Here are my 2023 NFL Draft rankings and notes for running backs.
Thor Nystrom’s 2023 NFL Draft Primer: Running Backs
1. Bijan Robinson | Texas | 5110/215 | RAS: 9.83
Player comparison: Edgerrin James
Bio
Bijan Robinson’s grandfather, Cleo Robinson, was a Pac-12 referee. Five-year-old Bijan loved the game programs Cleo would return home with. He would pour over them, then cut out the pictures and glue them to popsicle sticks. Then little Bijan Robinson would divide the sticks into teams, and preside over the game. Just like grandpa did.
By the time Bijan Robinson was in high school, he was a force. There’s a story about how, in the first half of his senior season, the opposing team celebrated after holding Robinson’s first carry to a six-yard gain. Robinson entered that game averaging over 25 yards per carry.
Robinson’s next two carries went for 50 yards and 60-plus yards. He broke the all-time 4A rushing record in the second quarter with more than half his senior season to play. On his team’s final offensive play of the first half, it called for a Hail Mary – and deployed Bijan out wide. Robinson out-jumped everyone in the end zone and came down with the ball.
Bijan Robinson was a mythical creature.
The consensus top running back in the 2020 class, Robinson originally committed to Ohio State. After decommitting, he ended up choosing Texas over… well, basically everyone. He wore No. 5, like his idol Reggie Bush.
His true freshman year, Robinson was underutilized by HC Tom Herman. That was Herman’s last mistake in Austin – he was fired after the season. It was so clear to everyone else that Bijan Robinson was a superstar.
Cleo’s wife, Terri, Bijan’s grandmother, had an idea this is where things were heading early.
“[Bijan] said, ‘I know where I’m going before I get there,'” Terri said. “And he looked at me as if to be able to help him understand how he knows that and I had no clue. I said, ‘You do?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, when they hand me the ball, I already know where I’m gonna end up before I get there.’
“I thought that was interesting, but left it there,” she continued. “Later, when I began to hear people talk about his vision, I was like, that’s what’s happening. That was the moment I knew this was a God-given gift. He didn’t understand it either, but I think that was the point where I recognized there was something a little different about him.”
The NFL is about to learn the same.
Strengths
Good-sized back with incredible feet and a very diverse skillset. You don’t see many runners his size with this degree of make-you-miss ability.
Interestingly, Robinson comps himself to Barry Sanders. “I’m a knee-bender when I run the ball, and another guy who was a knee-bender was Barry Sanders,” Robinson said. “To try to redirect, to try to be as low to the ground as you can and understand you’ve got to feel defenders and read their shoulders and read angles, to try to break as many tackles as you can. … I take pride in that.”
He did a lot of that in college. Per PFF charting dating back to 2014, Robinson is tied with Javonte Williams for the highest missed tackle rate (39%). In 2022, Robinson broke PFF’s single-season record with 104 missed tackles forced.
I think of Robinson as a slalom runner. Cuts are sudden and smooth. Not only can he change direction quickly, but Robinson’s jet-pack acceleration out of those cuts has the effect of putting the entire defense on a balancing platform. That’s what happens when the pursuit angles of all 11 defenders change so quickly and dramatically. Sometimes, multiple times within the same play.
Robinson is at his freakiest when he’s stringing together moves in space. That’s where he’s flammable. It’s more than the sheer movement skills. Robinson has an eyes-in-his-earholes sense of moving bodies in space around him.
Robinson makes it exceedingly difficult for defenders to square him up, and he’s got the horsepower to shirk off-angle attempts. This was a needed skill behind Texas’ mediocre offensive line. Incredibly, in the past two seasons, Robinson had nearly 1,000 yards more after contact than before it (862 yards before contact, 1,840 yards after contact)!
Robinson’s added value in the passing game is what makes him that rare consensus first-round running back prospect. He’s a clever route-runner who is very difficult to stay with, especially when he’s flash-bang accelerating out of those violent cuts.
If you get the ball in his kitchen, he’s almost always reeling it in clean. Over 77 career targets, Robinson dropped only four balls – including zero last season.
Robinson posted a 98th-percentile size-adjusted athletic composite at the NFL Combine. The only tests he skipped were the agilities (3-cone and shuttle). Frankly, we don’t need those tests. His ridiculous change-of-direction speaks for itself on the field.
