football option on the Detroit Lions

Excerpt:

This backfield got way more complicated when the Lions drafted Georgia’s D’Andre Swift. Is the disparity in the ADPs of Swift (74.1 ADP) and Kerryon Johnson (113.6) correct — or should we avoid this situation entirely?

Liz: Since entering the league, Johnson has struggled with knee issues. A sprain to his left knee cost the Auburn product six games in 2018 (Weeks 12-17) and surgery on his right knee forced him to sit out eight games in 2019 (Weeks 8-15). It’s no secret that Matt Patricia wants to employ an effective and explosive run-first offense, which can’t happen without a standout rusher. So it makes sense that the franchise would want insurance behind Johnson ... and the fact that they used an early second-round pick on Swift signals that the team has grown impatient with Kerryon’s injury issues.

While Swift is a dynamic runner with excellent vision and instincts — considered by many to be the most complete back in this year’s draft — his inconsistent pad level leaves him vulnerable to injury. In fact, he comps most similarly to Davlin Cook, who has struggled with his own durability issues (knee, hamstring, shoulder) since entering the league. Ultimately, as previously discussed, I’m wary of Detroit’s offensive line and would prefer to fade this backfield altogether. However, if managers are committed to adding shares of this RB group, then the advantage goes to the fresher legs. Swift should be rostered ahead of Johnson. For reference, Swift is the Yahoo Consensus ranked RB27 while Johnson is at RB38.

Scott: These are reactive picks for me, not proactive picks. I don’t see Swift as a can’t-miss guy, nor do I consider Johnson an obvious risk of being mothballed. I expect both to play a fair amount, and the Lions to sink-or-swim through the air, anyway.

Matt: I don’t think I’ll be bothering figuring out this split prior to the season. Johnson hasn’t been a bad player thus far in his career and Swift is unlikely to usurp him to the point that he’s completely irrelevant. We also shouldn’t assume that Swift is a lock to lead the team in touches, especially if a truncated offseason puts him behind the eight-ball. If we do get a split backfield here, the Lions offense is unlikely to be juicy enough to support two relevant backs in fantasy. Swift is ranked as the RB27 in FantasyPros consensus rankings. That’s way too aggressive but I don’t think I’ll be taking the cheaper option (Johnson at RB40) either. It’s just a pass.

 
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Lions signed second-round RB D'Andre Swift to a four-year contract. 

Swift (5’8"/212) averaged 7.8 yards per touch behind Nick Chubb and Sony Michel as a true freshman at Georgia before clearing 1,000 yards rushing and seven scores each of the past two years as starter. Swift’s combination of vision, patience and 63rd-percentile Adjusted SPARQ athleticism made him an efficient runner, averaging 6.6 yards per carry on 440 career totes. 20 percent of Swift’s 196 senior carries gained at least 10 yards, the best mark in this year’s draft class. A rugged runner with elite acceleration, Swift is also excellent at reading the first level of the defense. He is the fantasy pick over Kerryon Johnson, checking in as an upside FLEX with an easy path to every-week RB2 status.

Jul 4, 2020, 4:56 PM ET

 
He did seem to be nicked up a lot, so no, it isn't useless.  Doesn't that concern you a little bit?
Dobbins has dealt with his share of injuries too and to a lesser extent also CEH (though less since he has only started one season). Both have similarly less than ideal frames for RBs

Injuries happen. Unless there's some extensive record of soft tissue issues it doesn't really stand out to me

 
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Just reading the headline - so the 10th or 11th RB since Barry Sanders to be the best RB since Barry Sanders?
Only prospect I can remember being as good as Swift was Jahvid Best and he had his brain fried well before he got his shot

 
Only prospect I can remember being as good as Swift was Jahvid Best and he had his brain fried well before he got his shot
Agreed.. just being sarcastic about using the best RB in NFL history as the bar.  Destined to fail already.

 
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Pure tape. I like swift the most of all the rookies. Huge upside. 
Really agree with this. It is ashame that he won't have a full off-season to show it. I think the first 6ish games he will share with Johnson, but after that he will be so much better or Johnson will get hurt and it will be off to the races. I also love the fact that Detroit's receivers are vertical threats. It should open up some dump offs and running lanes. He has sleeper appeal to be the best rb of this class. 

 
KChusker said:
Only prospect I can remember being as good as Swift was Jahvid Best and he had his brain fried well before he got his shot
People really loved Kevin Jones his first 2 seasons. He showed a ton of promise but couldn't say healthy. 

 
Swift's a top-notch talent. The question is his situation and durability. That's really it. Johnson is a good back in the NFL when healthy. He might be as good as Swift (I had Johnson all over the place last year based on his talent). And the coaches seem very comfy with a RBBC approach. He's still generally fourth off the board in rookie drafts, no small feat. 

 
Really agree with this. It is ashame that he won't have a full off-season to show it. I think the first 6ish games he will share with Johnson, but after that he will be so much better or Johnson will get hurt and it will be off to the races. I also love the fact that Detroit's receivers are vertical threats. It should open up some dump offs and running lanes. He has sleeper appeal to be the best rb of this class. 
A lot of people chasing the shiny object but are missing on this guy. They will be kicking themselves in a year or two

 
Lions second-round RB D'Andre Swift suggested he's still unsure what his role will be.

"I can't even give you my role," Swift said. "Whatever role they have for me, I just gotta make sure I'm in the best shape and know all of the plays so I'm ready to take it on full force. But I'm not going in there looking to do anything, just doing what I've been doing." Having missed 14 of a possible 32 games since being drafted as Detroit's No. 43 overall pick in 2018, Kerryon Johnson's monopoly as the team's two-down grinder is threatened by the sheer presence of Swift out the gates. The Georgia product only dropped three targets while averaging 9.1 yards per reception on 73 career catches at the collegiate level, inevitably pinning him as the runner with receiving upside among this backfield. For what it's worth, Swift is currently being drafted four rounds ahead of Johnson in high-stakes fantasy leagues.

RELATED: 

Kerryon Johnson

SOURCE: Around The NFL on Twitter

Jul 12, 2020, 11:06 AM ET

 
Lions OC Darryl Bevell said it “remains to be seen” how D’Andre Swift fits in the offense.

This sounds like coachspeak, but the Lions haven't offered much on their plans for Swift. Just last month, Swift said he hasn’t been guaranteed anything. It’s easy to see a pass game role for Swift — Bo Scarbrough offers nothing as a receiver — but that may be the ceiling on his early-season usage. We should get a better feel for where Swift stands when the Lions start padded practice next week.

SOURCE: mlive.com

Aug 16, 2020, 10:42 AM ET

 
Chris Burke @ChrisBurkeNFL

D’Andre Swift is eating up linebackers in 1-on-1 drills. Just smoked Elijah Lee, Jarrad Davis and Jason Cabinda on consecutive reps. (Dropped the pass vs. Cabinda, though.)

Lee bounced back with a really nice breakup against Jonathan Williams.
https://twitter.com/chrisburkenfl/status/1295735134256340993?s=21

Dave Birkett @davebirkett

D’Andre Swift is gonna be a problem for opposing teams as a receiver
https://twitter.com/davebirkett/status/1295735065104846848?s=21

 

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