We’ll be live from Mobile, Alabama this week to cover the 2024 Senior Bowl. We’ll be getting you ready for the 2024 NFL Draft, diving deep into practices and streaming live in the evenings throughout the week. Here is my 2024 Senior Bowl Preview. Below we dive into a few notable names in upcoming dynasty rookie drafts.
2024 Senior Bowl Preview
*Note: Players with a * below are confirmed out for the game with injury.
2024 Senior Bowl Running Back Preview
- Dylan Laube (New Hampshire)
- MarShawn Lloyd (USC)
- Kimani Vidal (Troy)
- Cody Schrader (Missouri)
- Rasheen Ali (Marshall)
- Ray Davis (Kentucky)
- *Jaylen Wright (Tennessee)
- Jawhar Jordan (Louisville)
- Emani Bailey (TCU)
- Isaiah Davis (South Dakota State)
*Note: Tennessee’s Jaylen Wright will not be attending the event due to an injury. I’m told that Wright will be fully healthy for NFL Combine testing and that the former Feldman Freak Lister intends to “put on a show.”
Pre-Senior Bowl RB Rankings:
- Isaiah Davis
- Kimani Vidal
- MarShawn Lloyd
- Ray Davis
- Dylan Laube
- Cody Schrader
- Michael Wiley
- Rasheen Ali
- Daijun Edwards
- Emani Bailey
- Jawhar Jordan
Most to Prove: Kimani Vidal (Troy)
Vidal has a true bowling-ball build at 5’8/220. Battering-ram style, low to the ground and hard charging in a sawed-off frame. Shifty and bouncy in tight quarters, tough to square up. Very good contact balance – not affected by off-angle attempts. Vidal’s combination of agility and power led to 92 broken tackles in 2023, No. 2 in the nation. Tackle breaking machinations include a nasty stiff-arm.
Proved he can handle bellcow usage with over 300 touches last season. Managed to remain productive against loaded boxes. A tough, assignment-sound pass-blocker. He’s also a decent receiver who had either 22 catches or 200 receiving yards in all four years on campus. Vidal is an underrated back who could form a strong combo back to Jaylen Warren, a back he resembles.
Most to Gain: Isaiah Davis (South Dakota State)
Davis was the tone-setting bellcow for South Dakota State’s dominant 15-0 FCS championship in 2023. Ludicrously productive – 4,461 yards and 49 TD on 7.0 YPC over 45 games. Different sort of back than Pierre Strong, the last Jackrabbit back to get drafted. Davis is a big, strapping back with solid agility for his size to slalom around the line of scrimmage. Very good power. Smaller defenders slide off him like a cartoon. Broke 78 tackles last season and 73 in 2022. Davis evoke Le’Veon Bell‘s patient approach behind the line, and in his smooth movement for a big man between the tackles. Accelerates quickly to the second level. Exceptional contact balance. Davis lacks home run speed and won’t provide an explosive element, but he should provide plenty of efficiency at the next level. As a receiver, he’s improved, but that area of his game needs more work. Same could be said for pass-pro, an area SDSU didn’t ask much of him in college.
Mystery Man: Dylan Laube (New Hampshire)
Laube isn’t Christian McCaffrey. He’s not in the same realm athletically, and he’s not as gifted as a runner. But he’s better than Max Borghi, he’s going to be a valued receiving back at the next level. Laube is the inverse of several runners in this class: I doubt that he will ever be the best pure runner on his NFL roster. But he’ll always be the best receiver. As a runner, Laube lacks the power to break tackles, and at the next level his speed and burst will won’t be sufficient enough to make up for that. But man is he smooth as a receiver. He gets into his routes quickly and has a fluidness to him along his path. Snaps off the breaking routes clean and with little advanced warning, and will threaten down the sidelines with haste on wheel routes if you aren’t careful. One differentiator between him and many other collegiate backs is that Laube won’t break his momentum catching the ball if you lead him. He seems to accelerate through the catch process.
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