I think drake has DF awakening. The impel down jailer beasts were all awakened zoans, despite being fodder tier characters. This means that Vegapunk must have found some sort of way to quickly awaken DFs.
The SSG will be a unit of science enhanced marines. I believe Drake is a commander within the SSG(with sword being an SSG branch). This makes sense as it explains why the marines sent fodder to deal with the shichibukai. Yes, coby probably can't 1v1 hancock, but he could probably bomb the living shit out of Amazon lily using special canons made by vegapunk on his ship.
I believe Vegapunk used his DF-awakening technology on Drake, as well as other marines such as Smoker, Onigumo, and Dalmatian.
anyways I think awakened drake could be YC1 level or stronger and that Drake is a future admiral candidate.