NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - Early Running Back Rankings For 2026 NFL Draft (Summer Scouting)

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

17:00 - Quintrevion Wisner, Texas 23:25 - C.J. Baxter, Texas 28:35 - Desmond Reid, Pitt 33:15 - Terion Stewart, Virginia Tech 39:40 - Kaytron Allen, Penn State 46:40 - Makhi Hughes, Oregon 50:35 - Le���Veon Moss, Texas A&M 56:00 - Bryson Washington, Baylor 59:30 - Quinten Joyner, Texas Tech 1:06:30 - Darius Taylor, Minnesota 1:12:10 - Nicholas Singleton, Penn State 1:18:40 - Jonah Coleman, Washington 1:25:30 - Jaydn Ott, Oklahoma 1:33:20 - Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame

Welcome to the opening bell at the NFL stock exchange podcast. Trevor sick. McConnell Rogers back with you guys for another edition of summer scouting. Today we are talking about the running back position. If you missed the first episode, we talked about quarterbacks. We do 15. We got 15 quarterbacks in. A lot of you guys were asking about some of the guys that were just outside of the top 15. We went back and forth with a lot of you guys in the comments as well.

It is so good to be back talking about summer scouting and we're onto the next position today. Connor, how you doing my friend? I'm good, man. Summer rolls on the scouting of it rolls on. It's really cool to see everybody just, um, like the views and everything for quarterbacks, it's awesome. What summer scouting has it rolls on it's really cool to see everybody just like the views and everything for quarterbacks It's awesome. What summer scouting has become man. I'm so pumped and we've been grinding through these running backs so it's gonna be a really really fun show today and

An interesting group because I look I looked back at last year and I was like man like Obviously Judkins was a star of summer scouting last year. Gentie was a star of summer scouting last year. Amarion Hampton and running back is one of those things, Trevor, where I feel like it's almost the contrast, the quarterback, where sometimes things don't change. You can get a read on an underclassmen running back and be like, that guy is awesome. And the rankings might not fall off. But then you could have an Ollie Gordon

where there are a couple of guys where things change a little bit. So I'm curious to see how this group plays out throughout the season, but there's plenty of talent. Yeah. And I think for running back, it's always a really interesting exercise as we talk about these players because you don't have to be the total package to play. You just don't. For quarterback, even the guys who are like, even the guys who are dual threat quarterbacks who bring something with their legs. So you say, okay, they have a higher floor, because at the very least, they'll be able to contribute to the running game kind of a

thing. If you're gonna start in the NFL, you've got to be able to do it all you have to Yeah. And I think running back in particular, there's a lot of positions where I think that you're more towards quarterback than not. But at running back, it's so specialized where you get these players and you go, okay, they're not complete in this area. Maybe they're not great at pass protection. Maybe they're not a great receiver. Maybe they don't have the best long speed, but hell, every time that you put the ball in their gut,

they're going to get you three or four yards and you could deal with that. And you're okay with that. And sometimes those dudes stick in the NFL. So it makes for very interesting conversations. It's not as star studded as it was last year, but that's not to say you won't get players who won't be very impactful for whatever your NFL team is going to be. Speaking of summer, since I know people love when we do this and we riff at the beginning of the podcast, I can tell by all the comments to go, hey, the show starts at 1036 or whatever. Football 731. Shout out to those people. We love you as well. Thank you for watching. Truly. I'm just messing with you as you guys are messing with us. I know that.

The golf game. Saw another golf picture. You post another IG story straight from the links on Tuesday. We getting better, we getting worse. Where's the... I'm gonna ask you this throughout the summer. I like this. And we're gonna need some progress pics here. To be fair, it would be concerning if I didn't get better with how poorly I shot the week before. I'm not gonna drop a number on this show, but we actually, we got, I think, seven strokes better to show how poorly I actually shot a week ago.

And I will say the greens at this place were the fairway and the greens were a little bit better shaped. That also can help, give you a little more distance, give you a little more roll. Man, it is fun, dude. I so I made the the really bad habit last year. I don't know. Just fell into this where after the draft, I played at least once a week all the way, you know, halfway through August because we go back for fantasy football and then football starts in September.

They didn't pick up a club until after the draft this year. Sure. I cannot do draft this year. Sure. I cannot do that this year. This year I need to at least, you know, and I'm up north so when there's snow on the ground, you're not gonna play. Can't you not play up north? It just depends whenever there's snow on the ground.

You can, I actually, so the thing is, I actually will like when it starts to get in the 50s because a lot of people will just stop playing. And I don't care at all. I'll be out there, the ground will be a little bit hard, but it'll be nice, man. It'll be nice.

Cause the summer up here, obviously everybody's jacked up for the season and the courses are packed. So yeah, let's see. This is my road to being a not embarrassing golfer. Everybody loves those YouTube series. My road to being a scratch golfer. My road to being able to show my face in public and of course and not hide I did I did do something really really dumb though

I had my my car keys in my pocket like on the after the last hole and My buddy I was playing with is an absolute lunatic. He just drives the cart like it's a go-kart race. I'm sure they love him. Yeah. They love him. These two club houses hate to see your friend coming. They actually literally hate to see us coming. They see the IPAs in the cooler.

They see this idiot behind the wheel of the golf cart. And the keys to my car and house fell out of my pocket at some point of the drive. So I'm eating lunch, everything's fine, like ready to call the day. And I got, Kristen's at work, I gotta get home and get Gracie out. And I'm like, oh no. It's cause nowadays you can just start your car

from your phone, it's not the end of the world. But I need to get into my- Not my car. Okay, well- I drive a 2002 Toyota Sequoia, baby. I actually learned this yesterday. So this is the first time I've had a new car. And it was it was pretty shameful.

I was walking with my tail between my legs when I went in the clubhouse. So you find any car keys out there? And the woman just dangles up in front of me and starts laughing. I was like, this is pathetic. This is so pathetic. It's so funny that you talk about just like, like having an embarrassing score. Real quick, I promise we'll get the running backs.

My father-in-law and I were playing- Football 824. We were playing a new course last week and we had never played it before. It was one of the nicer courses and we're like, hey, we haven't played it. Let's go try it out. Let's go check it out.

You know, cause yeah, in case people come into town or something, we got a nice course we could take them to. Whatever. So we go and we're like, hey, we haven't played it, let's go try it out, let's go check it out. Because people come into town or something, we got a nice course we can take them to, whatever. So we go and we play and I mean, they're on top of things, like the whole process of getting ready and they're like, okay, the tee time's at this, he's like, all right, you're not on deck, you're in the hole and then you're on deck or whatever. And the guy who's managing when people are going out,

he's coming up, he's checking up on us on the driving range, he's like, geez, all right. Starters range, you could have a starter that shows his face 20 seconds. And it's like, have fun boys. He's got a starter. Yes. Like this, that walks you through every hole with a sheet of paper on top of it. And, and so like, we were a little delayed, like throughout the whole process,

just cause we had, I didn't even know where the range was. I didn't even know where the putting green was or whatever. So he just says to us, he's like, he's like, what, what'd you guys handicap? And I almost like instinctively, I almost was like, it's a bit of a personal question, don't you think? And, but like, I was like, I can't be rude to this guy. Like I can't mess with this guy. Actually is. I mean, I get he's probably trying to figure out pace of play. Yes, he was. We had a couple of heroes behind us that were, you know, middle-aged guys that clearly were trying to get around in before they started their work.

