NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 126. Early Running Back Position Rankings For 2023 NFL Draft

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers give you their updated running back position rankings (post-regular season) for the 2023 NFL Draft. The two talk about their rankings in the preseason, things that have changed since then, and give each their new Top 5 rankings for the position.

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It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast in this episode we're taking a look at our early running back rankings for the 2023 NFL draft we're going back to our thoughts that we had for summer scouting before the season and comparing that to what we think now. The regular season's in the books of college football,

which means we got a lot of new tape to get to. And that also means that there's a shakeup in where we are ranking these running backs. So we give you our top fives and a handful of others. You know how we do it on this podcast. It's basically a top 10, our top 10 running backs. We'd love to hear what you guys think about our takes. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me, as always, is Connor Rogers.

Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sycamore. That is Connor Rogers joining you guys on a early rankings Thursday episode of the show. If you tuned in last week, you know that we're devoting a lot of time here on the Thursday episodes to revisiting our rankings. And it's the first time since we've revisited them since summer scouting, we've got full regular season tape in the books for college football. So we're going through position by position and reordering rewatching and

giving our new takes really for these positions today it is the running back position that's right baby the war for running back value begins right here eight first round running backs this class no okay maybe that's a little too far connor but uh this is a fun class i'm excited uh to talk about this with you, buddy, because it seems like it's another really good running back class. Me too, man. We obviously carry the flag for all running back value under this umbrella at Pro Football Focus. We proudly do.

So this is an important show to us. And all jokes aside, this is a great group. It's a great group in terms of top end talent. It's a great group in terms of debate in the middle to the end. It is a first responder salute right there. First one of the night, folks. Buckle up. We're here.

We're ready to go. Man, it's pretty awesome. And you know what? I have to admit, it's one of those shows that, and I think you feel a little bit of the same, I still almost wish we had more time because there's a lot of guys that I didn't get to watch that. I mean,

there's always going to be guys on our December, January shows that we haven't watched that are going to get drafted. And we're going to get there. We're going to update these after the combine. We'll probably update all the top fives, but man, there there's just so many names to get through. There's so many different names that

are going to go in the first three to four rounds in this draft and um it's a really really varied you know varied skill kind of group that it's going to be awesome to see where our differences lie yeah running back is always really interesting to see which skill sets each evaluator really puts a premium on because there's so many different kinds of running backs and look obviously we make the jokes that we're kind of caping for the running back value we also admit that there are different shapes and sizes of running backs and honestly whether you're a first rounder whether you're an undrafted free agent we see it all the time these guys can really break out but it's because of those skill sets because of that

mentality it's because of the the vision the athleticism all these kinds of things that you can get drafted wherever in the nfl draft and be a good running back so uh even though we're not going to necessarily say that there should be eight running backs to go in the first round there's a lot of really good ones to like and i think that that means that your team has a chance to get a good ball carrier whether it's a feature back whether it's a change of pace back a speed guy a power guy a two-back system kind of a guy a third down specialist whatever it is we've got a lot of these guys that we're going to be talking about uh here today the structure of this show it's the same as summer scouting so connor and i are going to go from five to one we're going to

give you our top fives as we've seen them like you said we haven't seen everybody in this class it's early running back ranking so we want to see a lot of the as connor put it blue chip players right these guys that their names are pretty high on the list already we want to give you our thoughts on those players and then kind of when we get closer to the shrine bowl the senior bowl the combine you know hopefully we have anywhere from 15 to 20 of these guys ranked and and the scouting reports up for these players so definitely an early ranking but we wanted to get you guys something here in the month of December as we really got into draft season just to reevaluate what our thoughts were from summer scouting so Connor I will I will give you the floor my friend you can kick us off here with

your number five running back in the early running back rankings for the 2023 NFL draft thank you Trevor I appreciate that and I have a funny feeling that five is where we'll have some disagreement. And then I have a funny feeling that while one through four might not be the same order for us, it'll be the same players. So when we get, so stick around for the end of the show outside the top five, because there's a lot of just missed the cut names that we'll get through. Don't worry.

Number five for me is Zach Charbonnet. And I mean, it's just, it makes me laugh. I remember one of the notes I wrote down over the summer, and I don't think he was a top five back for me over the summer. I can't truly remember. He was not for me. I think he was, I don't think he was for me, but I remember I had some really very, you know, nice things to say about him is that the first thing was he looks like a Michigan transfer playing in the Pac-12. He just doesn't look like he belongs on the Pac field. It is funny. It's very funny.

There's just not a lot of running backs, I think, like him that we see in this conference. 6'1", 220. He looks like he can carry 230 overnight. I mean, he really does. He's just huge. He's huge. He's built like that. I mean, he really does. He's just huge. He's huge. He's built like that Matt Forte, Arian Foster. He has that kind of build.

He runs like an absolute horse. I mean, he's out there to kill you. He really is. And I love that. I just, I loved watching it. I love the violence that he established from the very first handoff. PFF graded, gave him a run grade of 93.8. That's a pretty serious metric.

He was graded as one of the best runners in the country. Workhorse runner, finished 2022 with 195 carries for 1,359 rushing yards, 14 rushing touchdowns, 52 missed tackles, forced 4.2 yards after contact per attempt, 44 explosive runs. He also caught 37 passes for over 300 yards for 17 first downs. He only had two drops on 44 targets. You can live with that. This is coming off a year where he had 23 receptions for 181 yards. So he got better

as a receiver. He became more impactful as a receiver while maintaining that workhorse running back style. I mean, he's got a great body type for the position. I think he's very, very smart. You watch him in pass pro and he's not one of those guys that's just diving at feet all the time. Do I think the awareness can improve a little bit in pass pro and he can be coached up in that area? I do. But with his body type and physicality, I think it's all going to come together in that area where he's a three down back. And to me, is he this guy that's going to run a four, four and, you know, be this breakaway game changing threat? He's not, but can he be somebody that wears you out, sets a different tone, runs in between the tackles, runs off tackle, can catch the ball,

can pass, protect, do everything the right way you ask of him while being highly efficient. That's really what I saw. I just saw tacklers bounce off of him. I saw tacklers start to become worried about his play strength and overthink how they were going to come to balance and break down, and then he'd make them miss. So Trevor, full of transparency, I struggled so much picking a fifth guy. I really did. There was 10 guys I thought that could have been in this fifth spot, but I kept coming back to Charbonnet, when I thought of him over summer, when I watched the 2022 film, and I said, this guy's too good. He has to be mentioned in the top five for this show for me.

Well, do you want the good news or the bad news? I'm usually a bad news first kind of guy. Okay, the bad news is that we might have the same running backs. No way. I really didn't expect this because the good news is that you and i are good friends and we see prospects similarly uh it means we have a good eye for scouting if i do say so myself i also have zach charbonnet as my fifth running back in this class a four-star running back coming out of high school from um lake village california so he's a cal California kid, ended up going to Michigan.