Robinson excelled in both zone and gap concepts at Texas. He is a fit for any scheme, and will handle heavy usage as his new franchise’s bellcow immediately.
Weaknesses
Robinson can handle oodles of touches – by extension, he takes punishment, and, multiple times in college, suffered injuries. Robinson’s sophomore season ended with a dislocated elbow. Earlier that season, he suffered a neck strain. He has played through nagging shoulder pain.
This, in conjunction with Robinson’s heavy workload the past few years, elevates the fear of an injury that could take him off the field for an extended period of time. That’s something that happened last year with the running back I comp him to, Breece Hall.
Robinson improved as a pass-blocker last season. After giving up three sacks over 104 pass-pro reps as a freshman and sophomore, he didn’t allow any last year over 60. But more work is needed in that area. His four pressures and three hits allowed last year show he was playing with fire in that area.
Robinson also needs to continue working on ball security. Over 539 career carries, he coughed the ball up six times. The issue is not his hands. It’s more, at times, devoting more attention to trying to pirouette through bodies than the ball itself and having it jarred from him in kind.
This last one doesn’t get talked about as much. But it’s my biggest concern. Robinson is a dancer. By his own admission, he is looking to evade. He wants to hit dingers. But, ala his idol Barry Sanders, Robinson is the opposite of a “take what the defense gives you” runner.
Robinson is a creator. But sometimes, in that process, he will give up yards that the defense has “given” to him. There is something to be said for the snap-to-snap cost certainty of hard-chargers upfield. Robinson will hit his share of monster home runs.
But you’re also going to have to accept the strikeouts – the loss of hidden yards on plays where inferior runners would have gained more simply by charging upfield instead of trying to turn every run into a high-speed pursuit.
2. Zach Charbonnet | UCLA | 6000/214 | RAS: 9.65
Player comparison: Todd Gurley
Bio
Charbonnet’s name evokes a fine wine. Fittingly, he didn’t grow up too far from wine country, raised in a city north of Los Angeles.
Those that know him always bring up Charbonnet’s drive. It’s not unlike his running style: Single-minded and hard-charging. Since high school, when Charbonnet decided his future was playing professional football, he has cared about little else but improving his odds of doing so.
He wasn’t much for Los Angeles’ famous party scene. Nor social media. Charbonnet has posted 26 times on Instagram. He has tweeted 51 times – almost all of them a few words of encouragement or excitement on a quote-tweet.
Charbonnet’s alarm sounded at 4:30 a.m. in high school. He began each day by running sprints up a nearby hill or lifting at the gym. He is very particular about his nutrition and sleep. Charbonnet’s off-field hobbies are things that occupy his mind while he’s resting his body – video games and movies.
Charbonnet was a top-50 overall recruit and a top-five RB in the 2019 class. He was not interested in the attention that came with a high-profile recruiting process. So he kept things close to the vest and quiet. Charbonnet whittled his list to Michigan and Washington, and chose the former.
Charbonnet won the Wolverines’ RB1 job out of camp as a true freshman. But after a strong initial campaign, Charbonnet’s role was minimized during the 2020 COVID season. His first carry of the season was a 70-yard touchdown. He would receive only 18 more over five games while losing his gig to Hassan Haskins.
With Haskins and RB Blake Corum returning to Ann Arbor in 2021, Charbonnet elected to transfer. His list was pre-whittled: Charbonnet wanted to go to a strong academic institution near his hometown that also played big-boy football.
UCLA’s Chip Kelly won Charbonnet’s re-recruitment derby. In 2021, Charbonnet’s first as a Bruin, he earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors. Charbonnet upped the ante in 2022 as a second-team AP All-American.
Strengths
Play style that has an answer for most questions. Charbonnet is a muscular north-south thumper with a twist. His movement skills and long speed sneak up on defenders.
Charbonnet’s a handful between-the-tackles. I appreciate his vision and patience, and his ethos of taking at least what the defense gives him – sometimes much more. Charbonnet is so dang clever in cramped quarters. He sets up and then shakes defenders in the hole with a one-cut-then-punch-it ethos.
