Loading...
Loading...

Get Your Fantasy Blueprint here: https://bit.ly/TheFantasyBlueprint5 Running Backs Skyrocketing Up Draft Boards After the NFL Combine(Data source credits: Player Profiler)Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Help is available for problem gambling. Call (888) 789-7777 or visit ccpg.org (CT). 18+ in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. See terms at draftkings.com. Sponsored by DK.
The NFL Combine just happened and it completely changed the pecking order for the running backs in this year's draft class.
What once looked like a draft class that really only had one standout running back now has a handful thanks to these performances at the Combine by the following players.
And let's start with the guy who easily at the running back position won the Combine.
Arguably was the best performer right up there with one or two other players at the entire Combine no matter what he did, Mike Washington out of Arkansas for starters.
This is a six foot one 223 pound running back. Arguably the ideal size is around 220 pounds, but it's only ideal if you could also carry that weight while being nimble, explosive, and have speed.
And that's exactly what Mike Washington has because this dude ran a four three three 40 time a four three three is a hundred percentile speed score.
A speed score of 127 is the number one speed score in this class and it makes Mike Washington the number one most athletic running back at his size speed and also his explosiveness that we'll get into to ever attend the Combine out of over 2000 backs.
I mean, this is insane. In the past, Isaac Rendo, the 49ers running back, he also had some very solid speed in size, but he didn't have the burst, he didn't have the college production, the film, all that like Mike Washington does.
And then when you start to get into his jumps, it gets insane here. So this is his rad score, his relative athletic score.
It's a way to kind of just look at every single running back or player at different heights and weights and kind of compare them against each other.
You could see right here his vertical jump was a nine four nine out of 10. His broad jump was a nine six four.
So he's basically grading out as like the perfect athlete when it comes to his size when it comes to his explosiveness.
Those are his jumps and what this means is that for probably the first time ever since I've been doing this, a running back came in with the perfect 10 rad score, a 10 out of 10.
Normally, if you're a good prospect, you're in the upper eights, you're somewhere in the 9s, a 10, a perfect score for Mike Washington, literally put some as you could see right here from the rad score database.
Number one at a 2115 running backs to ever attend the Combine since 1987. This is insane.
Okay, so it's one thing if you're a freak athlete, we've seen these freak athletes, especially on offense at the wide receiver position.
Oftentimes they flame out in the past. It's been guys like Kevin White. We just saw like Bryce Ford wheat in a couple of years ago.
He never even did anything in the NFL, but the important part for Mike Washington is not only does he have the size, not only does he have the speed and the explosiveness.
90 second percentile burst scores top 8% of all time. He also comes in with a very solid college production profile.
Last year in college, he goes over a thousand rushing yards. He did it on 6.4 yards per carry, so he's highly efficient.
You come into the receiving production last year when he actually took over with more work in his 50 year in college after not getting much use as a true freshman at 18 years old.
28 receptions and 11% target. So this shows you that on the opportunity. He actually had with his team.
He was earning targets. He was catching passes. He was putting up efficient production and carries on the ground as well.
Everything is starting to check boxes here. He also is an Arkansas so he was facing good competition.
And for people who say the NFL combine doesn't matter, the 40 and all these drills don't matter. You're kidding yourself.
Mike Washington was not on anybody radar before this draft. He was nowhere near the top five running backs in this draft class,
which is saying something because this isn't a good draft class, objectively speaking, for the running back position.
Now Mike Washington. It is a very clear that he's going to be top five in this draft class, probably top three.
And I wouldn't be shocked that this performance at the NFL combine pushes him all the way up to number two,
depending on how his interviews go with teams over the next couple of weeks.
In some ways, if you're looking at like a more recent running backtaken last year, he kind of reminds me of an Amari on Hampton.
There is similar style build at 221 pounds, except Mike Washington is much more athletic when it comes to the speed.
If you were to scroll down a little bit just in terms of Amari on Hampton's college production,
obviously Hampton was the mega producer as the main lead back with 250 plus carries and back to back years at UNC 1500 plus yards.
