NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 297. Early RB Rankings for 2025 NFL Draft

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

0:00 - Intro 6:15 - Bhayshul Tuten, Virginia Tech 12:25 - RJ Harvey, UCF 18:00 - Jarquez Hunter, Auburn 25:40 - Tahj Brooks, Texas Tech 31:35 - Jo’Quavius Marks USC 34:55 - Kyle Monangai, Rutgers 43:25 - Kalel Mullings, Michigan 46:40 - Damien Martinez, Miami 50:00 - Nick Singleton, Penn State 56:20 - Kaytron Allen, Penn State 1:02:05 - Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State 1:05:45 - DJ Giddens, Kansas State 1:10:30 - Devin Neal, Kansas 1:16:40 - Cam Skattebo, Arizona State 1:23:35 - Quinshon Judkins, Ohio State 1:26:50 - Treveyon Henderson, Ohio State 1:30:35 - Dylan Sampson, Tennessee 1:34:55 - Kaleb Johnson, Iowa 1:39:40 - Omarion Hampton, North Carolina 1:43:40 - Ahston Jeanty, Boise State 1:50:50 - Recap

Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. I'm Trevor Sikma, that's Connor Rogers joining you for another early position ranking episode. Today, we're talking running backs and we're going deep into the bag baby we are giving you our top 20s for the 2025 nfl draft that didn't mean 20 players all we're talking about today it means connor's got his top 20 which i have never seen before he is revealing to the world for the first time he has also not seen my list which i will reveal to the world for the first time it's gonna be a lot of fun connor how you doing my friend i'm good this was a grind and in a good way because I felt like I was up against the clock with how many good running backs there are in this class. Like when we planned the show every time I thought I was getting closer to being

done I forgot someone. Whether it was somebody deeper on the senior bowl roster whether it was a now to be fair there's a chance that you, one to four guys on our list today end up going back to school. Like the college football playoff kind of leaves you in a little bit of a, you know, cliffhanger mode. You and I aren't going to change our schedule for this because people love the early position previews. So that's a big factor into this, but try to get through as many as I can. There's so much talent.

Trevor, I would be surprised if at the end of the day this isn't the deepest position group in this entire nfl draft no there's a ton there's a ton of guys and and honestly like going through this exercise you have to remind yourself that there's a reason why they say running backs are a dime a dozen now i don't totally believe in that phrase but the reason why they say it isn't just because of some devaluing of the position in the game overall it's also because of the supply and demand formula of running backs there are so many that are capable of playing well so even though the majority of the guys that i watched are anywhere from like, yeah, I'll say third to fifth round grades that I have. It's a crap these players. And it's like, again, you, you watch these guys and you go,

okay, do they have elite standout traits? No, but in the right offense behind the right rushing scheme, right. They can play well. And we've seen that for them at the college level too. So I think that's what makes running back a lot of fun. And I'm excited for this episode. I'm mainly excited to, well, not only hear your rankings, but also hear from the people as well, because running back is a fan favorite type of position. And so, you know, there's one specific running back

from Arizona State who we'll talk about a little bit later in this show. Talk of town. Shout out to the Addicts. You guys talked to us about this certain player quite a bit in the early months, and Connor and I watched him a little bit, and we're like, ah, you know, he's okay. And then as the season went on, you go, whoa, whoa, whoa! And now, obviously, the conversation's a little bit different with that player and many others.

So top 20, we got a lot of guys that we want to get to the way that we do it. If you're new to this show is we'll do 20 to 16, just kind of rattle them off. Talk about guys a little bit there, 15 through 11, sort of in the same format. And then 10 through one, we'll get a little bit more in the details of what we think about each of these guys. So very excited to see how your list differs from mine. And with that, I'll let you take it away, my friend. 20 through 16, who you got? All right, 20 through 16. This one might surprise some people if they haven't caught up on the tape from this year.

Although, if you listen to Summer Scouting, I don't know if you'll be shocked. But 20 for me is Michigan's Donovan Edwards. You know, somebody who we've talked about on this show for a very, very long time. He's been draft relevant for, I would say, about three years now for us. 19, another player that's been on stock watch for us, RJ Harvey at a UCF. 18, Donovan Edwards' teammate, Kallel Mullings, another running back from Michigan, a bruiser.

Going to be a really interesting conversation around him because the first three years he was at Michigan, he played linebacker as well, and he got a senior bowl invite. So Mullings, his best football at this position might be ahead of him. And then, uh, 17 for me is Bayshall Tootin from Virginia Tech, another senior bowl guy, 16 for me, another senior bowl guy, for me another senior bowl guy a player that I really like this was the first time I watched him and I think he'll grow on me even more throughout the process is Jarka as Hunter out of Auburn I I thought the tape was really impressive I kind of sat here and but man I hate having that 16 because I feel like I just like the player a lot more than that but it goes to show you the depth of this class and i'm excited to get down to mobile and watch him specifically even do more work down there uh i i i want to touch on tootin really quick because i'll have him in my top five so it's an easy little bit of a transition as we sort of five did i say top five yeah yeah i got bashal tootin number one

over ashton gentry you better believe it brother uhotin' up or tootin' the fuck out of here. Faisal Tootin's family's listening to this like, what? It's Andre Guest's may all over again going number three. Everybody's confused. Now, people have been asking who's the Andre Guest may of this class. I guess it's Fshall Tootin. So, okay. Talk to me about Tootin.

You have him ranked 17. I have him 18. So I think we see him pretty similarly. Tootin was kind of one of those players who, man, what I watched, if you watch his best reps, you go, oh, we got something here. But there's a little bit of a hot and cold to him. What did you think of him? So this is someone who I had as listed as 5'9", 205,

so he's a little small at the position here. And I think that that matches the tape. You look at the production, 2022 at North Carolina A&T, almost 1,400 yards. Transfers to Virginia Tech, 863 rushing yards in 2023. This year, a bigger bump, 1,159 rushing yards, 6.3 yards per carry, 15 rushing touchdowns. A lot of people have been asking him about us because of how productive he's been. So what I really, really like about him is that in 2023,.39 missed tackles for straight. So that means he's, you know,

think of it like 40% of his runs. He's forcing a missed tackle. And then that's damn near elite folks. Like exactly. That's a crazy rate. Just to give you guys like an understanding of the scale missed tackles force per attempt. I'm glad that Connor brought this up

early. It's one of the metrics that we love to talk about here on the show because at P, it's a data point that we have that allows us to talk about running backs independent of their offensive line. Because a lot of times, that's the conversation, right? Okay, well, a run game is only as good as the offensive line. And where we agree with that, there are times when a running back can just kind of take over. Well, there's not as many as maybe for other positions, but how often you force a missed tackle, whether it's behind the line of scrimmage, at the line of scrimmage, beyond the line of scrimmage, that's a you thing. That doesn't necessarily matter with the offensive line.

So what Connor said, Basial Tootin, 0.39 missed tackle sports per attempt average. What you want to see from like a good back that you like giving the ball to a lot, anywhere from 0.25, 0.30. Right. That's a really good number. Anything in the 0.30 and above the 30s, that's a really good running back. And then you get into like the Bijon Robinsons

when you get into like above four. So him having anywhere near a 0.40 tells you how elusive this guy is so keep going i just wanted to yeah no it's a good explanation he was great in a split role in 2023 and he was really good this year 0.31 in 2024 like those are good rates for this player and it's because he's got great wiggle and cut back ability he's just he uses that size to his advantage and shows off the agility I think his skill set is perfect in an outside zone scheme and when you dive deeper into the numbers the numbers match with that not only did he have an 83 rushing grade and outside

zone runs on 73 attempts his missed tackles force went up to 0.47 so he's basically forcing a missed tackle on half of his outside zone runs so that's what I really like about Tootin is that it feels like in an outside zone heavy scheme he's a committee guy and that's because his skill set fits it his size kind of fits that now where you get into some of the concerns for a smaller running back there's not really a lot of receiving production this year in this game he's not a receiving back uh i want to double check the fumbles that i had but he had coughed up the ball quite a bit four fumbles this year four fumbles last year and keep in mind this is a guy that in neither of those seasons got to 200 attempts so that's a high fumble rate when you have eight you know eight fumbles in will ballpark at around 350

carries that's not a good sign that's a ball security issue for me so that's first percentile by the way great out of 99 percentile that's first percentile that's like coughing the ball you won't hang on an NFL roster if that problem persists is what I'm saying. So he's a good player. He's a little scheme specific. He's a little undersized. But I think that if he focuses on ball security, there's enough creativity as an outside zone runner to find himself in a committee. Yeah.

No, there's so many things I like about him. And I like what you talked about with Hunter, where I do agree with you on Hunter as well, but having him at 18 feels way too low for me. And, and there are so many things that I like about this player, but when I kind of put everything into my numerical scale, the fumble issues, and then the vision is way too hot and cold for me right now. There are some plays like I talked about the The best plays of Bashaw Tutin,

I mean, he looks like an NFL difference-making running back, especially for a mid-to-outside zone scheme. He likes to bounce things out to the outside because he's got great speed to him. When he was in high school in New Jersey, he had the eighth fastest 60-meter time in South Jersey history at a 7.03. So like this dude's got juice long speed.

He's got juice when it comes to agility. But there are times, especially between the tackles behind like man and gap blocking schemes, where he will just like run into his offensive lineman when he doesn't need to. Or, you know, there's a clear hole like just to right or his left, and he just will not see it. So the inconsistent vision was something that just continued to bug me the more I watched him. And I was like, man, there's so much. When he hits it, he's such a good player,

but he's way too inconsistent with how he sees the field. He isn't really a part of the receiving game, and you would think that he would be. And then also, of course, the fumbles as well. At his best, he reminded me of Thomas Rawls. When Thomas Rawls was with the Seattle Seahawks, just this smaller, explosive type of a player who could give you those really explosive runs.

And so he reminded me of Rawls a little bit there, but I do like Tootin' a good amount. Who are the others in your top 20? Donovan Edwards, I agree with you. I was around the same range. He just missed out on my top 20. But who are some of the others that were right there for you? RJ Harvey was 19.

Who? You like him a lot more. Yeah. So a lot of what you said about to in vision wise was my problem with Harvey. I just he is insanely productive. I mean, insanely productive. And because of the 54 explosive runs, which is ridiculous, he averaged almost seven yards per carry 70 missed tackles forced. There are so many, and I hate being this guy, but there are so many

that I watch where I go. That would never happen in the NFL. It would, you can't, the A gap can't be open for you. And you go, I'm just faster than this linebacker containing. So I'm going to bounce this out for 25 yards and like credit to him. Awesome college player, UCF fans. I love watching him in college. Don't get me wrong. Like he's in that. The job here is to translate and project.

