Running Backs

August 20, 2015

The RB position had something of a resurgence at the 2015 draft when two backs – Todd Gurley of Georgia who went tenth overall to St. Louis and Wisconsin’s Mel Gordon who was selected by San Diego with the 15th pick – were taken in the top half of the opening round of this year’s draft, the first time that has happened in 6 years. In contrast, no RBs were taken in the opening round in either the 2013 or 2014 drafts. And while there are lots of very rood runners in college football, the position may not be quite as strong at the upcoming draft as last year. In particular, there appear to be lots productive backs aroun d the country with prototype size; however, there just doesn’t appear to be much speed and/or explosiveness. Of course, the RB position is always tough to forecast, in part, because no position is more susceptible to injury. At the same time, in large part to save on that wear and tear, most top backs enter the draft as soon as they can and it is still way too early to get a real feel for which underclassmen at the position will be headed to the draft.

It would be a bit of a shock, though, if Ohio State junior Zeke Elliott doesn’t enter this year’s draft, again barring a major injury issue. Indeed, Elliott appears to be the only consensus first-round prospect at the position at this point. Elliott is a 225-pounder with 4.5-type speed along with good vision and patience and the ability to cut on a dime and find the secondary hole. In fact, the only thing that could keep Elliott, who ran for almost 1,900 yards last fall including consecutive 200-yard games in the Buckeyes’ Big Ten conference championship rout of Wisconsin as well as their national playoff wins over Alabama and Oregon, from being a top-10 prospect is that he is neither very accomplished as a receiver or blocker. It should also be noted that Elliott sat out spring ball this year with a wrist, although that is not expected to impact his grade.

There is something of a drop-off to the next level of RB prospects this year including juniors Derrick Henry of Alabama, Pitt’s James Conner, Corey Clement of Wisconsin and Arkansas’s Alex Collins, along with Utah senior Devontae Booker, each of whom could draw some second-round interest this coming April. And while the juniors all have national reps of some kind, Utah’s Booker may actually have the best chance of sneaking into the latter part of the opening round if he runs well during pre-draft testing next winter. Pro scouts are also intrigued by a couple of other nominal backs in Pac-10 stars Byron Marshall of Oregon and Arizona State’s D.J. Foster. Both are former 1,000-yard rushers who are also exceptional receivers and will in fact play WR this fall. However, it’s hard not to imagine there aren’t a bunch of offensive co-ordinators around the NFL running spread offenses who would just love to get either guy on the field and watch opposition defenses try and match-up.

The strength of this year’s RB class may be the depth as there appears to be a number of good solid second-tier veteran RBs out there lack lights-out measurable but who can move the chains. Included in that group who could be good value in the mid-to-later rounds are productive seniors like TCU’s Aaron Green, Kenneth Dixon of Louisiana Tech, Leon Allen of Western Kentucky, Georgia’s Keith Marshall, Johnathan Gray of Texas, Storm Woods of Oregon State, Brandon Wilds of South Carolina, Kenyan Drake of Alabama, Paul James of Rutgers, Devon Johnson of Marshall, Texas A&M’s Tra Carson, and USC’s Tre Madden. For the record, there actually could be another Arkansas RB at the top of this group, but senior Jonathan Williams was lost for the year with a foot injury and his status for the upcoming draft remains up in the air.

Meanwhile, along with the top junior backs noted above, there is also a small army of very good junior RBs around the country who’ll get NFL shot if they turn pro this winter including Tarean Foster of Notre Dame, Baylor’s Shock Linwood, Elijah McGuire of Louisiana-Lafayette, Toledo’s Kareem Hunt, Jovon Robinson of Auburn, Central Florida’s William Stanback, Dwayne Washington of Washington, San Diego State scatback Donnel Pumphrey, Jordan Howard of Indiana, Kelvin Taylor of Florida, UCLA’s Paul Perkins and Trey Edmunds (if healthy) of Virginia Tech. However, the NFL will have to wait for several other star underclassmen such as true sophomores Len Fournette of LSU and Georgia’s Nick Chubb who won’t be draft eligible until 2017. Same for Samaje Perine of Oklahoma, Oregon’s Royce Freeman and Jalen Hurd of Tennessee.