NFL Draft season is upon us. Every year around this time, Jim Nagy (executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl) rounds up a talented group of college seniors to head down to Mobile to improve their NFL draft stock at the Reese’s Senior Bowl. Last year’s crop featured Kenny Pickett, Brian Robinson, and Christian Watson, just to name a few.
Marrying stats and film, I dusted off the prospect notebook and dove into the skill sets for this year’s group of NFL hopefuls. Some players hail from smaller schools, so coming across enough game film to form an opinion on their skill sets is impossible. I included their statistics for reference, so you can see, at least on paper, where they stack up against their peers. Dynasty rookie drafts will be here before you know. Now is the time to get a jump on your league mates and study up on these prospects.
Our Fantasypros team will be providing in-depth coverage all week from Mobile. We’ll have Twitter spaces on Tuesday and Wednesday (7 pm EST on the FantasyPros Twitter account) where you can hop in the room with our special guests and us to hear us chop it up and get your questions answered. Thursday, we will have a live stream on YouTube (7 pm EST) recapping all of the week’s action.
It will be a glorious week of football content to reignite your NFL Draft fires.
- 2023 Senior Bowl Preview: Offense
- 2023 Senior Bowl Preview: Defense
- 2023 Senior Bowl Primer: Dynasty Rookies
Check out all of our 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports & Prospect Profiles 
2023 Senior Bowl: Dynasty Rookie Running Backs (Fantasy Football)
Stats:
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 82nd
- Breakaway rate: 117th
- PFF elusive rating: 36th
- PFF receiving grade: 1st
- Yards per route run: 3rd (18.6% slot or wide)
- Career
- 58.7% of carries on zone runs
- Never crested 100 carries or 400 rushing yards until 2022
Scouting report:
- McIntosh is smooth as butter as a receiver. He was aligned in the slot and out wide in college. He looks like a natural. He’s clean in and out of his breaks with soft hands. He could be a dangerous dual threat with a smart OC at the next level.
- He’s an upright slasher type as a rusher. McIntosh can make smooth jump cuts in the open field, which is impressive considering his size. While he can shed arm tackles, his height and upright running style can lead him to be brought down by the first tackler if they get a decent wrap on him. He’s not a pile mover.
- McIntosh has good vision in traffic. He is adept at getting small through creases and lets his blocks develop. He’s very comfortable with zone concepts and has enough speed to get around the edge.
- With the limited pass protection reps I saw, he had a solid anchor. He flashed more physicality in some of these reps than I saw as a rusher which leads me to believe that he has more untapped power to finish runs.
Player Comp: C.J. Prosise / Javorius Allen
Camerun Peoples (Appalachian State)
Stats:
- 2019 ACL tear
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 7th
- Breakaway rate: 53rd
- PFF elusive rating: 18th
- PFF receiving grade: Never above 58.8
- Yards per route run: 0.28 (16 career targets)
- Career
- Yards after contact per attempt: 4.14
- 80.3% of his collegiate carries on zone runs
Scouting report:
- Stiff hips. Peoples looks lumbering at times, getting up to second gear. He does display sufficient lateral agility flashing the occasional jump cut. Peoples won’t be a home run hitter, but in a gap scheme, he can get you the consistent 4-7 yards with some chunk plays sprinkled in.
- Invites contact. He has no qualms about lowering this shoulder to bulldoze a tackler. Strong lower half that allows him to push the pile. Peoples runs angry. Physical grinder back.
- Peoples feels like a future Patriot or Raven. Drop him into a scheme that utilizes gap runs with regularity and let him get downhill and punish the second level.
Player Comp: Gus Edwards
Stats:
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 108th
- Breakaway rate: 95th
- PFF elusive rating: 87th
- PFF receiving grade: None above 62.3 over the last three seasons
- Yards per route run: 0.96 (70 career targets)
- Career
- Back-to-back 1,000 rushing seasons from 2021-2022 (1,005, 1,632)
- 69.3% of his carries on zone runs
Scouting report:
- Good vision on zone runs and with finding cut-back lanes. Brown does hesitate at the line when he should explode through the hole. Ran with more conviction as the 2022 season progressed.
- He’s a runway back. Brown doesn’t display the ability to make the first tackler miss in the hole, but once he’s into the second level, he displays a good second gear and the ability to set up his blocks.
- Brown isn’t blessed with overwhelming lateral agility. He gets himself in trouble when he hesitates at the line or tries to bounce some runs outside. Brown doesn’t have the raw athleticism to get away with this.
- Brown displays soft hands in the passing game. Mostly utilized as a check-down option or on the occasional rail route.
Player Comp: Myles Gaskin
Stats:
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets) * (*93 rushing attempts in 2022)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 11th*
- Breakaway rate: 56th*
- PFF elusive rating: 3rd*
- PFF receiving grade: 90th
- Yards per route run: 41st
- Career
- 4.06 or higher Yards after contact per attempt in each of his final three seasons
- 69.8% of his runs with zone concepts for his collegiate career. 46.8% gap scheme runs in 2022. Scheme versatile back.
