Dynamic Score is the OG metric of Breakout Finder. Dynamic Score measures how diverse and elusive an athlete is and is composed of kick return, punt return, and rushing yardage. As discussed when talking about Cade Johnson‘s likelihood of making the Seattle Seahawks as a UDFA, players with a high Dynamic Score make NFL rosters at a high rate. But can it translate to NFL and fantasy football success?
There are 10 players in the Breakout Finder Database with a Dynamic Score over 100.0. This article will discuss the athletes that stood out amongst their wide receiver peers, showing how it helped them start and get on the field AND how well they did in PPR fantasy football leagues.
10) Isaiah Wright – Dynamic Score: 104.7
- Seasons: 1 (2020 – present)
- 14 games played, 6 starts (started 42.9-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 0
- Top-24 seasons: 0
- Top-36 seasons: 0
Dynamism is the best way for a UDFA to make the NFL roster as evidenced by Isaiah Wright last season with the Washington Football Team. Ron Rivera and his coaching staff tried to utilize Wright’s dynamic play-making, trying him out at wide receiver and jet sweeps on offense and returning both kicks and punts. Unfortunately, three fumbles on 36 combined touches diminished his elusiveness.
In college, Wright (6-2, 220-pounds) saw almost as many career carries (91) than receptions (134). In both 2017 and 2018, Wright scored a touchdown as a runner, receiver, and returner. The highlight of his collegiate career was his 2018 season, where he finished as the AAC Special Teams Player of the Year. That season, he led the AAC in yards per punt return (13.1) and total kickoff return yards (873).
9) Jerrel Jernigan – Dynamic Score: 108.7
- Seasons: 4 (2011 – 2014)
- 34 games played, 4 starts (started 11.8-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 0
- Top-24 seasons: 0
- Top-36 seasons: 0
A four-year collegiate career in the Sun Belt conference resulted in a 2:1 ratio of career receptions (262) to rush attempts (132) for Jerrel Jernigan. The dynamism was on display on the ground where he averaged 6.7 YPC or better in each of his three seasons. His senior season in 2010 saw him score touchdowns as a receiver, runner, kick returner, punt returner, and passer. In 2009 and 2010 alone, Jernigan combined for 1833 return yards.
It took Jernigan his third season in the NFL before he made an impact. In 2013, he would play 15 games with three starts. That season he finished with a 29-329-2 stat line, two carries for 57 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and 246 yards on kick returns. Unfortunately a Lisfranc injury early the next season ended Jernigan’s professional career.
8) Demetric Felton – Dynamic Score: 123.0
- Seasons: 0 (rookie)
Demetric Felton‘s underwhelming performance at his pro day resulted in the second-lowest WR SPARQ-x Score (81.1) in the 2021 rookie class. This tanked his draft stock before Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns drafted the most dynamic player in the 2021 NFL Draft at the end of the sixth round. You hear this from film grinders all the time with players, but Felton’s playing speed is faster than his 4.64 (19th-percentile) 40-Yard Dash.
In Mobile at the Senior Bowl, Felton’s biometric sensors and RF tracking devices clocked him at 19.78 MPH, the fastest among wide receivers. This includes Kadarius Toney, who ran a 4.43 (86th-percentile) 40-Yard Dash. In 2019, Felton scored touchdowns as a receiver, rusher, and returner and recorded over 1250 all-purpose yards. In 2020, he scored 8 touchdowns in six games, and his 827 yards from scrimmage led the Pac-12.
7) Curtis Samuel – Dynamic Score: 133.4
- Seasons: 4 (2017 – present)
- 53 games played, 32 starts (started 60.4-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 0
- Top-24 seasons: 1
- Top-36 seasons: 1
Curtis Samuel is the current NFL player that fantasy football players believe best personifies dynamism. In college, he was a three-year running back with an almost identical number of rushing yards (1,286) and receiving yards (1,249) in his career. In his final season, he finished with 1,636 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns.
The Carolina Panthers recognized his dynamism and selected him in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft as a wide receiver, not a running back. The Panthers smartly continued to manufacture touches for him as a runner. This was highlighted last season. Samuel caught 77 passes for 851 yards and three touchdowns, but also received 41 carries that he turned into 200 yards and two touchdowns. More productive fantasy seasons are on the horizon for Samuel.
6) Greg Ward – Dynamic Score: 141.5
- Seasons: 2 (2019 – present ); entered NFL in 2017, but did not play until 2019
- 23 games played, 13 starts (started 56.5-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 0
- Top-24 seasons: 0
- Top-36 seasons: 0
Greg Ward is the first of two full-time collegiate quarterbacks to transition to the wide receiver position in the pros. Ward was a terror at the University of Houston in the American conference. In 2015 during his junior season, he passed for 2,827 yards and 17 touchdowns (six interceptions) and added 1114 yards and 21 touchdowns on the ground.
At 5-11 and 186-pounds, Ward would have to change positions to play in the NFL. To his credit, he was successful. His first two seasons were spent on the Eagles’ practice squad in 2017 and 2018. After a brief stint with the San Antonio Commanders of the AAF, Ward returned to Philadelphia and worked his way up from the practice squad. In 2020, Ward finished with 53 catches for 419 yards and 6 touchdowns, while becoming the Eagles’ primary punt returner.
