NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 256. Ranking 2025 Running Backs (Summer Scouting)

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers continue their Summer Scouting Series and coverage of the 2025 NFL Draft by ranking the draft-eligible running backs for 2025. It's a very talented running back class with multiple potential first rounders. We dig into our top 8s with strengths, weaknesses, player comps and round projections.

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year.

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 are previewing the running back position the 2025 NFL Draft Connor I are going to give you each our top eight players and there's some guys that Connor watched that I didn't watch so you guys know how it goes we'll give you a little bit more than. We'll get into double digit running backs and we'll preview all the strengths and weaknesses.

We'll give you the background information, the recruiting information, height, weight, school, year of eligibility, what their favorite color is, all the good stuff. So we come around this podcast for 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 Sikama, the man in the beautiful Budweiser hat over there. That is Connor Rogers. Joining you guys for another episode of the Summer Scouting Series.

Today, we're talking the running back position. Connor, I love this position because it's a little bit like wide receiver, but I feel like, you know that meme that was going around a couple of weeks ago where it's like, oh, you never know the bond that you have from a childhood fan to the mediocre wide receiver. To me, that actually is running backs. A running back might not actually be good for a team, but if he gets a lot of carries and he happens to get you a lot of touchdown, you would walk through fire for that running back for your team. And so I feel like there's going to be a lot of passionate opinions here as we give the good people our top eight going into the 2024 college football season.

And of course, for the 2025 NFL draft. Buddy, how we doing today? I'm great, man. I think you nailed it where this is one of the easiest positions if you are a fan of a team to stand for yes this is your guy he's touching the ball 15 plus times a game like you said he's probably scored plenty of the points he might not be a first or second round prospect but like you're right or die with him and the reality is a lot of running backs the beauty of the position is a lot of running backs taken outside the first two rounds go on to have really successful NFL careers.

It's that's the fun part of it is that you can love a guy that's going to go in the sixth or seventh round. And you might be right that he ended up being a top 20 running back in the NFL. And right. The turnover at the position is absolutely insane as well. So just surface level man i'll say it right out of the gate this is a great group i really i really enjoyed watching this group it

felt like a bit of a cleanser or something like that after the quarterback group where you know i sat there and i was like i don't know if any of these guys carry a first round grade coming out of summer they could always play themselves into the first round and they got something people need to remember with summer scouting. I watch this running back group, and I started to feel bad when certain guys weren't in the top five. I just think it's an awesome group. It's got different skill sets, different sizes. We're going to have a lot of fun with this group.

Dude, I agree with you. I have my top three guys all have late first to early second round grades. Like you said, early second round grades. So not like this, like you said, early stuff. And I'm trying to be better about building out my scouting sheet. And I do it for you guys, because as we said on the last show,

for those of you who might be new, we're trying to get a lot more information into the mock draft simulator over at pff.com, which you guys can use right now. It's updated for the 2025 NFL draft. We'll kind of update it throughout the summer as we do the summer scouting series stuff. But we want to make it so

as you are using the mock draft simulator, you can click on a guy and it's going to show you some recruiting background. It's going to show you initial strength and weaknesses, maybe a round projection. I'm going to have player comps for a lot of these guys as well. So as we go through this episode, we'll do that.

But just to your point i've got three late first early second round grades for these guys but i've got a bunch of like okay a second round grade a late second early third it's very different than last year's class it's a very different feel ain't no oh we might not have a running back in the top 50 uh we're gonna have multiple running backs in the top 50 for this upcoming draft class so there's a lot of fun guys to get to i'm curious just before we just dump jump into it do you think that we're moving to a place in the nfl where even if you're really really good you're gonna see teams still make a push just to not draft these guys in the first round like is that just where the league is because there's a bunch of players like ashen

jenty omari and hampton ollie gordon quinch john jubkins and we'll get to all these names we'll tell you more about them but it's like these dudes are good football players i just i just wonder if we're at that point where yeah the NFL still recognizes how good they are but you mentioned the turnover of the position it's just going to mean now it's going to mean more now more than ever it's weird because I thought we were going there the year Brees Hall wasn't taken in the first round right yeah yeah Brees Hall had every bit of a first round prospect makeup to me I don't I don't know why he wouldn't. And then the year after that,

and I don't think Brees having such an explosive rookie season before he got hurt impacted this at all. I really don't. B. John Robinson and Jameer Gibbs went in the top 12. So not even first, right? I think the answer to Trevor, as it often does often fall somewhere in the middle where if you're at the back end around one or you can trade into the top of day two, especially with the fifth year option to argue it at the end around one.

I think talent really prevails and there's just too much talent. You said this right at the top with your grades. My top maybe five running backs in this class, I'll say definitely three, will all grade out higher right now than any running back in last year's draft. Yeah. So I, well, I, I, I,

hopefully I'll remember to do this at the end of the show. People always like to compare draft classes. Like it helps them get a good understanding of like, okay, well, how good actually is this class? I wait, who'd you have RB one last year? Do you have Brooks or do you have Benson? I had Benson. Okay.

And I write RB two and Brooks RB three, but like kind of in a cluster. Okay. Okay. Okay. I very clearly just clearly just me personally had Jonathan Brooks is RB1 and I liked, I liked him a lot in last year's class. I'll tell you guys like where I had Jonathan Brooks in this class at the end of the episode, once we get through all these guys. So, um, we're, we're doing top eight today. Funny enough, Connor and I try to be as

pure hearted as possible on this podcast, as pure opinioned as we possibly can. And we don't tell each other who we're going to watch. And we do that because generally we watch a lot of the same guys. But sometimes it's fun for me to hear Connor's evaluation of a player that I didn't get to watch. Hopefully me to him, vice versa. It's the same thing. And it allows us to get more names out there for you guys,

which is obviously the point of summer scouting so there are a handful of players and the reason why we expanded it from top five to top eight is because there's guys right outside connor's top five that i didn't watch and there's guys right outside my top five that connor didn't watch so it's going to be a good exercise for us to just kind of get some thoughts out thoughts out to those guys i'll let you start though you want to go just right away, 8, 7, 6? Sure. Yeah, I'll knock that out. So 8 for me was Damian Martinez,

who is a really interesting player this year. We got to do school. We got to do school and the height and weight and the year because there was a commenter who said we got to be better at that. And I was like, you know what? You're right. You're right.

Especially summer scouting where you're like, there's a chance most of you are hearing these names for the first time. So Damian Martinez transferred to Miami this off season from Oregon state. He is a six foot, 241 pound junior. Now I'm going to read off a lot of heightened weights on this that through digging around, I find are the most recent.

If you guys are Googling these guys, you might see their height and weight listed from last year. So as far as I know, Martinez is going to be right around six feet tall or shade under six feet tall. And he's going to weigh right around 240 pounds going into the season i believe he played or played around you know maybe 235 230 last year it's a big boy man he's a big fella so we'll get to him in a second i'll read off uh seven as well seven this guy was actually my rb1 in summer scouting last year and it goes to show

you how much talent is in this class that he's at seven now travion henderson ohio one of ohio state's running backs dude one of sane that they have henderson and quinch on judkins now yeah transfer portal nil is a hell of a drug man like stupid like what you could do they built an nfl backfield travion henderson rb7 and then rb6 is cows running back jayden ah the junior who's about 5 10 and a half about 208 pounds i think he looks lighter than that on tape but he might have put on some weight uh in spring ball so martinez transferring from the pack to miami fascinating backfield with him and cam ward travion henderson who's a household name i'm sure many listening to this show are very familiar with him and then ott the speedster out of california so so give me just a little bit just

give me a little synopsis of martinez and ott because those are two guys that I have not watched yet so they're not going to be on my rankings um I watched Henderson Henderson we could talk about in a second because I've got him spoiler alert at number five in my ranking so uh we could talk about him in a second but talk to me about uh Martinez and Ott what do you like about him Martinez is just an absolute bruiser when you look at that build, which isn't surprising. But I think he's got some sneaky bounce and the footwork, like considering his size, is really, really impressive. When you think of a guy 240, call it 230 on tape last year, you're thinking he's just going to run north and south and lower his shoulder and kind of move the pile forward. I thought he did a really good job understanding the threat of the power he has to set defenders up to make them miss.