Heroes. I mean, these guys were just these guys were out there thinking they're on the tour and I hadn't seen one of my best friends in a while, so I was so excited just to get out there and chop it up with him. And we don't play slow. Me and him like we were average speed, but I'm also out there. You know, the time of year I finally have time to breathe

and as my buddy took the day as well. I mean, these guys, what is the rule on when you can actually, if somebody's hitting behind you and the ball's like five feet away from you, that you could actually just smash it off the course into the trees. And I didn't do that and we just let them play ahead because you know, you're not out there

trying to start any problems, especially like you said, this was the first time we were playing at this place. It was a nice place But man, I don't I don't get it the people that like what's the point at that point where you're trying to play 18 holes? In 70 minutes. It's just it was pretty funny to me, but everybody's got their own thing And yeah, there's a couple heroes out there that you know, they're trying to make the tour road to scratch golfer There it is road did not embarrassing. We would love to hear from you guys Let us know how the golf games going how drop your handicapped drop the handicap in the comments Yeah, it's been a personal question. Don't you think fellas? I wish I said that to him Kind of be kind of me too to be honest with you. Um, all right last thing

What needs to get better driver Driver, irons, short game, putting. Absolutely irons right now. I can't putt to save my life right now. Well that wasn't great yesterday. I'm just, I'm so mad at that. That wasn't great. It's actually shocking. Like I feel like when you're younger,

like cause you're not, you're, you know, you're not strong yet or whatever. You're like, oh, I can't wait to tee off like with the big boys and just smash the ball. Then when you become an adult, te're not strong yet or whatever. You're like, I can't wait to tee off like with the big boys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Then when you become an adult, it's teeing off is is teeing off. You could practice at the range very easily. Man, there's nothing worse than when you have a good tee off and you take an iron at the club and you just whack the club

right into the ground. The ball goes 30 yards. Yeah, so we'll get there. I'm on fire right now with the driver in the irons short games. OK, hit miss So you're crashing out on the green? Oh brother We would have a lot of fun if I three if I three putt but if I'm sorry I had a four putt Two weeks. Hey, did listen No, don't tell me it happens. No

Go it does it it doesn't yeah There's a bottom a bottom three feeling in life is when you really underestimate the role and Your ball just refuses to stop no matter how soft you hit it and you're just watching it tumble right off Right off on back to the lip and you're back to square one. And you're like, oh cool, for this par four I get to write a seven on the card. Again, sick. We're talking, we're talking top 10 running backs today for the 2026 NFL draft class.

By the way, podcast starts at 9.49. So there you go guys. Don't have to tell us in it. I'm just kidding, we love you. Start betting the over unders on that. We're just, oh yeah, there we go. Somebody set the over unders for that. And we'll, and we'll have a little bit of insider trading.

Make sure, you know, whoever's nicest to us makes some money this off season. We're going to do top tens. We're not going to do top fifteens. I watch eighteen of these guys. Again, I'm trying to watch a little bit more to make sure that they are on the PFF mock draft simulator once the season starts. So I'm watching a little bit more to be honest with you. There's four or five guys on here that either just like aren't ready or do not have the snap. So what is life like being the czar of the simulator? I feel like I've noticed you taking on

a little bit more on your shoulders. Like I'm going through summer scouting. I watched 11 running backs. You watched 18. I think I watched 18 quarterbacks. I remember you watched 23, 24. 25, 25. 25, see, there you go.

I'm underestimating you already. And I was thinking about this the other day, I was like, I don't really envy Trevor because he, no matter how many times he rolls the boulder up the hill, it's always gonna fall back down with a tweet at him that says, why isn't this guy in the simulator every single time?

Chris, shout out to you for that and shout out to you for all your hard work on getting these hats out to the loyal addicts. Oh, yes, the hats. All of them other than the ones that paid through PayPal have been sent out. I'm sorry. Again, this is on me. I didn't have the business PayPal account set up yet. And so the last week, I've been having to do this to make sure that I actually get the payment before I'm able to send the hats off. So those should be sent by the end of the week. But other than that, all the hats should be sent able to send the hats off. So those should be sent by the end of the week, but other than that,

all the hats should be sent out. Guys. Thank you. Holy cow. I, I said that I felt like I was, I underestimated the addicts. We sold out the hats like within 20 minutes of the episode dropping. We didn't even put the link on Twitter, nothing like that. For those of you that did not get a hat, we are in the process of ordering more. It's going to be a different system. So hopefully they come within, you know, five or six weeks or something like that, but we're going to be able to have more of them.

And obviously we're going to have our ducks in a row now this time. Uh, and so we'll be able to get that out to you guys, but my goodness, we love you. Thank you guys so much for, for supporting the show. It means a ton. And to everybody who did not get a hat, we will get you a hat. I promise they will become available. I even saw some people who were like, yo, bucket hats. And I don't know if we'll get bucket hats in the next shipment, but could absolutely be down the line because I love myself a good bucket hat as well. So that was a good shout out from you guys there.

But yeah, look, honestly, I'm not saying this just to be a company man. Like I'm, I'm an NFL draft addict, just like you guys are out there. I am, since I have a say in the ability to change a product that we all love to use as draft addicts, I am trying to make it as good as possible. And so- Which is awesome. Anytime anybody is like,

hey, we gotta get this guy on the simulator. I promise you, I'm not taking that as like offense cause I have not watched them yet. I'm like, oh, okay. Like somebody's shouting this player out. Let me get some eyes on him. And if I think he's legit, obviously I'll put him somewhere either high or low on the on the simulator. So yeah, it's it's I have the ability to change things like you said sort of being like the czar if you will of the PFF mock draft simulator.

But it's also I want you guys the addicts to feel like you have some input on a product that you guys pay a premium for and want to use. And it's not just a thing where it's like, hey, subscribe to PFF and then we'll take your money. And that's it. Like, I genuinely want this to feel like a premium product, like it's the best product you could possibly be. And I want to make it worth you guys' money. And so I'm always trying to make that the case. Running back is one of those positions that we will be able to do that. So like we have done in the past, I think we should go five or sorry, I think we should go 10 to six.

You know, talk about some of those guys that we have 10 through six, and then we'll focus a little bit more on those guys that we each have in our top five. So Connor, I will let you go first, my friend. 10 to six, let's read them off. Number 10 for me is Desmond Reed, the running back from Pitt.

He was originally a transfer from Western Carolina, but he played for Pitt last year. Interesting receiving back. Number nine for me is Trey Weissner, Quintravion Weissner at Texas. So if you watched a lot of Texas football last year, Weissner and Jaden Blue, who's now on the Cowboys, kind of commanded that backfield and got a lot of work. Number eight for me is going to be a really interesting player to watch this year. That's Mackay Hughes, the Oregon running back that is a transfer from Tulane.