He’s always attempting to get defenders to over-commit in the beats before contact, and he has a deep bag of tricks to evade them once they do. Charbonnet’s movement in short quarters creates off-angle shots he runs through – his contact balance is outstanding.
Per PFF, Charbonnet ranked No. 3 with 122 forced missed tackles since 2021. He was also top-20 in the nation in elusive rating. Defenders descending upon him in the second and third levels have to be very cognizant of the nasty stiff-arm Charbonnet deploys.
Surprisingly reliable receiver for a back of his ilk. His hands are very reliable. Over 90 collegiate targets, Charbonnet had only five drops. He’s a taller back with long arms – the catch radius is atypically large for a running back, and he’s reliable with anything you can drop into that net.
Once he corrals the ball, Charbonnet’s a handful to wrestle down chugging upfield. He averaged over 10 yards after catch (YAC) last year, and posted a career mark of 9.1. Charbonnet ranked No. 13 last season in PFF receiving grade among all qualifying FBS running backs.
Weaknesses
Charbonnet is more of a secondary/checkdown option in the passing game at this time than a featured weapon. He will run routes if you ask him, but didn’t create a ton of separation doing so. I think Charbonnet has untapped potential in this phase – but for now, he’s a reliable safety blanket with YAC utility.
I love how diverse Charbonnet is as a runner. But his upright style gives defenders a lot of surface area to hit when he doesn’t beat them with movement. Charbonnet gets lower when he has the ball around the line of scrimmage, but his running style stretches him out when he gets into space.
I’ve mentioned areas where Charbonnet is underrated. One area where I think he’s overrated is in pass-pro. You will see instances of Charbonnet laying the wood to a blitzing linebacker coming through a gap. But those occurrences left you wanting more on his other reps.
The last two years, UCLA only kept Charbonnet in to block on 55 passing snaps. He allowed six pressures and three quarterback hits in those reps. His 44.5 and 33.5 PFF pass-blocking grades over those two campaigns, respectively, greatly underwhelmed. To be fair: Small sample size, and definitely not an aspect of his game that the Bruins prioritized.
Lastly – and this one is nitpicky – while Charbonnet has good speed (4.53), he needs to build up to it. Last year, he ranked No. 11 in breakaway yard percentage. But you wonder if that part of his game will be accessed as easily at the next level.
3. Jahmyr Gibbs | Alabama | 5090/199 | RAS: 8.04
Player comparison: Dalvin Cook
Bio
Jahmyr Gibbs was overlooked through his junior year of high school, garnering only a tepid three-star billing from recruiting services. He was ranked outside the top-600 consensus recruits. From nearby Dalton, Ga., Gibbs committed to Georgia Tech.
Gibbs blew up as a senior. He was upgraded to a four-star recruit. A floodgate of new scholarship offers poured in. Now, he was a top-75 consensus recruit. Gibbs ultimately stayed loyal, signing with the Yellow Jackets.
Gibbs was billed as a centerpiece building block of second-year GT HC Geoff Collins’ rebuilding process. Gibbs looked the part immediately, returning a kick 75 yards on his first touch as a college player.
But while Gibbs flashed whenever he touched the ball, the rest of Collins’ rebuilding effort sputtered. Gibbs earned All-ACC accommodations as a returner both his years in Atlanta, as well as third-team all-ACC honors as a runner as a sophomore. But the Yellow Jackets went just 6-16 over those two seasons.
So last offseason, with Collins on one of the hottest seats in America, Gibbs, eying an NFL showcase, fled Georgia Tech’s sinking ship and signed with Alabama (Collins would ultimately be fired in September). Last season, Gibbs teamed with QB Bryce Young to give Alabama the nation’s most dangerous backfield.
The Crimson Tide offered Gibbs the ability to showcase his entire skillet. He didn’t disappoint, averaging 6.1 YPC while catching 44 balls. As expected, Gibbs declared early for the draft after the season – but along with his other headed-to-the-NFL teammates like Young end EDGE Will Anderson, Gibbs played in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama slaughtered Kansas State.
Strengths
Horror-movie slasher with game-breaking speed. So slippery. High-octane mover who sets defenders up, gets them leaning one way, and clowns them.