You mentioned it. His playing style does look kind of funny in the Pac-12. Look, he started as a true freshman in Michigan on opening day, I will note. Rushed for over 700 yards in his freshman season, but then the following season, he just didn't get the ball. He just never really got the ball in Michigan. After being recruited pretty heavily by UCLA during the high school process, he decided to transfer over to UCLA once they realized,

or once he realized that he just was not going to get the ball as much as he wanted to. And it's been a great fit for him at UCLA. I do think that it's sometimes a little, it's a little misfit sometimes when guys who play for more of a power conference try to transfer over to such a spread out conference like the Pac-12 is it's just the Pac-12 is just a brand of football that's very much built around spacing and athleticism and really just going to the sideline using every single inch of the field whereas I think the Big 12 a lot of times outside of those really athletic Michigan teams and then I would just say Ohio State as well as a lot of times outside of those really athletic Michigan teams. And then I would just say Ohio state as well as a lot of those big 12 teams

there between the tackles, you know, they're between the hash marks. They're just ground and pound physical football. And it felt like what Zach Charbonnet's brand was, but you plop them down into the pack 12 and you go, okay, hold on a second. This six foot one, 220 pound running back can hang with these guys athletically. And look, there are some deficiencies. Like when you watch zach charbonnet if you watch him right behind you're watching a guy like a tank bigsby or a jameer gibbs or

something you'll go like oh okay like he doesn't change direction as well well you got to think of the physical profile of him of course not he's got more muscle more mass to move so he's just not going to cut on a dime as fast as some of those other guys do but he's got good relative athleticism the weight adjusted athleticism for Zach Charbonnet I think is really good no he's not going to threaten flat 4-4 in the 40-yard dash but the speed is plenty adequate for him to really get good momentum going he takes contact super well there are a handful of I watched four games of him and they're a handful of rushes where he is pinballing off of tacklers just trying to put everything that they can into the tackle he's staying on his feet the legs keep churning boom

boom he takes a couple of tackles and all of a sudden he's off to the races and that's how he gets his big breakaway runs is because the balance is so fantastic with him. You know, you mentioned him being a three down back. I'd be curious to hear what you thought about me kind of countering that a little bit. I think he has all three down ability, but I wouldn't call him a three down back. Like for as much as I think the weight adjusted athleticism is good enough for him to be a pro, I still see him as just a bigger back in a two back system, which is not an insult at all whatsoever. But I was curious, do you see him as more? Do you think this guy is a player who you can give 20, 25 carries to in a game that he could be your RB1 that you can lean on him a ton? Or did you see him as more of like a two-back kind of a player i saw him as a two-back kind of play what i thought right away with him was aj dylan on green bay that's really okay sure yeah that like that was what came to mind right away i said would i look at some of the backfields in the nfl right and and you really have to think of almost windows

because these feature backs get hurt all the time it's just not a really great way to live and die Derek Henry on the Titans um the Jets were doing it with Brees Hall the Broncos wanted to do it with Javante but Melvin Gordon was hanging around and we know what happened to Javante but when you think of Charbonnet and just that mold like just the guy you're limiting your offense right because you're you are taking away the home run threat and i i totally agree with you trevor when you think of charbonnet in that green bay backfield mold of the aj dylan role and you find an aaron jones to pair with him i think it's perfect because i really i think charbonnet is honestly going to go in the third round i don't think he's going in the top 60 picks um so i'm totally with you i think three down ability is the perfect way to put it he will be the ideal one-two punch for somebody

i've got it i've got a late day two target for him so yeah somewhere in the third round is also where i i kind of pegged him there um i agree with you i think that that's a really good way to look at him and kind of the reason why i brought that up, you know, you brought up Javante Williams. I think the way that we're describing Charbonnet and the things that we like sort of sound like the strengths that Javante Williams had. But I'm not I wouldn't put him on Javante Williams level like he's not that kind of an athlete. I don't think he's a power guy, but he's not that kind of a total like giovante williams was i'll say i like the hands in the receiving game um i think that that's improved actually over the last couple of years from what i watched so i really like the hands i was disappointed in pass protection maybe i just watched it's an awareness watch the wrong

games but i'm like man you're and it's funny because I think Charbonnet has such great attention to detail in so many other parts of his game. Like, I think the catching, I think his hands have been more reliable. I think he's been more crisp with routes. I think he's been more confident with routes out of the backfield.

Certainly when he is running with zone blocking schemes, he's very confident. He understands his aiming points. He knows when he needs to put his foot in the ground to make a decision. There's so many other parts of his games that are very disciplined. And I felt like that just did not exist with pass protection. I'm like, man, this is like a moneymaker for you. Like this is an area where you could really stand out.

You're six foot one, 220 pounds. So that is definitely something that I would like to see him get better at in the NFL, because then I think that really unlocks that third down roll for him where you can have him in the backfield and whether he's going out to catch a swing pass getting some short yardage for you um or being in pass protection like those are the three things I think make you a really solid third down back and he's still I mean he's missing that pass protection one. And you know how NFL coaches are. If you're about to get your quarterback killed, you ain't going to get on the field.

Like it doesn't matter how big of a power back you are, unless it's an obvious running situation. There's no deception there. They're not going to have you sit in there and protect the quarterback if you can't do it. So that's an area of his game that I definitely want to see him get better at. But I was just very impressed by his vision.

Very impressed by his overall skill set and not a ton of I mean like not a ton of things that I really watched his game and was like yeah this dude needs to get better at that it really just kind of is the relative athletic ceiling that he has and we're kind of seeing that a little bit but that's okay man I think that it's still all very pro level right now for him. So increasing his third down ability is I think the big area of the takeaway that I would say that he could get better at. But other than that, man, this is a really good prospect and a guy who I think can contribute pretty early on in a rookie contract for you. I think so too.

Senior at UCLA. I know he's not on the senior bowl accepted invites roster yet. If I'm assuming he's very worthy, I think he'd be the best back on that roster immediately. If he opts to go, that's somebody that those one-on-one drills could make him a lot of money. Because it was really the one thing I wanted to see more of. And I'm just assuming a coaching staff will get the most out of him in pass pro. I think it's adequate. I don't think I think the awareness is lacking.

And I I think it'll all come together under a coaching staff. You talked about how you had a handful of names that you could have went with at number five, like we did for edge rusher. I'm going to ask you who ended up being closest to Charbonnet. Was there was there a player that really kind of was like sitting there at number six for you? Well, actually three. Okay. You could even say four.

It was close. I looked at Zach Evans as potentially not. Once again, these guys, Charbonnet fairly won out. It wasn't like pick somebody. Evans, Tank Bigsby, Tajay Spears. I didn't like pick somebody Evans tank, Bigsby, Tajay Spears. I didn't watch him yet. Tulane back. He's, he's fun. He, I couldn't put him in the top five, but he's an interesting player. Okay. Dwayne McBride at UAB, uh, Kendra Miller from TCU. Those guys were all in there. Okay. I know there's going to be a lot of people that are just screaming at me right now,

say Sean Tucker. It was probably a conversation for later in the show. I was a little disappointed this year with Sean Tucker when I went back and watched some film. I'm trying to make sure I didn't miss anybody that was... I mean, it was tough, Trevor. It really was. And then there's...

He wasn't in consideration for five, but I'm wondering, is Deuce Vaughn going to declare? I love Deuce Vaughn. I love Deuce Vaughn too. I watched his tape this morning and I'm like, Deuce, man. I wish, the very first play that I watched of him this morning was, I wish I could tweet this out, but we can't tweet out uh college all 22 yes reminder to everybody um there the very first key play that he has in pfs database from the big

12 championship game the game against tcu it's i can't remember if it was his own run but it was it was an off tackle thing where he's coming around, around the outside tackle, and the offensive lineman is engaged with a defender, and the offensive lineman pushes the defender a little bit, just to gain almost like just an arm's length of space between him and the defender, and Deuce Vaughn literally ducks under their arms and runs in between them. Like no running back has ever had the ability to do before.