So from a production standpoint, Hampton's going to look better, but he also had more opportunities.
If you're talking about an efficiency standpoint, Mike Washington actually averaged more yards per carry in his final year,
pretty easily than Amari on Hampton, but I just look at them as similar players somewhat from the film
and more so just the body in playstyle.
Now if you look at Mike Washington, I mentioned that it's not like he was playing this cupcake schedule.
He was playing a very difficult schedule, and right from the start of his season, he's putting in performances
for nine carries for 116 yards, facing a ranked number 17 Mississippi team,
Ole Miss, 13 carries 65 yards, multiple scores, adds 53 yards in the receiving department in this game
to go over 100 total yards.
Let's keep going.
Notre Dame, one of the toughest defense, if not the toughest defense in college football last year,
he's putting up 63 yards, 70 total yards.
Then look at the stretch of games.
He has to play Notre Dame ranked team, Tennessee ranked team, oh by the way,
he went for 131 yards in a touchdown, and Texas A&M, the number 14 in the country at that point,
oh by the way, he goes for 147 yards on the ground, 9.2 yards per carry,
adds 16 more yards in the air.
Then his next ranked team, Texas, 100 yards, touchdown, 43 yards in the air.
He faced five different ranked teams this year and had 100 more total yards in four of those games.
So yeah, he is battle tested.
He's checking all of the boxes.
I don't see why he's not the number two running back in this draft class,
especially when you consider some of the other running backs in this draft class,
either didn't test or they tested poorly or poor than expected, like a jadarian price.
Also out of Notre Dame behind Jeremiah Love, who is still the clear number one running back
in this draft class, especially after he had himself a nice day at the combine as well.
So if you're looking at Mike Washington, he's checking all the boxes.
Everything looks good for this guy.
In terms of like what you like about him overall,
everything I've already said, his build, his speed, his power, his explosiveness,
at his size, he's already proved now thanks to his receiving production in the past,
and he could also be a three down back.
But of course, there are going to be some weaknesses as well.
A lot of his receiving productions was check downs and screens,
so he is somewhat limited there.
And he does have some bulk security concerns.
He has 10 career fumbles, past protection also needs refinement.
Now before the NFL combine,
Mike Washington was probably going in like the fourth or fifth round.
This is mock draft database.
It kind of tracks the trajectory of where he's going in mock drafts.
Now we haven't gotten a lot of mock drafts because I'm recording this on Monday morning,
the weekend and really the day after the combine ended.
So we'll probably start to get those this week.
That will be influencing in this.
So he was basically going as a fourth or fifth round pick.
My guess would be if you look at the same chart over the next week or two,
this is probably going to come up to a consensus third round pick,
with some people putting him into that mid to probably later second round.
Because again, Jeremiah Love is probably going as a top 10 overall pick.
Definitely top 20, probably top 10.
Who knows, maybe even top five, if the giants are crazy enough,
for there's some rumors out of Tennessee,
the Titans are crazy enough at four.
And that puts Mike Washington as probably potentially the second best running back in this class.
And if a team is RB Needy and they're in the second round,
they don't have another pick until the fourth or fifth.
They might end up snagging him like you saw last year with RJ Harvey in the Denver Bronco.
So Mike, the Washington is the biggest winner at the NFL comment at the running back position.
And another big winner arguably right there is number two behind Mike Washington
is Seth McGowan at a Kentucky.
Now Seth McGowan is a very interesting back.
First off, he weighs in at six foot 215 pounds.
Okay, so that's solid size and frame.
This is the interesting part.
It's kind of hard to find his age,
but according to player profiler,
they have him at 25 and a half years old.
This is weird.
It's the wonky part of the year.
Hopefully as the weeks go on,
we get more accurate information about these guys age.
It's insane that there's conflicting reports.
Is he 24?
Is he 25?
But that's just where we are at right now.