And Harvey can be a good NFL player, but he needs to change who he is or else he will be the guy that is running himself into negative plays because the edge speed of the NFL is just too different. And he is somebody that way too often capitalized on, like, hey, there might be a seven-yard run in front of me, but if I bounce this outside, it could be a 15-yard run. But the problem is that could also be a negative play. So that was my one problem with him, but the quickness Twitch burst. I mean, it was really, really impressive for perspective. And I know I kind of, you know, piled on a little bit about

some of the problems with the big plays, but 54 of his 231 rushing attempts in 2024 went for 10-plus yards. That's not all just being faster than the outside linebacker. This guy has big playability. So I get why you like him in that regard, but I just thought that will drive NFL coaches completely insane. He's 9 for me. Wow. I have him all the way up at nine. And,

and the reason why is just because of how much he stands out in those individual independent difference-making categories. I do agree that he, he is a little, he, he capitalizes at playing on the college football level right now. And, and two things about him. One, I can't wait to see him in person, sort of independent of UCF. By the the way ucf we need to be better about the list of schools um independent of ucf's offensive line and just their scheme and also more importantly maybe their faith in him uh with that confidence just playing on a different team we'll get to see that in the all-star circuit we'll get to see that the senior bowl and then for the combine it's big for him because if he runs slower at the combine then you have to put that into your evaluation.

I don't question his speed too much. I think his speed is good. I don't think it's elite, but I think it's good enough to be really effective at the next level. But 94th percentile in missed tackles force per attempt, 0.31 over the last two years. Yards after contact still really strong for him as well. 80th percentile despite being just five foot nine 204 pounds but then you know on top of or I should say adjacent to some of the concerns

with Bashaw Tootin the fumble rate is much lower yes or sorry it's much much well the fumble rate is lower the percentile is higher he's 40th percentile in fumbles so it still coughs it up a little bit more than you'd want to but it's a lot higher than first percentile. And then he's using the receiving game a lot more. The missed tackles force per reception, 99th percentile, and then his yards per route run is 67th percentile. So this is somebody who I thought that he's got that multi-sport background as well. He ran track in high school, played dual threat quarterback in high school, played basketball and baseball in high school as well. I mean, he was a do-it-all athlete in Orlando. He ended up committing to Virginia out of high school because he wanted

to play quarterback at the college level, despite being just 5'9", but when he didn't really get that opportunity at Virginia, he ended up transferring back to UCF, ended up tearing his ACL in 2021. 2022 was sort of that rehab, get back to yourself type of a year. And he said he really didn't feel about himself until that 2023 season when he rushed for over 1400 yards and he had another impressive year this year. So he is somebody where to me, you know, you question some of the vision with him and I can understand that, especially for his tendency to bounce to the outside. But I will say his processing is so fast where when he gets up to the line of scrimmage, he knows, in my opinion, what's going

to become open. He knows exactly when to put his foot in the ground. And if the linebackers just happen to flow to the right, boom, all right, I'm going left. And now you can't catch up to me. And it's just that processing and reaction speed for him is so fast. It's a big part of, uh, of why he has a high missed tackles force per attempt average. And a reason why I do really, I do really like him. It's hard for me to not fall in love with players who process chaos and clutter in the trenches as fast as he does. Reminds me a little bit of Duke Johnson. That's my early working comp for him, just that similar build of a player. I think that Harvey actually processes things a little bit quicker

than Duke Johnson does, but shout out to Ian Hart. It's Duke Johnson's number one stand. But yeah just the receiving ability the force mistackless ability just over all that athlete production of rj harvey i can't wait to watch him in the senior bowl so khalil mullings at 18 i'm curious where you're gonna land with him um you don't have to give it away if you don't want to yeah he's ahead of genti uh one yeah one b after tootin and then um jarquez hunter from auburn was 16 for me i just thought i mean this is someone that went over 1200 rushing yards 6.4 yards per carry 56 missed tackles force let's talk about hunter let's get let's dig into it because i got i got him at 12 so he'd be in the next category so i got him a

little bit higher than you do let's talk about him we get out of the conversation i mean he just doesn't hesitate getting downhill like he he sees it in front of him he's like i'm gonna get downhill and i'm gonna run through this contact at the line of scrimmage and whatever happens happens so many college backs go like okay if i cut here or if i stop here or if i redirect here like hunter just has the mentality of either they get me at the line of scrimmage, but I'm going to give him my absolute all with the pound for pound strength that I have to get through the line of scrimmage. I thought he ran really hard for his size.

I think there's something different about his DNA when a guy stays at a program like Auburn all four years and just feels committed to making the program the best it could be. And this one jumped out to me. Like three of his four seasons at Auburn he averaged at least 6.4 yards per carry so the efficiency was extremely high three out of the four years this guy got the ball you know some little nitpicking things limited receiving production three fumbles this year I thought there was very little creativity in his game

overall but I don't know if there needs to be with how hard his downhill running style is. So Hunter is someone to me, once again, like this is a work in progress eval to me because I, he was so I, he's somebody I saw the least of out of these 20 running backs that I watched. And at the senior bowl, if he gets down there and he could show out and pass pro and catch the ball cleanly and make things happen in drills, he somebody that'll that'll go up for me especially after the combine as well because it wouldn't shock me if it just the straight line running if he tests better than a couple guys i have ahead of him so hunter 12 on my rankings senior from auburn i've been a part of that running back room for for a few years now listed at 5'9", 204 pounds. So actually the same that we

had for RJ Harvey, very similar build of players. You mentioned that determining running style. And I think that balance is such a calling card for him, especially when it comes to yards after contact. He averaged over four yards after contact per carry, 4.07. That's 92nd percentile again just despite being five foot nine 204 pounds and i think that he is at his best when he is really running towards the line of scrimmage and getting downhill because if there was a critique i had of him he's also very patient i think he's a smart runner he's not just a like a small brute oh yeah yeah he's not like a small bull he he really can see things between the tackles well he's got good patience behind his offensive line but there are times where it's a balance because where you love patience

when you're five foot nine 204 pounds if you don't hit the line of scrimmage with some momentum, especially in the NFL, you're not really going to get a lot of those yards after contact. So it might just be something you have to live with, but there were a handful of times when I was watching, I think four games I watched of him, four or five games I watched of him, where the runs where I was most disappointed watching is I think four games I watched of him four or five games I watched of him where

the runs where I was most disappointed were the ones where he wasn't putting his foot in the ground and really getting up to the line of scrimmage and making something happen so like more dancing getting into that committed mentality I feel like I saw and and I'll shout out a lot of comps here throughout the show like a Ray davis is someone who i would love for him to be from kentucky but ray really understood that like this is what i am like i'm gonna run you over type of a player and i think that hunter could use a little bit more of that nastiness but we're seeing even with the buffalo bills now uh the place that that has also just to shout him out on a role student at auburn all four years that he was there so shout out to jarquez hunter there um same thing for rj harvey by the way gpa of 4.3 so i didn't want to sell

him short while i was out now uh yeah propressive wasn't your boy let me tell you uh was not me um didn't care enough but uh you know we got here look at you now we we got here. Look at you now. We got the degree. Yeah, look at me. I'm on a podcast. Told you, Mom. Like seven other billion idiots in the world. But I do. I do like Jarquis Hunter. Again, he's just, he's such a blend of the things that you love to see from the running back.

I mean, they're really impressive. Get skinny plays between the tackles because he is a little bit smaller, but he does see things really well. I think he's strong like his 5 9 205 was different to me than the other guys 100 100 and he uses that to his advantage so like the vision the footwork i think he's got good eyes in pass protection like i watched a lot of his pass protection reps and you know he knows where to look he knows where blitz are going to come from. He's got that natural leverage being a little bit smaller,

but he's just a smaller guy. So, you know, he'll get bull rushed by a good amount of these NFL blitzers. And again, it's just kind of something that you need to live with there. So, all right. Those are the highlights that I would have had from your 20 to 16. You want to anything else in your 20 to 16 or you want me to talk about

Mullings when you get to him? Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. So 20 for me is Taj Brooks. Okay. Do you have him in your next category?

No, I watched him over summer, but full transparency, I have watched all of the Senior Bowl guys. Okay. I have not re-watched any of the shrine guys okay all right because i mean i would have been like it would have been like 30 running backs and this is the first go around so there i tried to watch a bunch of senior bowl and shrine bowl guys there are a couple that i didn't get to but we will obviously talk about those when we get a little bit closer to east west shrinerine and Senior Bowl.

So I had Taj Brooks from Texas Tech at 20. Somebody who, man, I really had high hopes for. I want to get into him a little bit more in a second. Yeah. Woody Marks from USC. I have him at 19. Okay. I'm a little higher on him than you.

Okay. Bashel Tootin, like we mentioned, number one above Ashton Gentry here at number 18. 17 Marcus Yarns from Delaware. He's a Shrine guy. Who is a Shrine guy. Yep, I have him at number 17. What a name. Yeah, Marcus Yarns is a great name.

And he's a really good prospect, man. I hope he tests well athletically because there's just, he's such a great, well-rounded game from him. He plays at Delaware. And the problem is when you're watching Delaware is he's more athletic than everybody. So yeah, like a lot of his plays look really great, but it's because he's more athletic than his competition. So I really hope he tests well at the combine.

I really hope he's able to still stand out when he's at the East West Shrine Bowl because excellent receiver, really good eyes and pass pro, really good balance to him. He's a little bit smaller. So again, you kind of give him to be faster. He's like a buck 90. So you need him to be a little bit faster because if he's not, then you get in trouble. But such a great receiver. The agility and the speed at that level is fantastic. And even the yards after contact is nice, despite being 190.

So I like him a good amount. And I really hope he could show out at the senior bowl because I think he could be a plus third down back as a receiver. I really do. I think he could earn that starting role. And then 16 for me is your boy, Kyle Menungai. I assume that you would have him higher than i do but i do um i do have him higher than you okay so i did want to talk

about taj brooks because i think maybe woody marks and then kyle monunga are probably the next two guys that we talk about to sort of round out this conversation taj bro from Texas Tech. He's a redshirt senior, 5'10", 230 pounds. So built really well, built like a running back that I'd like to have on my NFL team. Three-star running back coming out of high school, recorded three straight 1,000 yards as a sophomore, junior, and senior when he was in high school. Only appeared in 10 games when he was a true freshman, but he has been the starter basically every other year uh that he has been there or at least they've been close to leading the team in production i know he's the full-time starter in 2023 and 2024 but he's got good numbers he really does won over 1500 snaps over the last two years which is nuts and savvy missed tackles

force per attempt 0.27 81st percentile yards after contact 3.23 that's 42nd percentile his rushing grade behind man and gap scheme blocking uh concepts is a 92.9 so it's an elite rushing grade there was not used a ton as a receiver didn't really fumble too much 72nd percentile which is good that's what you want to see um ultimately i think there are plays where his vision is like elite like there are plays where i think that he especially when it comes to those between the tackles power blocking concepts where he's either waiting for a puller or a to duo and he's able to see something he neither hit the right hole or hit a cutback or whatever it is like he can really see

the field very well the there's so much about this player that i like he didn't give a ton in the receiving game which i i don't love i mean his yards per route run was 0.45 which is fourth percentile so he just he really was not much of a receiver um at all whatsoever he's got a ton experience running routes that he's on the field a ton obviously as you can see from the 1500 total snaps but really low in terms of the targets that he gets the thing that really bugged me with him is i just don't think he's an nfl athlete like i i think he sees the field excellently but what game was it i'll be able to pull it up here in a second there was a game where he gets the ball the blocking is good he sees it correctly

he hits the running lane and it's like he has 20 he has like 30 yards until he's getting in the end zone and basically any other running back that you've ever watched would just run straight forward into the end zone. And he like at the 20-yard line just starts veering towards the middle of the field as if the other side of the field safety or the corner is going to catch him. And it's like, I don't think they should have. If you're an NFL athlete at all whatsoever, neither of those guys should have had a chance of catching you. But not only do I not think he's fast, I think he is even reserved about his speed. And it's like, okay, now, yes,

I think you're efficient on a carry-by-carry basis, but if you are not an NFL-caliber athlete, the whole job of forcing missed tackles and seeing the line of scrimmage well is to get to open space. Right. If you are then not a factor when you get to open space, it's very low ROI that I'm probably getting.

