A 17-Year Old Prodigy Has Emerged in Miami
Say hello to my little friend!
- Tony, Scarface (1983)
Pigs, welcome back. It feels good to say that it’s that time of the year again—am I right? It’s time to lock back in. The crispness in the air slowly returns and with it comes the quiet before the storm. It signals one thing and one thing only: college football is here.
With that comes opportunities for fortune and fame among degenerate college football fanatics alike. Whether you’re a DFS player, CFF player, or CFB bettor, the fall period can be a very fruitful time for you. But fortune only favors the brave (and the astute). More on this in a moment.
If you watched even one minute of Alabama football last season, you were likely inundated with a fun fact that their star wide receiver, Ryan Williams, was only 17 years old. Incredible. Amazing. Outrageous.
Williams, of course, was a reclassified player who should have been in the C/O 2025. While most reclassification decisions don’t pay off in my humble opinion, this one definitely did. The two-time Alabama Mr. Football transitioned effortlessly into the collegiate game, stepping in as Alabama’s WR1 on the year, and averaging just over 15 PPG in PPR formats.
If you’ve been paying attention this offseason, you may already be aware that there is a similar storyline at work currently. American Heritage’s Malachi Toney was originally slated to be a C/O 2026 enrolee—meaning he should be entering his senior year of high school this August—except he is currently climbing the elevator of love, competing for the starting slot role for the Miami Hurricanes and earning mucho praise from coaches and teammates in the process.
He’s competing for a slot role which was occupied by Xavier Restrepo just last season, and was peppered with over 100 targets on the year.
Of course, it’s always an uphill climb for true freshmen—even those that haven’t reclassified—to earn starting roles year one. However, updates out of ON3 and 247 Sports suggest that at the very least, there will be a deeper rotation at WR this year than in years past at Miami:
A Lot of excitement around BYU transfer wide receiver Keelan Marion, who returned two kickoffs for touchdowns in 2024. LSU transfer CJ Daniels will be another key piece of Miami’s passing game. True freshman Malachi Toney has been competing to start at the slot and is expected to be an immediate contributor. Another true freshman garnering attention is former top-100 recruit Joshua Moore.
Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson believes this year's Hurricanes will feature more receivers in the rotation than the primary four-man group they rolled out consistently last year.
"A lot of competition in that room and as a collective group, just hard-working guys and a lot of them are making a lot of good plays and doing a lot of good things," Dawson said.
"What really sticks out is the competitive nature of that group. We have a lot more people that are rotating in. I feel better about a lot of those guys. What I think you can look forward to is a lot more people playing in games. We're deeper there than we've been. Deep in a way where I feel very comfortable with looking out there and seeing a whole lot of different people out there. I'm excited about that."
The plan to play more receivers does not appear to be only during the early part of the season until players step up to solidify a smaller rotation. Instead, Dawson envisions playing more wideouts throughout the course of the season.
"I do (envision a deeper rotation throughout the season)," Dawson said. "I'm not Nostradamus, I can't tell you exactly how it's going to go, but if I had to guess right now, I would tell you that my whole purpose right now is to get that group to where at the end of the games, middle of the season and end of the season we're healthy and we're hitting on all cylinders.
To be clear, I’m skeptical that Toney will replicate anything approximating what Restreppo did last season this year even if he starts. However, those of you out there who have an interest in C2C/DEVY, or even just CFF Dynasty, ought to take notice if you haven’t already. And—despite my trepidation—who’s to say Toney can’t be this year’s version of Ryan Williams?
After all, it seems like only a matter of time before a CFF star breaks out here. It could be the case that Toney and the other true freshman, Joshua Moore, assert themselves in the rotation as starters later in the year, even if they’re not listed as starters in a few weeks' time. I would expect that CJ Daniels is a starter regardless, so that leaves two spots up for grabs from where I see it.
The good news is that the drumbeat has been consistent on Toney all offseason. That’s always a promising sign in my mind; in this game you’ve got to get the spring game buzz first, then when you get the spring buzz you carry it into fall camp and get the starting job, then when you get the starting job you get the volume.
Here’s what 247’s Andrew Ivins had to say about Toney last summer:
Inside receiver with the skills to emerge as a high-volume target and a go-to playmaker in a spread attack.
Elected to forgo his senior year of high school and reclassify after putting up big numbers as an underclassman for one of South Florida’s top talent-producing programs.
Size has not been third-party verified, but is believed to be hovering right around 5-foot-10.5, 180 pounds.
Has proven to be extremely efficient working out of a slot alignment as he uses his acceleration and agility to create separation on underneath routes. Advanced eye control and soft hands can lead to highlight-reel worthy grabs. Might not win every foot race, but is evasive after the catch and can avoid would-be tacklers with his quick feet.
Will likely face a major adjustment period as he will initially be one of the youngest players on the college roster of his choice, but projects as a potential impact player on Saturdays if he can keep progressing and fine-tuning his craft. Ability to deliver in key moments throughout his football career despite not being the biggest or fastest shouldn’t be overlooked.
I can’t paste every bit of offseason hype Toney has received thus far but here is a note that was published from Miami’s August 16 scrimmage:
The Malachi Toney hype train isn't slowing down anytime soon. He has veteran-level saviness and feel for the position, which has some not the slightest bit concerned about his youth. He is performing at a very high level.