Because when you're that big, they have to tackle you differently. And I think he has the awareness of that. And he eludes tackles just as well as he runs through them. But when he gets to that level of the field where it's corners and safeties, he knows he's the king of the jungle. He's going to stiff arm you. He's going to run you over. It it's like i'm bigger than you you i'm the size of a linebacker now you have to try to tackle me the reason he's at eight because this is a dude that rushed for almost 1200 yards last

year over six yards of carry 57 missed tackles force 39 explosive runs runs of 10 plus yards only one fumble there's just really nothing in the receiving game right now Trevor I think you know I wrote all aspects of the past game need work he uh in pass pro like the awareness needs to catch up a little bit he's got the size there's no doubt about that they only he only had 126 he had 126 receiving yards on 11 catches which is pretty good receiving production on just 11 catches. But he also did drop two passes on the very, very limited targets he had. I think for such a big back, he got a little happy bouncing runs outside.

And he probably likes that. Hey, I'm so big. Let me go get matched up with a corner. But I think in the NFL, he's going to have to be kind of that train downhill with that size. So really excited to see what Martinez can do for Miami this year. He could be an absolute stud and that backfield is pretty deep at Miami. That's I just wanted to add, like I, I have not watched him yet,

but I'm just looking up some of his more stable metrics in terms of, of PFF metrics that we have there for a player who is six feet tall and you know 235 pounds missed tackles force per attempt is is a stat that you're going to hear us talk about a lot on this show uh it's one of the metrics that we really like at pff to try to uh separate backs from the offensive line in front of them and really be able to evaluate individual talent missed tackles force so how often you are making guys miss or breaking tackles that is individual of you to the offensive line where, you know, yards, touchdowns, even yards per carry don't always tell the whole story. And then yards after contact per attempt, that also is a good individual stat for running backs. Because

if your offensive line did not do the job it was supposed to, you're going to get hit in the backfield. Well, how many yards do you get after that contact? If your offensive line did do its job well, and you don't get hit until the linebacker level, well, how many yards did you get after that contact? So it's a better picture to paint of how many yards your player is getting after contact. 88th percentile missed tackles forced per attempt

for a guy who's 235 pounds. It's nice for Martinez and then yards after contact as you would expect pretty high as well 78th percentile so I like that I like that for him and and that translates to to missed tackles force perception he's 91st percentile kind of like you said he still makes guys miss but then yards per route run so how often is he targeted 17th percentile there's nothing there. Yeah. Yeah, nothing there. And that's a really important aspect of today's game.

And then, you know, you get into RB6 with Jay Knott, such a different player. Obviously about 30 pounds lighter and not really only an inch shorter. Now, though, he's got the game-breaking speed. That's the difference with him. So he had a little over 1,300 rushing yards in 2023, averaged 5.3 yards per carry, 12 rushing touchdowns, 59 missed tackles forced, 32 explosive runs,

did fumble the ball three times, added 26 catches for 196 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns, no drops. You turn on the tape, there's just notable breakaway speed, right? And you look at, this is the funniest one. He had three kick return attempts in 2023. He brought back one back for 99 yards for a touchdown. Like this guy.

Hall of Fame batting average? Yeah, probably a really special return man and just needs more opportunity there because you could see the speed now as an actual running back outside burst i thought when cal ran power which got they they would pull the backside guard or backside tackle and have a double team he had 42 attempts on power and he averaged over eight yards per carry on power. It just got, it created a little more space for him, Trevor, as a runway, like a track. And once that, without being hit, and once you allow a guy like this to get that momentum, he's able to beat defenders to the edge.

He's able to kind of just run by guys because another thing with him that I really liked, he's got flexible hips and he knows how to run skinny to elude tacklers he doesn't really have to move his whole body he can kind of swivel his hips and elude wrap-up tacklers now with him my questions I think he's an upright runner with a slender build 208 pounds isn't small but you'll see like he he just looks different than the other running backs we're going to talk about today, and he runs pretty upright. I thought Marshawn Lloyd did a lot of that. Now, Lloyd was healthier.

Not healthier, heavier, but not healthier. He took a lot of big hits because of that. In pass pro, it's just, once again, total work in progress. Lunging, kind of missing where the blitz was coming from. And with a guy with this kind of speed, I want him on the field in passing situations because he could be a dangerous check down option. So we'll have to work there. A lot of young running backs need work there as well. But I don't think this is a class with a ton of breakaway speed. And I think it's got it.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I you always gravitate to it. Not you personally. I just am using it as a general. You always gravitate towards the athletes. Right. Because those are the guys who, if the offensive line does their job up front, you ideally would like to have a player who can get you those big chunk gains, those explosive plays. Now, we talked about here on this show,

there's not a lot of opportunities like that at the NFL level. So you'd probably rather have a guy that you know can give you a very healthy yards per carry average you know is more of an all-around player but certainly with the nfl being more of a committee league by committee league if you get a player like ott who can give you kick return ability especially think of the new kick return rules right right where it's more rb vision anyways if you get a

guy who has home run speed and a running back background like ott sounds like a dude who is absolutely going to make an nfl roster like he seems like somebody who is absolutely going to get the chance to showcase what he does well so um i like that call out by him haven't watched him or mark or uh or martinez yet so gotta get to him. Eight to six for you. All right. So I don't think just from the little pre-show chit-chat that we had before we hit record, I don't think that you've watched any of these three players. Eight, I got Jaquavius Marks, a.k.a. Woody Marks.

I didn't watch Marks. He is on my list, but did not get to watch him. At Mississippi State, now transferred over to USC. He's going to be a redshirt senior. Seven for me is Trevor Etienne. I didn't get to watch Etienne. He was at Florida. That name sounds familiar, though.

It should. It should. And it should for, you know, the reasons. We're not going to be like, oh, yeah, no relation. No, there's relation. And number six is Devin Neal from Kansas. Did some research on him, watched about a game, didn't feel like I had enough to rank him in the eight.

Okay, that's fair. That's fair. So those are the three guys. With you not watching them, I'll just kind of go a little bit of rapid fire and give you time at the end of each guy to see if you have any commentary. If you don't, we'll move on.

Jaquavius Marks, we'll start with him at number eight. So like I mentioned, he's been around the block for a while. He is a three and a half year starter for Mississippi State. I think he became the starter his true freshman season, but it was like halfway through the year and he was the starter all three years after that. However, never amassed more than 600 yards rushing in any of those seasons.

Now, before Mike Leak passed RIP to the GOAT, they're obviously Mississippi State air raid offense, very predicated around the passing game. He wasn't getting a ton of opportunities anyways. So that you can kind of factor into, okay, there's a little bit of lack of production but there's sort of context there him going to usc i i really like that path for him because we saw a similar breakout for marshawn lloyd last year you already brought up who lloyd it just it

was not working out of south carolina he was he was coming back from injury. He just didn't get the carry load. And in Lincoln Riley's system, it was much more open. It allowed Lloyd to showcase what he was as a playmaker. And Woody Marks, Woody's his nickname, by the way, this dude was a track stud in high school's kind of crazy to me because he had over 6,000 yards and 59 touchdowns in his high school career. He was a four-star running back and he wanted to go to Georgia so bad because he's from Georgia and Georgia never offered him. He picked Mississippi State over Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, basically every SEC team other than Georgia, where he actually wanted to go. So I think that he was a little bit under-recruited there because Georgia thought he was too small. When he was running track, I guess in high school, he was around 170 pounds. And Georgia was like, no, we give you a scholarship as a wide receiver, but we're not going to do it as a running back. You're not big enough. Now he is 5'10", 208 pounds, which is 36 and 33 percentiles. He's not huge, but he still brings

that speed with pretty good strength to him. I think he is an excellent zone blocking scheme runner. I mean, if you put him behind zone blocking scheme stuff, if you get him moving, if you get the line scrimmage out a little bit, like mid and outside zone, even inside zone, honestly, he has such a knack for putting that foot in the ground and just being a one cut back, going straight up and fine in the rushing lane.