You would think at the NFL combine,
someone would ask the simple question
or the medicals would come out somewhere or another,
but they just haven't yet.
But let's just assume that he's 25 years old,
like player profiler has.
Their website is usually accurate,
like it's seen right here, nearly 25 and a half years old,
which means that in his rookie season,
he would turn 26.
Running backs probably for the most part,
on average, don't really make it past like age 30 in the NFL,
29.
Obviously, there's a lot of outliers who do in a Derek Henry
and they're still solid running backs at 31 and 32.
But for the most part, it's like 30.
So this guy's gonna be starting his career already at
like the end of his peak for the running back age,
which is kind of scary for an NFL team,
again, if this age of age 25 is correct.
Maybe it comes out it's 24.
Ideally, it comes out it's 23.
But there is a lot of reasons why he is older
and we're about to get into those.
But before we do, let's focus on the pros here.
The pros are that at the NFL combine this guy,
he weighed in really nicely.
He ran a 4-4-9, which at his weight is 91st percentile,
top 10 percent of all time,
and more importantly, the best attribute.
I mean, the speed is important,
the size is important for sure.
But a 99st percentile burst score.
That is number or top 1 percent at the position.
He had the number one vertical jump.
You know the jump where you just jump straight up
and try and hit all the little things
above you and see how high you can go.
Number one in this running back draft class,
top five in the broad jump.
He was absolutely electric when it came
to his explosiveness and his burst.
You can see that right here.
He had a 43-inch vertical.
I think exactly it was like 42.9, 42.8.
Second best by running back all time at the NFL combine,
which is insane.
Number one in this draft class.
Here he is doing that NFL combine.
I don't want to get copyrighted here,
but you can see that guy just floats in air.
Absolutely insane.
So you're getting the explosiveness.
You're getting the speed.
You're getting the size.
Those are checking the combine boxes.
Now let's go onto his production
and kind of his film strengths and weaknesses.
Oh yeah, and by the way,
according to Radscore,
just based on his comps for athletic testing,
like his size and what he was able to do.
This has nothing to do with his play style
or his college production in the past and his film.
He is starting to grade out like David Johnson.
Quinshaw and Junkins are some of his
comparables from an athletic standpoint.
That is very encouraging.
Quinshaw and Junkins.
Great as a rookie, great in college.
David Johnson obviously had a very good stretch
in the NFL.
So now let's get into the production of Seth McGowan.
Now this is where it starts to get a little bit concerning.
Like if he was such this amazing athlete
and had the size,
why wasn't he better at Kentucky
although he did have to face tough competition,
why wasn't he better?
He only averaged 4.4 yards per carry last year.
725 total yards.
The year before that he was a little bit better,
5.3 yards per carry,
but still didn't have a massive workload.
153 touches as a part-time player.
Wasn't anything great.
He was a solid receiver,
having 23 and 19 catches in college
as a part-time player,
especially for a running back.
This is definitely solid.
This is definitely something that you could say.
Okay, he shows that he can be a past catching running back
or at least a guy who can go out there
in earn you 30 receptions,
maybe in a better season 50 plus.
But the big question for a lot of people is going to be,
okay, last year in his senior season,
he starts the year off hot
and then he just falls off the face of the earth.
You can see right here,
maybe that simple answer is just the competition,
but to start the season,
he faces even like a Mississippi team.
So he starts the year 78 yards in a touchdown
against a rank Ole Miss team,
93 yards multiple touchdowns.
Okay, then a good matchup against EMU,
104 yards, three touchdowns,
a tough South Carolina team, 112 yards in a touchdown,
and then after that first month, he starts to just,
oh, we accidentally hit the game log for South Carolina,
his best game of the year and his weakest competition,
but then you start to get right here.
He faces Georgia in Texas, okay, two very difficult teams,
an Auburn team, a Florida team as well,
these are all difficult teams,
a Vanderbilt rank team towards the end of the year,
but look at these performances, highly concerning.
44 yards, 45, 53 on 2.5 yards per carry.