It's hard. So I loved a lot of, of Taj Brooks game. And there's like the best plays of Taj Brooks are, are some of the best vision plays that maybe you'll watch of any running back this year. But I just, I just don't think he's an NFL athlete.

And if he goes to the combine, he blows it up. Well, then we'll do the rerunning back episode and I'll have him top five I know I'm not gonna have him top five I can't wait to see how he runs because I just I I either he doubted his speed or it's not there and both of them could be a problem in my opinion so I didn't re-watch Brooks for this I just ran out of time like the two guys that I really wanted to get to full transparency before the comments bombard us was him being the main running back like the two guys that I really wanted to get to full transparency before

the comments bombard us was him being the main running back on the shrine list that I wanted to watch and then I watched all the senior bowl guys except one but I have watched brashard smith I didn't feel like I watched enough games for this yeah I watched him where he was in my I did like an NBC prospects to watch for the playoff I put an offensive defensive player for each team for smu he was the offensive player but i didn't i didn't feel like i did enough of an eval for this and i'm looking forward to getting to brashard smith but for this he is like it's not that i don't like him i just don't know yet where i stand but that's where i felt with brooks but what i did watch with brooks i thought trevor he was a four sixes guy like for sure and that doesn't mean you're

not an nfl player like there are plenty of nfl starting running backs that do end like remandre stevenson comes to mind he ran a four six four i think but it's it's not just the 40 i think it's what you're saying too i think it's like all around from the acceleration to the long speed that were problems i think he's good in pass pro. So I think he has that going for him. And again, they didn't target him a lot as a receiver, but he ran a lot of routes. So maybe there is some third down responsibility stuff for him there because he is, you know, five, 10 to 30. And, and again, maybe his speed is better than I think it is. He just, he just got to play with it more. So he was, he was very frustrating for me and somebody that I wanted to like a lot

more, but unfortunately, um, I just didn't. So he was 20 for you. He was, uh, Woody Marks and, uh, Kyle Monunga, probably the next couple of guys. We'd be, uh, where do you, where do you have Jaquavius Marks? Where do you have Woody? I I have him 14th so not really like that egregious compared to you all right so I have him 19th I'll just say so he's at USC now he was he's a redshirt senior he was at Mississippi State for four years 5 foot 10 208 pounds um really good track background type of an athlete um we're in the 100 meter four by 100. He's got really great speed to him rush for over 6300 yards when he was in high school 10.4 yards per carry average, which is hilarious that you're just getting a first down every time you touch the ball in high

school. He started in eight games, a true freshman in Mississippi State, and then he just he started all four years. But the big issue for him is he never got more than 600 rushing yards in a single season before he transferred to USC. And he did this past year. Numbers don't always say everything, but I think the thing that holds me back from liking him more is you talked about Jarquez Hunter having some lack of creativity. His game, I think, lacks some creativity to me. 0.17 missed tackles forced per attempt. That's 20th percentile. Yards after contact, even.

3.09, that's 28th percentile. I think he's a good athlete. I think he's used quite a bit in the receiving game. So maybe that kind of helps. That's what I liked. So that is something to know. There's no doubt about it. But as a runner, I left a lot to be desired, in my opinion.

I completely agree with you on that. I literally wrote down for him. God, it takes a while to get through these, to get to notes. There's just so many running backs. Okay, finally found him. I mean, this is somebody that was at college for five years played for five years and he really didn't break out until his fifth year as a an average runner like not like it was like an amazing runner he was an average runner why i have him 14th

i think he's he's a like an nfl caliber receiving back like on third downs, throw them out there and you could ask him now pass bro. I think he's physically overmatched at times. Like a lot of these running backs are, but I think the effort is there and there's so much experience there that he has an idea, but the receiving production is, is phenomenal. It's he can run after the catch.

He can hang onto the ball after being decleted. He caught 60 passes in 2020, 83 in 2021, 47 this year. So he's done it now at two different programs. I thought there was no creativity as a running back, like off handoffs. I saw the jump cut and the burst after the catch and i was like okay he's just comfortable in space it was almost to the point where i was like it's not that he's a slot receiver but he's legitimately one-dimensional like he is truly being drafted as a third down pass catching back but the problem is or the good thing for woody marks is there's not an

overwhelming amount of guys like that in this draft class for as good of a running back class as it is. Like, I think he has, like, refined pass-catching skills that translate to the next level, even if it's in a little bit more of a limited capacity. I can see that. Yep. I think I'm just lower on him just because I'm weighing the, you know, the rushing ability a little bit.

Yes. Yeah. It's not great. So I have Menungai at 16 where do you have him i have menungai at nine okay so let's talk about menungai and then we'll we'll knock out 15 through 11 real quick yeah i had menungai fifth over summer you did he's your boy that's why i said i got 16 when I was like, I got your boy. Tell you right now, my top five, it's like jarringly different. Jarringly. Besides Jenty. But like, I'll read the top five, I guess, at the end from Summer. And then six with Jaden Ott, who went back to school.

So that's a little different. Yeah. But man, like it's, this year was pretty telling, I think. Yep. So you want me to talk about my own guy or you do you want to start first no go ahead you go first and then i'll bounce off of you have your ideas and we'll talk about it i mean i think he's the same guy that's what's funny like i had him fifth he just there's just there's just so much talent in this draft that's why he fell to nine for me in this exercise

it's almost hilarious by the way i'm trying to be better about it. Sorry. Yes, Rutgers running back, Kyle Menunguy. I mean, it's almost hilarious when I say he's the same guy. He ran for 1,263 yards, 5.2 yards per carry last year. He ran for 1,279 yards, 5 yards per carry this year, which part of me did laugh when punching in the numbers from this year because during Big Ten Media, one of the coaches I sat down with was Greg Sciano. And it a little bit of a slip up by me I'm usually very cautious with this but when I was asking him about Menungai I basically said you know it must be nice to have a running back that is just guaranteed to give you a thousand yards year in and year out and he

didn't he wasn't like a jerk but he didn't love that because he was just like nothing's guaranteed you know like which is like very coach blah. Yeah, yeah, right. Which is like very coach. And I'm like, yeah, I shouldn't have said that. But Kyle Menunga is guaranteed to give you about 1,260 to 1,280 yards. So it did make me laugh when punching this in. This guy had 73 missed tackles forced last year. I need to pull up his missed tackles force.

I think he was 72 this year. He's the same guy. It's the same exact player. He is a human pinball Kyle Monung guy. He is rocked up head to toe, 5'9", 210 pounds, all muscle. The work ethic at this Rutgers program, they are weight room warriors these guys and he fits that fits the bill but i think there's quick cuts not these over exaggerated jump cuts

like he has these short cuts to buy himself more space very very good at taking negative or nothing plays and finding the dirty yards we know he can absolutely level blitzers like there's a lot of pride with this guy with pass pro a lot of pride he will that's the most well i don't want to say the most fun because he's got some great reps it might be the shoulder but like he will blast people he will kill you in pass pro he will knock you he'll put your cleats above your head in how manung guy could be a pro for a long time. As just a, at the very worst, practice squad or depth dude. Because he is going to set the tone for you. Right.

In the running back room. There's a different caliber work ethic here with this guy. Where he's just nasty. Like he's nasty in his runs. He's nasty as a pass protector. He wants to stiff arm you. He wants to lower his shoulder into you. Now he doesn't have breakaway speed.

He doesn't have receipt. The frustrating thing with him is for as great as he is in pass pro, he doesn't have a lot of receiving production. So that's something to me that he needs to show in workouts because he didn't get that opportunity at Rutgers. So I like Menon guy a lot. I understand that he is definitely more floor than ceiling player. Like I am like in a class that there's a lot of ceiling guys.

He is a floor player. I think Kyle Menon guy can enter an NFL backfield next year and give you whatever you ask of him in terms of the tough yards, in terms of the tough pass protection reps. And one more thing with him too and I I feel this way about him and one other player at I'll say two other players in this draft you want you never want to see this guy running at you when you're at a goal line stand no like no no like it's the goal line is personal to him and two other players that I have over him and I I can't emphasize that enough since I've been doing this. Something that I think is a skill that nobody cares about, and I don't know why, and it took me a while to realize this, is scoring touchdowns inside the five-yard line is a skill. Yes, it's nice when your offensive line can blow the other team off the ball, right?

But that's not the NFL. Like, everybody's paid a lot of money to block. You like that one? And I think Menungai is somebody that when it's one-on-one, him and a linebacker, it's like, yeah, I'm going to run through you. Like, there's nothing you could do to stop me from getting into the paint. You want to hear what my bottom line is for him? My SparkNotes version of him?

Menungai runs like... Oh, yeah, here we go. Sorry, I was reading the wrong line. Menungai runs like defenders personally insulted his loved ones before the game. Yeah. He doesn't want to run around you. He wants to run through you. That's the first sentence I have there.

Now, the rest of the sentence sort of what you mentioned that makes for some eye-popping plays but his lack of overall athleticism and agility and long speed give him a very limited ceiling now he's not used a lot as a receiver like you mentioned um he's he's great as a as a pass protector zero fumbles on 676 attempts in his career great so like great this guy is all effort all the time you you know it's it's kind of perfect that Greg Sciano was his coach because Greg Sciano is just this very disciplinarian fundamentals focus effort type of a coach. And Mnungai is 100% that as a player. He is strong as an ox. He will, again, he will lower the shoulder. He will run through guys.

He's just not a great athlete. And you gotta be okay with that. Like, again, going back to what we were talking about before, the whole point with vision and breaking tackles and everything is to get to open space. I don't think he gives you a lot once you get to open space, but everything else, he's a lot of fun. So it just kind of depends.

I think some teams are just going to love his football character and his football makeup more than others. And then some people might look at him and go, eh, nope, probably not for us. Right? Like, I don't mean to, eh, nope, probably not for us. Right? Like, I don't mean to stereotype here, but like the Dolphins. Dolphins probably aren't going to be very high on this guy

because he's not an in-space type of an explosive runner. Right. And that's why they get their ass kicked when it's 50 degrees or lower every year. You know? Lions, they're going to love the crap out of this guy. I mean, it's just funny hearing that i'm sorry like i'll ride with detroit sure because they play indoors and they're not in there and they

don't want to be in the cold either yeah i don't know it's no i know what you're saying no i know what you're saying he's not going to be like offenses yeah right right right it's totally justified that's what i'm saying. Yes. All right, so you got him at nine. All right, so five through 11 for me, and then we'll see how we are similar here, and then we'll kind of move on. Damian Martinez from Miami.

You have him where? 15. Okay. I had him right behind my nun guy at 10. Okay, it's fair. As a runner, it's very hard not to like martinez more than where i have him at 15 and we'll get in that in a second it's just everything else no really though no it is uh kalil mullings from michigan i have 14 nice uh 13 i have nick

singleton from penn state okay 12 already talked about, have Jarquist Hunter. And 11, I have Katron Allen from Penn State. So I got the Penn State guys here in the 11 through 15 category. Interesting. Yes. I liked Singleton better than Allen.