By the amount of buzz this cat has received already in his first offseason, I’m starting to wonder just who the hell this former four star from Miami is—does he eat octopus three times a day? Russian shoes? Own a tiger?
Whenever he scores his first TD I’m expecting to see a goddamn blimp floating by the stadium with the phrase “the world is yours!” written all over it.
Alabama’s Ryan Williams and Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith both started from day one last season. That’s rarified air and virtually never happens in college football, especially not at big P4 programs. Miami is undoubtedly a step below each of those currently, but the fact remains that the biggest impediment to Toney’s path to a breakout season is simply the presence of other talented receivers.
However, one thing that a Miami writer mentioned that stood out to me, and at least helped me understand the excitement re:Toney, was that he is a legitimate deep threat who can take the top off of the defence from the slot position, which is apparently hard to find in college football. This writer insinuated that Toney was the only one Miami had who can do that from the slot.
Given the highly specialized nature of the game of football, in order for freshmen to see the field early it’s generally incumbent on them to have at least one elite trait. Toney’s ability to stretch the field as a slot player may be enough of an ‘X’ factor for him to win a starting role in the end.
Furthermore, my sources have whispered disturbing thoughts in my ear lately—none other than the fact that Jojo Trader may be tumbling down the depth chart at the most inopportune time. A potential starting trio of CJ Daniels, Keelon Marion, and Toney in the slot doesn’t feel completely outlandish, but I will believe it when I see it.
By the way, has anybody seen Ny Carr lately? I’m starting to wonder if he isn’t really with the Hurricanes after all, rather, somewhere nondescript like Colombia or something. Not everyone is blessed to make a career out of football, and some of us have to find other ways to make a living (I don’t judge).
Anyhoo, let’s take a look at the staff we’re dealing with here.
Coaching & System
WR1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 12.7 — OC: 17.71 (half ppr)
OC Shannon Dawson is the clear play caller on offence as Mario Cristobal has never really had his own offensive system (and his background is along the offensive line).
That’s a good thing as far as we’re concerned because Dawson’s history at WR is a lot better than Mario’s. In fact, as we’ll see shortly in Table 2., every one of Dawson’s WR1s dating back to 2018 have seen over 100 targets.
But who’s going to be his WR1 this season? The pattern of Dawson’s previous experience seems to point to one position group for potential answers.
I don’t doubt that Dell moved around a bunch at Houston, but he was definitely a slot-type of receiver based on build. Restrepo isn’t classified in 2024 but he was a slot receiver too, just as he was in 2023.
Clearly, Tank Dell’s 2022 season is the gold standard that you’d hope for with Toney if you acquire a share of his. However, I would suggest that a season like Restrepo’s 2023 campaign is probably a more reasonable “A+” freshman season to hope for with Toney. That in itself would be a huge win for Toney shareholders.
Personally—despite the previous pattern—I think CJ Daniels is more likely to be WR1 this season. When you look at who Carson Beck threw to last year at UGA, Arian Smith was his favourite target and he played as an outside receiver. That was a different system, but at least the affinity is already there for Carson.
As far as tendencies go, Dawson’s pace of play on offence is pretty average. His previous five seasons combine for a mean seconds per play of around 26-27, and about 69 plays per game. He runs a balanced system, averaging 51% pass plays.
Malachi Toney (5’11, 190)
Here are Toney’s highlights from the spring game in April.
There has been a near-constant echo regarding Toney’s performance this offseason. Doing it in a real game is a different matter and only time will tell if the buzz translates, but as far as year one off-seasons go, this has been a pretty good one.
I generally adhere to the philosophy that betting on freshmen isn’t a good idea in CFF redrafts. Last year notwithstanding, year one contributors are extremely rare, but more importantly, identifying year one contributors ahead of time is near impossible.
But, in the interest of transparency, I will admit that I did pick up a share of Toney in my tadpole league. I did so with extreme trepidation, mind you, uttering the words “I only tell you once. Don't fuck me, Toney. Don't you ever try to fuck me.”, when I executed the transaction.
However, that’s a league with 25 roster spots and a P4 only play pool. I don’t know if I would justify picking up Toney as things stand in a regular league with the full player pool and limited roster spots.
Something that may interest the reader to know is that Toney is actually the son of former NFL player Antonio Brown(!)—no, not that Antonio Brown, but the former Buffalo Bill from the early 2000s who played at West Virginia in college.
As mentioned in the intro section, I could see this going a few ways. The most likely scenario, to me, if Toney is going to become a starter who isn’t rotating out frequently, would be one where he takes over later in the year. If you have space and don’t mind holding onto a player for (potentially) a while before they return anything, this could be a good candidate.
Otherwise, I’d recommend keeping your eyes peeled, not necessarily for the production, but the starting snaps and targets of this Miami WR room. They play ND week one so it wouldn’t surprise me if the coaches roll with the veteran guys to open the season.
The following week is against Bethune Cookman, which feels like a prime opportunity for Toney to come in and make some noise. And considering the pedigree of Dawson’s slot receiver role, CFFers should be watching that game closely. ◾
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Sample 2018-2024 excluding 2020.