Gibbs’ 4.36 forty ranked second among running backs at the NFL Combine behind Devon Achane (4.32). Special ability to access it pronto. Hits the gas and he’s at top speed in a blink.
Gibbs is a puzzle for defenders. He can outrun them, he can evade them in a phone booth, and he introduces doubt when they’re on the prowl by altering tempos. Gibbs is going down on solid contact, but it’s so very difficult to square him up in space.
He has an extremely diverse skillset. Thanks to it, Gibbs was named third-team AP All-American as an all-purpose player last season.
Huge value-add in passing game – very dangerous. Gibbs is one of this class’ best in that phase. Last season, he ranked No. 3 in PFF receiving grade amongst this year’s running back class. Gibbs was peppered with 52 targets by Alabama last year. He converted 44 into catches with only one drop. Over his career, Gibbs dropped only two balls on 123 targets.
He’s a forward-thinking route-runner who keeps his cards close to the vest until the time comes to leverage his movement to shake and his jets to separate. Incredibly, for a running back this size, Gibbs is also capable of making catches in traffic. He caught eight-of-10 contested targets over his career.
That’s an especially useful skill for when you want to use him as a true receiver. Last year at ‘Bama, Gibbs took 87 snaps in the slot or out wide (and 375 out of the backfield).
Gibbs is also an extremely skilled return man. He was his team’s primary kick returner from the day he stepped on campus at Georgia Tech until the day he announced he was leaving Alabama for the NFL Draft. Unless his new team wants to save the usage, Gibbs will be its primary kick returner immediately.
Weaknesses
Gibbs was listed at 200 pounds by Alabama, and disappointingly weighed into the NFL Combine at 199. His lack of play strength is his biggest weakness. It manifests in a few different areas.
It’s not fair to say that Gibbs goes down on first contact, but it is fair to say he’s going down on first solid contact. He makes that difficult on the defense, but Gibbs is out of answers when he gets hit flush.
Because of this, he is so very clearly more comfortable in space than between the tackles. This could especially be seen earlier in his career at Georgia Tech, when Gibbs was a marked man and boxes were more heavily stacked against him.
In 2021, his last as a Yellow Jacket, Gibbs averaged 3.1 YPC on carries to either side of the center and 6.3 YPC on every other run. The year before, 3.5 on the former, and 5.7 on the latter. Gibbs loses his vision and decisiveness in cramped quarters, and he’s dead-to-rights when hands get put on him.
Gibbs is also a poor pass-blocker. He lacks the play strength to jar blitzing defenders, and he has no anchor to drop over the boat at the contact point. Gibbs could get marginally better in this phase if he worked at it – but, honestly, how often are you going to keep a back with this receiving skill back to block when passing?
Alabama, who uses its players situationally as well as anyone, cut Gibbs’ pass-pro reps all the way down to 30 last year. He still allowed three pressures and a sack, posting a dreadful 24.1 PFF pass-pro grade.
4. Tyjae Spears | Tulane | 5095/204 | RAS: 8.04
Player comparison: Travis Etienne
Strengths
I’ve been a fan of his for years – when he flashes, hide your eyes or you’ll temporarily lose your vision. This past year, those flashes turned into consistent production.
Spears has been one of the biggest draft-process winners this cycle so far. NFL executives & scouts named Spears the Senior Bowl Practice Player-of-Week. Spears then impressed at both the NFL Combine and his pro day workout.
He has one-by-one addressed the questions on his eval coming in, turning some into myths – he weighed into the Senior Bowl at 204. Spears, who was listed this past season at 195 pounds, told us in Mobile that he played the bowl game against USC at 197 pounds. Spears said he put on the extra seven pounds over the past four weeks in training. Don’t be surprised if he shows up to Indianapolis closer to 210 – the NFL’s size-threshold for running backs.
Just as important: Spears didn’t lose any of his movement skills at the bigger size. He was easily the most explosive back in Mobile – explosion is his trump card. And it’ll play at the next level.
And after not being used much as a receiver at Tulane, Spears showed easy pass-catching chops at the Senior Bowl, with soft and reliable hands and route-running chops nobody gave him credit for. It appears his sparse work in that area previously may have just been a college usage thing.
With running backs, there’s a natural element to the best ones. An innate ability. Something that cannot be taught, something they couldn’t explain after the fact if they tried. Poetry in motion. You know it when you see it. Spears has that.