But there is a lot to like about both of them. Yeah. I think Allen's nickname is Fat Man. I'm so confident in my rankings of having him over Singleton.

Yeah, it did make me kind of sit there. Oh, brother. I got really nervous. I was like, oh man, that's good. So really quick. Where did you have Kahlil Mullings? You had him in the other five group, right?

Yeah, Mullings I had at 18, but like. So I can be quick with him. So yeah, from Michigan, he is a redshirt senior, but he's only been playing running back for two years. He was a four-star linebacker in the 2020 recruiting class from Michigan. He is a redshirt senior, but he's only been playing running back for two years. He was a four-star linebacker in the 2020 recruiting class from Boston. He was a 2019, and he wasn't just some scrub linebacker, obviously like a four-star, but he was also a 2019 Gatorade player of the year in the state of Massachusetts. He played both linebacker and running back when he was in high school. When he got to Michigan, played six games on special teams and linebacker.

Then the next year played 13 games on special teams with eight games linebacker. Then the following year, he played 12 total games, 10 at linebacker, three at running back, actually 13 total games, 10 at linebacker, three at running back. And then in 2013, he played all 13 games at running back. And then this year, Donovan Edwards was the main back to start the season. And then they just kept giving the ball to Khalil Mullings because he's sick. So the linebacker background, as you would expect, gives him a physical profile that you love. He knows how to read the line of scrimmage because he's been on both sides of the line of scrimmage before. So I think

he's got pretty good. Um, he's got pretty good vision there, despite only playing the position full time for the last two years. Zero fumbles on 185 carries over the last two years, which is nice. He's pretty light on his feet for a big man, and he is 6'2", 230 pounds, because he's sort of built like that linebacker style. Now, what you love about him, it's a little bit of two sides of the coin, right?

I love the fact that he understands I am a physical running back i am getting north to south the second you put the ball in my gut i am exploding towards the line right it also leads to a little bit of a lack of patience when you're watching him play so there is a little bit of that as well basically no experience as a receiver because donovan edwards is kind of the third down back for them he's really good at pass protection he's really nice as a receiver he's got soft hands so it's like when they were doing the receiving thing with their backs it was donovan edwards it wasn't really cool mullings but like you said there's an arc to short yardage situations and

i think that mullings as well as damian martinez who i just had right behind him these guys are excellent in the physical categories of the game um the bruising play style live for that physicality live for that yards after contact live for live for um those kinds of plays were able to lower the shoulder a little bit and continue to make guys miss but i thought that mullings gave you a little bit more in the finesse game than martinez did even though martinez i think is the uh the better long speed player with a better track background um i also thought that mullings gave you more in pass pro where i thought martinez was kind of a liability yeah on third downs so as a runner i actually like mart like Martinez probably more than Mullings

and probably over maybe right around that 10 number that you have him at. But for what he did not give me on the third down situations in a class with a lot of good running backs, I had him a little bit further. So that's what I thought about Kahlil Mullings. Yeah, Mullings is going to be a process guy, right? Because of how new he is to the position. He could have some good workouts and teams end up higher on him

than a lot of the household names. Martinez, I'll be quick on him, even though he is 10 for me. Over summer, Trevor, I wrote down all aspects of past game need work. And then this rewatch I wrote, all aspects of past game need work but was a better check down alley in 2024 like there was a couple times cam war just dumped the ball down to him and he did

make something happen but the past like you can't in my opinion you can't put him on the field in passing situations in the nfl because where the past bro is at that was he reminded me of jeremy hill from lsu, body type is very similar. Right. And Hill goes in the second round, rushes for like, what was it? 1,400 yards or something crazy. It was bananas.

Didn't he have a million touchdowns? Yeah. He had 10 touchdowns that year. 9, 11, and 9 his first three years. Never scored again. His fall off was crazy, but did he tore his acl yeah he was an injury guy so but like the running style i saw those dudes pretty similarly from what jeremy hill was when he was at the bangles at his best martinez is a wildly impressive runner

yeah like he he's he's so big especially up, but he has bounce and footwork. Yes, and he's got the long speed from the track days. Now, he wasn't like an elite sprinter. I think he was like an 11.37, 100-meter dash, if I remember correctly. It was his best time as a junior. But still, to be that size and have a sprinter background is... He's better than he should be in terms of that. I had Martinez as RB8 over over summer so not a ton of movement for him for me rb10 he had a run this year i want to say it was against louisville

where louisville game was very good i mean it's one of the best runs of this entire running back class where it's like oh this guy looks like he's playing against Pop Warner athletes. Like he just absolutely bullies every single human on the field all the way to the end zone where he just carries them. Martinez has those moments where you ask yourself, like, why isn't this guy a second round pick? And he might be. And he's genuinely such a gifted runner that he might be.

But I would lean that he won't be. But he's insanely talented. What was his fumble rate? Hold on, I got to look at that. 78 percentile, so good. Yeah, he was fine. Good, good. Totally fine with that.

Hey, he might be a big-time riser. There are so many things that Dam martinez as well uh when the ball gets in his hands out of the backfield but there's yeah to me he was such a liability on third down it's almost like you want him as your power back your short yardage back yeah and sometimes that will come with like third down responsibilities and he's just very unreliable in that area he was just really unfocused didn't give it nearly as much effort in pass pro as he did when he had the ball in his hands. And I don't think he's a very natural

receiver, despite him getting more looks this year. No. Like, the explosive plays he had in the receiving game this year are Cam Ward hangs around for 15 seconds and just shovels the ball to him, and he catches it like this, turns around and goes, okay, now I can run through everyone in front of me right so let's let's talk about the penn state guys uh

katron allen and nick singleton you have singleton above allen so i'll let you go first about singleton and then we can kind of bounce off one another i have singleton as rb7 singleton is, is phenomenal. It's, you know, it's funny now because they're getting a lot of buzz. Alan has really turned it on the last two to three games after a very inefficient season. Like he's, he's been phenomenal in the biggest moments of the year, but he was,

he was pretty quiet for a large part of the season. Singleton has been a constant this guy is six feet tall 226 pounds and he's explosive in my opinion he's an explosive 226 pounds if he's true if he's 226 i'll be shocked by the way i don't think he'll weigh that at the combine because he'll want to run really well yeah but i i don't know dude this pence this penn state like no but he doesn't look 226 like i'm watching but he's not sure all these guys are five nine and five ten he's six feet tall and it's a lot of leg i agree with you weighs in over 220 i'll be i mean that's just the densest buttstrings. That's where all his weight is though. And that's,

and that's good. It's great. He is ass and legs to quote Chris Sims. Like he is. Yeah. It's Penn state squat room, cleans deadlifts. I went to a good school for it.

Yeah. So singleton this year, I want to make sure I pull up his numbers again, highly productive this year, over a to make sure I pull up his numbers again. Highly productive this year. Over 1,000 yards and just 157 carries. These guys are so talented. They get to split the workload. Six and a half yards per carry.

He was phenomenal in 2022. He averaged 6.8 yards per carry in 2022 on just 156 carries. His freshman year was good. It was very, very good. He's been very productive as a pass catcher the last two years. This year, 39 catches, 342 yards, five receiving touchdowns. I wrote dense lower half for hard charging downhill running. He's got patience, but he really knows how to drive his legs through interior lanes.

For a guy that's pretty explosive, he'll take the blue-collar runs with that lower body strength. I love the pass game work. He picked up 15 first downs on 46 targets this year through the air. The size and mindset to meet blitzers, physically impressive, in my opinion. When he catches on to blitzers he will meet them in the hole and you know he's not giving up a ton of weight against them i didn't think for a guy that to me is explosive and has straight line speed i don't think he has a lot of short area

quickness or wiggle to make people miss in a phone booth like it's i want to get him on the track going downhill i don't want him doing any dancing or having to re-accelerate or anything like that so i mean this is a former four-star prospect and top 50 overall recruit he's a five-star was he okay i know they're like now now there's so many outlets it's hard to gather who ranks who where yeah um singleton's for real he's for real like i think the NFL acceleration and speed when it's one cut or just downhill is how I like my running backs at the next level and that's why I was I was really high on this guy and I know people were kind of in our ear over summer and early in the season and when I watched him I was like yeah like the people were on this one Singleton Singleton is an NFL running

back and I think a starting like I'm gonna feed a majority of my touches through this guy, and that's rare in today's NFL. I don't think he's like a B. John or Jonathan Taylor, but he's a 1A in the right offense. Man, okay, so you're higher on him than I do. I see a lot of the strengths, obviously. I do think he's very explosive, especially if that weight is correct, for him being as good long speed, having as good of long speed as he does.

That weight would be awesome. From our pal Bruce Feldman in the Feldman's Freaks article at 228 pounds, Singleton ran a 439 40 yard dash. Also at a 481 shuttle, 10 foot broad, power clean, 385 pounds, bench pressed 225. For how how many times i'm pretty sure just a max what do you what do you what do you want 225 is that his maximum oh i thought you said i could have swore you said 225 it was like nick singleton does not max 225 maybe it was one arm yeah you bench more than yeah and i know i don't so okay that that checks out yeah it's a freak show i don't know why you hate him this guy's i don't hate okay all right okay you want to know why i hate him you want to know why i hate him because you like kate shaw and alan better

0.16 missed tackles force per attempt that's 16th percentile over the last two years because he's not a dancer he's just wants to run you but everybody in the nfl runs yeah but it's down he's he's built like a power back but runs like a speed back he doesn't need to make people miss when you blow by them in college it's gonna translate you're good look i i don't i i feel like i'm some giant hater, and I am, of course. But that's what worries me about him. Sure. I think he's great in pass pro.

I think he's great as a receiver. I mean, he gives you three down back mold attributes where this guy's going to get drafted pretty damn high. And an NFL team is, whether it's going to be closer to maybe what I think of where he is at right now or where you think he's at, he's going to get the shot. Like some of these guys don't get the shot to prove it. Nick Singleton will not have any shortage of NFL teams that are going to want to invest in him. So we will find out one way or the other.

There's no doubt about it. But again, that's the reason why I didn't love him is because, as you can see from the other running backs that are higher on my list, I like those guys with a little bit of wiggle. I like those guys who can make you miss because as much as I love the 50, 60 yard touchdown runs, you got a whole hell of a lot more three, four, two, three, four yard carries. And some of those guys turn those three yarders into four yarders, those four yarders into five yarders. And they're just a little bit more efficient carry to carry. So that's sort of where I'm at with Singleton and going to Allen. I just thought Allen played with

a little more power. I'm not going to lie. Oh, that's, that's his, that's his bread and butter. Right. So, so I mean the missed tackles force per attempt is higher for K-Tron Allen because he's playing with more power, in my opinion. And that's sort of where I'm at. I think Singleton's better in pass pro, surprisingly. So Singleton was 6 feet tall, 226. Kaytron Allen is 5'11", 220. So I guess it shouldn't be surprisingly.

But I think Kaytron Allen plays with a little bit more power. I think he's got a little bit more vision. I think he's willing to set guys up a little bit more. Plus, he's got that physical mentality to him. Wasn't used nearly as much as a receiver just because they're using Singleton as a receiver because he is better. But you see Singleton as more potential to be a full-time back. And perhaps I will get there at some point. But right now, I think that both of them are probably more committee backs.

