When I was in high school (dating myself here), there was a rapper named “Chingy” who had a few hits but was not one of the “elite” rappers. He wasn’t that good but his songs had catchy choruses and usually had a few good one-liners. It became a bit of a running joke with my friends and me that he was my “favorite” rapper, and I would often sing/quote his songs when we were hanging out. One of those songs was called “One Call Away.” The premise of the song was that he (Chingy) was there waiting, and all it would take was one call from whoever the lucky lady was to who he was singing to, for all their hopes and dreams to come true together.
As I worked on this article, that song came to my mind and seemed like a perfect fit for what we are looking for at this point in the drafting season. Closing Line Value (CLV) is a concept that is often discussed in Best Ball and is especially popular as a talking point at this point in the season. The concept is that there is a lot of value in a player with a certain ADP right now which rises as we get into August, giving you an advantage over teams that take him earlier. You can tell a story for literally any player having a spike in value by saying “What if . . . (fill in the blank) tears his ACL in camp?” or any other situation that is possible but unpredictable. That being said, there are certain situations that are FAR more volatile at this point in the offseason than others, and these are the players who are “One Call Away” from a big spike in value, and it is a call that is conceivably very realistic, and possibly even somewhat predictable. Specifically, we are looking for situations that we already know have developments brewing in the background (not just, “What if this other guy gets hurt?”) With that said, here are the players that I see fitting that mold and the stories that could propel them up the draft boards at a moment’s notice over the next two months:
Nick Chubb’s knee exploded on national television last September. He is a freak athlete and an incredible player, but this injury required multiple surgeries, the last of which took place in November. He just started running on land at the end of April and is in the last year of his contract. In the best-case scenario, Chubb is likely to start the year slowly or even on the PUP list (out at least six weeks). In the worst-case scenario, Chubb may never recover and be a threat again, or at least not this season. Either way, Ford and Foreman are likely to lead a Browns backfield that should be productive. Ford is currently being drafted in the 11th round and Foreman is around pick 200. If/when news on Chubb’s availability becomes official and we get word on the pecking order of the Browns backfield, I would expect both of these guys to see big jumps in value with Ford landing around the 8th or 9th round (around guys like Zack Moss, Jaylen Warren, James Conner) and Foreman to jump up to the 150-160 range.