He’s eyes-in-his-ear-holes instinctive hurtling down the field at high speeds. He makes the correct decisions at high speeds like a NASCAR driver. He consistently turns defenders into Keystone Cops in the open field. I can’t tell you how many times last season I saw him leave an open-field defender on the ground who didn’t come close to getting a finger on him.
Tyjae Spears plays his position like a boxer. A jab is not a jab – it is setting up the hook, or an upper-cut. And it’s not just on any given run. Watch any of his games start-to-finish from last year. Notice how he’ll offer certain looks early. And then use the doubt introduced into the defender’s head to set up his next open-field subterfuge.
Spears does not slow down as the game progresses. But his opponents do, and they additionally become progressively more unsure of their decisions against him in space. Their feet tend to get stuck to the turf or tied into knots as Spears introduces his newest Guitar Hero flurry.
Weaknesses
Spears tore an ACL in 2020, raising durability concerns.
His NFL playing weight will likely be in the low-200s. Since Spears was never a three-down back at Tulane, the question becomes whether he can become one in the NFL. His franchise may elect to put him on a pitch count with usage by doing as Tulane did and taking him off the field on passing-downs.
The receiving element that Spears showed during the pre-draft process was not as apparent on film. Spears was dangerous after reeling the ball in, but dropped four balls the last two years on 43 targets despite a -0.6 aDOT.
And for a sub-threshold back, we aren’t sure if Spears will offer anything on special teams. This is another phase he wasn’t used in at Tulane. Spears took only 18 special teams snaps for the Green Wave over his three-year career.
5. Devon Achane | Texas A&M | 5084/188 | RAS: 7.00
Player comparison: Jahvid Best
Strengths
Defense is aware of Achane at all times. Devastating, game-breaking speed requires it to be. Achane takes the corner almost at will. So very dangerous when he turns upfield and hits the jets. Angles get erased one-by-one.
Achane was underutilized by A&M as a receiver. But in instances where the Aggies would motion Achane out wide or into the slot, defenders would wildly gesticulate in his direction. All 11 defenders know that if Achane has the ball in space, there’s a chance they’ll all be rendered helpless by his speed – so he garnered as much attention and care as any runner his size who has entered the NFL over the past five years.
Underrated receiver. Soft hands. Too often, when used in this phase, Achane was the last-resort checkdown, and he rarely got the ball in advantageous situations to show off his movement post-catch. Multiple instances on film of poorly-thrown balls to him even as a checkdown – A&M’s quarterback play the last few years was bad.
Achane is an odd smaller back in that he doesn’t dance around much. We’ll return to this below, as it’s both a strength and a weakness – but the part of it that I like is that Achane is an arrow that is generally always pointed upfield with his gas on the pedal.
This is not a throwaway tendency: Small backs that dance can have a tendency to leave yards on the field if not equipped with elite movement. Big thumper backs get the “always falling forward” moniker – Achane is a small back who shares in common the ethos of getting upfield.
This allows him to both steal excess yards given to him, but also get started hurdling downfield quicker and more suddenly than most backs of this ilk. When Achane shakes a guy in closer quarters, it’s usually via one-cut – getting a downhill defender over-leveraged in one direction and using his momentum against him. He has the hammer of his acceleration and deceleration to-and-from top speed.
Will be an awesome return man on special teams from Day 1 – born to do this.
Weaknesses
Achane weighed into the NFL Combine at 188 pounds, but he’ll likely play around 185.
He’s not a good blocker, in large part due to the lack of play strength. There are instances on film of Achane squaring up blitzers and impeding their process in pass-pro, but never for long – generally he’s a speed-bump.
On play fakes when Achane finds himself in space with the opportunity to block a linebacker or defensive back, he’s generally going through the motions if the play design is the other way. He knows he doesn’t have the muscle to take care of larger defenders, and I think he also knows that his frame can only sustain so much contact each game before his special-sauce movement begins to depreciate.
Returning to Achane’s lack of interest in shaking defenders out of their shoes. He doesn’t have a deep bag of tricks to shake defenders. So when defenders get an angle on him and get on his doorstep, they can get him to the ground without help. Achane isn’t running through arm tackles if he isn’t at top speed.