And I see Allen's success as a power component of a committee, just in a little bit more of a consistent return on investment with how I've watched him play at Penn State this year. Yeah, Allen to me, who I had, I want to make sure I had Singleton seventh. I had Allen twelfth. I think I'd be surprised if both declare, but I guess nothing should surprise me anymore with running backs because strike while the iron's hot.

Sure. I mean, Allen's played his best football down the stretch. Both are juniors, by the way. Yes. Both could absolutely go back. He's just started to do less thinking and dancing and more i'm gonna run through your face which is what i want him to do right like it matches his skill set like this is someone who you know you look at how the year

started for him he had 100 yards against bowling green he had 100 yards against Illinois but there was a lot of you know lower level performances and I think he's such a big back that it's nice that he can surprise you with his footwork but there's also times where I'm like dude when you get to the second level he he's my Costco guy's prospect of this draft by the way like this man hold on what does that mean he brings the boom okay what do you mean what does that mean wait could be anything he likes chicken bakes that he likes double chocolate chunk cookie yeah he said his nickname was fat man yeah risen risen uh risen up like the rizzler yeah oh man no he brings this is very simple he brings the boom okay trot allen all Okay. I like that.

Something to think about for branding. Or if he goes back to school, NIL, Costco. This is the bring the boom player of the year. I did see, I don't know if you saw this. I did see Nick Skorton hit a Costco guy's celebration. No way. Yeah, he had to bring the boom celebration. And he was quick with that shit, too.

Like, it was flat. The second he popped up, he was just like, mm, mm. He knew exactly what he was doing. That is a 10 out of 10. Yeah, 100%. All right, before we get into our top 10s, there's a good transition there. You guys played pick six from DraftKings yet?

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If you think that's going to be an absolute firework show, you can go check out the more or less numbers for all the receivers in this game uh jameson williams um i'm on ross st brown sam laporta i know it's tight end calm down he's catching passes uh jordan addison justin jefferson whatever like there's so many different ones or if you think that you know how a game is going to play out go check out what the stats are for those players if you think it's more or less then go ahead and get in on it win more cash to pick six down the draft kings pick six f now use the promo code pff that's promo code pff for new for those players. If you think it's more or less, then go ahead and get in on it. Win more cash at Pick 6. Down with the DraftKings Pick 6 app.

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awarded as non-withdrawable Pick 6 credits expire within 30 days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. Alright, top tens. You know I never read my 15 to 11, right? Oh, no, I did not know that.

Okay, all right, go 15. Is there somebody else that we didn't talk about that we need to talk about here? I don't know if we need to. Yeah, actually, yes. Like, this is pivotal. Yeah, you got to actually chant the 15. You bum. Surprise.

You absolute bum. 15, Devin Neal from Kansas. Oh, I got him higher. 14, Woody Marks from USC. Okay. 13, DJ Giddens from Kansas State. I had him at 10, so that's where we were starting anyways. Nice.

12, Fat Man. Okay, Tron Allen from Penn State. Great. 11. You ready for this ollie gordon from oklahoma state uh ollie gordon's 21 for me for perspective if you're just jumping in here now uh ollie gordon was rb3 for me this summer four for me and i think over the summer you and i both had concerns about ollie gordon yeah i was even coming off of a phenomenal

2023 season a monster productive year for ollie gordon there were still things that you looked at and you were like doesn't always see the field super well don't love the burst right pretty stiff player because he's a much bigger running back there were there i think there were signs last year even a very productive year and um he he looks slower this year and and yes i was already hesitant of him going into this year. And I think that this year's tape really scares me. It really does. Yeah. So, wow.

Twenty one for you. Yeah. He was just outside of my top 20. It's it's been that kind of year. Yeah. That's why I wanted to read that one, because I think some people will be surprised. I agree with everything you said. I to be honest with you.

The only reason he's 11 for me is because somewhere that 2023 player has to be in there, right? I mean, it was that good in 2023, but you're right. I think what I was told, and then I watched him over a summer, I was like, okay, he's a good player. I liked some running backs better. But this year was, he can't move. Like, it's... I think the tough part about him him is so by the way anybody who doesn't know ollie gordon oklahoma state yeah he's 6-1-2-20 he's a big back

i don't think he's super violent on like a play-by-play basis not this year right when you're when you're that big like you gotta bring the boo you gotta be a Costco guy this is gonna be a Costco guy yeah and I just don't I thought he was indecisive this year I thought he was stiff in his movements laterally and I think even if he was both of those things if he ran with more violence, closer to what we saw in 2023, I think I'd still be all right with him. But he took such a step back in that area

that I go, man, if you are not innately running with violence, I don't know what I'm getting from you. And that worries me about a player who is incredibly productive in 2023. And I even have my bottom line, teams are going to do all the research they possibly can on this player because of his size and because of his production in 2023.

But 2024 was unfortunately a pretty big disappointment in my opinion. And what you said, you know, is partially what I loved about him in 2023. I thought he played with so much passion and anger and violence and in your face and running through you. And I know what a lot of Oklahoma State fans are going to say. Listen to this. Like the offensive line didn't help him out this year. The play calling didn't help him out this year. There was a lot of factors that didn't help him out.

But he was not the same guy as 2023. He wasn't physically the same guy. So it's a pretty big fall from grace for somebody that there was massive expectations going into this year and it's just too much of a drop off and like i said i still think that 2023 guy is is under the hood there somewhere um deep inside where i have him rb11 but like he's got to get back on track throughout this process he's got to come in to the combine in unbelievable shape he's got to test well enough he's got to get back on track throughout this process he's got to come in to the combine in unbelievable shape he's got to test well enough he's got to look good in workouts he's got to show that this year was just a mirage and that the 2023 player is closer to what he is yep um let's do dj

giddens next sure i know we're kind of like bopping around all over the place but uh we'll almost be into our top fives at this point if we just save these next two backs. DJ Giddens was 12 for you? DJ Giddens was 13. So I have him at 10. So I'm pretty close, but I like him a little bit more. DJ Giddens, redshirt junior from Kansas State,

6'1", 212 pounds my opinion lot to like about this player i'm with you miss tackles force per attempt average 88th percentile yards after contact 76 yards per route run 70 or 62nd fumble rate 85th um We have a statistic in-game athleticism score out of 192.9. I think this dude has long strides for good long speed, good wiggle, one cut ability, especially for a taller back, a guy who's 6'1". He's got the frame to hold up in pass pro. I think he's got really nice vision, especially behind like man and gap scheme blocking concepts. Right. He's got good eyes for pressure when he's blocking on third down. I'd like to see him play with a little bit more violence,

whether that is with the ball in his hands or when blocking. But I mean, that'll just go into more yards after contact as well but just this is a player who I really like the vision I like the footwork I like the burst there's a lot of things that I think DJ Giddens does really well and that's why I got him a number 10 I think so too he's been wildly productive the last two years he is patient he knows how to run skinny through very tight quarters and that's like being six one yeah that's the thing he's over six feet tall he's 216 pounds and he knows how to run that's a gift uh swiftly changes direction uses you know jukes he's got the head and shoulder fit

fakes going he left shiloh sanders on play, like down on his knees praying to God. This was how bad he made a miss on a play. It was one of the best just cuts of the year, honestly. And it's not even like a dig at Shiloh. This is what Giddens does to people in the open field. You know he was a zero-star recruit? I did not. He must have been a late bloomer or something.

He's big. He moves well. I think it was, honestly, though, I think it was grades. I think a lot of teams didn't know if he was going to be able to qualify to play college ball. But he eventually did. Yeah. He had a blue.

Actually, now this makes sense now that I'm reading the rest of it. He had a blue shirt Actually, now this makes sense now that I'm reading the rest of it. He had a blue shirt in 2021. Oh. Meaning that he was signed as an unrecruited player, but he was allowed to practice with the team, I think, to get his grades squared away. That's good context. Which makes sense because, yeah, I mean,

the dude's way too talented to be labeled a zero-star recruit. So two things. Why I have him here. Because as a runner, like, he should be a top 10 back in this class the play i agree with you like the play strength's kind of okay it's not great there's times where i'm like i think you're stronger than that i think you could run through more people but i don't even care that much about that because he does fundamentally all the things right as a runner his drops this year are perplexing like i mean like i'm almost wondering if it's a he's got the yips type of thing so he had 32

targets he had five drops which that's really bad but it's not like oh i can't draft this guy but when you watch them they're not bad throws or wheel routes. They just hit in his hands. Like he's open on a swing route and he just can't catch the ball. And I'm like, dude, that's something where I think you can fix it, but it's got to be an important part of your game because you're so gifted with the way you change direction and make people miss in space and your vision.

Like I need you to catch the ball because that is going to translate so well to production for you because you're such a good runner. It's, it's, I, I'm telling you, like if anybody listening to this, just watch it. It is very weird to me. And I think it's correctable, but if he was a more smooth pass catching back,

I think he'd be potentially a top 10 running back in this class. I do. I also agree that he'd be potentially a top 10 running back in this class, having him at number 10. There you go. Okay. Devin Neal was the other one. Yeah, you like him a lot.

Where do you have him? 15. I have him at seven whoa hello are you worried about him testing yes that's my it's i hate that i'm this guy because neil is everything you want in a football player yep and he's he is going to make the nfl and he is going to be an nfl caliber player i just think he's, I think it's, he's gonna, he might have a tough combine in this loaded class. Yeah. And, and that is my big concern about him. Long speed could be average for the pro level. And then I have here, lack some sand in the pants for pass pro when it

comes to anchoring against some of the stronger, bigger blitzers that are coming at him. But outside of those two things, Kansas senior running back Devin Neal, 5'11", 215 pounds, built pretty well for an NFL back, four-star running back coming out of Lawrence, Kansas, signed to Kansas as a two-sport athlete to play both football and

baseball. He played baseball. I didn't know that. He was on the baseball team as an outfielder for the first two years. And then he committed to football full-time, you know, because he realized that this was something that he's pretty good at good at um started in 2022 2023 and 2024 rushed for over 1 000 yards in all three seasons he is kansas's all-time leading rusher uh in rushing yards rushing touchdown, scrimmage touchdowns, and 100-plus yard rushing games. So this is a very accomplished player. He's played over 1,100 snaps over the last two years.

They play him a ton. Missed tackles force per attempt, 76th percentile. Yards after contact, 76th percentile. I think he sees the field exceptionally well. He's used very well out of the backfield. Yards per route run, 62nd percentile. Missed tackles force per reception. So in the receiving well out of the backfield. Yards per route run, 60-second percentile. Missed tackles forced per reception. So in the receiving game, 90th percentile. Fumble rate, doesn't really put the ball on the ground, 85th percentile. He's a very efficient, explosive,

decisive one-cut back to make a lot of defenders miss in the open field after that one cut. Patient behind the line of scrimmage. Good vision for open space. Natural receiver. Playmaker after the catch. Approaches pass throw with really good fundamentals. A good field for pressure. You know, I think that he's sort of in the mold of a Rashad White with Tampa,

where I think Rashad is a good back. I think we're seeing some running limitations for him, but I don't even want to say limitations, but just maybe a lower ceiling because of that overall athleticism. But somebody who's got really nice third down responsibilities for you can play really well as a receiver out of the backfield. So I think to me, the reason why I have Neil at seven, and I wonder if this is a little too rich. I wonder if I might back off on this. We will see. There to me is so much to love about his game as a multi-sport athlete, as a natural athlete, as somebody who is clearly great with the ball in his hands. They'll

use him in wildcat quarterback formations as well. Also the baseball background, by the way, that makes him a threat for the halfback pass, which you saw a couple of times throughout the last couple of years. The overall speed is speed is I think what could be a question mark here with the ceiling and he actually tested pretty well in our in-game athleticism score but we'll see when it comes to the combine there's just so much to like about um Devin Neal that I it's it's hard for me to put him too much lower than this at this point in time. Is everything you want in terms of DNA player? Like, I mean, this is somebody who at Kansas had 760 carries across four seasons for this program.