Florida, he bounces back 92 yards multiple touchdowns,
Vanderbilt just 27 yards on 10 carries,
and Louisville, he only gets two carries five yards.
So you're looking at a guy who didn't have a single carry
of over 20 yards the entire season,
so if you're going to be going out there
and you're gonna say, okay, he's has this great burst,
he looks explosive, why is he breaking off big runs?
His longest runs of the season, as you can see right here,
were 18 yards, 17, 20, and 18.
Never had a run of 21 or more yards, that is concerning,
that is concerning, especially if he is an older prospect
coming into the NFL against battle tested,
probably younger and bigger linebackers
that are going to be arguably just as fast as him.
So although there are pros from the NFL combine
and no doubt about it, this NFL combine performance
is going to help his stock, he only did good things
at the combine, there is still a lot of holes in his profile.
The one thing Seth McGowan is going to have going for him
is the fact that this is a weaker running back draft class.
A lot of guys went back to college football,
Big Singleton broke his foot before the combine,
he was a guy who could have looked great at the combine
and been a top five running back in the draft.
So a lot of things are working out from McGowan
to end up being like a maybe fourth round pick.
Now the strengths to his game specifically when I go in
and I watch some of his film in those bigger, more tougher matchups,
he's definitely a physical downhill runner,
he accelerates quickly and hits the whole hard
and he has the burst and enough lateral agility
to work in a gap or a downhill scheme.
But as we've kind of hinted at throughout this process,
the weaknesses are pretty clear.
I mean, he is an older running back and reasons for that
are some of his all-steel issues.
He spent three months in jail in his past
that he's gonna have to explain
and interviews against NFL GMs this upcoming year.
There's a lot of ways to spin that.
You could say it made you a better person and a better man
and I'm sure he will have his take on that
and I don't know anything about the guy
so who knows how those interviews actually go.
But these are the reasons why he ended up going a little bit
or spending a little bit more time in college.
Couple of years in prison for a robbery related incident.
Then he goes to Butler College,
he grinds back to the D1 level and he ends up going to New Mexico State
where then he transfers to his final season at Kentucky.
So this guy was all over the place.
He was at Oklahoma, he was at New Mexico State,
he was at Kentucky, he was at Butler Community College
after ended up going to prison for a couple of months.
So he's kind of been all over the place
which is a big reason why like eligibility wise,
he was able to play so much longer
into his, according to player profile, our 25th age season.
Now before the NFL combine, Seth McGowan
was going to be projected as a fifth round pick.
After this performance, especially after some other
running back, just opted not to test,
which I'm sure GM scouts and coaches are not going to like
and then some other running backs tested and it wasn't ideal.
I think Seth McGowan's probably going to get boosted up
into that fourth round,
probably settle in somewhere around like the fifth,
maybe six running back in this draft class.
Now before we get into the next player,
I've got something great to share with you.
I've teamed up with DraftKings Pick 6
to give you more ways to enjoy watching the sports you love.
Now here's how it works.
You pick more or less on two or more player stats
and with the NFL season over,
it could be basketball points, rebounds and assists
or any other sport you prefer.
So it's simple, there's no complicated rules.
You just pick more or less on the player stats you like
and as your picks hit, you stack up your returns.
Now here's the part you need to hear.
New DraftKings customers deposit $5 in play free
with $25 instantly in bonus picks.
And it gets even better because they're also giving you up
to 100% in a winnings boost.
So if you're new, just play $5 on your first pick set
and DraftKings drops $25 in bonus picks into your account
and makes you use code Sal when you sign up in the positive
take advantage of the software.
So download the DraftKings Pick 6 app today,
get in on the action and sign up using my promo code Sal
to ride the upside.
And partnership with DraftKings Pick 6, the crown is yours.
Alrighty, next up, let's talk about the Mon Clayborn
out of Wake Forest.
He's a very interesting player
because he is a different type of back, right?
He is a, the guys we've talked about already
have been like 215, 220 pounds.