6. Tank Bigsby | Auburn | 6000/210 | RAS: 7.81
Player comparison: Sony Michel
Bigsby checked into the NFL Combine at 6’0/210 after being listed at 213 by Auburn. he assuredly lost some weight for the event, and has the frame to bulk up to 220.
He was in a terrible situation at Auburn – former HC Bryan Harsin, embroiled in controversy, was fired mid-season last year – but stuck it out and flashed NFL-caliber RB1 skills over his three years as RB1. Succeeded despite being a marked-man behind that shoddy offensive line. Auburn’s awful offensive line last year ranked No. 93 in PFF run-blocking. Despite this, Bigsby posted an elite 90.4 PFF run grade.
This is because of Bigsby’s plus-plus combination of vision, instincts, lateral agility, and contact balance. He is a fabulous inside runner who takes what is given when it’s there, or creates off-script in instances of immediate penetration. Bigsby can make the first man miss in a phone booth, run through arm tackles, and find an escape hatch by jutting laterally off a violent cut. Super-sudden direction changes off those cuts.
He’s not a dancer. Upfield ethos. Varies tempo. I believe his game will play up behind a strong offensive line due to his vision. Not only runs through soft contact, but doesn’t get knocked backwards by hard contact – he’s taking the extra yards each run by falling forward. Underrated fighter in this aspect. Love the early-down utility – Bigsby’s keep-the-offense-on-schedule skillset will translate.
The big question here is Bigsby’s hands. He had eight drops for a non-ideal 11.6% drop rate on catchable balls at Auburn despite an aDOT of -1.7. And while Bigsby improved as a pass-blocker last season – into the “adequate” range – he mightily struggled in this phase over his first two seasons.
It’s entirely possible that Bigsby will never be much of a receiver. If so, he simply must improve in pass-pro. He has the skillset to do so. This, along with his strides in that area last year, give hope that further improvement is in the offing.
7. Roschon Johnson | Texas | 6004/225 | RAS: 8.09
Player comparison: Brian Robinson Jr.
Power runner with a versatile skillset. Former quarterback. Team player. Shifted to running back without complaint, despite being stuck behind Bijan Robinson at his new position, and then played on most of Texas’ special teams units.
Straightforward running style – takes what is blocked for him, might get you a bit more. A tall back, Johnson gets a good vantage point of the line of scrimmage, and he uses that for a full-spectrum shot of his options.
He’s a patient runner who lets his linemen do their jobs. Strong short-area burst for a big fella, hits the hole with authority. One-cut power back in the vein of my comp Brian Robinson. Johnson has the footwork to make over-leveraged defenders miss in the hole. He also has the power to put them on their back if they don’t bring their lunch pails.
Johnson is tricky when he gets into the second and third levels. Defensive backs want no part of a battering-ram scenario with him, so often they’ll go low and try to dive-bomb his knees. Johnson has an answer for that: Numerous times in college, he leap-frogged such defenders and kept trucking upfield. Reliable – only one career fumble. Johnson doesn’t have the wear-and-tear that other collegiate backs enter the NFL with due to his situation behind Bijan Robinson.
Johnson showed a little more as a receiver in 2022, but at this time, he’s only a dump-off and run-after-the-catch guy in that regard. Johnson’s real utility on passing downs is in pass-pro. He’ll throw his body around and drop a linebacker. What he lacks in explosion, Johnson makes up for in efficiency. He projects as a strong complementary back with added special teams utility.
8. Israel Abanikanda | Pittsburgh | 5100/216 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison: Tevin Coleman
9. Evan Hull | Northwestern | 5101/214 | RAS: 9.22
Player comparison: Joseph Addai
Hull is a personal favorite of my colleague Derek Brown and I’s. Super underrated prospect with a diverse skillset and more than enough athleticism to project its translation to the next level.
Hull was an under-the-radar recruit who got the majority of his 582 collegiate touches the past two seasons on Northwestern teams that combined to go 4-20. And while Peter Skoronski was on the offensive lines he ran behind, Northwestern had essentially nothing else on offense – allowing defenses to key in on Hull. His evaluation requires isolating Hull from his collegiate situation.