I think they have really high expectations for him at Oregon. And I saw something funny while watching him and I'm excited to break down and then number seven for me Is actually a guy from summer scouting last year that his? 2024 was unfortunately just totally burned by a high ankle sprain But Jayden Ott who was at Cal and is now at Oklahoma. Yep, Oklahoma between getting John Matier and Jayden Ott yeah, they are. Those are portal moves that are we want to the ceiling of our offense.

We're just trying to max it out. Like, obviously, there are lower floors as well for Mattier and Ott. But when they are at their best, they do stuff on a college football field that just from a physical standpoint, some guys can't do is a big play machine. Obviously Trevor, you and I had a long, long discussion about him during summer scouting last year. It stinks that he had that high ankle that really, really kind of nuked a lot of his season,

but we'll break it all down. And then number six for me is somebody that we've talked about very recently in our early running back rankings back in the winter. And he surprisingly went back to school, K-Tron Allen from Penn State, also known as Fat Man. That is his nickname. His nickname is Fat Man. He is the dynamic duo in the Penn State backfield

between him and Nicholas Singleton are a lot of fun to watch. So yeah, this group is really, really interesting to me. And I'm curious how you have this sorted out because I kind of thought in my opinion from two to six, I think you or even two to eight, you could have it anyway. And I wouldn't see much of a discrepancy or a difference. Yeah. I mean, we're going to talk about a couple of those names that I have a little bit higher, one in particular that I'm excited to break down. But so did you watch CJ Baxter at all? I did not. OK, so I watched Baxter.

I did not watch Weisner and I have Baxter within this group. He's actually RB six for me. So I'll be able to talk about Baxter sort of when we get to six. But you watched Weisner and I didn't. I know I'm sure there's a lot of Texas. It's actually a good thing that what that we watched. And we each watched one of them. Sure. From the backfield, I think. So talk to me a lot of Texas fans out there. That's actually a good thing. What, that we watch different guys? We each watch one of them. Sure.

From the backfield, I think. So talk to me about Weissner a little bit. Let's start with him. Where did you have him? And then just talk to me about the scouting reporter role. Yeah, Weissner was nine for me. He's an interesting player in the fact that I thought in his role, he's six feet tall, 194 pounds.

So he's kind of a more upright slender kind of back all throughout his body. I think that he doesn't really have a ton of mass in his lower half. That's something that in at that Texas program, I think he'll be able to add. But last year ran for over a thousand yards, average 4.7 yards per carry.

He did force, he had 45 missed tackles force and 27 explosive runs. Texas threw the ball to their running backs a ton. We've talked a lot about Jaden Ballew's route tree and how he was using the pass game and how Dallas is probably excited to do that with him. It's funny when you look at him in that role, but then you watch Weissner.

Weissner still had 44 catches for over 300 yards. So they threw the, like, yeah. Quinn U yours threw the ball to the running backs a ton. I know that really surprised me as well, just how consistent that was with their offense. What I like about him, though, more so than those receiving numbers, I thought an outside zone. This guy looks like a pro. He's got patience when he needs to, he has burst and he has vision in outside zone.

He knows how to follow his blocks. He's bouncy, like you see the change of direction. He understands kind of how to get wide, put his foot in the ground, but then if things kind of open up a little differently, he could change direction and kind of change the course of the run. And that's, he's got a big time jump cut. When you see him in space in the open field, he gets the second or third level.

The jump cut is how he hit those those forty five miss tackles forced. He can really make guys miss with that explosive almost exaggerated jump cut. I thought in pass pro because he obviously is on the field a lot in passing situations. The effort in pass pro is there, but the strength, you talk about that sub 200 pound frame, it's not. So he wants to be involved. He wants to match up with blitzers

and help out with rushers. But there was just a couple of times where he gets overpowered because he doesn't have the strength. And that kind of transition to the running style for me, I talked about how much I like him in outside zone, vision, burst, enough elusiveness at his size. I don't think he's a consistent, you know, physical runner or tackle breaker.

It's weird because you watch him against A&M, which is obviously a huge game. It's almost like he came out with a different mindset. I saw a couple of times he ran harder. He ran through a couple of players, but you watch the course of the season, game by game, there was times where he either just goes down on first contact or when he does get hit,

as he crossed the line of scrimmage, he gets smashed. Like you could really see where the lack of mass, you know, kind of sends him flying. And I think part of that too is just there are times, and this was not the A&M game, but the course of the season, he needs to hit the hole with more authority. I like the patience, I like the vision, but it's almost like sometimes when he got through the hole

after being patient and using his vision, he was setting somebody up to miss him, and there's some runs where it's like, man, just kind of get low, get your pads down, and charge forward for the four to five yards, rather than maybe chasing a You know forcing a missed tackle and breaking a big one It's weird that he had those receiving numbers, but he is a mediocre receiving threat. He's not the most comfortable pass catcher

It's not like Jayden blue where it's like I could ask this guy to run a wheel and then an angle and yeah And and he and he knew how to do it like he knew how to put his foot in the ground and create separation and I think it's a really good distinction from you of you know as people go through scouting and numbers a little bit deeper the numbers the numbers sort of set the table for you where it's like okay if he doesn't have a lot of receiving production out of the backfield then you go all right well let me take a look at some of these you know does he does he look kind of awkward? Uh, do they just not really ask their running backs to be pass catchers out of the backfield? Is he still a natural? Cause there's,

there's one of these guys on this list where I go, they didn't use them a lot as a receiver, but I actually think he's pretty natural as a receiver. But why is there is a really good example on the other side of like, Hey, just because you have a lot of volume as a receiver does not mean that you can automatically put in a scouting report. Oh, great receiver out of the backfield because he has all of this production. If it's just dump off stuff into the flats, I mean,

any running back in the NFL would be able to do that. What you really want to see is guys who can, you know, can they run it up and out? You know, can they run a Texas route? You know, can they do things where they're tempoing a wheel to where, all right, well, okay, now I'm making the linebacker think that I'm running into the flat and then boom, I'm coming up the sideline.

That's Gene Blum, yep. Right, and so that is why you do still have to watch the tape even when you have something as simple as like, oh, did he catch the ball a lot? Did he get used to receiver? So yeah, it's a good shot for you. Totally agree. There's offenses like this one that, you know,

the quarterback naturally just kind of wants to get the ball out and dump it down. And he would do that for both running backs, but Weisner, you could see why Jayden blue is the more talented receiving back his running style really reminded me of Marshawn Lloyd, like a lot that's now obviously I think had some more receiving skills, but the running style, that outside zone, the vision, making a guy miss with the cut there. This build honestly was very similar. Weisner reminded me from a running style perspective, a lot of Marshawn Lloyd.

