I keep reading how this year is loaded. I am not seeing it, especially when compared to last year.
THE MOST IMPORTANT trait for an NFL RB is balance through contact and breaking tackles...because you are going to see contact and speed/rallying to the football on pretty much every play. Last year we saw Fournette, Cook, and Kamara in the draft. All 3 of these players featured the above trait in spades, so their game was invariably going to translate to the NFL.
After watching them generically the past few years and studying their draft breakdowns, I just don’t see that distinguishing trait with ANY of the top 10 entrants. I see guys regularly losing their feet from relatively meek contact. I don’t see guys shedding/bouncing off tacklers with anything resembling a reasonable level of consistency. I don’t see balance with violence. I see guys running upright and/or with poor pad level.
The guys in this class that exhibit the afformentioned important traits the most are SEC RBs Giuce, Chubb, and Johnson. But none of them are remotely exceptional when it comes to balance through contact or shedding tackles and they each have major flaws (upright/poor pad level, inconsistent vision or patience, injury issues, lack of dynamism, lack of all around game).
I don’t feel like this is a deep RB class. It looks to me like it’s Barkley (who also doesn’t run well through 1st level contact/routinely keep his feet when shedding tackles he should...but is extraordinary everywhere else) and then a bunch of JAGs. The depth at the RB positionlast year runs circles around this year. Honestly, disturbingly, I feel like Barber runs through contact/sheds tackles as well as any of those 3 I mentioned above.
Give me a late round pick on Nyheim Hines. I really don’t want to waste mid round picks on one of these guys when you’ve got so many talented OG/C, DL, and CB available at that tier.