That's unbelievable. He is that compact. He is that small. And I just started laughing watching it because I'm like, hell yeah, Deuce. Never seen it. Hell yeah, baby. I love Deuce Vaughn. I wish so bad I could put him in my top

five but unfortunately just the the size limitations don't allow it but i knew we were going to get to him at some point in the podcast i will say off the names that you rattle off there we will not have the same top four good i gave one away one funny one to me was Dwayne McBride on UAB. I'm watching him and Charbonnet very, very closely together. And I'm like, Charbonnet is just kind of a little bit of a better version. Like McBride. A little upgrade. McBride breaks tackles. He's a bigger back.

He runs the hell out of the football. But he caught two passes this year, and he's fumbled nine times in the last two seasons. And to be fair he he gets an insane amount of carries but i remember i wrote down in my summer notes fumbled four times in 2021 has to clean this up and i go do my notes for december and i'm like he fumbled five times this year yeah like it got we got worse so he's a good player still despite that he's a he's a very talented runner but charbonnet was just a better player, more complete player. So number four for me, and I think this is where our rankings will start to be a little different.

Number four for me is somebody we are waiting on to know if he's going to declare to the point where Adam Schefter was tweeting about it this week. Blake Corum. Blake Corum, a summer favorite of yours. Somebody I did not watch before that show, which I regret. And unfortunately, Corum had knee surgery basically to end his 2022 season. Once again, we don't know if he's going to declare, which is a massive question in this group. Because if he stays, things get a lot interesting in this top five because he's that kind of talent that the top four running backs that i ranked here i was i was really blown away

with and starts with quorum 582 10 95.3 rush grade which is just i mean to put that in perspective he's right there with bjohn John Robinson yeah that's that's an insanely high grade man insanely high grade um right into the notes he finished 2022 with 247 carries which is insane over uh almost 1500 rushing yards finished 1463 18 rushing touchdowns 73 missed tackles Forrest is out of this world 3.4 yards after contact per attempt. That's not as high of a metric as you'll hear from some other guys today, but 36 explosive runs. He added 11 catches for 80 yards.

I just think he's got incredibly impressive sweet feet. The feet are just, I mean, he's a tap dancer out there. This dude could probably ace, you know, whatever ballerina school is right it's really it's remarkable to watch this man move is it not ballerina school is there like a special word for ballerina school what is ballerina school called and how do we get blake quorum there i think oh ballet school good job morons oh my god sometimes we are especially me are really that was a tough scene man you know what i'm so proud that i don't even want i don't edit it out of the show just let it run no i won't let it run i won't so what is ballerina school called? Ballet school for 400, idiot.

So Sweet V, lethal, lethal with his balance. I mean, there was times where he gets not, he gets, he could either reset. I took a screenshot of him that it'll hit the internet at some point. It's against Indiana. It's an outside run. And he starts to kind of plant and his whole body starts to go full, like leaning tower of pizza in the middle of four defenders. There's just four defenders around him. And this is about the 45,

their own 45. He got tackled at the one yard line on the play. I just don't know the way he can contort his body and really stop and start uh i i wrote down he's a dream inside zone runner like if you if you want if you want to run a lot of inside zone his ability to bounce around and get through lanes get skinny know when to hit it know when to slow down what it can stay he's just he's just such a talented runner so talented um this is a guy that is already very well coached in pass pro i saw him stay square yeah i saw him understand how to use his leverage yes he's now keep in mind he's 5'8 210 so leverage is key he knows how to

get inside your pads i this this is the difference of and i know UCLA had a good year no disrespect getting coached at Michigan versus getting coached at UCLA and pass pro I saw coaching I saw coaching take place here for Blake Corham it's ironic because obviously Charbonnet transferred from Michigan to UCLA but I know yeah now let's be honest here the season ending knee surgery is concerning it really is I mean I I don't know what the injury is, and it's not moving him off these rankings, but if it's something that he thinks is going to hurt his draft stock where he goes back to school,

we're talking about totally different expectations because, quite frankly, Trevor is a prospect. I don't know if I want another 250 college carries out of Blake Corham. Full answer, I don't. I don't. They'll run this guy into the ground. And I think he's a really talented prospect that can really do whatever you ask of him.

But most important, he's not going to be this constant breakaway run threat. But in terms of getting 8 to 15 yards, he's as good as it gets in his class. He really is. He's 8 to 15 yards, which is what wins you football games and establishes the run. This guy's as good as it gets, man. I love him. And I know,

I know you've been earlier on him than anybody I know in the track community. I, I had him as I think RB three, maybe RB two going into the season. I can't remember. I also have him at RB four and, but I do think that surprised by that.

So I think that we see him very similarly though. This, this is, and, and maybe when it's all said and done, I won't end up having him at RB four because there's so much to love about his game. I just kind of gushed over what I love about Deuce Vaughn. Blake Corum is Deuce Vaughn,

but has a little bit more size to him where you can justify, where you can like trust it. Well, I don't want to say that because Deuce Vaughn's awesome and he's going to be a pro, but like- Deuce Vaughn is 5'6", 180 pounds. Blake Corum is 5'8", okay, still not big, 200 pounds. So he's two inches taller, 20 pounds heavier. Like that is a significant difference

when you're talking about playing the running back position, going from college to the pros. There's just so much to love about Blake Corum's game. He's such a great receiver. He's a crisp route runner. He's so willing in pass protection. His contact balance is awesome. The footwork is phenomenal.

Like, all that stuff is there. The reason why I've got him at four is simply because he's got athletic limitations. I do. He's just the overall size and really what it comes down to is the stride length. He's just not big enough of a dude to cover a ton of ground. You get some of these other running backs. They're 5'11", 6 feet tall, whatever it is. And they just, they have longer legs.

They are explosive and they have longer legs. They cover more ground than Blake Corum does. Corum has some breakaway moments at Michigan. But I watched those breakaway moments and I go, you're getting caught in the NFL. You're not hitting this angle in the NFL. Like it's just, those things aren't going to happen. But I'm glad that you ended your topic on Corum the way you did.

Home run speed is overrated for running backs. Okay? It is. I was telling you guys, I think, yesterday, how I kind of have things divided. I have an overall film score of 100, but I have seven categories that are divided there. So I have them weighted

differently those categories carry more weight to them you can score more points in certain areas than others and breakaway speed is not the number one thing for me it's just not because the instances in which you even can rush for a 60-yard touchdown are so few and far between compared to the times that it would be advantageous for your team to just always be the guy that picks up five. Like if you're always the guy who's picking up anywhere, really it's anywhere above four and a half yards.

Four and a half yards is a fantastic health and healthy yards per carry average. If you can get over four and a half yards per carry in the NFL, like you are, you are somebody who is worth giving the ball to on the ground. You are consistently getting things moving. You're consistently putting yourself,

you're in your team and really good down and distance situations, whether it's second down, third down converting on fourth down, whatever it is, Blake Corum will be that for you. Blake Corum will be a player who averages a very healthy yards per carry average. And I'm saying this out loud and again like maybe it is something where i look at these other guys

and you know i get some final honestly that for a couple of people that are a little bit higher on this list i'm waiting to get some final measurables as much as i am athletic scores when it comes to the combine so quorum still could be higher than this. He could still end up as one of my top three backs in this class because of everything that he just does so well. I just think that there are still overall top end athletic limitations with him simply because of his size, but so much of what he does in the game outside of that is exactly what you would want out of a back.