And his PFF numbers aren't really great, but I like his tape more than the numbers. So he is somebody who I feel the best is yet to come for him. I feel like he's going to have more opportunities. The offense is going to be more open. It's going to be more predicated to what he does well as a former track star now playing running back. I like this dude. Speed is his game. He's he's not as great between the tackles he's just not as confident running behind man and gap scheme power scheme if you will um he's a willing pass protector but he does have that lack of natural strength with him being a little bit closer to 200 pounds and he's just not somebody who there's a lot of other

guys in this class where you'll watch him and i mean mean, they're dense. They're rocked up. They're hitting linebackers and they're bouncing off them like pinballs. And it's like, all right, well, sucks to suck. And you get linebackers laying on his face and they're picking up yards after contact. Marks isn't really one of those players. He's more of kind of the Jaden Ott role that you mentioned. There's just this pure speed player. If you give him a little bit of daylight, he's going to be able uh take you to the house but um yeah so he was my uh he was my

number eight guy i didn't know if you had any uh thoughts comments hopes prayers dreams on him or anything like that but i'll move on to trevor atn if you don't definitely on my list because that transfer stands out to me as we've seen it as a pathway that works and just you describing him i think you made a really important point like because i'm going to talk about scheme with some of the guys in the top five it's hard to quantify unless you just watch the tape and make note of it a guy's feel and comfort yeah in certain situations and that sounds like someone to me that like, you can't quantify really that well. I mean, yeah, we could show you the numbers of, Hey, he averaged this yard per carry while

inside zone, like while running inside zone, but also the vision and the feel and the understanding of it and timing and the blocks and your run tracks and things like that. Like that, that's what pro backs do. Biggest pluses fores for him not only the speed but it's smooth speed like he gets up to he gets up to top speed very very quickly um ample experience as a receiver again coming from that air raid offense like he has run a lot of routes he got a lot of targets ample experience as a receiver so again we talk about like these speed backs in the committee at the nfl level i could see him being that sort of speedback who you could use as a receiver to use as a mismatch if a team's got some slow linebackers.

Reminded me a little bit of Joe McKnight when Joe McKnight was at USC. So that was my kind of player comp that I had there. Another RIP. But dude, yeah, man, unbelievable. What a talent. Yeah, truly. And man, I just – dying from a road rage incident. It's just, that's tragic.

For Woody, just to, like you were saying with zone, the PFF grades actually do back that up. Zone grade 82.4, gap grade 68.2. So very different. That's jarring. Yeah, when he is behind zone by scheme. So speaking of transfers, he begrudgingly says, as a Florida Gator who lost one of their best players to the University of Georgia,

yeah, I'm pretty bitter about it. No, I'm kidding, obviously. I hope Trevor has a phenomenal year and a phenomenal pro career. But Trevor Etienne, the younger brother, of course, of Travis Etienne, Jacksonville Jaguars, running back. Etienne going into his junior season at Georgia, listed at 5'9", 204 pounds. A little bit of a background for him. When he was a recruit, he was like 220 pounds.

So he has gotten much more in shape. And even though he played his first year at the University of Florida, he's rushed for at least 700 yards in each of his first two seasons, true freshman season, true sophomore season he he had to like get in shape and like i see a lot of the slim down yeah and he dude yeah he was like 220 and it it wasn't really a good 220 i remember seeing him like when he came in and now he is just a much more well-built you know d1 college weightlifting diet plan i mean he he looks like a much more well-built, you know, D1 college weightlifting diet plan. I mean, he looks like a stud running back now.

So I mentioned really good production is true freshman and true sophomore season. So if you are a big age breakout type of a person, if you love that metric, this guy is absolutely for you. He is somebody who, he also has really good top speed. But more important than that, the quickness and the agility to me is what really stands out with this dude. Really good footwork, really good one-cut ability. Now, I mentioned that Marks has the ability to really put his foot in the ground and get upfield. Etienne has really great footwork for man and gap scheme plays, like he's got the patience and the footwork

to really wait for the pullers to come around or wait for duo blocks to really manifest or things like that where you could see him. He is able to just kind of like hop and move and it's just it's such quick balanced footwork you've got guys diving in his feet and he's just jumping right over him that balance that acceleration to get to the second level the second he speed he sees space he's able to accelerate very very well which you love to see. He's got a great yards after contact average, 88th percentile in yards after contact. Force missed tackles per rush, 79th percentile. Force missed tackles per reception, 88th percentile. So he's got some good receiving experience to him as well. He just was not as confident behind zone blocking.

So if you're a big zone blocking team in the NFL, he might not be as high on your list. Really inconsistent pass blocker right now. So those third down abilities where he has the receiving ability, the pass blocking ability is still a work in progress for him though. But most impactful trait I think is just his ability to get skinny between blocks. Again, it goes back to that man gap scheme preference for him. impactful trade i think is just his ability to get skinny between blocks you know just again goes back to that man gap scheme preference for him it's just he's really able to like find the

hole and when you are keeping it between the tackles when you're going up the middle or you could throw inside zone in there as well because sometimes you know duo and inside zone they look very similar you it's it's not a lot of daylight for you to get to where you need to go for your aiming points congested dude and etn is just really good at navigating that chaos so uh my player comp for him chase edmunds i think edmunds was kind of a similar style again like good footwork in the backfield was able to very quickly hit his top speed which edmunds top speed isn't elite but it's good i mean when you have that quick burst again, that yields a big yards per carry average. And I think Chase Edmonds and his skillset represents kind of what ATN does

very well. I love it. I, a guy that I will get eyes on before the summer ends. I've seen him play play. Like you couldn't watch Florida and miss him. Right. I mean, if it's crazy also too, that he's eligible, I feel like it just goes so quick with running backs. And we do have a couple of senior running backs in this group. I know, I think you're about to talk about one, right? Yes. And Devin Neal. Devin Neal, back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

Yep, Devin Neal. So, University of Kansas senior. Contemplated the draft last year. Ended up coming back to Kansas. Love that. And if you listen to the quarterback episode, you know I love it. Because in the backfield, it's going to be Jalen Daniels. It's going to be Devin Neal again.

I hope we get a full, healthy season of those guys. He is very similar. The way that I describe Trevor Etienne, Neal is very similar. He's just a little bit bigger. Neal is 5'11", 215 pounds. He's got those back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons like you mentioned there. Plays a true freshman as well. This is a two-sport athlete.

This is somebody who committed to Kansas to also play baseball. He played football and baseball, but you know how it goes. A lot of athletes do that, and then the second they get on canvas, the football coach is basically like, hey, buddy. Yeah, we're not doing that. Welcome to your full-time job. We're actually not doing that. So he played outfield throughout high school, I believe.

He committed to potentially play outfield for Kansas. I don't think he played on the baseball team. Maybe somebody can correct me there with his time early on. Maybe he did play, but it wasn't the future for him. Obviously, the future has been in the Jayhawks' backfield. Again, just somebody who loved the footwork for him. And I think that that is his biggest calling card. It's between the tackles.