I mean, put the team on his back against Colorado, like play. Everybody had like 37 rush attempts. It's a. Like, play, everybody had like 37 rush attempts. It's elite ball security. I think you mentioned three straight thousand-yard seasons. It's just I don't really see the burst in speed that you desire from an NFL running back, but it wouldn't shock me if he's just an overachiever throughout his entire NFL life. It would not shock because he's just like mindset is built different.

Toughness is built different. Availability is totally different. It's the intangibles on this guy are different to me. Yep. Yep. And that's why I feel comfortable betting on him. I would say I respect you. Like, just be like, I'm not going to bet against him.

Like, why would I? Should I? He hasn't given me a reason to. So I'll go 10 through five and we've listed most of them already. I had DJ Giddens at number 10. I had RJ Harvey at number nine. I have Queen Sean Junkins at eight. I get it. Okay.

Devin Neal I have at seven. And then your boy Travion Henderson I have at six. Okay. Who's your 10 through five? My 10 through five is Damian Martinez at 10 from Miami. Kyle Monongai from Rutgers at nine. Yep. Dylan Sian Martinez at 10 from Miami. Kyle Mnangai from Rutgers at 9. Dylan Sampson at 8 from Tennessee. Who you have in your top 5, obviously.

No, I don't have him in my top 20. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I kind of believed you. I should have let that breathe just a little bit longer. I really fell into it you would have been staring at the ceiling tonight like just staying awake being like

no dylan samson the top 20 what did i miss what did i miss your wife's like honey go to bed and you're like i am the meme like she's laid over and it's you must be thinking of other women i'm laid over can't believe trev didn't have dylan sampson in his top 20 oh god we're so you know i would tell ryan to make that the cold open but if he does unfortunately people are gonna think that i actually don't have dylan yeah and then they're like i'm not watching this shit this is rage bait uh seven next nicholas singleton from penn state um six cam scataboo of course the people's hero okay from arizona state yeah and then uh we'll get into some of the households in the top five where do you have scataboo three okay you're all you're all in he's he's sick you're

on the scat hype. Yeah, no, he's awesome. All right, let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. Let's dig into it. Uh, cause then we'll bounce,

we'll bounce around a little bit before we get into it. You know, some of the guys are at the very tippy top, um, which I don't think need too much of explaining, but, uh, I got cams got to do it.

Number three, shout out to the addicts. You guys were in our comments when we were doing the, you know, no notes episodes when we were doing some of the early like stock watch episodes back in September. And you were like, you got to watch Cam Scadaboo. And I'm going to be honest. I watched the 2023 stuff.

I watched some of the stuff at the very beginning of the season. I was like, I don't, I don't know if I see it, man. Five foot 11, 215 pounds. Like I didn't think he was an super explosive athlete. I just felt as though I was like, does this guy just try really hard and that's it? And come to find out, he does in fact try really hard. It kind of works. And even if that was it, that would be enough.

Because as much as I love guys who have high missed tackles, force per attempt averages, these shifty players, these guys who can make you miss in a phone booth, there is something to, as Marshawn Lynch would say, running through somebody's face. before sometimes maybe more times than not the most important trait that you could have as a running back is just running extremely pissed off every time you touch the football that's it's it's like what isaiah pacheco was it's you know obviously marshawn lynch yeah you know guys like uh guys like mike all stop right like some ivory i mean somebody ch, Chris Ivory, Ricky Williams. It just looks different. You're like, oh man, I would not want to be out there today. Right. But I mean, even smaller guys like Chase Brown is like this. Kyron Williams is like this. Damian Pierce was like this. Zach Charbonnet has been like this. They just want to run through you. And Cam Scadaboo, every time he touches the football, he wants to run through you. It's personal.

It is absolutely personal to this dude, and he wears a giant chip on his shoulder. He was a zero-star running back recruit coming out of California. He started at Sacramento State. He was there for two years. He was the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year. Then he transferred over to Arizona. Obviously, he's had an unbelievable year this year where he should have been a finalist for the Heisman Trophy because of everything that he brought to the table.

97th percentile in missed tackles force per attempt, not only because he'll lower the shoulder and has phenomenal contact balance, but he's also kind of slippery to him too. He's got some good footwork. He can make you miss a little bit in the phone booth. 76th percentile when it comes to yards after contact. 95th percentile in missed tackles forced per reception because they use them plenty in the receiving game,

87th percentile in terms of yards per route run. He had a wins above replacement average of a 0.52 in 2024. That's nuts. Ashton Gentry, for example, was a 0.40. Scatabooz was a 0.40 scataboos was a 0.52 because of everything this guy this guy brought to the table when it came to broken tackles production helping the receiving game pass blocker bringing the boom bringing the boom he five big booms yeah truly he's a little bit stiff in his movements going left to right the feet can look a little bit heavy when he's jump cutting sometimes at times he'll go for the knockout blow and pass pro instead of really just kind of you'll sit

there and be patient and have that good posture to him but every team in the nfl make no doubt about it wants most or wants um cam scataboo on their team every single team in the nfl it's just a matter of how high he's gonna go and i bet after this year sometime sometime on day two that's what i think i think so too uh tackle breaking machine he's just you, made out of bricks. Drops his pads. Churns through contact. He sucks to tackle. Yeah.

You just know you're hitting the ice bath a game after you're playing him. Right. It's muscle, but it's also just, he's just beefy. Brick shithouse. That's literally what I wrote in my notes. What's also really cool with Scataboo and why I liked it. So I did his eval before the game this weekend, full transparency.

And I didn't mistake. No, no, no, no, just kidding. It was actually a very rewarding experience because it kind of confirmed everything I had.

I had hoped I got as takeaways from the film. When I first started watching him, I was like, okay, he's fine. Like he's, he runs through people. He's not very fast. And then when I really want, like I got game after game deep into it. I was like, number one, there's something different about the way this guy plays. Number two, he's an excellent pass catcher. And I don't mean that as he's got soft hands

and the transition from pass catcher to runner is seamless. There's no adjusting, there's no stopping. He's very natural. And I like that in this offense, he's not just a dump off pass catcher. I saw him run an angle route with really good footwork. Then on Saturday or then on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, I saw him get an angle route with really good footwork. Then on Saturday or then, then on new year's Eve or new year's day,

I saw him get down the field vertically out. Like there's an actual route tree with this guy and he's comfortable in the route tree and he's got ball skills. Then obviously when he threw the pass, like that's an unbelievable call in that spot, but some little nitpicking things. Cause this guy is phenomenal through contact and he's an excellent pass catching back like we said he doesn't have great he doesn't have speed like

he's got a breakaway nfl speed which you know what there's a lot of running backs that are very good each year that don't it's not a requirement it's just something you write down yeah four fumbles in 2024 i know he's gotten a lot of work but he's got to be a little careful with the ball and that's what happens when you are a hero back. Like you have four people wrapped around you and you're trying to move and you're going to lose the ball sometimes because people punch it out in those scenarios. And it's just something to be mindful of.

You mentioned this in past pro he bends his waist and drops his head a lot. Like it. And I think it's partially like, I want to line a guy up and kind of spear him. But you just, if you do that in the NFL, the rushers are too smart and they have too much length. It is dangerous. It's really dangerous. He does it a lot.

Like drop the head, bend the waist. I think he – they run that toss play out of shotgun a lot, Arizona State, and it works at the college level for them. But I think he's really a man inside zone scheme first runner yes yes so yes i'm a big fan man like i think this running back class is stupid good and i have him sixth yeah like and so i'm with you i think he's a day two prospect i think he's a lead back there's little things he needs to work on there's some things that he just physically doesn't have like that breakaway speed doesn't really matter in this instance uh so obviously we're big fans of him on this show uh real quick i have quinshawn juggins

eight i i want to like quinshawn juggins a lot more i had him borderline rb1 when we were going through summer scouting and at ohio state i mean a lot of the stuff that you like about him is still there i mean he's 5 foot 11 he's 219 pounds i mean he is also there. I mean, he's five foot 11. He's 219 pounds. I mean, he is also somebody who is I mean, he sucks to tackle like effort balance like it is all there for him. So him being an RBA does feel very low because he is absolutely an NFL type of a running back. But him being a little bit lower. It might just be because I was a little bit more disappointed in him this year. I just didn't think his game was super creative. No, he wasn't the same guy.

But the thing is, I don't know why. I'm perplexed. He was just kind of running in a straight line all the time. There wasn't this wiggle. There wasn't this desire to make guys miss. He was just running at guys full speed. And obviously, that's advantageous to him because he's, he's, his muscles are very dense. He's very clearly like a tough guy to

tackle. And so it's, I can understand why he's doing that because he, he, he has never shied away from physicality, even when he was at Ole Miss, but I just felt as though he was North to South to a fault. In my opinion, I wish there was a little bit more patience that he would kind of slow things down a little bit more have a desire to make guys miss because I feel like he has the ability to do that but if he's just going to be this north to south guy like we saw at Ohio State I think that is certainly still NFL caliber but you get a little bit more susceptible to being on a cold streak. I don't want to say getting in the doghouse,

but getting looks taken away from you for other players who might be a little bit more dynamic. I think he's got good speed, too. So there's a lot of things that I like about Judkins, who I assume is in your top five. He's fifth. Yeah, that creativity. I wanted to see more from him this year, and I didn't.

It was the number one thing I wrote down. The violence and the creativity did not look the same at Ohio State, and I don't know why. I don't know why. He's still fit for me because he's still a good running back. He was fine this year. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, he's got a great build.

He can run downhill. He's got burst. I think he's still got a blend of elusiveness and power somewhere in there he got a lot of creative experience as a pass catcher at old miss he doesn't fumble like he's still a really good player and there might be more upside there might be the discount on him might be really beneficial for an nfl team now yeah because if you're getting the old miss version that guy should have been drafted in the top 40 but if you're blending in the Ohio State version I don't think Judkins goes in the top 50 yeah I don't think he goes in the top 50 no probably not so and he's another one where

like he has a physical profile to be great in pass protection but he's not like the eyes dip the head dips like I think he could be way better and he's just not nearly as reliable. So I have him at number eight really just because I'm, I like so much of what I saw at Ole Miss. But this year, I wouldn't say he was bad. He just wasn't that same type of a back that we saw the year before. So maybe I'm dropping him a little bit too low. But again, I worry about that stuff when you take away that creativity from you.