The way that you were talking about him, Tank Bigsby is a little bit bigger, but the frustration that you were talking about were like, man, I felt like I was higher on Tank Bigsby than a lot of people because when I watched his tape, there were moments and there were games specifically where I go, dude, you're an animal. Like you're an animal this game, you're playing through contact, you're giving it, you're all like all of that. But then you would have other games where you wouldn't see that. And so I sort of bet on that upside with Tank Bigsby. Now Bigsby's a little bit bigger. Weisner, you said is like what, 195, around like 195? 194, yeah.

So. We'll see if he had some weight though this off season. Bigsby came in at 210 when he was at the combine. So obviously he's a bigger dude, but sort of that frustration of seeing it, that different game to game, it can be frustrating to watch a player like that, but it's good that you shouted him out. I'll talk about CJ Baxter really quick just so we can stick on the Texas train.

He was a really big recruit, right? He was, yeah, former five star recruit. So CJ Baxter, full name is Cedric Baxter Jr. AKA CJ, AKA C4, love that. That's gnarly. He is a true junior this season. He's about six foot one 230 pounds. So this is a big boy and I think he's he's listed at 230 now. And if I remember correctly, he was like 215 220 when he came in as a freshman. So if Texas telling the truth, which always a giant asterisk with all of these schools

listing these players heights and weights, that's some significant weight that he has put on. Now, hopefully it's good weight because you mentioned high profile recruit, five-star recruit from Florida. And if you're a five-star recruit from the state of Florida, I mean, Florida, Texas, California, not that you can't be a great player outside of those three states, but man,

hotbed states for high school football. So played at Edgewater High School, was a five-star recruit there. He played running back and defensive back when he was in high school. So he got to Texas. He actually started six games in that 2023 season. He played in all 12, didn't red shirt,

and started six of those games in his true freshman season. Last year he missed the entire season because he tore his ACL before the season. So with him jumping up about 10 pounds on the listed weight, I go, all right, I hope it's good weight because you've been rehabbing the last year and now they got you listed at two 30. I would love for him to be six foot one, 230 pounds, especially from what I saw in that 2013 film, 2023 film, excuse me.

So the only film that we had to judge him off of was him as a true freshman. And it's hard, right? I had them at number six cause I see a lot of potential in him, especially if he's moving the way that he is off of that ACL at six foot one, 230 pounds. I mean, six one, two 30, that's 87th percentile, 91st percentile for the NFL, for the position. So you were checking all of those boxes and when you watched him in 2013, 2023, I don't know why I keep saying 2013,

maybe I got a song stuck in my head or something. He had such a great combination of explosive, but smooth, you know, like he just very quickly and smoothly got up to a great top speed, was able to convert that speed to power pretty well. You talk about use as a receiver. I don't think he had a ton of use as a receiver, but soft hands in the receiving game. He is somebody who had that all around athletic talent to be somebody who could

be used on third down responsibilities. Um, good balance. I think for a back who is over six feet tall, you know, sometimes you get these backs where they're over six feet. And if you just, if you hit them anywhere below the waist, like even if you hit them in the thigh, like boom, okay, they're going down, they're a little too top heavy, whatever it is, is sometimes tough to have balance. And he had some pretty good balance for a player who is above six feet tall. So even if he's not quite six feet, one over six feet, uh,

that was pretty good from him. Now the negatives on him, kind of what you would expect is a little indi. Now we're watching true freshmen tape that I'm judging them off of little indecisive when he's, when he's, you know, facing up the fenders and it's like, okay, I've got this guy in space. You know, what am I going to do here? And he kind of, he does the, he does the high school football or like the, the, the highlight real thing where he just like he approaches the defender he's like chopping his feet a bunch you know like the hands are you know chugging

is like all right which way am I going to go and then all of a sudden you like he didn't make the move quick enough and he got tackled anyway so it's like this fall right we didn't make the move and you just want him to anticipate that a little bit better be a little bit more confident when he is approaching defenders and so that'll normally come with more reps, more time, especially judging that as just a true freshman tape. And I think that he just, he lacks that, that technique and that awareness and past protection. He's got the body frame to do it. But as a true freshmen,

which not many true freshmen are, he wasn't super reliable on those third down situations. He's obviously got to get back from the ACL, but, um, from this class, you know, for last year's class, you talked about Quincy on Juggins, Travion Henderson, Omarion Hampton, Ashen Gentie. Like in last year's running back class, CJ Baxter's probably closer to the back end of the top 10, maybe not even making the top 10 in last year's class.

But for a class that I think is really looking for players who check a lot of those NFL boxes. I've got him at number six because even if it's a projection with him, like man, I love a lot of what he can at least bring to the table in what we saw from 2023. But I totally get it. And I like this call by you because you're just looking, listen, man, we have this conversation every year, multiple times because this conversation every year multiple times because we rank running backs multiple times.

Running back, there is yes, there's nuance and there is IQ and there's a mental aspect and a processing aspect because it's vision and its natural flow and a lot of things like that. But man, physical traits when you could just bet on physical traits and that size and that natural ability. It's easy to gravitate that way, especially in a running back class that I think after number one is going to feel a little wide open this year, quite frankly.

So I like the call out by you and I'm excited for him to get back on the field. Okay. Let's let's hit Desmond Reed really quick. The running back into Pittsburgh, you had him at number 10, sneaking into your top 10. I had him at 14. So I had him sort of just outside, five foot 875 pounds. You're talking about a guy who does not check those physical boxes.

And yet I don't hate the fact that you've got him there at the back end of the top 10. I don't, because he's got some fun tape. There's not a lot of historical evidence to say, yes, right. Let's bet on the five foot eight hundred seventy five guy. But his tape is pretty fun. So you got to number 10 talking to me about. I mean, it's just a dynamic receiver.

That's what you like about Desmond Reed. The fact that he has a pretty deep routery in the pit offense. Yeah, they let him loose. It's not just check downs, although he's really good after those. He had 236 touches last year at his size. He didn't have a single fumble. Dude, I know.

Just one fumble on 450 career carries. He takes care of the football at his size where I'm sitting there and I'm going, listen, if I was putting a grade on him, obviously a five foot, 875 pound running back, like that's just pass catcher only. But at his size is tough to project as a pass protector right now. It's late day three. He's a late day three guy. Yeah, absolutely. But with that being said, you're looking for things that can kind of enhance his chances to be a pro player taking care of the football at that size is absolutely one.

And this is somebody that simply creates his own yards in space. And that is so important when you're trying to find role players. 51 catches for 580 yards last year for receiving touchdowns. Most importantly, 22 missed tackles forced after the catch. They are getting him in space with the ball and he is making people miss. And I didn't see a guy that shied away from contact. There was a couple times after the catch

when he catches one out of the flats or just over the middle and bounces it wide, where he could have just stepped out of bounds and he decided to try to run through somebody or let him know. He does not have a small player's mentality. That's the thing I'm trying to say. And I just, I really, really like this guy

because can you get up to 185, you know, for the combine? And you just have that kind of polish as a pass catcher where maybe you are a third running back on an NFL roster and they, and he is very smooth in the screen game. Like he understands timing in the screen game, vision in the screen game. I'm rooting for this guy. Really liked watching him on the pit tape,

the offense of the pit tape. This is back to back weeks now. I've watched a lot of pit between him and of course, their quarterback that we talked about last week with Eli Holstein. It's funny, I've already done a little bit of a head scouting and I've looked at the linebackers that this, that the pit has. And these, at the linebackers that this, that the Pitt has and these,

and the linebackers that Pitt has are also like very undersized dudes that are just incredibly fast. They wanna play fast. Very clearly Pitt's football program is like, speed, we want to be faster than you. And that conference, you should. Yeah, for sure. No, dude, I'm with you.