Hull admirably did not appear to pick up bad habits we sometimes associate with running backs in similar collegiate situations. Vision is a plus. He was also patient when he had opportunities to be. Hull’s lateral burst shined on both film and at the Senior Bowl. Hull quickly deciphers if the initial plan is viable. when it’s not, has the ability to flatten down the line of scrimmage and steal the edge.
Hull’s cuts are sudden, and he has the contact balance to absorb blows and stay on his feet. He isn’t a jitter-bug mover. He’s a muscle-packed back with one-cut suddenness. Myths about Hull’s speed were dispelled at the NFL Combine – Hull ran a 4.47 and checked in as a 92nd-percentile size-adjusted athlete.
Hull is an extremely skilled receiver. Last year, he was near tops in this class in targets, receptions, aDOT, and snaps in the slot or out wide. Detail-oriented route-runner regardless of deployment. Quick acceleration and violent route-breaks make him tricky to stay with. Hull has slick, reliable hands.
Tough kid and a dogged worker. On the NFL Combine telecast, Rich Eisen and Daniel Jeremiah fawned over Hull’s insistence on finishing every single rep by running the ball past the goal line 40 yards upfield. This was a quirk we noticed about Hull in Mobile, as well – the Senior Bowl coaches took notice of Hull’s habit of finishing every practice rep by sprinting 30 additional yards upfield with the ball. Both of these anecdotes may sound silly and minor – but Hull was the only back at either event doing this. Something teammates take note of. Tempo-setting worker.
Hull’s pass-blocking was a question in college. At the Senior Bowl, he acquitted himself fine in this area – if nothing else, he knows his assignment and doesn’t shy from it. But doesn’t have the anchor for all assignments in that area. He should be used as a receiver, not a blocker.
Hull projects as a strong complimentary back at the next level – and might even be a little more. He will immediately be his team’s best receiving option in the backfield, offering the ability to win lined up anywhere. And his organization will get more from him as a runner than most are currently projecting.
10. DeWayne McBride | UAB | 5100/209 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison: Tyler Allgier
One of the top early-down grinders in this class. Extremely productive in college. Power runner with more make-you-miss ability than you’d think. Emphatic now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t foot-in-the-dirt cuts. Always fighting for yards upfield. Bounces away from off-angle shots and keeps trucking upfield. Fearless north-south runner. In gap concepts, shows the patience and vision to allow his blocks to set up, the feet to quickly change paths into a more enticing hole, and the power and contact balance to power through arm tackles. The open-ended question is if he’ll provide anything on third downs. UAB isolated McBride’s usage to first- and second-downs. McBride was targeted only 10 times over his three-year career. He caught five, with no drops. If there’s good news, it’s that his work in pass-pro has substantially improved. Last season, he got 28 more reps in that phase than he had the two seasons combined before it. McBride responded by improving his PFF pass-pro grade from 47.7 to 64.4. McBride has the attitude and the play strength for this work. Continuing to improve in this area will be vital if indeed it turns out he isn’t viable as a pass-catching option.
11. Eric Gray | Oklahoma | 5094/210 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison: Brian Westbrook
Non-assuming runner whose well-rounded skillset sneaks up on you. Elusive back. Unpredictable movements – strings together combo moves. Doesn’t let you square him up. Good contact balance. Instinctual. Sets defenders up to fail. Peppy runner who competes. Strong receiver. Good hands, runs snappy routes. Not much of a pass-blocker. Simply doesn’t have the play strength for it. Also lacks pop as a runner – can be finished by one defender. I don’t see an RB1. But Gray will almost assuredly be a very strong NFL platoon back. Doesn’t come with a high ceiling, but the floor is higher than he’s being given credit for.
Best of the rest…
12. Zach Evans | Mississippi | 5110/202 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison: Elijah Mitchell
13. Kendre Miller | TCU | 5110/215 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison: Jamaal Williams
14. Chase Brown| Illinois | 509/209 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison: Myles Gaskin
15. Mohamed Ibrahim | Minnesota | 5074/203 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison:
16. Keaton Mitchell | ECU | 5080/179 | RAS: 8.53
Player comparison: Raheem Mostert
17. Sean Tucker | Syracuse | 5090/207 | RAS: N/A
Player comparison: Felix Jones
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