It's those man gap scheme blocking concepts where he's got that patience. He's got that elusive footwork. He's got good balance. And the same thing with Trevor Etienne, the top speed, probably average for the NFL level. I think that he, similarly to Etienne, not really reliable in pass protection, but just their strengths and weaknesses are very, very similar. And in fact, they're only half a point of a difference on the initial grades that I gave. They're just such a similar player. Neil is just a little bit bigger.

He's got a little bit more production to him. His comp, when I watched him, just because the body style is a little bit different, I saw a little bit of production to him uh his comp when i watched him just because the body style is a little bit different i saw a little bit of monty ball when i when you watch monty ball he was at wisconsin right and monty ball ton of success in wisconsin's offense did not have the nfl career but a lot of off seasons off field stuff kind of went into that for ball unfortunately but when he taught when we come to or when we're talking about the play style itself how he was able to win ball really won with that uh with that fancy footwork being able to stay balanced stay light on his feet um hit the hole get between the tackles all that kinds of stuff so very similar scouting report for both Devin Neal and Trevor Etienne who are very close for me

for RB6 and RB7. Neal is one of those And like I said, I only briefly watched him not enough to rank him, but right away I could tell he has that tap dancing to kind of miss you, make you miss in a phone booth. Like just very shifty, the stop and start the quick fee. He, if somebody, you know, a defender gets right through the line of scrimmage, he can kind of stop as soon as he gets the ball, make them miss, then try to readjust the run. It's not always the big play or the prettiest thing, or like you said, necessarily the biggest guy in the world or the fastest guy in the world,

but reliable is what it felt like watching him with some of the most important stuff. All right, so Henderson was your seven, right? Seven, yeah, and he's your five. He is my five. So you want to talk about him, and then we could jump into whoever's five for you? Yeah, man.

I mean, Henderson is a guy that in most running back classes, like I said, I had him at number one last year, and it's not like he had some miserable 2023 season to me. I think with Henderson right now, Trevor, like full transparency, my biggest concern is if he could just be the guy for a backfield with health. And I, I get it. The NFL is gravitating towards most committee backfields, but I think there's a couple of running backs in this class that could just be flat out dudes like workhorse like give me the ball 20 to 25 times i'm that guy i love travion henderson he's explosive he has runaway speed i think he's got special acceleration for outside zone i think there's big upside as a pass catcher because what he could do in space i love the stiff arm on ds down the field. He has not fumbled over the last two years.

I just, with the foot injury in 2022, and then he missed some time in the middle of last year, and they're very careful with him. And now they go out and I'm assuming got a ton of NIL deal, you know, deals on the table because they wanted to bring in Judkins, who's awesome. It's, Henderson's a really good player. I just have kind of graduated from the days of thinking,

this guy can be a 25-touch guy in the NFL to, hey, he might be awesome, but you just might always need to be careful with him. He's really talented. Insanely talented. I mean, former five-star, number one running back in his class. And it's there on the college football field. There are big plays where you see it. So he's a senior now.

He had a monster true freshman season in 2021. And that's the only full season that he has played. So honestly, I got a lot of my Pff data from the 2021 year that he played yeah because that's i i think if you're going to talk about what henderson is i think it is that version of that player uh because in 2022 he broke his foot he tried to play 2023 he had an undisclosed injury and he missed some time there as well but there there's context to Henderson, which I was able to – I was reading an article from 11 Warriors, which they do a really good job covering the Ohio State Buckeyes in depth.

And they did a profile on Trayvon Henderson and sort of kind of his background and where he has come from and the things that he has had to overcome. From Hopewell, Virginia, which is a town in Virginia that their poverty level is almost double any other city in Virginia. And because of that, he did not grow up in good areas. And his parents split when he was young. His dad stayed around his life.

This is all according to the article. His dad stayed around in his life, but his mother was really responsible for raising him and his two brothers. And he opened up in the article talking about how he would watch his mom just like come home and just like cry from the stresses of life

and how hard life was and where they lived and everything. And it made him angry that he was a kid and there was nothing that he could do about it. And he talked about having like suicidal and depressional thoughts at a really young age. And then when he, his mom got him into football because he talked about like having these just like anger issues and all this like depression, suicidal thoughts, got into football. And that was a way for him to channel his anger. We became, like you said, five-star running back,

unbelievably successful running back over 4, 000 yards in his high school career over 50 touchdowns i mean he was the virginia gary player of the year didn't even get a senior season okay over 4 000 yards and 50 touchdowns didn't even get a senior season because of covid so i mean monster production for him as a high schooler and he put a lot of pressure on himself to say this is how i help my family like this is how i get everybody. And he put a lot of pressure on himself to say, this is how I help my family. Like, this is how I get everybody out. And he put a lot of pressure on himself for that. And he had a really good freshman season at Ohio state. But then when he broke his foot in 2022, he tried to push through it and he tried to play through it almost like with that pressure on him.

And when he wasn't able to, and when he had to have surgery and sit out again, like those depressive thoughts only got worse for him. And it wasn't until he was really able to kind of sit down and in his words, find faith, he found faith that he's been able to really battle those thoughts and, and have a more pure hearted and secure view of himself and his outlook into the world and his place in it and just who he is as a person, um, not only to his family, but to everybody else and to himself too. And it was just a, it was, it was such an eyeopening piece. If you go like, man, you, when you understand where somebody comes from like that, it helps you appreciate kind of what they've battled through, what they going through you know when you hear them talk at the podium things

like that and and those things don't necessarily always translate to yards and touchdowns and things like that but like sometimes they do and in a environment where we're projecting what people are going to be in their final season of college football in the nfl level knowing that backstory of trayvon hend Henderson and where he has come from and where he is now, it's so much more of a healthier place. I mean, it makes you think that the best is yet to come for somebody who has been immensely talented. So you're hoping that fully healthy in 2023, sorry, 2024 now.

The issue is he's also battling Quinsha-Junkins for carries, which is tough. Side note. We'll get to Quinchon later. Yeah, I think we will. The speed, the footwork, what he is. I think the agility is such a calling card for him as a speed back. You mentioned it, man. I think that he can be still so effective as a player.

RB5 for me reminded me of Tajay Spears. Tajay Spears was dominating coming out of Tulane, that speed element that now the Titans are going to lean on for maybe their RB1 position this upcoming year. But the way that he plays the game with that quickness, that footwork, that track background, that speed, it is so tantalizing and alluring and and i i hope that even in a crowded backfield travion henderson

has his opportunities because he's going to continue to light it up if he does just talent man like the talent is all there he's been productive before it would really be great if he can bookend his career with the healthy season and kind of carry that momentum into the nfl because he can do the special stuff um but you know yeah it just has to stay healthy so it's a great running back class like him being five for you seven for me yeah doesn't mean this guy's not getting drafted in the top 100 let me say that right now yeah no absolutely five for me yeah yeah kyle manung guy oh okay they're running they're running back out of ruckers five nine two ten you got to see him right i did he's he's rb9 for me he just he just missed the the top eight that we talked about i

mean he he's a human pinball like if you you're looking for a Blake Coram kind of player in this draft, I look at my nun guy and go, yep, short, stout, muscular, runs hard, constantly bouncing off of tackle attempts, sharp, quick cuts. He he's really good. We all love the classic LT cut and these exaggerated jump cuts. Yeah. But my nun guy is really good at these quick little cuts that he doesn't exaggerate to keep his speed. Cause he's not the fastest guy, right? Short strides, not a long strider. When he gets to the third level, he's not constantly galloping away from safeties, but he's so good at understanding how to maintain the speed. He's already built up rather than big cut or stopping.