This is a, this is a pro guy and and i think that he's going to be a fan favorite for sure no matter what team he goes to yeah it was funny out of the top um let's say top four he was a guy i still didn't have a comp for i felt like the the overall like you said measurables and testing will play such a part in that. But I'm with you. I mean, I'm really with you. Really, really good player that has limitations in a sense of, can he be that superstar?

I mean, he's not going to be a first-round kind of guy, but he just feels like he'll be a rock-solid back for you for a really, really long time if he's healthy. Do you want to start with number three in case we are running, you know, completely the same and I'm just. Sure. We have, there's one player that you have in your top three that I don't have in my top five.

Oh, that's right. Good. And vice versa. Three for me is Jameer Gibbs. Wow. Okay. So I have Jameer Gibbs at number three, tailback for Alabama, set a fantastic year for the tide.

I got some of those PFF stats here. I'm just a big summer guy for us. He was a summer guy that we were very excited about seeing to get to see him in Alabama's offense. So 81.4 overall PFF grade, 83.1 rushing grade for Jameer Gibbs. And then a 78.3 receiving grade, which is a pretty good mark

at 850 yards on the season 451 after contact seven touchdowns 35 missed tackles but a 0.26 um forced missed tackles forced average which is decently high you want to be somewhere around three and and he almost got to that mark 23 explosive plays 42 receptions 378 receiving yards and just one drop he's an extremely talented player who transferred over from Georgia Tech. It always felt like he, I mean, all due respect to Georgia Tech, it always felt like his game was bigger than Georgia Tech, especially where Georgia Tech is right now as a football program. And you put him in an Alabama uniform.

Not only was he not overwhelmed, but he stood out. And what stands out a ton is the twitch, the long speed, the overall athleticism. This is where we get into the realm of you got really good athletes, right? I think a couple of the other guys that we talked about, just really good backs, good vision, good strength, good balance, those things where you're handling the little parts well, playing the running back position. Jameer Gibbs does do a decent amount of those things, but he also brings that top-tier gear, that top-tier athleticism to him.

So I think the breakaway speed, we saw that so many times this season. You know, this is one of the guys that I was referencing when I was talking about I'm waiting to see measurements. He's listed at 5'11", 200. that I was referencing when I was talking about I'm waiting to see measurements. He's listed at 5'11", 200. I don't know if he's 200 pounds. He don't play like he's 200 pounds. Well, he's got time to get ready to lie at the combine, so.

Right, right. But when I watch Gibbs, I think he's got good balance, but he still gets overpowered on tackles. And understandably, his brand of running back, and he's a speed back. I have him categorized as a speed back. Strength is often an area where it's a give and take. You have more speed, you have less strength. That's typically what it goes when you're kind of like building these prospects

and evaluating these prospects. But if you're like 200, you know, like if you're 5'11", 200, then I probably think that you should be handling strength a little bit better than that. You know, he runs like somebody who I feel like is like 195, like sub 200. And I do think that that makes a difference.

So I'm very curious to see what jameer gibbs ends up measuring in at because i feel like his measurements that we see there are going to tell the tale of the tape more than what he is listed at on a bio but he's he he checks the athleticism box and that's a big reason why i like jamir gibbs is because he takes very small rushing windows and can turn into who you're supposed to play 10 yards 15 yards 20 yards down the field and he was doing that in the sec and the sec is a very athletic conference overall and he was still able to stand out so this is where we start to get into the better athletes in the class. Yeah. And I've got Jameer Gibbs at three because of it.

So, yeah, full disclosure, he was number two for me. I figured he was going to be two for you. Yeah, number two for me. I'll go through him quickly now, and then I'll go back to number three because I think it's easier, probably better listening experience when you hear us go back-to-back on a running back, especially when they're this close. Two and three for me, man,

you could have flipped a coin to be honest with you. So I know, I know who you have it too. And I, I, I have a three. Right. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I know who, I know who you have at three. And this is going to be a discussion between us. This was a summer scouting discussion. And when we're doing, is a summer scouting discussion, and we're doing round two. I loved him over the summer. We're doing round two again.

We're doing round two again. I wouldn't say cooled. I just ended up higher on Gibbs, obviously. He's number two. Phenomenal year. Gibbs is just, I mean, he really is Dalvin Cook to me. He really is. You watch him. See, I thought Dal Dalvin Cook to me. He really is. You watch him.

See, I thought Dalvin plays with more strength. Well, Gibbs will get there, man. I mean, he's a youngster. I think he'll get bigger and stronger. I think he already did. I saw it start to really take place from Georgia Tech to Alabama. And it's funny because you could just say, well, then he's James. James Cook is 10 pounds lighter than Dalvin.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because Dalvin 10 pounds lighter than Dalvin. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because Dalvin was 5'10", 210. So, yeah. I think James is like a hair under 5'11", and he's 195 or 199. Yeah, something like that. So, let me look. Let me see what he measured in at.

That's funny. So, which Cook brother is he? He was. Somewhere in between them. At the Combine james cook was 5 11 199 there you go this lighter version and i think as a runner i think he's closer to james cook but anyways i'm you go on tell you tell me about jameer gibbs man he's gifted he just has the kind of feel that you just you turn it on you're like it's too easy for this dude when it's there there's

some guys that they you know they have the rush lanes and they might overthink it sometimes they might he's just so comfortable so comfortable in the rush lanes he's got that feel he's got great agility i like his bursts to get to where he needs to go. Once again, the feet. You know, Corum, it's different because Corum's a little thicker and more compact. Gibbs has those lightning feet with a little bit more of an upright, more like, you know, lanky kind of build, like you highlighted, Trevor. And you brought up, it's like he didn't belong at Georgia Tech.

He was their fifth highest ranked recruit of all time in Georgia Tech history. So, you know, at a time where Georgia Tech, sorry, you know, it hasn't, this guy was destined for a bigger program and he took that opportunity and ran with it. Literally 136 carries, 850 yards. But what he does as a receiver is where, what he does as a receiver is why he'll go in the top 40. He's a really good runner, really good runner. But his ability as a pass catcher is

he could, they could do more with him. They could do more with him. When you get this guy going on wheel routes, when you flex them out to the slot, even if you just want to throw the ball to him in the flats. I mean, he only dropped one pass this year and he was used as a receiver, a lot, 42 catches, almost 400 yards i just he's he's such a good player he's such a well-rounded player in terms of you know the way i was taught to scout running backs was that they have to check the boxes on the higher end two out of three things and you have to be a really good runner a really good pass catcher and or a really good pass protector and that's how you'll get on the field as a rookie and with him because of that build i

don't know how much he'll be trusted in pass pro right away that's that's a combo that you know taken to the summer but i know this dude can run the ball and catch the ball as good as anyone pretty much besides one dude and we'll get to that dude so give us for me if you're one of the many teams in the nfl that's leaning on outside zone they're gonna love this dude uh the demand is in his favor and i was i was really impressed but i do want to get to number three because we you know you went pretty what was that go ahead hold on hold on i was i was just gonna say you know you bring it up dalvin cook and then you bring it up james cook i mean that's not a bad that's not a bad comparison in certain ways like i think stylistically these guys are very

similar where they are speed backs that bring a ton in the receiving game um jameer gibbs just had better production than james cook did in both situations he had more production as a receiver he had more production as a back and i think that gibbs is more of a running back that gives you receiver ability whereas james cook it felt like, was used just as a receiving back at Georgia because they had the other power guys. So, yeah. So Gibbs is more experienced as a rusher than James Cook was, but you look at where James Cook was drafted, 63 overall, second round.