5) Randall Cobb – Dynamic Score: 148.3
- Seasons: 11 (2011 – present)
- 130 games played, 81 starts (started 62.3-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 1
- Top-24 seasons: 1
- Top-36 seasons: 2
At Kentucky, Randall Cobb started his collegiate career as a Wildcat quarterback and successfully transitioned to wide receiver. His 84 receptions for 1,017 yards and seven touchdowns during his junior season were good enough to get him drafted in the NFL, but 22 career rushing touchdowns and 1,700 yards on special teams is what got him drafted in the second round.
Returning kicks secured Cobb a job in the NFL. He had over 1,200 special teams yards in both his first and second seasons. Injuries have limited Cobb to two 16-game seasons in his career, but at his peak, he was an early pick in PPR leagues from 2013-15. Across the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Cobb caught 170 passes for over 2000 yards and 18 touchdowns from Aaron Rodgers.
4) Julian Edelman – Dynamic Score: 163.5
- Seasons: 11 (2009 – 2020); missed the 2017 season
- 137 games played, 85 starts (started 62.0-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 1
- Top-24 seasons: 4
- Top-36 seasons: 1
The most successful NFL and fantasy football player on the list, Julian Edelman did everything a dynamic player could do to get on a field. This includes playing on defense early in his NFL career in 2011. In the MAC conference in college, Edelman did everything from throwing passes to running to returning punts to even punting!
Edelman’s dynamism kept him on the Patriots teams from 2009-12 as the punt returner until his number was called in 2013 to replace the departed Wes Welker on offense. Over the next six seasons, he would become Tom Brady‘s go-to weapon and see over 100 targets in each season, except in 2015 where he finished with 88 targets in nine games. Edelman was a consistent high-end WR2 in PPR fantasy football during this six-season stretch.
3) Lynn Bowden – Dynamic Score: 166.8
- Seasons: 1 (2020 – present)
- 10 games played, 4 starts (started 40.0-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 0
- Top-24 seasons: 0
- Top-36 seasons: 0
Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock drafted a wide receiver with 4.27 (100th-percentile) 40-Yard Dash in Henry Ruggs, 17.8 (100th-percentile) Breakout Age in Bryan Edwards, and the most dynamic rookie in the 2020 draft class in Lynn Bowden. The Raiders proceeded to move Bowden out of position. Gruden lost interest in what was once a shiny toy in his eyes, and they traded Bowden for peanuts to a superior organization, Miami Dolphins.
Bowden put up over 1,800 yards from scrimmage in his final collegiate season AND played Wildcat quarterback when injuries struck the quarterback position. A five-week period from Weeks 13 to 17 to end his rookie campaign in 2020 allowed Bowden to flash potential. He exceeded 9.0 fantasy points in four of the five games and averaged 2.08 (No. 12) yards of Target Separation. With over 1,600 kick return yards in college, Bowden can upgrade the Dolphins’ league-worst 17.92 average yards of kickoff return.
2) Jalen Hurd – Dynamic Score: 184.3
- Seasons: 2 (2019 – present)
- 0 games played (IR both seasons)
- Top-12 seasons: 0
- Top-24 seasons: 0
- Top-36 seasons: 0
We’ve waited over two years to see Jalen Hurd play a regular-season game. After missing his rookie season in 2019, and seeing fellow dynamic rookie teammate Deebo Samuel ascend to WR1 on a team that went to the Super Bowl, Hurd would tear his ACL the following offseason. He would then see a 2020 rookie come in and assert himself as “The Guy”.
Despite zero NFL regular-season statistics, let’s not forget that Hurd is the guy that rushed for 1,285 yards and 12 touchdowns at Tennessee in 2015, relegating Alvin Kamara to backup work. Then Hurd bet on himself when the university wouldn’t let him switch to playing wide receiver and transferred to Baylor. In his only season as a wide receiver, he caught 69 passes for 946 yards and four touchdowns, adding an additional 209 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. There’s a reason the 6-5, 226-pound Hurd was drafted at the 3.03 in the 2019 NFL Draft.
1) Percy Harvin – Dynamic Score: 185.2
- Seasons: 8 (2009 – 2016)
- 75 games played, 61 starts (started 81.3-percent of games)
- Top-12 seasons: 1
- Top-24 seasons: 2
- Top-36 seasons: 0
This one hurts for long-time fantasy football players. The 2009 first-rounder Percy Harvin burst onto the scene with over 2,000 all-purpose yards and eight total touchdowns (including two kick return touchdowns) as a rookie. He would score touchdowns as a receiver, rusher, AND returner in each of the next three seasons.
At his peak in 2011, he finished with over 1,300 yards from scrimmage and eight offensive touchdowns. This would mark the one and only time he played 16 games. Over the next five seasons, he would play a total of 30 games but famously scored an 87-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff of the second half in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Recap
Dynamic Score matters. The top-10 players in the Breakout Finder database in Dynamic Score combined to start 286 games out of 476 games played. That’s a combined 60.0-percent start rate. Jerrel Jernigan is the only player on the list that’s played in the NFL that’s started less than 40.0-percent of his career games.
Out of 42 combined seasons played, the 10 most dynamic players in the database have combined for three top-12 PPR seasons, eight top-24 seasons, and four top-36 seasons at the wide receiver position. 35.7-percent of these 42 total seasons have resulted in fantasy-relevant performances. Can a healthy Jalen Hurd, second-year Lynn Bowden, or rookie Demetric Felton translate their dynamism to fantasy production like Julian Edelman, Randall Cobb, and Percy Harvin did?