Now I have to reaccelerate again. So he constantly, I thought Trey Benson was really good at this. And I think my nun guy might be even better. He constantly turns nothing plays into something. Like he just finds his way out of the pile and you're like, where the hell did he come from? Here's the craziest thing with him.

He is an MF-er in pass pro, dude. Like some of the pass pro reps, he's not trying to get in the way. He's trying to kill people. It is so awesome to watch his passion and nastiness in pass pro, where I tweeted one of him taking out a Penn State linebacker, or Northwestern.

And he just detonates people. Okay, so you got a Northwestern rep from him? I'm pretty sure that's where the clip was of him in pass pro. I need to double check. I'm pretty sure it's week one, Northwestern. Cause I watched him against Michigan and he absolutely de cleats their linebacker. Dude.

He murders linebackers for breakfast. Yes. It's yes. I love he's a member of the Southeast platoon. Yeah. A hundred percent. No slipping on ice cubes. He walks right through the door and they don't bat an eye.

100%. Menunga is like heart, soul, talent. I mean, 73 missed tackles forced last year. This guy. And then, you know, you look at it because you're kind of like, man, Iowa held him to 40 rushing yards. Penn State held him to 39. And then you go, well, he ran for 160 against Ohio State.

So it's not like one of those guys that's kind of going up against like bottom feeder kind of. He rumbles in some big games. And Rutgers has been outmatched at times. They're getting better. They're on the right track. They're more competitive. And he's a big part of that.

I'm a huge, huge fan of the way this guy plays. He might, he might be my favorite running back in the draft, not the best one, but just, I, I just like, I will root for this guy. I will definitely drive down to Rutgers this year to watch him play in a game, uh, in some in-person scouting. Cause like, he's like that kind of talent. Like, okay, let's drive down and go see a top 75 talent. How far are you from Rutgers? You're not that far? I have no idea where Rutgers is. No idea.

You just go down a little bit Jersey. When I was in Hoboken, it was a very quick drive. Oh, yeah. I'm not that much further, an hour in the car. All right. Okay, yeah. I mean, if you don't go see him in person, the addicts need to hold you.

Well, the thing is, I usually go to a Rutgers game each year if Ohio State's in town. Like, that's how i saw garrett wilson and rucker and and now it's now i'm going for ruckers which is awesome hell yeah for the ruckers program and monung guy no i mean look him being rb9 for me is just simply a testament to how good this running back class yeah like monongai would be rb3 last year like right there in that conversation like i said quorum quorum ish yeah and quorum was my rb2 last year so i mean he's a you know i he he was great a little bit of a background on him uh older brother kevin um who is nine and a half years older than him. Pretty big gap.

Had a successful career at the FCS level with Villanova. And then he signed NFL contracts for the Eagles and the Vikings. And I don't think he stuck around very long. But him making it to the NFL was inspiration for Kyle to... I'm getting Kyle and Kevin mixed up. For Kyle to obviously put his best foot forward to potentially make it to the NFL. After watching his brother make it to the NFL, his parents are from Cameroon.

He's a first generation immigrant. So they got, it's obviously cool for him to be able to make it and make his own way here in America. And in the sport of football became Rutgers first 1000 yard rusher since 2012. Oh no. It's been a whole ass decade since we,000-yard rusher since 2012. Oh, no. Been a whole-ass decade.

Yeah. Since we had a 1,000-yard rusher. Whew. The strengths of this dude? Well, strength. Mentality is to never go down on first contact. Oh, yeah. Very explosive in short areas.

Really good movement skills for man gap scheme. Dense muscle mass man i mean he's listed at 210 which is 40th percentile for the running back position at the nfl level i i've never i've never tried to tackle him when he lowered the shoulder against me but i can tell you just from viewing it at multiple angles he don't feel like he's 210 when he makes contact. This dude is dense, and he packs a punch when he makes contact on people. You see it in pass pro, obviously. Long speed, I think, is average for the running back position at the NFL level. Though he has a great mentality for pass pro, him being only 5'9",

I saw a handful of reps where the short arms did get the best of him. Right. Trying to stay in front of guys, but obviously if he can get you between the shoulder pads, he's got enough strength to be great. And then just almost no experience as a pass catcher. Just does not have a lot of experience in that area for the third down and the pass catching roles. But I agree with you, man. I mean, he's a bruiser.

He's a fun guy to watch. He really is. And it's interesting you brought up the brother went to Villanoiser. He's a fun guy to watch. He really is. And, you know, it's interesting. You brought up the brother went to Villanova. Like, talk about the brains in this family. Brother goes to Villanova, Menungai, all three years in a row. Academic, all Big Ten. Like, just this just total package.

Brains in the brawn. Yep. Yeah, you're right, though. He is really 20 pounds of muscle in a 10 pound sack. It's like it's that's what it looks like in the uniform uh and and clearly the defenders feel it as well who'd you have it for i have ollie gordon at four okay you said that you didn't say that with your chest and that is that a hot take no i haven't i have met three and boy was he holding on for dear fucking life all right all right no no i i just

wondered if we were gonna have to get into it like i was wondering if we were gonna have to throw down nope no throwing down where everything's okay cooler heads prevail we just we just had bagels in new york like four days ago the peace treaty has been signed look this is this is true and i look i the uh a meeting for bagels you know sometimes can mean more than life itself but uh so can it so so can an ollie gordon summer scouting evaluation so you know i don't know i never know so like ollie gordon oklahoma state he's a junior going into this year was not draft eligible last year six foot one 220 pounds healthy this young man yes 86th percentile and 70th percentile so he's a four-star running

back from the state of texas um chose oklahoma state to uh be close to the fam so you i mean you love that listen i um oh man i cannot remember where i found this article i'm so sorry to the author who wrote it um but i'm gonna read one of your quotes hopefully people can type it in word for word and then actually go click on the article. This is from his high school coach. Gordon is a workaholic off the field as well. He lifted heavy weights during his high school seasons when rest and recovery were paramount. He would often squat 405 pounds on Monday and Tuesday on game weeks. Another quote, he is a team guy. He's always encouraging the linemen, the quarterbacks, the receivers, all the players around him. That's what special kids do right they make other players better he said

he models his game after derrick henry which is terrifying because he is he is massive and he also had this quote that i loved from that from that article quote nobody's really going to care about the last game he played so you might as well go out there and show him in the next one. Perfect. Let's go, baby. Let's go. Actually, I'm wrong for having him RB4. He's RB1.

Now that I'm saying all this stuff out loud. I walk it back. We've made a giant mistake. Yeah, we've made a giant mistake. I mean, he is somebody who has a big carry load for for oklahoma state 826 total snaps last year i mean that's a ton of snaps from yeah there really is strengths ideal size for the nfl position obviously impressive speed for a bigger back very adequate for the pros especially for his size feet are nimble behind the line of scrimmage um again especially for his size he's

got the balance and strength to brush off arm tackles and lower the shoulder against people. Weaknesses for him. Good size and willingness for pass blocking, but not fundamentally sound yet. You see him chop block. You see him lunge with the shoulder. You see the head dip a little bit too much. So it could be a work in progress there.

But we've still got some fundamentals to kind of iron out. He's more of a build-up speed runner than an explosive one, which is totally fine given his size. You just, again, got to know what you're getting. You know, the running back classes, maybe that's not as glaring. In this one, it unfortunately is because there's a lot of other backs there. Bit stiff when asked to truly stop and start a change direction because of that bigger mass and longer length that he has with his legs.

And only one year as a full-time starter, but the vision and anticipation for space and blocks was sometimes spotty for him. He reminded me of Mikel Lejour from Illinois, who was very similar in size, had a similar explosive profile to him, was picked in the second round, I believe. And I feel as though that is sort of a target for Ollie Gordon is that beginning of the second round type of a player.