So, I mean, like, people forget. You know, I don't know if jamir gibbs is going to be a first rounder some people talk about him as sneaking into the first round as like a second running back that could go in the first round i think he's more of a second rounder anyways and i think again so it's dalvin a little bit of better production um a little bit more of a true running back ability to him and i think he's going to go a little bit more of a true running back ability to him. And I think he's going to go a little bit higher than James Cook did. But like body-wise, athleticism-wise,

it seems like it's a pretty decent comp there. Yeah, just style-wise. And it was funny to me. He gets a lot of Alvin Kamara comps, and I'm not really with that one as much. Everyone does. Everyone does. I won't do it.

I won't do it. My take is it's because of his aesthetic. Right. Number one, he's got the tape. The turf tape. The turf tape. He looks like if you took college Alvin Kamara's literal body and put him in an Alabama uniform.

But that doesn't mean he's Alvin Kamara. It's different. I came away with more somewhere in the middle of the Cook brothers. Yeah, I mean, Alvin Kamara takes contact better than basically like anyone back in the NFL, right? And Alvin Kamara is 215. So he takes the contact unbelievably well. So number three for me.

Yeah, who you got? I think you know. It's Devonon a chain 89.3 rush grade uh this year he finished with almost 200 carries 196 it's a lot for a dude that the question with him is going to be size listed 5 9 eighty five he ran for over 1100 yards eight rushing touchdowns 51 missed tackles force 3.6 yards after contact per run 35 explosive runs 36 catches for almost 200 yards three receiving touchdowns did have three drops in 2022 undraftable can't happen i mean here this is an easy one the dude's hella fast man the dude is he's he was a track superstar in high school he's been on the a&m indoor and outdoor teams and the track speed is on the field as a football player he if you give him room he's gone he's gone he's and in today's nfl

this kind of guy, 12 years ago, probably goes in the fourth round. Everybody go, he's fast, but a small breeze will knock him over. He won't stay healthy or we can't rely on him in the run game. In today's NFL, a little different story. Everybody's looking for a dude that, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but Trevor, do you think he has a shot to run sub 4-3? Sub 4-3 is fast, but he did run. Do it now.

He did run the 100-meter dash in 10-1-4. That's what I'm saying. This dude is a rocket. Stupid. And he's also, I think what goes into running a really fast time at the at at the combine is you've got to be comfortable getting into a track stance and he's clearly going to be comfortable getting the track stance so i don't think it's impossible for him to hit sub four three okay i just want to know if you thought it was a conversation and you do so i think it's a conversation i'm kind of bracing everybody this is my number three running back i think he has

a gigantic spectrum of ceiling and floor and i don't i don't feel that way about quorum i don't feel that way about charbonnet i don't feel that way about gibbs i don't feel that way about number one hell there's a couple guys from six to ten that i don't feel that way about number one. Hell, there's a couple guys from six to ten that I don't feel that way about. I think there's a giant spectrum from that floor all the way to the ceiling with him. I don't think he's the most natural receiving back, which is going to matter a lot for his success, but he's solid. But, and you're not leaving him back there to pass. He just went to cut people every time, and guys kind of catch on to that and can jump out of the way. He's not going to stand in there and go square with you,

you know, toe to toe. What this all leads to is he needs to go to the right place. But if you put him in a system. To Miami. Kansas City. Kansas City, too. That would work out. You know what I mean? Yeah. know what I mean like he'd be terrifying

he'd be terrifying because you can't account for somebody with these kind of wheels so I did like him a lot I love his home run ability I recognize that he won't be for everybody because you better understand what you're doing with his

role but this guy just has something that not a lot of players that come into the nfl draft have yeah he's got speed and you know when i when i entered into my top three running backs in this class i said okay now we get to the athletes i devon a chain is not one of my top five backs i have him at number seven um i actually like him better than i did going into summer scouting i was pretty low on him in summer scouting i genuinely thought that he was just speed and i think i thought that he's been better this year i thought there are instances when um his vision can show a little bit better he was a little bit more decisive in his cuts and how he was reading the field,

reading the offensive line. But I have to say this is a massive disclaimer. Texas A&M might have the worst offensive line in the country. I mean, the games I watched, it was embarrassing. Watching these O-linemen get ragdolled by these defensive players who just immediately went in the rush lane. And there are so many plays that A-Chain just had absolutely

no chance to get anything. And I wonder what his tape would have looked like. Now they gave him the ball a lot, right? so he has the raw stats like he has a lot of those things but i wonder what he's like and how much more i like his vision if he was in a situation where he could actually show it all the time because i'm not gonna lie to you man vision is the heaviest weighted trait that i have for running back it matters so much and I don't have the highest grade on a chain that's not to say there weren't impressive plays of vision that he displayed but the play-to-play basis I just was it there are times when I watch him and I was like okay didn't exactly choose the right thing to do there you know put his head down before he needed to there could have stuck

his foot in the ground here could add a little bit more patience here but I kept coming back to if he doesn't believe in his offensive line how does he even trust it to even like make the right call and and furthermore how does he trust it enough to get better to improve that and I actually think that he improved more in that area this year than that what I saw from him during the summer so I did like him a little bit better but I'm I'm just worried like I'm still worried that is still an unanswered question that I don't care how fast you run at the combine I already know you're fast you know like I don't care what the measurables are I think the measurables are going to be solid for him I know he's I know he because he's got soft hands and he could be a good receiver like I know all those things the thing that i'm not gonna have answered is at least i believe i watched four games of them so there's

other games that i can watch is i don't know how convinced i'm gonna be that he's got the vision that i really want to bet on and that to me connor is the difference between him being a back end of day two player like a late day three player to me or a beginning of day two player because you look at his speed and you go they can't teach that we got to draft that 100 if you believe in his vision as a player if you believe that texas a&m's offensive line absolutely let him down i could see a team taking him in the top 50 but if you've got concerns over his vision like i kind of do at least at this point in the process, is the speed enough for me to take him over these other backs?

No. I just don't think that it is. Not at this point in time. So I didn't have him in my top five. I had him at number seven, and those are the reasons why. It's totally fair. I mean, he's one of those guys that it's just you're going to be praying he goes to the right place you really are because i agree that early on you're going to have to

keep things a little simple for him where his pathway is decided right a jet sweep you're going to get the jet sweep and there's going to be a point outside you know obviously before the numbers where you got to cut up field and And that's that you're gonna get screens. You're going to get draws, but there's, you know, there's just going to be a play. If you expect to turn around and hand the ball to him the way you would with Coram or Gibbs, and they have to create a little bit on their own. He hasn't consistently, and you're right. The offensive line has been a problem as well, but he hasn't consistently and you're right the offensive line's been a problem as well but he hasn't consistently shown that you know that's what he is at this moment so really

talented guy and has a as a trade that's just a calling card that will be valued highly in this draft but there's there's risk 64 overall in the second round devon a A. Chain, you are a Philadelphia Eagle. I mean, good Lord. And Miles Sanders is a free agent too, right? Would be fun. Would be fun. All right, so I guess that brings me to my number two overall back that I have in this class, a player that, Connor, I didn't like coming out of Summer Scout.