I have more, for a guy who is five foot eight, 175 pounds, I have more written down on the strength categories than the weaknesses, really quick. Tougher to bring down than his measurables would indicate. Very good lateral quickness to make defenders miss. Top speed is well above average for the NFL, despite the short strides. He was a sprinter in high school,

ran a sub 11, 100 meter dash. Just one fumble on 450 carries, ample receiving work. You mentioned the receiving work. He had over 500 receiving yards last year. I know. They used to do it a ton. Special teams experience, especially as a punt returner that he had from his time in high school

and his time at Pittsburgh last year. The only thing is, he's extremely small for the NFL. And yards after contact, OK, dip below three this past season because he's small. So it's just kind of, are you OK with that? But man, uh, he's one of those dudes. It's very intriguing to bet on, uh, at the back part of day three. Okay. I'll go, I'll go 10 through six. And then we can sort of like pick a couple of those guys that we might have in

the same category. Terry on Stewart from Virginia tech, six year dude. I have him, he was at, um, bowling green previously. And then he transferred over to Virginia Tech for his final year of eligibility. I have him at number 10. Number nine, I have Levy on Moss from Tech's A&M. Number eight, I have Fat Man, Kajron Allen from Penn State. Number seven, I have McKay Hughes from Oregon. Well, Tulane the previous couple of seasons. Now he's in Oregon. And then number six, like I talked about, I've got CJ Baxter there. So I think we gotta talk about the fat man and McKay Hughes. Sure, yeah.

Who was 10 again? Oh, Terri and Stewart. Let me talk about Terri and Stewart. I don't watch Stewart, so I'd really like to hear about him. Okay, so Stewart's been at Bowling Green the last five years. Now he's at Virginia Tech. So he's a sixth year dude.

So not ideal. Five he's a Virginia Tech. So he's a sixth year dude. So I, not ideal. Five foot nine, 220 pounds, 20th percentile in height, 61st percentile in weight. Correct. Correct. Just wait, just wait, brother. Uh, three star running back. It gets better. I promise. Three star running back. It, it does in the 2020 class. Played at Sandusky, Ohio high school in Ohio, committed to Bowling Green. So he started games in that COVID shortened season in 2020. He then played in 12 games to 5 starts in 2021. In 2022, he was not on the team due to mental health and academic reasons. So he was not on the team for the entire year. Came back in 2023,

was reinstated there, played in 13 games, six starts. And then last year, he played in 11 games, six more starts. He had one year of eligibility left because he left in that 2020 season and he had the COVID season that he could take advantage of. Um, and so he transferred over to Virginia Tech. So now he's at Virginia Tech. He is one of seven brothers and sisters, incredible, massive family. He is, you talk about the bowling ball build from him. He, I mean, he is that in just the best way. Brother, he's not Ash and Gentie,

but there are reps when he is. And I go, what in the absolute hell am I watching here? Like this dude's unbelievable. Are you ready for this one? He has started, you know, on and off, but the majority of the season. He has started for four years. He has four years of play. Connor, his miss tackles force per attempt average over four years is 0.47.

That's insanity. Average. That number. Two years ago he averaged 0.62. It's the highest number I've ever seen. That's the highest single season number I've ever seen from a player who had as many carries as he had. It's nuts.

He's got a stiff arm that'll send you to the third layer of Dante's Inferno. He will bounce off of tackles like a bowling ball. And the best part is, yeah, okay, like he's got the shorter stride lengths of five foot nine so he's not going to be a blazer. But holy cow does he get up to top speed very fast fast and the top speed is better than you would expect from a player that has as short of strides as he does the physical abilities of playing the game he has he has he has so much of it now the reason why I'm talking about this guy in this type of manner and yet okay Trevor why do you

have it number 10 he's got the shorter str lengths, which I think will catch up to him a little bit more in the NFL level. I'm wondering how it will catch up to him in the ACC with Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech still in the ACC, right? I can't keep up, but whatever. Now that he's at Virginia Tech, I'm interested to see if he continues to run away from defenders like he did when he was a Bowling Green. He had three fumbles last year, so we got to clean that up.

It wasn't nearly as bad in the years prior, but three fumbles in one season, it's not ideal. The vision can be spotty from him. I don't think that he tempos things super well right now. He's very anxious to get to the line of scrimmage. You put the ball in his gut, he is go, go, go, go, go. And I understand it. You know, sometimes I really like that about a running back, but there are other times when it's like, okay, I wish you would tempo this a little bit better. And I think again, the vision is sometimes a little bit spotty. So just the overall running back IQ awareness, how he approaches the position.

It's not as cerebral as I wish it was from him that patience. And that vision is not there the way that I want it to be. And when that is an issue in college, it only gets worse at the NFL level because you don't, I think that he has as many forced mis-tackles as he does because there are times when he does not read the blocking concept the way that he needs to, and he has to then get himself out of trouble.

Now he does against competition that Bowling Green was going up against over the last four years, but that doesn't fly nearly as much as in the NFL. So he's gonna be an older prospect with a lot of work to him. I don't think he's missed a lot of time due to injury. So I don't think there's a ton of mileage or damage to him, but he's got to see the field a little bit better because when he does, my goodness, like I said, you will get reps from him. When you go,

when you squint and you go, this is Ashton Gentey in Italy. Like, what is it? Like am I watching high school film here? What am I, what am I doing? And so there are fantastic reps from him, but there are also ones where I just, I don't see it the way that he needs to. The pass pro ability is the same thing. Like I talked about that lack of anticipation and sort of running back IQ from him. When he's got the ball in his hands, you also see that as a pass protector because I'll watch him.

There's some reps where he'll approach pass pro and he'll have the, he'll have the hands chopping, the hands are ready, he'll have the feet chopping, ready to mirror the pass rusher, and then the pass rusher will hit a move on him badly, and I'll go, you were there. You were in fantastic position. He just didn't anticipate what the rusher was going to do, and that happened too many times, and I go, okay, there's a little bit of a parallel here where he's just, he is too much of a reactionary player instead of an anticipatory player. And right now he, at bowling green, he could get away with it more. Certainly not in past pro, he was giving up some pressures, but as a running back, he could get away from it, with it. Does he do that now at Virginia Tech? And do I think that he could be better at that part of it at the NFL? Because if he can't, because if he can, Connor, I'm telling you, as a runner,

this guy is extremely talented. And I think that he has NFL caliber traits physically as a runner. But he's got to be able to anticipate things a little bit better when he gets the ball and without the ball. This is the perfect example of when transferring up can really paint a good picture for you because you nailed it Trevor where and I'm not you know listen we've been able to evaluate plenty of NFL talent from Bowling Green that's not the point yeah but like you said it running back how much quicker of a processor you will

have to be now with him at Virginia Tech and just those miss tackles force numbers the rate is insane where even if it goes down to 0.35 that would still be nuts. But now we're gonna get a, like this is somebody that it was time to graduate up a little bit. And let's see if you can borderline replicate it. And then if you can, you feel amazing about the player. All right, Fat Man, Fat Man X.