Gore. I mean, yeah, we see pretty much eye to eye on Gordon item, RB three, I'll get to my RV four in a, in a second here. Yeah.

Workhorse size strength to me, downhill man scheme, kind of runner standout contact balance he could run through contact he could spin off of contact 45 explosive runs last year i think where he deserves a lot of credit for in this class is this guy is a drive finisher at the goal line like there is a skill to that. Yeah. And this guy knows, knows how to finish drives when they need six points at the goal line.

He is going to lower his shoulder and move the pile and punch it in. I love the passion he plays with. He runs hard. He celebrates and it's not, it's just pure, pure passion. You brought up the buildup speed. When he gets to the second level, you could see the strides start to turn to gallops.

Yeah, and I'm with you. I thought the foot speed to get to the outside is average initially. He's not going to always win the corner. I think he gets a little dance happy looking for the big play. In my opinion, when you see him as a zone runner, I thought he got a little bit too patient or he started to get a little happy around the blocks and where it's a man scheme it's like all right dig the heels in lower the shoulder let's go down the field and it's like whoa

who is this he just was not as comfortable behind his own block and that's okay yeah it's okay sean mcveigh will take him in the second round and he'll run for 1800 yards for four years. So you might be right. If Ollie Gordon and Kyron Williams are in the same backfield and Blake Corum. Dude. Yeah.

I forgot them. Corum too. Oh man. Wow. Start contrast of the size there between those three bats. That would be funny. What did you think of him as a pass catcher? Because I thought he,

he's a big guy and he's, he's a weight, another weight room guy. And there's a lot of these weight room guys at the top of this running back class. I thought sometimes he really struggled to adjust to passes like the stop and move my body. And yeah,

this wasn't his comfort zone. Yeah. I, I didn't think that he, I don't think he is a bad receiver. Like, no, no,

no. I think Gordon is a natural athlete for his size but it's it's sort of like the stop and start ability it is just naturally more difficult for you to have the blink of an eye like body control that sometimes you need to adjust to passes or things like that and it's just he he's not to me he's just not going to be that type of a player so i i didn't give him a bad receiving grade i think i gave him a slightly above average receiving grade because i think that he can't do it i think he's a natural pass catcher but you're right when it comes to okay what are you outside of wheel routes up the sideline can you run a a Texas route? Can you run an out route?

You know, like what are you creating? Any sort of separation, anything like that? I think that's, yeah, that's not necessarily his game. RB4 for you, RB3 for me. Indeed. Really great college runner and has an NFL body body and if he could round out a few more things i mean you're you're talking about a pretty high pick yeah yes yes this is this is a this is a second round type of a great player like rb4 for me but like let's let's be very clear this guy can

absolutely succeed and even be an rb1 at the nfl level And I'll give you another one that I know you're going to be really high on. It's RB4 for me, Omari and Hampton. I mean, man, Omari and Hampton. Freak. Freakish guy. UNC running back, junior, 5'11 and three quarters, 219 pounds. It was funny because I thought of all of the radio hits I did in the spring where I was like man Drake may like that offense really sucked and then like and it's and I didn't say it like that on the radio but I just thought it was it wasn't always pretty for Drake at times so this line struggled Devontae Walker showed up you know he he couldn't wasn't eligible really late in the season and I still stand by what I meant the situation was not ideal for Drake May as a passer but I do want to scale back that they have an absolute freak show in the backfield in Amari and Hampton and a little background on him so well he rushed for 1500 yards almost six

yards to carry 15 touchdowns 35 explosive runs 67 missed tackles force he did a fumble three times last year added 29 catches 222 yards a touchdown no drops former four-star recruit north carolina gatorade player of the year trevor this is my favorite one he squatted 560 pounds in high school but their bar only was supposed to hold 600 pounds so when he put 560 on it it started to bend i guess they they got up their game and get some rogue bars in there yeah and uh and you know in serious in all seriousness like they couldn't whether they couldn't afford it they didn't have the budget for it they didn't have a bar that could hold more and the bar bent but and they were like he

could easily squat more as a high schooler they They just have the barbell to do it. That would be my Instagram picture for the next 20 years. Yeah. It's just the bar bending over the traps. Just completely bent over the traps. Dude, look, I don't know exactly what his weight was, but 247 has his recruiting weight at 215. He ran a 10-7-1 100-meter dash in high school. Cat's different.

You're telling me he did that anywhere close to 210 pounds as a high schooler? Insane strength from this dude. Yeah, his nickname in high school was the Big O. No surprise there. Reputation as a weight room warrior. I saw a video with a thumbnail that called him the Saquon Barkley of high school football a few years ago. Yes. Yes.

He's that kind of guy. 100%. As a player, wide-bodied, hard-charging runner hard charging runner like size speed combo you want for the position gets downhill with little fear of contact keeps those legs driving he thrives in inside zone like i thought he had the feel for inside zone i thought he had the hard charging style for inside zone i caught everything that came his way but it's really just swing passes and dump offs. They weren't very adventurous with how they use him as a receiving back yet. But he looks completely capable. He wants in on the action in pass for like, you know, how to sink his hips.

He fires his hand with purpose. Now, the vision in pass row is still catching up to that physical ability, understanding where the pressure coming from when to help when to slide my only complaint with him and i haven't bizarre before and i second round pick right today like today all the physical ability as a future first rounder if i didn't think he was a very creative runner trevor like i i thought like he's so big and fast that he doesn't need to like a manon guy and like some other people i'm gonna talk about constantly stop start juke spin like all these because he's just so big and fast that it's hey get on the track and run as fast as you can and you're gonna naturally run through people right the nfl like there's times where he's going to have to create uh and he did force 67 missed tackles but a lot like he's just running through most people. I didn't see a ton of creativity,

but if he unlocks a little bit more of that, I mean, this is someone who could challenge to be an end of the first round pick, honestly. Yeah, I mean, just the body type alone, man. It's wild. Melvin Gordon is what the body type looked like to me. Ooh, okay, okay. I have Rashard Mendenhall you know minus the

the you know the hot race debates with the all-white teams but i had richard mendenhall who the hell's gonna play corner cooper dejean you better declare uh but dude i mean you go back and you watch mendenhall to me they're built very similarly and like mendenhall is the same way way, especially when he was with the Steelers and even when he was with Illinois. He'd put his foot in the ground, and it would just be like, boom. He is shot out of a cannon. He is bringing full power to turn that speed to power and momentum.

And, dude, just extremely impressive player. You mentioned some of the high school background. I mentioned the track background. He won the Gatorade North Carolina football player of the year as a senior. He was Mr. Football in North Carolina, played in all 12 games as a true freshman, got three starts, started 11 games last year at over 1,500 yards rushing. This dude is just built like an NFL running back. I mean, it's literally the first line that I have in my notes. He is built like an NFL running back in measurables, in weight distribution, in athleticism.

He is an NFL running back. I have in his strengths, he relishes the physical aspects of playing the position. There are some running backs, I don't mean for him to catch a stray, but Rocket Sanders is frustrating to me, and I know a lot of people love Raheem Sanders, but he's frustrating to me because there are too many times

when I don't think he runs violently enough. You're 6'2", 225 pounds. Lower the shoulder. Like, get after somebody. Yeah. And I've never once, for a single second, of any rep that I watched, wondered that about Amari Hampton. No, no, no.

Hampton's in the backfield. You know how the center or the quarterback will point out the mic, whatever. Hampton could point out the mic and be like, I'm going to kill you. If you try to tackle me, it might be your clavicle's last tackle. I'm just letting you know. That's the type of mentality that he has. And I gravitate towards backs who never shy away from that contact because it is such a prerequisite at the NFL level.