Oh, I know where you're going. That I had a lot of concerns over. That I just was not impressed with, despite some of the stats that he was able to put up. I just didn't love what I saw on film. I really enjoyed what I saw on film from Auburn running back, Tank Bigsby, this year. I've got him as my number two overall running back

in the early running back rankings. Six feet, 210 pounds. really good size as a back. Some PFF stats for you. 83.5 overall grade this season, an elite 90.5 rushing grade. Didn't have a very good receiving grade. It was just a 54.9, but I think that his receiving film shows a little bit better than those numbers. 976 yards this season. 740 came after contact. That is a high percentage of yards coming after contact there. 10 touchdowns, 60 missed tackles for us, which remember, I said you're trying to shoot for more than.3.

That's.34, so that's good there. 27 explosive plays. He had 30 receptions for just 180 yards, and he had three drops on the season as well. Connor, I feel like, first and foremost, Tank Bigsby could have transferred from Auburn, I think, I think multiple times. If he wanted to transfer last offseason, I believe he could have,

and I guess, like, he wouldn't have transferred after this, but you look at the Brian Harsin debacle that was Auburn this season. And when Auburn, when, when Brian Harsin got fired, it felt like tank big to be, could have been one of those guys who just mailed it in. And he absolutely didn't.

I think that he looked at his team and he said, okay, now I got to step up even more and be a leader. It seems like the locker room really loves him. The coaching staff really loves him. Cadillac really loves him. The running back coach who was the interim head coach, of course,

Cadillac Williams at the table Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There's so much to like about Tank Bigsby's game. He's got the size and with it, now he's got the balance and he's got the strength. If you remember, Connor, my number one thing that I did not like about Tank Bigsby's tape during the summer is I felt like at times he was a baby deer. Like he just would just get his feet tangled.

He just didn't have good balance. I didn't know why. Sometimes it would be right before the line scrimmage. Sometimes it would be just like him taking a little hit by somebody and it totally knocking him down. I'm like, man, he's six feet tall, 210 pounds. I can't even count on the strength. I can't count on the balance.

This year it looks totally different. He's much more balanced. He's much more in control. I don't know if he's a little bit lower of a rusher, if he's not going as upright, if he's handling things differently. I don't even know if it's something that he worked on, but whatever he's been doing this year,

I feel like it's been night and day in the balance of contact aspect from what we saw last season. I think this guy is fantastic as a one cut back, really understands how to see zone blocking schemes really well, whether it's inside zone or outside zone. He understands the aiming points. He understands the feel for cutback lanes. And because of it, he is a yards after contact monster. As those stats alluded to, I think he's got really nice long speed as well, especially for a player who is six foot 210 and has that size to him I feel like he is such a great all-around

back I think the pass blocking is there for him too I think he's a willing pass blocker he get a little bit better in that area of course but I think that that size presents itself as a really good mold for him to be good in that area along with some nice hands that I like from him to be a third down back I just feel like he's such an all-around player is he does he have the elite speed that a Devon Devon a chain has no he doesn't but so much of the rest of his game is well rounded at a high level I feel like sometimes we use the phrase well-rounded and we mean it as a negative right it's when a guy can't stand out and i do think that having a trump card going into the nfl is important not i don't think that tank baseman necessarily has a trump card but that's because i think the floor of his game is so high

but i believe that the ceiling is too i don't mean it to mean a backhanded compliment so much of what he was able to do i enjoyed watching from this past season. Got three games on him in the books and really liked what I saw from those three games. Definitely going to continue to watch him because right now from what I saw, he was my second favorite black in this class. Man, I'm surprised. Honestly, I really am. Let me say this. You were like, you got to watch him. And I did. And I saw much improvement because last summer when we talked about him, I was like, man like man i'm disappointed there's no way around it i was disappointed i didn't think he was a big creator he had the four fumbles in 2021 i thought he always plays a lot of

fire and heart that's what i had written down and i saw that carry over in 2022 and i love his leg drive i think that's really very very consistent in his game now and he's got size i mean this is a dude that's not a fake six foot 210 or whatever it is he's he's got the size already that you feel good he's not he's not 65 240 but he's not 65 240 when he leaves the voicemail he's going to be like, all right, hey guys, tank Bigsby, 6'2", 10. But listen, he created a ton of missed tackles this year. I saw lighter feet. The contact balance is really, really good. I think the ceiling for him to me wasn't that high. I think he's not much of a threat as a receiving back. I thought that there's a lot of times where he overthought where to go, whether to hit his foot in the ground inside and he bounced outside.

I thought he still got bounced happy this year. Improved from 2021. I still saw him getting bounced happy. All right. That's fair. I like Tank. He was in consideration at number five. He's going to be right in that six to seven area if I was stacking a top 10 today.

I think it's really, really important. The drastic improvement I thought he showed from 2021 to 2022. I just personally don't believe he'll ever be a star. And I did come away watching Gibbs and number one and thought that. Man, I think that, I think all three of those guys that I've gotten top three have that star potential.

This class. I like Tank a lot. I like Tank a lot. This class is good. So that leads us to number one. All right, number one, obviously, Sean Tucker. Sean Tucker, number one. Of Syracuse.

No, that's disrespectful. I love Sean Tucker. But obviously, he's not number one here. Number one on both of our lists is uh it's the one and only he's he's going to be rb1 on literally everyone's running back list pretty close to consensus there's not i mean there'll be some people out there that just love john is going to be as close to a 100 percenter that you are going to find i I think, at a skilled position. Am I right to say that? He's about, for a consensus number one at a position ranking.

B. John Robinson, the running back from Texas, junior this year. I mean, what's not to love about him? He brings the size, six feet tall, 220 pounds. He's just an absolute monster in that regard. Five-star running back from Tucson, Arizona. His career at Texas has been phenomenal. And you look at the PFF grades from this past year. Overall grade, elite, 95.2.

Russian grade, elite, 96.0. Receiving grade, 73.9, which is also high also high i mean that's jameer gibbs level 1583 rushing yards 1077 yards after contact animal 18 touchdowns 105 missed tackles forced. I told you that anything around 0.3 was a good average to have. This man's got 0.40. 41 explosive plays, 19 receptions, 314 receiving yards, zero drops in the receiving game. Connor, I'll let you take the floor. What did you think about B. John Robbins?

He's incredible. Everything that he does is just number one this man has a deal with lamborghini right and i think it's just perfect he has an deal with the lamborghini in austin and it's just it's just perfect damn yeah and we've talked about his special background before on the show i think we did a really big Bijan intro over summer. I think you said it, Trevor, 95.9 rush grade is just truly out of this world kind of stuff. But his background, I mean, he was the first player in Arizona high school football history to twice win the Ed Daugherty Award, which is the state's best player. I mean, he won it twice.