K-Tron Allen, the Fat Man. The Fat Man himself. I feel like I just did a lot of talking about Stewart, so you go ahead and intro K-Tron Allen here. Yeah, him and Nicholas Singleton, the Penn State running backs, both went back to school and as the Drew Aller. So Penn State, obviously feeling really good about that trio because both Allen and Singleton would not only have been drafted, they would have been drafted within the first four rounds pretty easily. Oh, for sure. I think Allen probably would have been a, they would have been drafted within the first four rounds pretty easily.

Oh, for sure. I think Alan probably would have been a fourth round pick. I think Singleton probably a third. Yeah. Yep. So Alan 511-220, he I mean, he lives up to the name and it's not that he's fat. It's that he's just got this wide upper body, that and it's the type of wide upper body where guys bounce off of him constantly where it's he's hard to tackle around the waist or get a hand on the upper body because he's just like he's truly big boned and I know people deny that that's a thing. I have this thing where... Who denies that's a thing? So I don't know when this became a thing.

My own mother denies that this is a thing and so does my wife. So the reason why I know this is a thing is because my dog is about 105 pounds and I just tell people like she's... the vet always tells us she's overweight. She's a great Pyrenees. Great Pyrenees are massive guardian dogs. They guard livestock. And yet she's a couple pounds overweight because of the treats she gets. But she's not obese. She's and I always say she's big bone like she has a big ass

and hips and burly stomach and thick neck. And whenever I say that, my own family pushes back against me. They go, big boned is not a thing. Yeah, it is. And I go, yes, she is, she has a big frame. K-Tron, Alan, is big boned and it's beautiful. 100%. It's awesome. Yes.

But what the thing is, why it's so important, or even how he maximizes being big boned, not just people falling off of him, Trevor, he's got good feet for his size. He's got pretty good feet. He can bounce, he could surprise defenders. And the thing is when you combine those, it allows you, when he gets momentum at the second level,

he dumps defenders and bring the, like he, I think we said this on the winter show, he brings the boom, okay? He is part of the Costco guys. This is a bring the boom player, but he can also make you miss with that footwork. And this is somebody that just, he played his best football at the end of the year.

That he had big games in the big 10 championship, in the playoff against SMU, in the playoff against Boise State. He's a gifted creative runner at the line of scrimmage that turns two yards into six all the time. And NFL coaches love those guys. They love those guys. Now I do think he gets a little bounce happy

when there's traffic in front of him where it's like, dude, you're the big brawler. You're the bring the boom guy. Just run through the line of scrimmage and let people bounce off of you. You just had this point about Tareon Stewart. He does lose the track of the run, and you're like, oh, that was sick.

That guy bounced off him, but it's like, you should have never ran into that unblocked defender. Yeah, right, right. But it's awesome to watch, but it'll be a little tougher to play like that all the time at the NFL level. And then the Penn State just didn't use him in the pass game.

Last year he had 18 catches. So maybe that's something that they do this year. I wrote down, I've been doing, where I do synopsis in my final scouting reports, instead for summer scouting, I write one line that might have to do with an NFL player or a question I'm looking at going into the season to kind of enhance summer scouting a little bit.

My last line for him was, this year's Damian Martinez, question mark. And not Damian Martinez's draft slide, which I still don't agree with. I think Martinez is a better player than where he got drafted. Where did he go?

But the same Seattle on like the sixth or seventh round, which I'm a better player than that. But K-Tron Allen, the same mold of player, big burly, good feet, creative, gifted physical runner. I don't know necessarily what you are yet as a pass catcher and beyond. Yeah, I think a lot of outside of outside of some third down responsibilities, like you mentioned, just like really

hasn't been used a lot as a receiver pass protection. I think he's I think he's good at it. But he just he needs to move his feet a little bit better. Like there were times when I go like, okay, you got the frame, you got the strength, you know how to use your leverage. But there are times when like he stops moving his feet and if a, and if a rusher is not bull rushing him, like if somebody tries to do like a club arm over, you know,

like a swim move or something stuck, he, he just like, he's a little late cause I think his, cause his feet aren't moving the way that they need to when he's approached. So like being a little bit more on his feet, I think it helped in that area, because I do think that this is a really ideal, in my opinion, short yardage back for the NFL. Yards per contact average has been over three in basically his entire career. He's got a little bit more wiggle than you would expect, but the problem is that when you ask him to be more than that, when you ask him to be dynamic and really take a, oh wow, okay,

the blocking was fantastic. And now he's got to take this and he's got to take the open space. He's got to beat the linebacker or the safety to an angle to the sideline. He doesn't really do that a lot. And I also like for as much as I think he's, he's nimble on his feet. When it comes to true change of direction stuff, he's got some stiffness to him. Now I like the way that he's able to approach defenders and some of the vision that he has, but it's one of those things where right now, K-Tron for me is very much a what you see is what you get. And I think that that is a early day three, like round four type of power back in a

committee. And I genuinely think that he could certainly find a place on an NFL roster and be a good contributor in that regard. I don't know how much higher I could really have this player because I think he's really limited in his top speed and his overall explosive athleticism. And that's something that I just don't think it's better. So I think that maybe he could be that third, maybe he could like be a third round type of a back. If he continues to get better at past protection and if a team goes, man, we, this guy can be really great for us as a one, two committee. And he could be the power guy in a one, two committee. He can be valuable for us on third downs. I could certainly see him potentially being a day two back in that regard, but I just didn't see a caliber athlete that goes, yes,

what you draft this guy in the top 100. I think he's sort of in that mid round conversation. I would lean more towards early day three type of a player, but there is a high NFL floor in my opinion to what K-Tron Allen is. Right. I, I think we see him eye to eye. And I think that NFL coaches will really like him. NFL evaluators will, this is too far,

but they'll kind of think, is he a dime a dozen? Like, can I often find this player? And so that'll be the balance. And just because you could often find that player doesn't mean that there'll always be a hit. So you kind of fall right in the middle there. Yeah, round four. Did you have McKay Hughes ahead of him or below him?