Elite power in his lower half, a great leg drive through contact and that explosiveness in space. You know, you talked about the lack of creativity not being necessary for him so maybe he just doesn't think about it as much um i saw a little bit of impatience from his game actually as as what kind of held me back from having him rb1 for me oh he's rb2 for me sorry i was gonna say i didn't know where you had him should have mentioned that at the top he's rb2 for me yet i thought he was inconsistent blend of patience and hesitancy behind the line of scrimmage. Like, there are times when you watch it and you will go, ooh, okay, like, that was good patience.

Like, you waited here for a block to develop, you know, somebody to climb to the second level, a puller to come around, you know, somebody to maybe get, you know, fooled by a split zone with the guy running behind the line of scrimmage whatever and i'd be like oh that's good patience but then there were other times where it was like okay now i just felt like you were too hesitant there so it's that he flirts with that okay was he patient or was he hesitant here and i think you saw that a little bit last year again just a true sophomore so that that higher football iq could absolutely be in the cards for him as soon as next year. But like we said, built like an NFL back, baby. And this is somebody who I think could absolutely be an RB1 at the next level. So yeah, he is my RB2. Can I guess who your RB3 is?

Yeah. Ashton Gentry? You're damn right it is. He's RB2 for me. Could easily be RB1. He rules. Could easily be RB1. Okay?

Ashton Gentry, Boise State, true junior going into this season, 5'9", 215 pounds, one of the most fun players that we're gonna watch here in summer scouting college football 25 legend incoming bro i dibs on boise state you gotta have it dibs on boise state all right so here's here's a little bit of background for him four-star running back is actually you know he's from the recruiting tab has him from frisco, Texas, but he was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Actually started his high school football career in Naples, Italy, before moving back to the States because his father was in the military. He was part of a military family.

They were living over in Naples, Italy because of his – God, those poor Italian kids. Oh, brother. It's like when they do like, could 30 peewee hockey players you know stop matthew kachuk this is dude ashton gentry is 100 that exact exercise i was watching some like videos of like you know like i think local news did a special on him or whatever and his high school coach once they moved back to the states he started playing high school football in Texas, his high school coach, and I think he also, like,

Gent, he was also like, yeah, I didn't really get a lot of attention in Italy because no college coach knew how seriously to take my tape because I'm demolishing these poor high school kids in Italy. Oh, God. being pranked these poor high school kids in italy oh god so gets to uh gets to texas um starts playing high school football in texas which is more to his speed all due respect to the italians love the food love the cuisine oh very nice people he actually started playing defense in high school started out linebacker safety and even as a pass rusher because where he went to school was so stacked at running back, they had to get him on the field. So they actually had him as a defensive player.

I think his sophomore year in high school. His junior year in high school, they then put him at receiver full time. And he got recruiting looks and offers as a receiver because of that junior season. And then as a senior, he was finally the running back that they always believed that he could be a running back there was just other veterans that were ahead of him so then he plays running back he ends up committing to boise state as a running back but he has not only the defensive background not only the wide receiver background but he was also a track dude ran the 100 meter in 11 13 had a long jump of 23 feet. This dude is who you want as a

running back, man. True freshman at Boise State. He played in all 14 games, only got two starts that year, but still had over 800 yards. Rushing last year in 2023, he started 10 of 12 games, 1,900 all-purpose yards. This dude was a stud. I want to hear kind of what you thought with his strengths and weaknesses, but I did want to shout out and say this. For some advanced PFF analytics, force missed tackles per attempt, 98th percentile. Yards after contact, 95th percentile. Rushing grade behind gap scheme blocking, 902 zone blocking 92.6 as a receiver

force missed tackles perception 97th percentile yards per route run how often they targeted this guy as a receiver 99th percentile his wins above average mark of 0.55 was the let me make sure i got it here sixth highest mark for a running back in pff history sixth highest the only ones that were higher connor were like christian mccaaffrey's 2016 season. Ezekiel Elliott's 2014 season. I mean, like the value that this guy brings to the offense is so diverse. He's so fun.

What'd you think of him? I loved him. I mean, RB2 in a class that what's crazy is there's just so many incredible, like physically imposing players, the build, the size, the density,

the speed. And here's gentee who I have at about five, eight and a quarter. And he's, he's built really well though. Like I have him up to two 17 right now. Nice. So shorter guy,

but built really well. There's not a lot of weaknesses the number one thing i wrote down is he's got to clean up the fumbles he had five in 2023 yeah like that number's got to go down but low to the ground runner defenders lose him behind the line of scrimmage all the time you'll watch the all 22 and the linebackers and the safeties and even the deep like they kind of loot he runs very low to the ground he flows so well with his blocks plus plus twitch plus plus contact balance incredibly incredibly skilled at running in congested areas dominant player in short yardage situations with great awareness of where he needs to get to he always knows where the sticks are.

Incredibly productive pass catcher that doesn't drop the ball. 578 receiving yards, five receiving touchdowns, 24 missed tackles forced just as a receiver. He is what looks like the best pass catching back in the class while also being a dominant runner. 82 missed tackles forced last year as a runner. I mean, he's the total package. He really, really is. If he was a little bigger and a little faster,

like he's your no-brainer RB1 in most classes, and he came pretty damn close for me in this group. And once again, another guy that could push to be a first-round pick. He's a force. No, I agree with you 100%. The value that he brings in the passing game alone. Tremendous. That tells me, if Jenty has anything close to a 2024

from what he had in 2023, he's going in the first round. He will be a first-round running back. Yeah, because he affects the game in too many different ways. There's no question to me. We, I was actually talking with our college football guys, Dalton and Max about this, because I was freaking out about some of the running back clips. So I was, I had to talk to somebody because I couldn't talk to you

because I can't, I can't get it out until the podcast. So I got to talk to somebody. I think the general football population uses the Alvin Kamara comp way too much. Way too much. Can you catch the ball? You're Alvin Kamara. Oh, you can catch?

Oh, you bounced off one tackle one time? Like, oh, you're Alvin Kamara. Turf tape? You're Alvin Kamara. Dread? You're Alvin Kamara. Hold on. Now we're kind of getting into it.

But that to me is disrespectful to how good Alvin Kamara. Hold on. Now we're kind of getting into it. But that to me is disrespectful to how good Alvin Kamara is. Right. And there are way too many Alvin Kamara comps that I have seen over the last couple of years that I'm like, you just get out of town. Ashton Gentry is worthy of the Alvin Kamara comp. And that's what I wrote down. And if you hate it, if you're saying, no, no, no, not again with the Alvin Kamara comp, Doug Martin, but a better receiver, is also kind of what I thought about here.

Because Doug Martin kind of has a similar size, similar explosiveness, even without the Boise State background. He's just a better receiver than Doug Martin was. And Doug Martin was a good receiver. So Ashton Jett, he could easily rb1 at the end at the end of uh this cycle but i believe we're going to have the same rb1 going into the season it appears we do which i'm i'm really surprised about well not really really surprised that's kind of just outlandish to say but i'm pleasantly surprised because i don't i don't, I think his freshman season,

Quinshawn Judkins, right? Transferring from Ole Miss to Ohio State. What an insane amount of riches in the back of Ohio State. I think people were, when he was a freshman, were like, whoa, look at this freshman. And then last year, there wasn't the same hype around him, but you turn on the tape, dude, and Judkins is just a special player.