He was the first guy to do that. There's nothing about his game rushed for 2 000 yards in three consecutive seasons in high school three consecutive seasons like how many miles has he run on the field wow that's a great question you know what though like besides all the stuff that stands out on the highlight reel the fact that he will make you look foolish i mean truly truly foolish like booby miles at the beginning of friday night lights that kind of that's kind of what it looks like watching bijan robinson he also does the little things so well i just look at him and go he has tempo in his routes he's a good receiver he can play wide receiver from the slot or wide receiver from the backfield.

I thought he did a good job picking up blitzers at every gap because he's got such good feet, awareness, and play strength that he, on top of that, he has the brain to understand where the rush is coming from to help out his quarterback. The thing I wrote down, though, that it just matters so much, he has special acceleration. Special.

It's like some guys, when you watch them get the ball, you just know that they are different in terms of 0-60 with Bijan at 0-120. And I'm not saying Bijan's like a 4-2, 4-3 kind of guy, but football play speed, his ability to get upfield is different. It's very, very different.

You can use this player. The way I constantly think of him is that season that Gurley had. I think it was early, early McVay. And I'm looking up pro football reference right now. Yep. Gurley had a month. Didn't he have like 20 something touchdowns? 2017 Gurley.

He ran for 13 touchdowns and caught six. Oh, so he had 19. He had 19, but he ran for over 1300 yards and he almost had 800 receiving yards that season. The way Gurley was used to me is Bijan Robinson for the next year. Sure. Like that's all I can think of when I was watching him was that that was 23 year old Gurley. That was him just in a place of, I want to say McVay had been there for, yeah, a couple of years already.

McVay had been there. Oh, that was couple of years already. McVay had been there. Oh, that was McVay's first year as a head coach. He came in with that plan for Gurley and Gurley was impossible for anyone to deal with, whether it was in the slot, whether it was out of the backfield. B. John Robinson can do all of those things and he's healthy. I just, and he will be, so his birthday is January 30th from 2002 2002 i mean yeah from 2002 so this is going to be what so it'll be 21 21 on draft night freshly 21 from the winter i there's just i mean we can keep going for days scheme scheme proof scheme proof he could play what honestly he could he could play wide receiver today like if if you were a team right say you were i'm trying to think of one that it kind of makes sense for we'll say the packers so the packers all their wide receivers were hurt one week

and they don't have uh like they have an aj one of aj dylan aaron jones with bijan robinson bijan robinson can go play wide receiver for 60 percent of the snaps they don't have, uh, like they have an AJ, one of AJ Dillon, Aaron Jones with B. John Robinson, B. John Robinson can go play wide receiver for 60% of the snaps. Sure. Easily. Yeah.

B. John rare footwork, rare. Um, the way that he could, you, you, you talked about his acceleration, the way in which he can truly stop and start is,

that's the rare part. You know, we go back to Blake Corum, right? Blake Corum was number four in this class for both of us. And we both love Blake Corum's feet. He's a guy who will make guys miss consistently. He could change direction. And he's a player who will turn basically anything into a four or five yard game for you and you absolutely love that about him bijan robinson somehow takes

that to a higher level and when you watch blake quorum you think like all right this guy's gonna have maybe the best footwork in the class and then bijan just very clearly far and away you go, holy cow. The missed tackles forced is not, it's not an error. It's just not an, every single time he gets the ball, he is making somebody miss every single time he's making somebody miss, whether it's up the a gap, whether it's a,

you know, an outside zone play, whether he's bouncing outside, whether it's a guy who's completely in space, whether he's making a guy miss who's in the backfield who might get one up on the offensive line it doesn't matter i mean he's making people miss no matter what and that's because of rare footwork processing vision and acceleration he has a rare combination of all of those things and that makes an elite backfield player. I mean, you don't want to necessarily say this very often,

but we are talking about a multi all pro player. If he stays healthy, man, I don't. Yep. I don't like sitting here. Like I'm one of those people who hates using the word generational. I hate any time people go like, oh, you draft this guy and you got him for the next 10 years. It just happens in the league almost go wrong really quick i i just think that those those those long-term tags that people try to put on especially prospects guys who have

never played it down in the nfl before i think it's silly but it's it's extremely hard to watch b's on robinson and think health is the only thing standing in the way of this guy being one of the best players in the league. Very, very soon, very soon. The girly year is spot on, man.

This is a, he is one of those players that can threaten what Christian McCaffrey did in that one year, the thousand, the 1000 and 1000. Now I think that the girly role is probably more realistic, right? A 1,200, a 1,300 rushing yard year and an 800, you know, receive a 7,800 receiving yard year.

But like he can absolutely be somebody who you could almost pencil in 15, 18 touchdowns a year. It's crazy. It's crazy for me to say that. I feel like I'm on crazy pills thinking that a guy could be able to step in right away and play that high of a level at the nfl but it's hard to get more of a sure thing to be john robinson because of everything he brings to the table so yeah that's that's my thoughts on him as well he will be the way he'll be coveted in Dynasty. Number one overall pick. Yeah, there's never been a...

I mean, other than maybe Saquon Barkley. Yep. I don't know. I don't know how... Yeah, Saquon went two. I don't know how many slam dunk one ones there have been that would be better than B. John Robinson for a Dynasty League.

Man. He's a pretty special player. Robinson for a dynasty league, man. It's he's, he's pretty, pretty special player. Um, well, let me, let me close out the Bijan combo with this. Where would you like to see him go?

Oh, and I feel like we almost can't. Oh, well, their picks forfeited. The cliche for the longest time was Miami, but Miami doesn't even have a first rounder anymore. Yeah, they all, yeah.

And try to be realistic. Let's say, I mean, I really think he's going in the top 20 in this draft. I really do. He's going higher than that. I mean, yeah, I was being like, I was giving you a cushion to make this fun. Yeah. Let's see. where could he go

the eagles at nine would be sick but the eagles aren't gonna take they're not gonna take a running back they're not gonna take a running back at number nine that's not how high roseman does things that's not how high roseman does things they're gonna take a trench player they're gonna take an offensive lineman or they're gonna take a defensive lineman that's how high roseman does things that's not how high roseman does things they're gonna take a trench player they're gonna take an offensive lineman or they're gonna take a defensive lineman that's how high roseman operates that's that's what they're gonna do um god man new england's sitting there at 16 he's going to arizona isn't he there's if Arizona there's no way Arizona takes him five Connor come on entertain me you say no way

like they've done such a brilliant thing it's Arizona if anybody's going to do it it's Arizona entertain this no not smart it fun but not smart Atlanta no no god we know arthur smith collects running backs and uses them what if chicago trades back say chicago wins one more game and then trades back um remember we had a voicemail that said braxton jones has been good

no i know but you can't i don I agree. I'm just trying to think. Ah, man. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's pretty difficult. I mean, if Vegas doesn't re-sign Josh Jacobs. Yeah, I thought of that one too. It's kind of hard to believe that they wouldn't at least franchise tag him.

Look, Carolina would love bijan robinson but but could you imagine the discourse there has to be a there has to be a lot of quarterbacks off the board at that point but like bijan would you know it's funny you would trade christian mccaffrey just to draft christian mccaffrey That's what I'm saying. The discourse would be. It's insane. Yeah. I don't think he could do it. I don't know where he's going. You put me on the spot.

The one that... It goes back to our voicemail show. And he won't make it here. I mean, Baltimore. 19, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I agree. Hey, if you guys are rebuilding. Right, like it's at that point. Just take the best player at 19. Tony Bichon.

