2022 Finding ‘The Next Deebo’ (Miami vs. NY Jets) -- March Madness Tourney Sweet 16

Same Intro each day: We all know what the phrase ‘next Deebo’ means – a player who works at one position primarily but takes on a second position (in-game) beyond just a random 1-2-3 carries or targets…that they become a real dual-threat option for their team, and thus a great producer for Fantasy Football.

Before there was ‘Deebo’ (midway through the 2021 season), there was ‘Cordarrelle’ as the breakout WR who started also taking a good workload at RB…so much so he became the team’s lead RB, but then got all but dropped on his WR aspect.

Before ‘Cordarrelle’ there was Curtis Samuel trying to breakthrough as a ‘nails’ WR in 2020, but also a guy taking 3-5 carries a game in CMC’s absence and looking like he might make the turn – but then he went to Washington in free agency, got hurt, and barely played/impacted in 2021.  

Before Samuel there was everyone looking for the ‘next Tyreek’. We might forget that Tyreek started out as a low target WR taking 1-2 carries a game, and then taking every carry for a 50+ yard TD…then he was converted over from random WR/RB to main WR, and they stopped pushing him in the running game the past two years (definitely don’t get that guy the ball more, whatever you do).

We’ve had some promising guys try to breakdown this ‘Deebo’ wall, but Cordarrelle really was the one who kicked in that door to start 2021 season (then ATL went away from it)…after the door was kicked in, then Deebo ran right through it 2nd-half of 2021 and became the ultimate/best dual threat of our lifetimes – so much so every analyst is running around saying certain players ‘can be their Deebo’, and you’re going to get sick of hearing about it they say it so much now. But credit to Deebo (really, credit to Kyle Shanahan) the ‘Deebo’ role is a thing now…I think some teams are going to copy because of its success, as they should…as they should’ve created it years ago. It’s the evolution of the game – players/weapons who you don’t know where they’re gonna lineup or what they’re going to do, and they’ll draw plenty of mismatches to expose.

With that in mind, we’re going to have a ‘next Deebo’ tournament/FFM daily series for the next few weeks during March Madness time.

I am going to nominate one player from each NFL team to be the possible ‘next Deebo’…the ‘their Deebo’ hopeful. I’ll explain why I choose that player, and why not others if there was a close option – and then like March Madness, we’ll pit two of them against each other/state the case and I’ll choose a winner…the one most likely to be used as ‘the next Deebo’ for the 2022 season.

We’ll go by division, matchups by 2021 record (so #1 v. #4, #2 v. #3 in the division), one matchup/winner declared each day into April until we have one AFC rep and one NFC rep and then we’ll declare a final ‘Super Bowl of Deebo’ winner.

Now, San Francisco has their own Deebo already…so he is not in this tournament. For the SF slot, there will be a play-in game between two current draft prospect options. Unsigned free agents will be an option for the team they were last on in 2021. Got it? Good. Let’s go…

Today’s Matchup = AFC East: MIA vs. NYJ

WR Tyreek Hill, MIA

vs.

WR Elijah Moore, NYJ

Well, you can tell from the matchup that this comes down to…can Elijah Moore prove a case to take down Tyreek? Tyreek Hill is one of the names that has obvious ‘tournament winner’ appeal/gravitas.

Tyreek with another year in KC was potentially dangerous in this tournament, but KC has been using him less and less interesting as the years go by -- but now with the big move to Miami, linked with one of the Deebo-directors from 2021 (new HC McDaniel)…it has turbocharged Tyreek’s ‘next Deebo’ appeal. Maybe he will head back to more ‘the old Tyreek’, who was a version of ‘next Deebo’ before there ever was such a thing. Hill’s probably/hopefully in-line for 3-5+ carries a game on top of his WR work, which should be more bubble screen based than a wasted ‘go deep’ guy.

I like Elijah Moore OK. He is showing me more movement skills than I saw at Ole Miss…I was shocked by his Pro Day times in 2021. If those times are real, then Elijah has a nice upside. Also, the Jets HC is former SF coach Robert Saleh. The Shanahan tree pays attention to what their master is doing, and they like to copy it. The way has been paved for Saleh to try and compete with Mike McDaniel to see who can make a ‘next Deebo’ clone to impress their old boss. Moore would be the choice for NYJ right now.

However, Moore isn’t as fast as Tyreek (no one is). Moore has no real history of success carrying the ball like Tyreek did entering the league (a former college RB). Moore has some hope for this in 2022, but Tyreek is too tall a mountain to scale for Moore, at this point…in this contest.

WINNER = Tyreek Hill, who goes on to face Cinderella Joe Reed in the Elite 8.

Sweet 16 Results:

Rondale Moore defeats D.K. Metcalf

Kadarius Toney defeats Curtis Samuel

Cordarrelle Patterson defeats D.J. Moore

Amon-Ra St. Brown defeats Tarik Cohen

Joe Reed defeats Kendall Hinton

Tyreek Hill defeats Elijah Moore

Coming Up:

A.J. Brown vs. David Johnson

Ja’Marr Chase vs. Chase Claypool