I have his teammate in Travion Henderson at four right above him. I have him at six, so go ahead and talk about Henderson. I mean, when you watch Henderson, this is somebody I've really liked for a long time, and I understand the caveat here. Like, to me, Henderson will never be the guy for an NFL team that's getting 25 carries every single week in and week out. And if you do that,

you're, you're an idiot. Like you're setting them up to fail. But if you want to build a backfield, like the lions did, and you feel like you have a one a for him to be the one B and you think you can have explosive plays that stress the edges of a defense or past game looks or,

or, Hey, we like the way he runs in this look at the second level. And we're going to spring them there. Henderson is phenomenal. Like explosive speed, explosive speed. He could stress the edges of the defense.

He could shoot through the gap, like a cannon acceleration and outside zone with his feet. It's just like snap the fingers and go he he can absolutely fly uh in the past game we got to see him work even outside a little bit this year i think it was against purdue i want to say where he caught that go ball like this is somebody in the past game that can you can motion in and out which is really really exciting you brought up the dolphins before like this is the kind of running back Mike McDaniel would like oh totally yeah so 10 90 100 meter dash in high school like this is former former track guy yeah

absolutely another guy and I want to double check this year but I had written down like he doesn't fumble no zero fumbles over the last few years zero no fumbles protects the football i love that he has that stiff arm at the third level of the field like he sees a safety or a corner trying to tackle him he's like all right i'm gonna throw you to the ground with the iron arm he he's as creative as the second and third level of a running back as you'll see in this class jukes spins hurdles stiff arms it's like it's like a video game player at the second and third level. Every button is available to you. Henderson, you got to manage him and be careful with his health, but his explosive ability and efficiency when he's given eight to 12 touches a game, like he was this year, he is a game changer. Yeah. Yeah. No, he's a great speed back. He is.

He's a really great speed option. And I honestly, gonna be honest with you some of his biggest players are those like outside zone into the sideline runs but I think on a play by play basis he saw man gap concepts even better than he saw like inside and mid zone concepts right I think that he is he's so light on his feet he's so ready to kind of like let blocking set up the way that it needs to really put his foot in the ground and really get between tackles or guards or whatever it is to be able to find that daylight. And then I agree with you. I think he's a really nice play weight maker when you get to that second and third level,

which is really important. Doesn't have a ton of body density to him. He's listed at, what do we got? Five foot 10, 208 pounds. Oh, wow.

Would you have him at? 216 was the spring weight. I had him at. Oh, I got him at 208. 214 was the spring weight I had him at. Oh, I got him at 208? 214 was his spring weight. Okay. So I think he'll surprise some people at the comma. I think he'll be pretty built up.

And his yards after contact numbers really aren't too bad. I was going to say they're impressive for his size, for what they were, but 86 percentile in terms of yards after contact. So at least he has good balance. I don't know if he's ever going to be, you know, like a power through type of a guy. He's more of a speed guy. But sometimes I felt like he had a tendency to bounce it out to the outside

a little bit too much. But hey, he's a speed guy. He wants to get to the open field. You live with that. It's all right. It's not the worst thing in the world. Good production as a receiver as well. Soft hands and receiving game.

So this is somebody who I think could absolutely be an effective future pro. No doubt about it. I think that's everybody that we have. Oh, you had Dylan Sampson where? I had him at eight. Okay, I had him at four. So a lot of the conversation

that we just had about Travion Henderson, I also think about Dylan Sampson. I just think he's better at it. Okay. So I just- I don't know if I, I agree. I really like the acceleration. I don't know if he's as fast

as henderson i guess we'll see he got the track numbers he got the track numbers back it up he no i think he's fast i want to make that clear i there's times a henderson where i'm like he might be the fastest running back in the country sometimes where was henderson's uh so henderson when he is high school i understand it's all right It's like, but we're so far away from that. Henderson's a hundred meter dash when he was in high school was a 10, nine and Dylan Sampson's. Where are we at here? Dylan Sampson was a 10, four, eight.

So Dylan Sampson ran the 100 meter at 10, four, eight. He ran a 21, 16, 200 meter. And he ran a 4.32, 40 yard dash in high school. Obviously not like, you know, official or whatever, but that's, that's what the notes say. So, um, I, I do think he's like 10 to 12 pounds lighter than Henderson. Definitely. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. You know, he's Dylan Sampson's right around 200 pounds. But again, like, I don't think it's that big of a detractor, like playing with physicality from Dylan Sampson's right around 200 pounds. But again, like, I don't think it's that big of a detractor, like playing with physicality from Dylan Sampson. And I think he's a little bit more explosive. So yeah, acceleration is phenomenal. So if I'm looking at the speed back to speed back comparison, I did like what I saw in Dylan Sampson more than I liked what I saw in Trey Van Henderson.

Not to say Henderson's a bad player at all whatsoever. It's just these are my top two speedbacks in the class, if you will. Well, yeah, because the other guys that we're talking about are sort of all-around guys. But Samson's, I really like Samson. A very high missed tackles for a spur-of-the-town player, both as a runner and a receiver. Pretty good in the receiving game as well.

The fumbles is more of an issue for Samson than it is for Trayvon Henderson. But super quick pace of play uh has the long speed to truly like erase angles when he gets to the outside really good one cut ability and explosiveness so it's not just long speed it's overall agility i think he's got really great vision you talk about being a stud for his own blocking schemes i think he's fantastic out of that but he works well out of out of a man and gap concepts as well. He's got good balance. He's a smaller back, so he's going to go down a little bit easier on first contact, but he does have some decent balance. Um, it's not outlier small, which is nice willing pass blocker, but you mentioned the lower weight. It does kind of affect how effective he could be. And then he's got the fumble issues to him,

but, um um my bottom line here for dylan sampson sampson is a speedster out of the backfield who pairs explosiveness with patience and good vision he has big play potential behind any blocking scheme and can develop into a plus receiver though he must cut down on the fumbles to remain on the field biggest influence reggie bush so that's the kind of mentality that we're talking about here with dylan sampson who i have in number four yeah he's got the sharp cuts um yeah i love that you brought up the scheme like this guy gets a ton of work in man power counter i mean he's run behind a lot of different looks i just the acceleration is insane especially off dump off passes he he

needs he's not quite there yet as a receiver but he reminds me of tyrone tracy right like that's what you want him because tyrone had the wide receiver background first and tyrone has i mean the explosiveness with the jump cuts and the long speed i mean you love tyrone last year um in year's class. Like he's not quite there. I think Tyrone's a little bigger too, but he's not quite there as a receiver, but like how they move as runners. I thought I saw him pretty similar.

I see that for sure. Okay. So top fives? So five for me is Caleb Johnson from Iowa. Okay. Four is Dylan Sampson. Three was Cam Scadabo. Two is Omarion hampton from unc and then number one's ashton genti from boise state okay so five for me was quinshawn

judkins four was his teammate travion henderson at ohio state three for me was i was caleb johnson and then we see eye to eye on two and one omari and hampton from unc one ashton genti from boise state so let's talk Caleb Johnson and then quickly we can talk about Hampton and Gentry, just as the studs. I mean, what a year, right? For Caleb Johnson, just dominant force. Decided to stay at Iowa, six feet tall, 225 pounds.

This is one, Trevor, where I believe every single pound on the listed. Like he is rock solid. He is. Yes. Yes. Rock solid player. Finished the season with over 1500 rushing yards,

66 missed tackles, 21 rushing touchdowns. He ran for over a hundred yards in nine of 12 of Iowa's games this year. Like he was basically a lock for a hundred yards week in and week out. Plows through arm tackles patient on his run tracks finds the hole and he hits the hole with power when i said the menung guy thing about meeting somebody at the goal line i think caleb johnson plays like that at every level of the field you just never want to be the guy in front of him ever yeah it's

everything is personal with the way he hits the lane but I think he's a glider at the second and third level. Yes. He, he might be the best runner in the class. That's pretty fair. I mean, it'll be, we'll talk about gentee in a second,

but the way Caleb Johnson's ability to run with power and conviction at the line of scrimmage, but then to turn into a glide, a swift glider at the second and third level, it's a thing of beauty at 225 pounds. Yeah. 43 runs of 10 plus yards. He constantly creates these awful angles

for DBs on the back end. And then the angle is so bad. And then he throws a stiff arm at them and buries them in the turf. He's just, he runs with purpose yes the pass game role is limited it's swing passes and dump offs he's still learning how to physically he could pass protect yeah mentally before the snap he's still figuring it out who's coming from where and a veteran quarterback will be like you're on this hip you're on this hip watch that watch this

in practice the center will tell you okay when we call out this you're on this hip. You're on this hip. Watch that. Watch this. In practice, the center will tell you, okay, when we call out this, you're doing this. So I think the pass pro mentally is going to catch up, but physically it'll be fine. It needs to catch up mentally. That swing pass, though, he caught against Nebraska and ran through the entire team, is one of the most, like, I am the man on this field plays you will ever see and it really to me just

defines the kind of player he is again I have in my notes I think that he could be the best runner in this class and that includes Hampton and Gentry at the very top like his pro comp to me as a runner he reminded me of Todd Gurley and and when Gurley was obviously doing his thing I mean he was he was phenomenal now he doesn't have the third down work that Gurley did you know he's not the receiver he's not the receiver that Gurley was but as a runner there are some plays where I felt like I was watching Todd Gurley and that's the reason that's ultimately the reason why he was number five for me is because if you're getting your team in trouble in pass protection, and if you are unreliable as a receiver,

you are still going to basically be part of a committee. And so you're not going to be that full-time three-down back. And the other guys that I have listed above them, I think have the potential to be more three-down backs. So Caleb Johnson, like you mentioned, I think that the, the size speed combination that he is, is just so imposing. And some of his best plays are just absolutely jaw dropping.

The speed and the explosiveness, the agility, the balance in which he operates, despite being as big as he is like 225, 230 pounds. It's special. It's really special stuff. So NFL is going5, 230 pounds. It's special. It's really special stuff.

So NFL is going to love this guy. He's going to get certainly all the chance in the world to be an RB2 to start his career, perhaps develop into that RB1, because I think his stuff as a runner is really good. And if he improves in pass pro and if he improves as a pass catcher, then yeah, we're going to be talking about a guy who has the potential to be a top five back in the NFL, in my opinion. Yeah.

You could be taught like if he improved, like improves as a pass catcher, he could be what, whenever, whenever Charbonnet plays, I'm like not blown away. Cause I love Charbonnet as a prospect, but I'm like,

damn, I wish Charbonnet played more as good as Ken Walker is. I mean, that's the kind of running back Caleb Johnson could be if he starts catching the ball, but he's a more gift. He's a more graceful runner than charbonnet so and yeah and charbonnet i i think that's a really good way to put it he's just a little bit more graceful than charbonnet is yeah it's like you're a safety and you're like oh this guy's 225 pounds and i have to find a way to stop

him oh and then he created an advantageous angle against me. Like, how did he do that at that size? And then I get stiff armed in the head and I'm done. Caleb Johnson is awesome. So Omarion Hampton from UNC, we have a number two. And Ashton Gentry, we have a number one. Omarion Hampton, you know, part of me wishes that ashton gentry wasn't in this class so i thought the same thing it's hilarious how little we hear about omari and just nothing we hear

nothing about this guy you wouldn't know he exists we didn't hear shit about him last year because well we could talk about drake may understandably and then we didn't hear anything about him this year because one unc was bad to ashton gentry and Cam Scadabo and Caleb Johnson and the Ohio State running backs. All these guys are going off. Yeah, and they're playing in big games. And Marian Hampton just wasn't. But six feet tall, 220 pounds. He built like an NFL back. fell back you talk about a guy who has great combination of size speed strength agility

good vision excellent in pass protection uh receiving potential like again i think this is a three down back the nfl oh man is he ever There's just, there's not a lot of limitations in my opinion to Omar and Hampton, who was basically the only option on his team. And I'm looking at him on my notes on my phone right now. He was basically the only threat at all whatsoever on the team. And yet he still had, see, he was still 74th percentile and missed tackles force per attempt. 97th percentile in yards after contact per attempt. He basically was like, fine. I'll do it myself.