They didn't take Dalvin Cook when they could have. It's haunted them ever since. It's a hard exercise to actually find the right place that you think he'll go. As great as he is. As great as he is. Because there's so much running back talent in the nfl yeah yeah we know how this goes tampa's a legitimate target at 19 tampa tampa is i still think baltimore is you know what's gonna happen what's gonna happen you tell me you tell me what's going to happen let me check

you finish that sentence i want to hear it i think i know it's gonna happen i you nailed the team all right so jerek mckinnon is a free agent after this year the chiefs are moving up and getting bjohn robinson you heard it here first and he's going to split time he's going to play 70% of his snaps at running back and 30% at wide receiver I just want you all to know this is where you heard it and when it happens you can replay this clip until the end of time you can blame Connor for your team You can blame me for the Chiefs terrorizing the league. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Connor, let me ask you a question. Sure. What if you could invest in B. John Robinson stock as a rookie? This guy is unreal. Your investment. He had me. He had me. I'm curious. Up to 4,000%.

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I think I'll leave with this. There is a lot of time to discuss this group. I know some of the comments are going to be, this guy, this guy, this guy. This is the the top five there are a lot of good running backs in this class we're gonna get through all of them on this show whether it is a sean tucker zach evans tyj spears kendray miller duane mcbride uh kenny mcintosh deuce vaughn all the senior bowl running backs which a friendly reminder if i could pull that up real all the senior bowl running backs which a friendly reminder if i could pull that up real quick the senior bowl running backs are the one intriguing one that i know you brought

up earlier when we were talking about fair trevor is chase brown at illinois chase brown is six for me okay so why don't you close out talking a little bit about chase brown chase brown illinois running back led the country in rushing yards this year um 80.9 rushing grade 80.5 overall receiving grade 1600 rushing yards 935 after contact 10 touchdowns 77 missed tackles for us it's a 0.23 average 48 explosive plays 27 receptions for 240 receiving yards he had one drop This dude is a lower the shoulder. And at any point there is contact. He is running through it, baby.

He's light on his feet for a guy who plays with a lot of power style, but he just doesn't have, I don't think that like NFL final gear of juice to really be a big time athletic threat, but he is somebody who you hand him the rock. He feels not quite Tyler Algier and Damian Pierce-ish, but that mold. You hand this guy, you put the ball in this guy's gut, he's going to fight for everything, man.

That's how he got the yardage that he did. Vision was much improved this year, very light on his feet. He was very decisive, and I thought he played very, very well. So I love, I'm a sucker for those guys who give so much mentality and fight. I ended up having Tyler Algiers RB3 in last year's class because I was like, you just can't bring this guy down. Sure, okay, he might not beat you in a full race, but when you catch up to him, what are you going to do?

Because then it turns into a street fight and he ain't going to lose it. Let's pray this weekend. Chase Brown does feel a little bit like that. You're getting in a boxing match with him anytime you're trying to bring him down. So I had him at RB6 for that. I love that fight and that mentality.

That also weighs pretty heavily in my grading scale. And Chase Brown is one of the best in the country at that. Man, it's good to hear. I'm excited to get a look at him down in Mobile along with a lot of those guys like Gray, Rodriguez. Go on. I just wanted to talk about Sean Tucker because I think we both had Sean Tucker

in our top fives going into the season. Yeah, absolutely. I have Tucker eight. I have him as RB eight. Um, definitely not as good of a year for Sean Tucker this year as it was last year.

I don't think. Uh, and a big reason why is, is the area of running back play that I value the most. The vision. I just felt like he was a little impatient. The spatial awareness just wasn't what it was last year. And just ultimately when to make the cut, when to be decisive,

where to plant your foot, which direction you want to go, how to find the open space. I just didn't think Sean Tucker saw the field as well this year as he did last year, which worries me because that is the top trait that I look for with running backs. He is still a well built back and he's still got really great straight line athleticism. But I think the lateral agility is a little stiff in that regard. I think that goes into maybe a little bit of hesitancy when it comes to him putting his foot in the ground and making a cut. Really nice, really nice straight line athleticism. We've seen the plays before where he could put his foot in the ground. If a cut. Really nice straight line athleticism. We've seen the plays before where he can put his foot in the ground.

If he's going north to south, man, he can get up to top speed in a hurry. So he's got good size. He's got good long speed. But there are little areas and details of the game, starting with vision and then next with agility, that I just wasn't super sold on. So I had him lower than I thought I was going to, but I got him in RB8.

I thought so too. I thought he was somebody just at the end of the day he wasn't in the same consideration as rb5 as a lot of those other guys and and that to me in itself was disappointing i think he's fine i didn't find him overly explosive um i didn't find him like you said trevor you know always seeing things very clearly, a little hesitant at times, let things develop a little too bit, too long. And I think there was a couple of times where him doing that, you know, what I loved about him in 2021,

it felt like he never tried to do too much and he had good feel. And I felt like he lost a little bit of himself that way in 2022. So just not the same exact player that we saw and that doesn't mean he's not a good one doesn't mean he's not somebody that can get drafted around you know three to four and eventually be a starter somewhere but i just didn't think he looked the same this entire year compared to how impressive he was in 2021 yeah i gotta go back and watch him because i really liked him i I really liked him going in this summer. So I need to get some more games on him.

But three games in from this season, I was like, man. And they were two of his highest graded games. And then I typically like to watch the game that we have the highest and then a low one and then normally like some other game of competition that might stand out or whatever it is. So I'm going to keep watching them. You guys should too. Let us know what you thought about our running back takes here on this

episode. Let us know who you think that we're sleeping on, who needs to be a little bit higher on this list, who you think we may be overrating, who needs to be a little bit lower. And you can let us know everywhere on Twitter at Tampa Bay, Trey at Connor J Rogers. You can hit us up on Instagram as well.

And if you are watching this on YouTube, of course, the YouTube comments are a fantastic way to get in on the show and communicate with us. We read all the comments from YouTube as well. So we salute everybody who is watching on YouTube. The YouTube hive and the fan club for NFL SE seems to be growing as we get closer to draft season. So we really appreciate you guys a ton.

But Connor, anything else before we get out of here? Happy holidays to everyone. Indeed. Of course. Yes. Really appreciate the community that supports this show. Would love to know everyone's takes. A running back that you might be really high on

that you don't see a lot of people talking about or even somebody that didn't make the top five of ours that you really, really like, that you think will be a riser or maybe somebody you're skeptical of in the top five. I would love to hear it because this is really one of those shows, Trevor, that brings together the draft community, the NFL community,

the fantasy community because this is, I mean, knowing this group is such a massive effect on fantasy next year because these guys are going to be big-time players in that world right away. So this was a fun one, and I'm excited to see how it changes after the combine if it does at all. Yep, yep. So we'd love to hear your early takes. We'd love to hear what you think is going to happen in the rest of draft season,

whether you're a fantasy football person and NFL draft person and NFL overall person that's just looking for a good back for their team to pick up wherever they do in the draft. We would love to hear your thoughts. We love you guys. However, you are celebrating the holidays this weekend. We wish you nothing but joy, enjoyment, smiles,

hopefully some good food as well. I know a lot of winter storms are rolling through their country. So stay safe, stay warm. We will see you guys next week. For Trevor Sikama, for Connor Rogers, thank you guys so much for watching the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. See you guys next week.