Scouting report:
- North/South runner. He is at his best when he gets downhill quickly and into the second level.
- Patient at the line. Scheme versatile. He has good lateral agility for his size, but he’s not a wiggle-back. However, Johnson has enough juice and good vision to work well on zone runs.
- Johnson quickly gets up to top speed but lacks that second “home-run” gear.
- Good contact balance. He’s able to shed arm tackles. Plenty of film of him making the first would-be tackler miss.
- He was utilized on dump-offs in college. He displayed soft hands when called upon in the passing game.
Player Comp: Matt Jones with a better burst
Chris Rodriguez Jr. (Kentucky)
Stats:
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 23rd
- Breakaway rate: 77th
- PFF elusive rating: 11th
- PFF receiving grade: Never higher than 61.8.
- Yards per route run: 0.34 (30 collegiate targets)
- Career
- In his final season, 50.2% gap scheme runs with his lowest season Yards after contact per attempt (3.84).
- He displayed workhorse upside with 224 carries and 1,337 rushing yards in 2021.
Scouting report:
- Questionable vision on zone runs. Rodriguez will take the cut back often as he lacks the speed to get to the edge. He won’t stretch it to the boundary.
- He is best utilized as a gap scheme back with clear downhill running lanes. Rodriguez is a dependable volume back. Solid interior rusher.
- Rodriguez will get what is blocked, but he displays little ability to get more than that.
- He has a power-back mentality inviting contact, but he doesn’t have the extra thump or leg drive to run over people.
- Straight line & one-speed runner.
Player Comp: Benny Snell
Stats:
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 42nd
- Breakaway rate: 57th
- PFF elusive rating: 42nd
- PFF receiving grade: 5th
- Yards per route run: 58th
- Career
- PFF receiving grades rankings (2020-2022, minimum 20 targets): 10th, 15th, 5th
- Yards per route run rankings (2020-2022, minimum 20 targets): 13th, 45th, 58th
- Slot or wide snap rate (2019-2020): 15.3-25.8%
Scouting report:
- He should be a quality RB2 in the NFL.
- He wins with vision. Gray displays a good feel for zone runs with the patience to let his blocks develop. He presses the hole and has a good jab step that he deploys before getting upfield.
- Gray doesn’t possess much in tackling-breaking or the ability to create a ton on his own. His leg drive is average, and he goes down too often by shoestring tackles or with the first defender in pursuit. Gray deploys a spin move occasionally to help him create more yards after first contact.
- His lack of physicality shows up in blocking and pass protection. Gray is a solid receiver. He is at his best when working in space where he can build up a head of steam and utilize his vision in traffic. His pass protection worries could limit his upside as a receiver at the next level unless he lands in a scheme that deploys their backs in routes more than blocking duties.
Player Comp: Bilal Powell
Stats:
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 122nd
- Breakaway rate: 113th
- PFF elusive rating: 97th
- PFF receiving grade: 16th
- Yards per route run: 7th
- Career
- Hull’s Yards after contact per attempt dropped from 3.60 (39th) to 2.74 in 2022.
- 96th percentile collegiate target share (17.3%)
- Utilized in the slot or out wide on 20.7% of his snaps in 2022.
Scouting report:
- Hull is a tough runner. Compact build. He’s more quick than fast, but Hull also displays good burst as soon as the ball is in his hands.
- Excellent lateral agility with the ability to jump cut on a dime.
- Strong leg drive to finish runs with impressive contact balance. He’s rarely dropped by the first defender he encounters.
- Watching Hull weave through traffic with jump cuts and impressive vision is a treat.
- Plus pass catcher. Displays fluidity in the passing game and soft hands. He’s not a nuanced route runner, as he was utilized on dump-offs and simple stop routes. This part of his game could grow further in the NFL with a creative play-caller.
Player Comp: Mark Ingram with better lateral agility.
Stats:
- 2022 (168 RBs, minimum 100 carries & 20 targets)
- Yards after contact per attempt: 5th
- Breakaway rate: 15th
- PFF elusive rating: 11th
- PFF receiving grade: 21st
- Yards per route run: 33rd
- Career
- 4.54 career Yards after contact per attempt at Tulane.
- His lowest breakaway run rate in college was 48.9%.
Scouting report:
- Spears plays to his size. He will never be considered a plus in the broken tackle department. He’s a space back. If an opponent squares him up, he’s likely not breaking that tackle, but he can evade defenders in the open field.
- He’s adept at utilizing his vision and angles, making it difficult for tacklers to wrap him up head-on.
- Solid but not explosive jump cut, but he does flash good change of direction ability in space. He can flip the field and has enough juice to get to the edge on zone runs.
- Slender build and lower half. Asking him to stay in and anchor down in pass protection could be an adventure that ends like Ezekiel Elliott attempting to play center.
Player Comp: Kenjon Barner
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*All data utilized in this article is courtesy of PFF, Football Outsiders, and Playerprofiler.com unless otherwise specified.*