Yep. I mean, a special. I'll rip off some things, and then I'll toss to you. He's 5'11", 219. He'll be 21 on draft day. Last year, he had 1,158 rushing yards, 15 touchdownss he only averaged 4.3 yards per carry after his freshman season where he ran for over 1,500 yards and 5.7 yards per carry he added 22 receptions for 149 yards and two touchdowns in 2023 as well a three-star prospect out of the state of Alabama the first SEC player herschel walker to have 15 or more rushing

touchdowns in his first two seasons two now why the yards for carrie really needs context you turn on the film and what he's dealing with like back-to-back seasons of 76 and 78 missed tackles force he is jacked from head to toe this is a well-built human being yeah constantly running through tackle attempts 871 of his rushing yards were after contact last year i think as a freshman over 900 were after contact uh shows outside burst on all miss loves the toss play to him and the outside burst explosiveness is like it's okay that's different we'll work with that like that's gonna that because that was it with him and ollie gordon to me right and i had gordon as rb3 the out that burst that explosive nature with judkins was different to me oh yeah

that i was like and you know obviously well built running running backs can take on contact, but that burst is a difference maker. That same burst allows him to take a run outside. When an unblocked defender is shooting an interior gap for a tackle for loss attempt, he has the vision and peripheral to see that and go, okay, now I can go outside. Like this is leaving this gap or this area open. Let's go outside and make a big run,

but let's not lean on that and make a habit of that. Excellent blend of elusiveness and power. Like just everything you'd want in a running back where he can make you miss. He could have light feet. Oh, he could lower the shoulder and run right through you and not lose any speed. 73 snaps over the last two years in the slot or out wide.

Does not fumble. Doesn't fumble. Fumble in over 500 carries. I i mean they just turn around and give this guy the ball over and over and over again and he's getting the shit knocked out of him constantly does not fumble at all judkins is a stud man stud everything you want in in you want to turn you want to look in your huddle and go oh we have a back that's ready for 25 touches today hey it's the fourth quarter. We're up by three, but we're just going to hammer away this possession.

That's Judkins. He's a throwback type of a player. He is somebody who, I mean, if you said, Hey buddy, we, we,

we got to get you for 350 carries this season. He'd be like, all right, it's fine. Let's do it. Yeah. I'll break some records. It's fine.

And it feels like it's just every time old miss kept continue to go back to the well with him he continued to deliver it is wild to me that him and trevion hederson are on the same team and if ohio state i mean ohio state brought back a lot of talent on the defensive side of the football but i really do believe that the fact that they have quinch on judkins like that makes their championship aspirations legitimate all due respect to will howard like it is having judkins on that team that actually gives them a championship caliber ceiling to go along with that defense of everybody that came back um you mentioned i i don't need to you know reiterate a lot of the same strengths because we see him exactly the same, but was not relied much in the passing game.

I mean, he just 17th percentile yards per route run and just didn't have a ton of experience as a receiver. Second percentile, missed tackles, forced perception. I mean, it's just not the kind of player that he is. I think he's got high pass blocking potential potential but there are times when he is not fundamentally sound about it like the head will dip way too far like to dangerous levels it's like okay buddy i we don't need you to get hurt over here yeah and he'll like show the crown of the helmet to the defenders coming in and you know try to brace for him but there are other times when especially

early in the season like if you watch early in the season i felt as though his pass blocking was really good and it kind of faded as as as the year went on but um sometimes he can get a little his weight can get a little too far over his toes and he gets a little off balance but i mean like i'm nitpicking at this point right scouting summary just my scouting summary of him judkins presents all around three down ability for the pro level. His vision slash processing is a great blend of both patient and fast. His high advanced statistical scores in missed tackles force per attempt showcase his foot quickness and explosiveness. He also has excellent core strength and balance to pinball off tacklers

that do not wrap up his legs. On third down, he just hasn't been used much as a receiver, but does show some signs of a reliable pass protection for third down abilities. I mean, he is an absolute workhorse type of a player. He's somebody that can get you thousand yards every single season. He'll run straight through your chest.

And I think you post this. What it was a Mississippi state game, right? We had that one run up the middle where he broke like eight tackles in one play. And you go, who's doing this, right? Who's out here doing this other than Quinn Sean Judkins? And to me, it was so close for who was going to be RB1 on this list between Judkins,

Hampton, and Jente. And I came away with Judkins as the top because basically that play, where I'm watching that play and I'm like, who else is doing this? Just one dude. In a running back class that is studded, he still is able to kind of stand up above the rest. So that's what I got as my RB1. I love it. Yeah, this is just such a good group.

I mean, high-end talent, round one talents. I think the crazy thing is like you're asking just a couple of these guys just to hone in on their pass catching, pass protecting craft a little bit, which usually comes with time at the college level. And then you're not going to have a lot of, a lot of words in the weaknesses section. Yep. And we didn't think about this show today. We didn't even talk about like Donovan Edwards, right? Yeah. He was 10 for me. Right.

I think he was nine for me. We didn't talk about DJ Giddens, right? So. Nick Singleton from Penn state. It's a deep, deep class. But what makes a great class so special,

and this was the wide receivers last year, because everybody's like, oh, you say this every year. It's always a good wide receiver class. If you have blue chip talent at the top, but the depth, the supply underneath it, that's what makes a class great. And I kind of am feeling that way about this running back class yep it's awesome and i can't wait to hear the good people's thoughts about it as well we gave you guys nine ten names that we really like we talked about our top eights um we would love to

hear from you guys as well again as always that's the best part of this podcast the best part of this show is hearing y'all's opinions if you've got a take on a certain running back, fire it off in the comments section. If you have an early list for 2025 headed into the season, fire it off. I don't care if it's three, five, ten. Maybe you've watched 25 of these running backs already. This is the place to get it off.

I would love to see those rankings if you guys got it however deep you got that running back class already. If you have you have ashen genti film in italy hit the dms actually yes yes if you've got ashen genti italy film we do we need to see it and show it on i'm just trying to see something oh man best way to get in on the show is of course the youtube comment section youtube.com backslash at nfl stock exchange y'all were uh so gracious and uplifting with us kind of coming back in the first episode of summer scouting last week flood in the comment section flood and likes over 25 000 people viewed that video and it was just a really cool way to kind of come back and get things kickstarted.

So we love you guys. Thank you for sticking around and making sure that you were here right when we dropped for the 2025 season, we're going to be doing this all summer long, getting to the other position to the other positions. I don't know if we're doing tight end or wide receiver next. Have we do, I don't think we've decided if we have not decided we,

we, uh, we'll have some discussions. All right. All right. All right. We won't plan the show on the show for that. We will keep that behind the scenes and it'll be a secret,

you know, whether, and you'll just have to subscribe and get notified immediately. And you know what? The thing is, this is the only way to do it. That's the only way to complain. If it's tight ends, don't it. And don't complain if it's tight ends.

Don't complain. Don't we have good tight ends this year? Yeah. We got good tight ends this year. It's a good draft, we think. Yeah. Yeah, we got good tight ends this year. Smash that subscribe button.

For everybody else that's still hanging around, watching the episode, listening to the episode, if you haven't yet, go get a PFF subscription. Use the fully unlocked Mock Draft Simulator. You can do trades. We'll be updating the blurbs as well. Again, all these notes that we're talking about in these shows, they will be in the Mock Draft Simulator. So go use that now.

We know that your true sicko is out there. Get yourself a subscription over at pff.com. And of course, we'll be updating the MDS throughout summer scouting, throughout the season, all the good stuff. Connor, you got anything else before we get out of here? No, I think that summed it up well. Great show, a lot of fun, tons of talent. Thank you to everybody in the comments

and the warm reception you gave us upon our return. It makes it truly so special. I mean, like truly so special. It keeps us coming back to log on turn on the camera the mic the lights which we will do a week from now for whatever gets me out of bed so it's not not now babe i have to mosey over to the laptop fire up all 22 summer scouting you joke but my alarm went off at 5 30 a.m this morning so i could keep watching running backs to be ready for this episode this afternoon so grind doesn't stop the grind never stops uh we love you guys

i'm trevor sigma that's connor rogers thank you guys so much for watching and listening to the nfl stock exchange podcast we'll see you next week Thank you.