And he did on a lot of plays. And he was basically the only reason why UNC was in a lot of those games. I think that he is, again, just to encapsulate it by saying, I sometimes wish Ashton Gentry wasn't in this class because Omarion Hampton is criminally slept on

when it comes to the height that he has as a prospect. The build and traits profile is eerily similar to David Johnson. And I know David Johnson kind of had that peak and it feels like health and gotten his way where, I mean, you, you look at him,

you think you, you just watch him play a couple of snaps at, you know, about six feet tall, 220 pounds. And it was a little shorter than both David Johnson and the guy I'm about to say next, like Matt Forte,

but you're like, but you're, but like, that's what you're like. He's not supposed to be this muscular, fast, explosive, and gifted as a receiver. Hampton is just a stupid talent. It is criminal that his efficiency was hurt by being at UNC like all these guys average over six yards of carry in their sleep he was at 5.9 this year because he just didn't have a lot of help but what he does for himself is unbelievable and I just love going back to what we talked about over summer like that he squatted 560 pounds in high school, but the bar bent.

So they they had to have him stop because like they didn't have a they didn't have a bar because they didn't have like a rogue bar, like a qualified bar. So they had to stop like he literally just like outgrew the weight equipment they had in this high school. That's what you want. I actually really like the David Johnson comps really nice I hadn't thought of the David Johnson one stylistically he's a little bit bigger than this player and I think he's a little bit better of a receiver as well but Rashad Mendenhall okay and haul the first couple of years he ran hard I mean this I mean again that he ran hard and that is the way that I feel Omarion Hampton can run with his God-given athleticism.

So that was somebody who I thought of as well right there. Which leads us to number one. It's Ashton Gentry, the most productive running back in the country this year. One of the most productive running backs of all time with an unbelievable season this past year. Only Barry Sanders had more rushing yards in a single season. Was he good? He did all right, I think. He did

all right. You know what's hilarious? Ashton Gentry was second all-time in single-season rushing yards in 14 games. Barry Sanders still had more than him in 11. It's just not. And Barry Sanders bowl game doesn't count for those statistics. What an animal. And they'll just, they'll just never be another like sometimes there's things in life and they're so rare, which is why I try to really appreciate them. That just won't ever change the barry sanders college in 11 games

production is one wayne gretzky points yeah like there's just nothing we can do as a society to ever find better than that and that's okay that's okay even lab made you know if we start making humans in a lab you know like they can't they're not going going to replicate Wayne Gretzky's all-time point stats. No. They're just not. Action Gentry at Boise State. So this is percentiles over the last two years.

So it's not just this past year. It is last year as well. 98th percentile missed tackles forced per attempt. 99th percentile yards after contact. 96.0 gap grade. 96.6 zone grade. 99th percentile missed tackles force per reception, 87th percentile yards per route run. This dude was unbelievable. It's hard to find a player who's as valuable to their team as Ashton Jente was from the running back position that we

saw this year at Boise State. He is built like an NFL back. He runs like an NFL back. He's got the athleticism like an NFL back, the mentality, the all-around game. This is somebody who is going to be, in my opinion, a unanimous top 10 overall player on big boards that you see throughout the 2025 NFL Draft. And it's not just a matter of does Ashton Gentry go in the first round? The question is, how high does he go in the first round? Feels like the Alvin Kamara comp actually fits this time. Feeling a lot of people try to force the Alvin Kamara comp with a lot of players that, quite frankly, it's probably insulting to Alvin Kamara that we would make that comp. His family has to start suing people.

This one, yeah, you know what? You know, more legal action is what this country needs. I actually agree with you. I've often said this country needs more lawyers. Policing. Comparing this guy to Alvin Kamara's defamation. That's the comp. That is the comp because that's the caliber of player

that we're talking about here with Ashley Jenty. I mean, Jenty, I try to always be careful with hyperbole prospects and recency bias. He might have the best balance I've ever seen from a running back prospect. I don't even know. There's times where I just don't understand how he's not on the ground.

The play against Penn State where he forced six missed tackles, got tackled at the line of scrimmage, and then still got a first down? Nuts. Totally nuts. There's a play against Oregon where there's like three times he should have

been tackled. No brainer situations. And he comes out of it and then they get them to the sideline. They just have to get them out of bounds. Like they have to move them. Like he's probably go down. I didn't go down, stood up there and looked at the two defenders in front of him like a

psychopath. And like the Michael Myers stuff with him is some guys do too much, right? This is someone that has earned every bit of it and more. Where I'm like, this guy rules. Yes. He's twitchy. He's got elite contact balance. Elite.

He is so skilled in phone booth areas and congested areas and traffic he's one of the best short yardage backs awareness wise you'll ever see as a prospect yeah he catches the ball he's fearless and pass bro he's a weight room god for his size and that's something he's spoken about you know not verbatim but he said something along the lines of like i knew i wasn't going to be that big i believe because of his is like family history he's like i knew it wasn't going to be that tall he's like so i knew i had to be stronger than everybody so when he was young he started working out and lifting weights and he squats over 600 pounds like he's he's the work ethics elite the players elite the mental it's when the mental matches the

physical and he is just so mentally equipped to cap to maximize all of his physical abilities and i love trevor that the one thing i was really concerned about over summer he fumbled five times in 2023 with all of the work he got this year he only fumbled twice twice so he took care of the football like took care of the football um there's a couple times where i'm like man he's so low to the ground and strong that if they can cut down a little bit of lunging and pass bro he'll be an elite pass protector because he's winning the leverage game with his his pound for pound strain just don't lunge just hold your point of tax it on your heels. But Gent, he's just a phenomenal player. Like you said, it is awesome that we think he'll go in the top 10.

Not in the top 10. He'll be ranked in the top 10. He'll go in the first round because this is a deep running back class. It's a great running back class. But he's just such a talent. He earned it. He deserves to go in the first round, he's such a talent that he, he earned it. He deserves to go in the first round because he will be a difference making player for a team from day one,

from the first snap he ever gets. And it's, and it's beyond just him as a runner, right? When you talk about justifying a first round selection for running back, it's what you said, like he's a phenomenal wide receiver. I listed some of the wide receiver efficiency metrics that he has, like he's affecting the past game. He could develop into a phenomenal pass protector as well. It's not just the elite efficiency and explosiveness and return on investment that you get from him when you hand off the ball. It's also how he compliments and gets involved in the passing game. That is when a running back is worthy of a first round selection.

And in my opinion, he is a Dallas cowboy at worst. Wherever Dallas picks. I don't know where Dallas picks. I don't know where Dallas picks. I don't know where they're going to end up picking. It's probably going to be somewhere around like 12, I think. In my opinion, he is a Dallas Cowboy at worst. I don't know how they would pass on him. I really don't.

It's perplexing they didn't take a running back at all last year. I don't have the conviction you do. Nope. And I think they have the conviction you do. Nope. And I think they will not make that mistake again. Jerry Jones has the opportunity to get the guy who only trails Barry Sanders for a single season rushing record. You better bet your ass. All right.

Can you read off your 20? That was a good you better bet your ass. There was conviction in that. You better bet your ass. Can you read off your 20 down down to number one i already read them i'm done okay all right good talking donovan edwards from michigan number 20 rj harvey out of ucf number 19 khalil mullings out of michigan number 18 uh bashal tootin from virginia tech at number 17. Number 16, Jarquez Hunter out of Auburn, senior bowl invite. 15, Devin Neal, another senior bowl invite

out of Kansas. 14 was Woody Marks, Jaquavius Marks, out of USC, formerly of Mississippi State. 13, DJ Giddens out of Kansas State. 12, Katron Allen, aka Fat Man, out of Penn State. 11, Ollie Gordon II out of Oklahoma State. Twelve, Katron Allen, aka Fat Man, out of Penn State. Eleven, Ollie Gordon II, out of Oklahoma State. Ten, Damian Martinez, out of Miami. Number nine, Kyle Menungai, out of Rutgers. Number eight, Dylan Sampson, out of Tennessee. Nicholas Singleton, out of Penn State, was number seven. Number six, the rising must-watch TV this cam scataboo out of arizona

state another senior bowl accepted invite top five quinchon judkins and travion henderson at five and then four both out of ohio state by top three caleb johnson out of iowa number two is amarian hampton out of unc number one ashton gentry at a Boise State so for me number 20 was Ty's Brooks from Texas Tech number 19 woody marks from USC 18 bashal tootin from Virginia Tech 17 Marcus yarns from Delaware 16 was common unguide from Rutgers 15 Damian Martinez from Miami 14 Khalil mowings from Michigan 13 Nick singleton from Penn State 12 was Jarquez Hunter from Auburn. 11, Fat Man, K-Tron Allen from Penn State. 10 was DJ Giddens from Kansas State.

9, RJ Harvey from UCF. 8, Quinjohn Juggins from Ohio State. 7, Devin Neal from Kansas. 8, 6, excuse me, Travion Henderson from Ohio State. 5 was Caleb Johnson from Iowa. 4 was Dylan Sampson from Tennessee. 3 was Cam Scadaboo from Arizona State. 2, Omarian Hampton from UNC.

And the number one, Ashton Gentry from Boise State. We would love to hear from you guys. We know you got takes on running backs. As Drake once said, my city loved me like a college running back. And we know that you guys love your running backs out there. So we would love to hear your takes. Are we too high? Are we too low on your favorite running back?

We'd love to hear some running back rankings from you as well. Best way to do that youtube.com backslash at NFL Stock Exchange. You can hit us up on Twitter and Instagram as well at Tampa Bay Trey and at Connor J. Rogers. We'll be marching on with the positional groups. Connor and I haven't decided which position we're going to do next. Probably focus on

the trenches, either offense or defensive trenches for our next episode. But that won't be until at least a week from now because on monday you guys know what's coming oh buddy time to pay up rent's due baby the rent is past due even it's going to be the first mock draft with the solidified draft order for the non-playoffs teams connor i can wait. You got anything else before we get out of here? I'm holding on tight right now. The Jets could do something really stupid on Sunday. Hey, we ran through scenarios.

They could pick number two overall. And if it hits, I have seen. I don't do the pod anymore. I'll do it for fun. There have been at least four people who have sent us the screenshots of the Jets' miracle parlay for the Jets to get the number two overall pick and them to be 20 grand richer for it. If you missed it, go check out the previous

episode where we predict everything that can happen in week 18 of the NFL. It's a good time. We have a lot of fun. For Connor Rodgers, I'm Trevor Sycamore saying thank you guys so much for watching and listening to another episode of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. See you guys on Monday. Bye.