After our third round pick last night, I’m reminded once more how much of a grand wizard Jason Licht is. Such a secret genius that he actually took Ke’Shawn Vaughn 41 spots LATER than he should’ve been taken. That’s because Vaughn is D’Andre Swift, only BETTER.
These are the stats of these two college running backs (2018 and 19) vs top-25 FBS defenses:
Swift: 11 games, 6.37 YPA, 199 Receiving Yards (18.1 per-game), 7 total touchdowns
Vaughn: 7 games, 6.6 YPA, 150 Receiving Yards (21.4 per-game), 6 total touchdowns
Swift had the second-ranked o-line last season, according to PFF (out of 130 teams), had two first-round hogs taken on Thursday.
Vaughn had the 128th-ranked o-line last year, becoming a Swiss Army knife despite the swiss cheese in front of him.
Vaughn has a better rushing average than Swift, more rushing yards (2,272/2,267) in less games, and three more total touchdowns over the past two seasons. All of this in the SAME CONFERENCE. And Vaughn did so as a ONE-MAN BAND. (Their TE Pinkney might have been in the band as well, but as a tambourine player or something.)
Simply put, Licht is playing 11-dimensional wizard’s chess. He was LAUGHING when the Saints gave up a MASSIVE haul, and for what for? To simply move up and draft a potential first round talent in the third? Scoff. Licht even slipped a timed, sleep-inducing contraption underneath Arians’ Kangol so he could take sole possession of this mind-blowing pick.
While that Old Sport was snoring on his patio and dreaming of QB-whispering into Eason's ear, Licht was putting together the finishing touches on his algorithm. And after all of this, here we are. Complaining over drafting a guy whose cuts are as dull as a butter knife—er—I mean a machete.
Seriously though, stats always translate from college-to-pros. ESPECIALLY FOR RUNNING BACKS. Just ask Ron Dayne . . .