The Mon Clayborn is 510, 188 pounds soaking wet.
He is a smaller running back.
He weighed in at 188 pounds at the combine
and I would say that's probably around his true weight.
Sometimes guys put on muscle and then they won't run
the 40 time and they'll run the 40 time at their pro day.
So their weight looks bigger
and then their 40 time looks good at the pro day.
So Clayborn didn't do that.
At least I don't think he did that
unless he was gonna run in the four twos
because he ran a 438 40 time on his first attempt.
Overall, I believe that he ended up getting down
to 437 on his second attempt.
So obviously great speed.
You look at the speed score 75th percent
how more than good enough,
obviously the sky's running in the four threes.
He's insanely fast.
But the biggest question for a lot of teams
is going to be his size.
He's five foot 10, 188 pounds.
The good thing that Clayborn has going for him right now
is the fact that in these past couple of years alone
in the NFL kind of like the wide receiver position
over the past decade,
smaller players have been finding a lot more success.
The game is changing.
Linebackers are changing for the opposing defenses
going after quicker, more slender build linebackers
is allowing some of these smaller line running backs
to have success and hold up their ability was.
Now Bucky Irving dealt with injuries last year
but he weighed in at 192 pounds,
pretty much similar size, same size four pounds heavier
than Clayborn and as you probably already know,
he's had success in the NFL.
In his rookie season in a limited role
he went for 1100 rushing yards
and oh yeah, don't forget almost 400 receiving yards.
The guy was an absolute beast playing less than 50%
of the snaps.
But it's not just Bucky Irving these past two years
went healthy who has had success in the NFL
as a smaller back.
We've also seen the top and outcome of Devon H and
a former third round pick by Miami Dolphins
exact same size, 188 pounds.
One inch smaller at the NFL combine weigh-ins
than Clayborn and we know what Devon H and did, right?
He goes to the combine, he runs the four three
and then he ends up producing these past three years
especially in fantasy football.
I mean, he's been a top six running back every single year.
Look at these receiving totals the last two years,
488 yards, 592 yards and obviously this year,
last year was the best year of his career.
He stays healthy, plays 16 games,
average is 5.7 yards per carry between his rushing
of 1,350 yards and his receiving of 488,
he posts over 1,800 total yards.
That is your best case outcome for this type of back.
The speedy back, I would say though,
H and in college at Texas A&M did handle bigger workloads
and Clayborn did in his time at college at Wake Forest
but it's not like Clayborn was only seeing 100 carries
or 120 carries a year.
In 2024, he handled a true workload of 228 carries
and was able to average nearly five yards per carry.
Last year he handles 179, average is 5.1 yards per carry.
Over the past two years, his total yardage
has been around 1200 total yards per season
on average between his rushing and receiving.
He's also a player that has shown
he can catch passes as well.
Now it wasn't like he had the best competition at Wake Forest.
He didn't face a ton of ranked opponents
but when he did face rank opponents, he had good games.
Number 16, George Atec, he goes out there
and over time, he averages 5.7 yards per carry,
119 yards, multiple touchdowns in that game.
He adds a couple of receptions as well.
Okay, so that's one good game.
Then he faces a ranked UAV team, University of Virginia.
He sees a massive workload of 25 carries.
He ends up finishing with 83 total yards in that game.
So you're gonna see some big games out here,
144 yards against Oregon State,
although it's not the toughest competition.
In general, I mean when you're facing teams like Delaware
and you're not putting up great production,
that's going to be a concern for a lot of teams.
But at the end of the day, when he had to come up,
when he had to have his biggest moments
against some of his toughest competition,
he had some of his best games.
So you can't really fault him for the schedule
that he played.
He did face some tough teams and he performed well.
But then also littered on these game logs
or really performances against teams like Ken,
against teams like North Carolina State University.
So that's not great either, Virginia Tech.
You're not even getting 30 yards, right?
Some of this is the team in Wake Forest in general.
Some of this is the player as well
because of his weaknesses, which we'll get into.
