The 2023 NFL Draft is nearly here, and it’s time to get to know your incoming rookie class. NFL Draft expert Thor Nystrom breaks down top prospect Zach Charbonnet. You can find all of Thor’s 2023 NFL Draft rankings and player previews here.
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2023 NFL Draft Prospect Profile: Zach Charbonnet
Zach Charbonnet | UCLA | 6000/214 | RAS: 9.65
Player comparison: A.J. Dillon
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.
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