Making the Case

• Produced mostly against weak competition
• Beaten out by Kendrick Foster & Reggie Corbin at Illinois
• YAC is misleading, Baylor game inflated stats
• Breakout Age
• Combine Metrics don’t stack up
• Good player ≠ NFL starter

Ke’Shawn Vaughn produced mostly against weak competition.

Let’s start here:

2015 (Illinois)

Against Kent St/W. Illinois/Mid. Ten. St/Purdue/Northwestern: 5 games – 67/418/6.24 YPC/4 TD.

Against UNC/Nebraska/Iowa/Wisconsin/Penn St/Ohio St: 6 games – 90/305 yards/3.39 YPC/2 TD.

In his 2nd season he was beaten out by Foster/Corbin.

2016 (Illinois)

Started first 3 games, gave way to Foster & Corbin (pardon me for having never heard of them).

Finished with 60/301/5.0 YPC/3 TD.

Not going to get into the game logs because he had such a small number of carries in most games.

2017 Didn’t Play (Transfer)

Vaughn had to sit in 2017 after transferring to Vanderbilt.

2018 (Vandy)

Showed up against some big-timers, but Baylor game inflated stats:

1st TD: 68 yards, wasn’t touched.

2nd TD: nice cut, wasn’t touched.

3rd TD: impressive, broke one tackle early & fought into the endzone to finish, but Baylor’s terrible D still to blame.

Watch the tape & tell me where he gained 161 yards after contact.

Does a fingertip count as contact?

Minus that game: 144/1001/6

2019 (Vandy)

4 100-yard games.

(E. Ten. St/Nevada-Las Vegas/Northern Illinois/LSU): 66/547/8.2 YPC/6 TD.

LSU tape is good, shows some fight, but 52 of his 130 yards came on one run through a wide-open hole.

Also had 52-yard TD down 45-17.

Remaining 18 carries: 26 yards.

Here are the two runs which comprised pretty much his entire stat line against LSU.

His other 8 games (Georgia/Purdue/Ole Miss/Mizzou/S. Carolina/Florida/ Kentucky/Tennessee):

132/481/3.64 YPC/3 TD.

If you want to give him credit for 157/723/6 as a true freshman at Illinois & call that his breakout age, sure.

If not, he didn’t really break out until his 4th year in college (2018).

His combine metrics don’t stack up to previous top-35 fantasy RB’s.

Out of 79 top-35 fantasy RB’s over the past 4 years: 8/79 did not participate in both the vertical & broad jump.

Only 6 (!!) had a vert & broad as bad as or worse than Vaughn’s 32″ vert & 117″ broad.

The only top-35 RB’s from the past 4 years to perform as poorly as Vaughn in both drills: Matt Jones, Jeremy Hill, Alex Collins, James White, James Conner, & Dalvin (& Fournette if including 28 vert/DNP broad).

If he’s a top-35 fantasy back, he’s in the 10% minority here.

Does his combine draft description scream “NFL starter” or “Really good backup?”

He could get away with his weaknesses against lesser schools, but will he be able to in the NFL?

Vaughn was going behind Moss, Dillon, & Gibson pre-NFL Draft by FantasyPros ADP & didn’t get a ton of hype until he landed in Tampa. He does have some positives:

• Tough
• Vision
• One-cut & go
• Pass blocking

But that’s the end of the list.

For a guy who took 4 years to really break out, couldn’t beat out lesser competition, didn’t generally show up against big-time schools, & lacks the athletic traits necessary, I’d be wary of passing up one of the legit WR’s in this class to draft him.

Round 2 is cool, idk about the 1st…