But the major problem for Clayborne
is going to definitely be ball security in 2024.
He had three fumbles, he lost all of them.
And then last year in 2025, seven times he fumbled.
He only lost four, but he lost, fumbled seven times.
So that's obviously going to be a concern
for some teams moving forward.
There are strengths to his game though.
And the strengths are obvious when you start to watch his film
outside of just that home run hitting speed.
He also has elite lateral quickness.
You could see the patience and vision
and how that pairs well with his ability
to burst through holes thanks to that speed.
And his receiving over time in his final two years
seemed like it was improving almost by the game.
The weaknesses are all going to be that size related,
like pass protection, ability to break tackles,
in between the tackles, at the NFL level, the power
that that takes, right, all those
are going to be the concerns with your size.
Before the NFL calm mind Clayborne,
Clayborne was being projected as a fifth-round pick.
I would expect him to probably bump up a little bit
after actually going out there and running the 40
and running it at a pretty well speed.
I would say he's probably going to go to the fourth round.
Depending on how his interviews went with teams,
maybe a team falls in love with him
and he lands in the third round,
as that speedster, like a Devon H, and did.
I'd be a little surprised that he made it to the third round,
but in this week running back draft class,
it really just depends on that flavor of running back you want.
And if you want a very speedy home run, hitting running back,
he's probably your best option
outside of the obvious names at the top of the board.
And those obvious names, and really that obvious name
would be Jeremiah Love at a Notre Dame,
who this guy did not have to attend the comment.
He did not have to do anything except weigh in,
which he weighed in at six foot and two hundred and two pounds,
or two hundred and twelve pounds, that look good.
My guess would be that he plays bigger than this.
Maybe he plays at two 15, two 18 or two 20,
but maybe he's slender down.
This is just my guess, I don't know.
Maybe he slender down a little bit for the 40 time,
because that's all he did at the combine and he crushed it.
Because Jeremiah Love shows up to the combine,
again, he didn't have to do anything.
He was already a first run pick, probably a top 15 pick,
but he goes out there and he runs a 4, 3, 6, 40 time.
98% out for his speed.
Looks absolutely fantastic doing it,
still weighed in at a solid size of two hundred and twelve pounds,
but again, I think he's probably closer to like two 15,
maybe even closer to two 20,
probably at that weight would run somewhere around like the 4, 4, 1,
4, 4, 2, 4, 4, 3, where his expectations were,
based on Vegas betting odds for the combine.
But now that he just ran this,
he's a sure thing, top 10 pick in my opinion.
There's already rumors coming out that the Titans at pick four
and the Giants at pick five are interested in him,
which would be terrible picks for those teams,
but then you have the Saints at pick eight,
probably where he ends up, maybe even the Chiefs at pick nine.
As you can see right here in terms of speed scores,
we talked about Mike Washington,
one of the best ever, number two was Jeremiah Love.
So he's just checking all the boxes right now.
His rad score, it's incomplete because he didn't end up
doing any of the jumps or the short shuttle,
which by the way, basically no running back did the short shuttle.
Almost no players are doing the three-colon drill
at these days for agility testing,
which is a concern at this point,
but they're just saying, hey, if we're not good at it,
we're not gonna do it, we're not gonna risk it.
You might remember this from our previous video ranking,
the top 12 rookies, we're gonna update that
and do even more top 24 rookies in a couple of weeks here.
But you can see right now, Jeremiah Love,
final two years of college,
between his rushing yards of 1100
and almost 1400 and back to back years,
and receiving of 237 and 280,
he's averaging over 1300 yards per season
his final two years at Notre Dame.
Against the toughest competition,
we're talking about two years ago,
going to the college football playoffs,
a college football playoffs all the way
into the championship game.
We're talking last year facing the toughest competition,
teams like Miami, who made it to the championship
and getting snubbed from the college football playoffs.
So, or some people would say they got snubbed Notre Dame.
So he's facing good competition.
We already know it.