I had Mackay Hughes at eight. I had K Tron at six. Okay, so you have Hughes a little bit lower. I kind of struggled with where I wanted Hughes and Alan here. I had K Tron Alan at eight. I had Mackay Hughes at seven. They're sort of the same player in my opinion. Like I think that both of these guys are going to struggle at times for the conversation of like, are they a dime a dozen? Because I think that there are a lot of things

that McKay Hughes specifically does well. So like we said, coming from Tulane, he's also five foot 11, you know, he's 195 pounds. So he's listed certainly lower than K- Katron Allen is, but he plays, in my opinion, that powerful game. And you see some pretty good yards after contact stuff from him. He could be a pinball at times for certain tackles. He's got good leg drive. He's got some pretty good one cut ability.

I think he'd be fantastic behind zone blocking schemes, specifically like more of like inside zone stuff. And of course like man and gap skiing concepts, like if you're running duo and you're running inside zone and a lot of that stuff can, you know, it can look very similar, but specifically behind inside zone concepts where he's getting, we're moving the line of scrimmage a little bit. He's still able to be a power back in between the tackles. We're just moving where the tackles are.

And you still get to get the most out of that one cut ability that he has to me, if he's in that sort of system in the NFL, it could be great for him. But, um, he's the same thing, does not have a lot of production in the passing game. Um, the efficiency scores for him, I think are lower than they are for KTron Allen. He just had a lot more production to be honest with you. And if he's able to do that at Oregon, then I really like what we've got here. Uh, he redshirted his first year. He's a former three star back. Red shirted his first year when he was at Oregon. Second year, what'd he start? How many games did he start? I don't know how many games

he started exactly but he had over 1,300 rushing yards and then he had over 1,400 rushing yards last year before transferring to Oregon. So I, this is another player who, I just worry about the overall dynamic athletic ability. That's it. And I think that, I, this is another player who I just worry about the overall dynamic athletic ability. That's it. And I think that they are, they are both of these guys are sort of in the same category and Hughes has more production and I think he's got a little bit better one cut ability than K-Tron Allen does. And so that's why I had him at seven.

But if both of these guys aren't super dynamic for the NFL and they're going to be relegated to just sort of like short yardage and power back situations, then I probably end up taking K-Tron Allen over, over Mackay Hughes, even though I have him listed one spot ahead. But that's sort of the conversation that I have with those guys because I do think it's it's similar with what these guys bring to the table and the style in which they play the game. I just wrote down with Hughes, who's smaller than Alan weight, like mass wise.

He's just a no nonsense runner. Yeah, I mean, like it's he's no he runs hard downhill, low pads, bursts between the tackles. Smart understands the development of his blocks. He just lacks game changing home run ability. There's he gets caught from behind a lot is kind of something that I caught on. Concentration drops. We're only having 26 targets. There was just too many concentration drops. But the final thing I wrote down with him was like, you could see why Oregon targeted this guy as a transfer. He has a very similar play style to Jordan James. Jordan James was highly effective

in Oregon's offense last year. So why wouldn't you just double down on that? They have a type now. Jordan James, Bucky Irving, like Noah Whittington is kind of the same. I watched Noah Whittington. He's not in my top 10. I just, I don't, I don't know if he's built to be an NFL back, but they're all the same, they're all the same, just like run through somebody, you know, like that's it.

Don't waste any time going to get McKay Hughes, you're right. It's sort of the, the exact same mentality there with all those guys. Did Ott make your top 10? Oh yeah, he did. Oh, okay, cool. So we could wait on Ott. Yeah, did Levy on Moss make your top 10?

No, I didn't get to watch Moss. Oh, okay. All right, so real quick on Moss then before we get to our top fives. So Levy on Moss, he's now a senior at Texas A&M, junior last year, six feet tall, 210 pounds. So built the way that you kind of want an NFL running back to be built. 73rd percentile in height,

41st percentile in weight. A four star running back from Louisiana. He was actually a track sprinter as well, had a 10, eight, four, 100 meter dash and a 23, 04 4 200 meter dash. He was committed to Alabama before flipping over to Texas A&M played in seven games when he was in 2022, nine in 2023, nine again in 2024. But the reason he didn't play more in 2024 is because he tore his ACL.

Well, I think they just say suffered a knee injury. So I don't know exactly what happened there, but that was in November. So we missed the rest of the season there. So you have to account for that a little bit. But there are some, he has some moments where, man, he just looks like a future NFL back, very quick to accelerate. And he's got that good top speed from that track background. And so even at 210 pounds, man, he is athletic enough to be able to play in

the NFL. I think he's got really nice contact balance. He showcased that in 2024, more so than 2023. Um, I think the past pro grades for third down responsibilities, they've been poor over the last two years, but I watched him and I go, okay, there's something here though. Like you just on one play, all right, your technique wasn't exactly what it needed to be. You didn't really hit him with leverage the way you needed to be on the other time.

It's like, okay, the leverage was good, but you weren't really moving your feet the way you needed to and you were a little bit late. So I think there's potential for pass pro, even though he hasn't been good at it yet. He had four drops on just 33 targets as a receiver. So he wasn't really used a lot in the receiving game. And I feel like his pace of play could be a little bit quicker, to be honest with you, despite having that speed. Sometimes I'm watching him and it's like, okay, there it is. Like there, like, like anticipate where the block is coming from. And if you're going to hit this cutback lane,

don't wait for the cutback lane to manifest. Like, no, it's common put your foot in the ground. And then all of a sudden the blockers are sort of like your sort of stop because you put your foot in the ground and the blockers are moving by you boom now right in front of you that's where the cutback lane is things like that behind split zone flow where you're waiting for you know the tight end to come across through the line of scrimmage or you're waiting for a pulling blocker to come by like I just felt like you know some quarterbacks have to see it to throw it sometimes I felt that way about Moss where he had to see the hole in order to really put his foot in the ground.

Right, confidence in it. I would really love for him to anticipate a little bit better because if so, I think honestly behind inside and outside zone, this guy could be really nice given how good his acceleration is and how good his top speed is. So obviously he's got to come back to form from that knee injury, whatever it was, but I do think that he's got a skill set to be a good rotational back here. So I liked him a decent amount and I think he's got some some NFL ability to him. Somebody I'll definitely I'll catch up on shortly after this and kind of expand my rankings because I watched 11 guys. And I number 11 all was just one of the USC guys,

but it was Eli Sanders, but I kind of want to see how that backfield shakes out as a whole. So there's like, there's a couple of guys where we just have questions of them going into the season. All right, before we dig into our top fives, get into the guys that we think could be no major difference makers in this class.

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exchange, meet fabric.com slash stock exchange. M E E T fabric.com slash stock exchange portfolios are managed by Fort Washington investment advice, incorporated all additional services provided by M E E T Fabric dot com slash stock exchange portfolios are managed by Fort Washington investment advice incorporated all additional services provided by Apex Coal Incorporation all investing is subject to risk learn more at me Fabric dot com. Number five Connor who you got? Number five for me was Baylor's Bryson Washington. Oh I didn't watch him.

