Round 2: Oklahoma RB Samaje Perine – 5-10, 235 – 4.57 – Junior
After drafting Western Michigan wide receiver Corey Davis in the first round, Bucs general manager Jason Licht gives another offensive weapon to head coach Dirk Koetter in Perine, one of the best college running backs of all time. Perine just broke Billy Sims’ all-time rushing record at Oklahoma in the team’s 35-19 Sugar Bowl victory over Auburn right before declaring for the NFL draft.

Splitting carries with Joe Mixon, who also has an NFL future, for the Sooners, Perine rushed for 1,060 yards and 12 touchdowns this season but saw his production dip in each of the last three years with Mixon’s arrival in 2015, although he missed three and a half games this season due to injury. That’s not to say that Perine necessarily played second fiddle to Mixon, evidenced by rushing for 214 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries (6.1 avg.) in a 45-40 win over rival Texas and 37 carries for 239 yards (6.5 avg.) and a touchdown in a 38-20 win over rival Oklahoma State.

Perine’s Oklahoma Career Stats
2016: 196 carries for 1,060 yards (5.4 avg.) with 12 TDs and a long of 66 yards
2015: 226 carries for 1,349 yards (6.0 avg.) with 16 TDs and a long of 72 yards
2014: 263 carries for 1,713 yards (6.5 avg.) with 21 TDs and a long of 66 yards

Perine has proven to be a workhorse back with 16 career games with at least 20 carries and six games with 200 yards rushing or more. Perine broke Melvin Gordon’s NCAA FBS level single-game rushing record with an amazing 427 yards and five touchdowns on 34 carries (12.6 avg.) in a win against the Kansas Jayhawks during his freshman season.

The 5-foot-10, 235-pound Perine has an intriguing mix of speed and power reminiscent of Carolina running back Jonathan Stewart in his prime. Perine is a battering ram, north-south runner with excellent leg drive to break tackles and enough wiggle to make linebackers miss at the second level. Perine is tough to bring down and is a scoring threat any time he’s near the goal line.

His weight room exploits are legendary at Oklahoma where he can bench press 225 pounds between 30 and 40 times (the NFL Scouting Combine record for running backs is 32), and his max is 450 pounds. He squatted 600 pounds in high school, but OU coaches didn’t let him squat that much in college to avoid injury.

“He’s about as strong as they get,” Sooners head coach Bob Stoops told the Tulsa World. “Popeye’s got nothing on him.”

With Doug Martin and Charles Sims both struggling last year with durability and productivity, the Bucs could use a big back with a burst to create holes when they aren’t there and break arm tackles for explosive runs. Outside of missing three games this year due to a leg injury, Perine has been a model of consistency at Oklahoma. And when he returned to action, Perine rushed for 585 yards and six touchdowns in his final four games.

With Martin’s future in Tampa Bay uncertain due to his three-game suspension for drug use to start the season, drafting a potential feature back like Perine makes sense for the Bucs long term. With 40 career catches for 321 yards and two touchdowns, Perine has good enough hands to excel on all three downs in Koetter’s offense.

Click below to view Tampa Bay’s third-round pick in 2017.