Like everything about this guy's profile is very good.
If you wanna pick some hairs,
we'll talk about some weaknesses later.
But Jeremiah Love is amazing.
As you can see from Raidju Key right here,
every 15 plus yard touch from 2025,
Love versus 2025 running back class this past year,
he's number one in efficiency per rush,
number one in yards per carry at seven and a half yards per attempt,
number one in explosive play rate,
number one in efficiency per target,
number one or number top three
with Gentian scataboo in broken tackler rate.
So that's comparing him to not only this year's class,
but 2025 as well.
He's great.
He's like that Beige on Robinson,
say Quan Barkley, maybe one tier below those guys,
but I would probably at this point put him above Ash and Gentie
in terms of how good of a prospect he is.
Yeah, that's slow start to the season against Miami,
which we come to find out was one of the best defenses
in college football, 10 carries 33 yards,
and then he ended up going off.
He ends up having a good game against A&M
over 100 yards in a touchdown.
He faces a ranked USC team for 228 yards in a touchdown,
just a beast, faces a ranked pit team
for 143 yards in a touchdown.
To end the season, he's going for 171 yards
and three touchdowns on eight carries against Syracuse.
The dude had eight carries scored on three of them,
but about 171 yards in average 21.4 yards per carry.
He's a beast.
He also is young, like he's not even 21 years old yet.
He's played three years in college, two great seasons,
not even 21 years old.
So he's a young player.
He's going to have a lot of prime years in the NFL.
If there was a downside to his game,
it would maybe be pass protection as is with most rookies.
Sometimes you get some great pass protecting rookies coming out.
He's not the greatest.
He's not terrible, but he's not the greatest.
Those are things that in training camp
he'll probably sharpen up.
He came into the NFL comment as a projected first Trump pick.
Many people already thought he was a top 10 pick,
consensiously mocked in number eight to the Saints.
Sometimes number nine to the Chiefs as well.
I think those are two very good spots for him.
I think it's a guarantee that now he's probably going
to be a top 10 pick unless some teams a trade-up
or trade back and he lands at like number 12 overall
or whatever it might be.
This is a top 10 pick, maybe even a top five pick now.
Now maybe the most interesting
and the guy I want to talk about the most
is Adam Randall because for so many different reasons
he's interesting.
Let's start off with this running back at a Clemson.
He's six foot three, 232 pounds.
Okay, so you start off, he's a monster.
He's a freak size wise, but then I tell you
that last year was his first year playing
the running back position.
For his first three years at Clemson,
he was a wide receiver.
But in those first three years,
he didn't do much of the wide receiver position.
Just 10 catches, 22 catches was his best season
and 16 catches.
So he's seeing a 5%, 8% and 6% target share.
He's basically doing nothing.
He's a role player.
He's maybe getting at best two receptions per game
and he's telling himself, I'm not going to the NFL.
I gotta start looking for jobs.
I gotta put my resume together.
Maybe I'll try switching to the running back position.
So he puts on a little bit of size
and he switches to the running back position.
And in his first year at Clemson,
he has a very solid year.
Average is five yards per carry, 814 rushing yards
and a split back field.
36 catches, his best years are receiver,
believe it or not, in the one year
that he transitions to the running back position
and goes for 254 receiving yards.
11% target share is very solid.
So in his first year playing the running back position,
he's going for a thousand plus total yards.
Now we've seen these types of guys in the past.
Brechard Smith last year ended up being on the chiefs,
sort of a hybrid back in college.
Tyron Tracy, former wide receiver
into the NFL at running back had success as well.
But the difference between those guys in Adam Randall
is that he weighed in at 232 pounds.
Those guys were like, I don't know, 200 pounds at best.
Even below that for Brechard Smith, 232 pounds.
So not only is he a former wide receiver,
so he clearly has the receiving skills.
He grew up doing that and spent three years
at a top organization or in college
in Clemson doing that.
He also now has the size of the running back position.
Six foot three as well.
So this is good to see.
There was stuff to work with on his tape at Clemson.
Was it the greatest?
No, is he inexperienced at running back?
Yeah, he's only done it for one year.
But here's where his profile gets even better
at 232 pounds at the combine.
He wasn't trying to hide his weight.
He said, I'm going to weigh in and also run fast.
He ran a 4 5 40 time.
This guy could have shrunk down to 225 pounds.
He could have just ran his 40 time there
and then loaded back up and got weighed at his pro day.
Not at all.
He ends up coming out here and running a 4 5 40 time,
which is great for his size.
95% how speed scores top 5% of all time.
It's number three in this draft class
in speed score, besides behind only Mike Washington,
one of the best of all time.
And Jeremiah Smith, who we just told you,
is obviously fantastic at what he does,
including a 4 3 40 time.
So I'm very impressed with everything
that we saw at Adam Randell.
He ends up finishing with a Rascore of 9.49,
one of the best in this class,
top five overall to running back position in this class.
So all of that is great to see.
You start to look at his game logs now as well
and you see some very impressive things.
The thing that stands out to me is that, okay,
in his first ever game at the running back position,
he just gets thrown into the fire.
He has to face a top 10 LSU team,
where he's playing his first game at running back.
He's not getting a full time role.
So he only gets five carries.
He scores a touchdown, but okay.
But then he ends up facing in his next game, Troy.
Troy is not a good team.
You should dominate them.
But for a player who's starting his second ever game
at the running back position,
he ends up going out there, 21 carries, 112 yards,
adds four catches for 23 yards.
So he goes for 130 total yards on 21 carries.
And at that point, as soon as his second game
at the running back position, the team was like,
yeah, you're our lead back.
He would follow this up with an AD yard game,
goes out there against Syracuse, a solid team
for 130 yards, finishes the year off strong against a ranked
Louisville team with 105 yards and multiple touchdowns.
South Carolina, a solid team, 102 yards and a touchdown.
So yeah, obviously Adam Randall is a very interesting prospect.
Former receiver, now running back, has the size,
tested good at the combine.
There was flashes on his tape,
especially against ring competition towards the end of the year.
He got better as the year went on.
A lot of things to work with here for a bigger back.
In terms of his strengths,
other than what I already said about the receiving production
and all the athletic testing in the size,
he also has good contact balance and a tough running style,
which makes sense given his size.
But of course, there are going to be downsides with a guy
who only has played a dozen or so games
at the running back position this past year.
His instincts and experience at the running back position
are not fully there yet.
He is a scheme specific back right now
who mostly thrived on the inside zone concepts
and not so much the outside scheme.
And again, that makes sense, he's a bigger back.
So he just relied on his power.
He also led this group of running backs
to 26 bench pressing reps, which is number one.
So just a rare combination of size, speed, explosiveness, and power.
Before the NFL combine, Randall came out here
he's a projected six-round pick as best, 200th overall.
Maybe he doesn't even get drafted.
After this showing at the NFL combine,
I think a lot of scouts and teams are going to go back
and look at that final year tape that he had at Clemson.
They're going to look at the Louisville game.
They're going to find lots of things to get excited about.
They'll look at the CRQ's game of 130 yards
and like his fourth ever start the running back position.
And I think I'll move up draft boards.
I don't know if he gets to the third or fourth round,
but maybe he gets bumped up to the fifth round,
like Tyron Tracy was a fifth round pick for the Giants,
and has at least a chance, depending on his landing spot,
to play some meaningful snaps in the NFL.
So these have been the running backs
who are skyrocketing up the NFL draft board after the combine.
We're going to do the running back version
of this video later in the week.
I appreciate you all tuning in.
If you found this video helpful,
make sure to hit the subscribe button
and I'll see you all in the next one.
And the next one.
Make sure to hit the subscribe button
and I'll see you all in the next one.
Make sure to hit the subscribe button,
and I'll see you all in the next one.
The Fantasy Football Club with Sal Vetri