Oh wow sneaky sneaky. I didn't even I haven't even like see there's a handful of guys that. Well, this is the running back conundrum, right? There's always going to be there's going to be people watching this show. And you've already had a couple of guys in your rankings that I didn't watch. Now I have somebody in mind that you didn't watch. There's going to be there's so many starting running backs, obviously, that are productive and talented and have NFL potential

So yeah, this is naturally gonna happen and he was somebody admit who is this? What's his name? Bryce in Washington? Washington okay, all right of the Baylor Bears This was a black this is a thick neck so What I love about Bryce in Washington Who I think he's listed six feet tall 203. I think he's at 210 now This is sick neck. So what I love about Bryson Washington, who I think he's listed six feet tall, 203. I think he's at 210 now. He is getting bigger and stronger and runs hard

and is only a redshirt sophomore. He was an all state defensive back in high school in the state of Texas. Okay. And was a great running back. He plays running back like a guy that used to play defense. That's the best way I can kind of describe it. Love it, love it.

And he was a safety, he was not a corner. I wanna make sure I land that. Also played basketball, basketball team in high school was really good. Also ran track. Last year, ran for over a thousand yards, averaged almost six yards per carry 12 rushing touchdowns only 29 missed tackles forced but i'll get into that in a second 23

explosive runs he did have 21 catches for 210 receiving yards he only had 177 rushing attempts last year he made the damn most of them okay 727 1,028 rushing yards were after contact. Yeah, baby! Yeah, this guy is an explosive bruiser with razor sharp open field cuts. When they have him run between the tackles, he looks like a pinball. The way he kinda bounces, people bounce off him,

it was ability to fall forward 91st percentile in zone Russian grade in 2024. So he was one of the best zone runners in the entire country He's still developing receiving skills He's a bit of a lunger in passpro because he wants to set the tone in passpro rather than you know Be passive which I like but it's a little chaotic at times But this guy Trevor as a redshirt sophomore has all the makings of a potential star player. He really, really does star runner, I should say, like as a natural, explosive, physical, elusive runner. This guy can be one of the best running backs in the draft.

That's awesome. I have not. Maybe I don't know. He's gotten zero buzz. Well, he was a redshirt freshman, I suppose. Right. Sense. And now being a redshirt sophomore this year, certainly no guarantee. And kind of part like 177 carries is not a lot. Is he the guy this year?

He should. They have two run. They have two really good running backs. That whoever was there is still there. Yeah, I watched only a little of him. I didn't rank him. Dawson Pendergrass. He's another good running back on this team. He's the junior, but I think Bryson Washington, the younger player is he could be really, really damn good as a pro.

Well, I have Quinn Joyner at number five. Did you watch him? So I didn't watch him. Okay, there we go. So I, who, who are you gonna have in your top four that I don't? See, I know you still have Ott. I don't know.

It's between two players, but I don't wanna give them away. And at least they're four and three. All right. OK. This is a lot. Did I not watch whoever your RB two is? No, you definitely did. I know you did because you've watched them before on a different episode.

OK, all right. OK, so you watch Nicholas Singleton. OK, so he's true for you. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. Hold on. We'll get to it in a sec. I'm getting ahead of ourselves here. Quinn Joyner. So he played at USC. Now he is at Texas Tech. So he's a true junior going into this season, five at 11, 205 pounds. So built pretty well for an NFL running back. Although 205 is just 25th percentile. I think that 205 is fine. It's not the worst thing in the world. 51st percentile, 25th percentile in height and weight there.

He's a former four star running back from the 2023 class. So he's just a true junior this upcoming season from Manor, Texas. It was, like I said, it was at USC the last two years, transferred to, I think just be close to home. So get this also played basketball and competed in track and field in high school, uh, ran an 11 six, 11 Oh six, excuse me, a hundred meter dash and through a 49 foot shot put and

in 2022. And then at the AU junior Olympic games the year before he ran a 10 nine, 900 meter dash and through a, uh, 45 feet, eight inches shot put. So this dude was doing everything. He wasn't just, he wasn't just messing around with track. My guys at the a you junior Olympic games. He is track with track. So played in just five games.

Redshirt is true freshmen in 2023, uh, played in 12 games last season. A lot of things that I think that he does very well for just having underclassmen tape and being a true junior. I think he's got NFL level top speed. Anytime that you're around a sub 11, a hundred meter dash in high school, there's a good chance that you're probably checking that box. Now that's not to say like around 11 seconds

in a hundred meter dash, one, it's fast for me and you. It's probably fast for anybody out there listening, but you know, there are other speed demons in the NFL that are faster than that. I want to make that clear, but you're still checking the box. He's got what I really like about him. Very quick footwork for jukes and jump cuts. I mean, especially behind inside zone and man slash gap rumblocking concepts. I mean,

when you've got pat, when, when he's running behind power or like pullers or duo or things like that, like he gets the ball, it's two hands on it right in the middle. And he is just, he is hopping around like it's nothing. Like he is so light on his feet. Like he is on a cloud. And that allows him to really navigate and sift through chaos behind the line of scrimmage incredibly well. And then when he sees daylight, he's able to put that foot in the ground and hit, like I said, an NFL caliber top speed to him.

So I really like the athletic ability that he has there. I think he's got a playmaker's mentality for a consistently high miss tackles force per attempt average. Last year, it's just a true sophomore 0.35 mistackles force per attempt average. And if you're new here, I probably should have said this when we were talking about with Terrence Stewart. So mistackles force per attempt. That is what we at PFF call a stable metric. So there are things that are stable and unstable that we have categorized.

One day I can go through all of them and we can break that down a little bit further, maybe in like the December and January and episodes when people kind of come back onto this broadcast and we can get a little bit more into it. We call miss tackles force per attempt a more stable metric because if you are good at making guys miss at the college level, there's a chance that you could also be good at it when competition gets better at the NFL level. But the reason we call it a stable metric is yes, because of the high end of things, but more so because of the low end of things. If you are anywhere from a 0.1 to like a 0.2, if that is your miss tackles force per attempt

average in college, you basically should not expect that player to be better at forcing miss tackles at the NFL level. Like that is who they are. I would say that if you're somewhere between 0.20 and 0.30, that's fine, it can be NFL caliber. Anything above 0.30, okay, now we're talking about somebody who wants, and think about the ratio, think about what those numbers mean.

What we're saying is miss tackles force per attempt. So if you have a 0.3, zero average, that means once out of every 30 or sorry, once out of every three carries, you are straight up making someone miss, whether that's you're running through the tackle and contact, or you're straight up juking them and making them miss. That's a really good average. That's what we want. If you were above 0.4, zero, you're talking about one of the best miss tackle players that, that we're going to have in the country that year. And if you're, if you're anywhere above 0.5, zero, which Trey Benson was one season,

I think Bijon Robinson was one season. I mentioned Terry on Stewart was one season. There are so very, very few running backs that have a full carry workload that have an average that is that high. So what we're saying here with that as a stable metric, it's what we'd like to reference because it references how agile you are and how much of a playmaker's mentality you have to make players miss. for for Quentin Joyner He not only has the athletic ability and to do it He has that playmaker's mentality to do it and I think both of those pieces of the puzzle are there for him to be a

Consistently high miss tackles for per force per attempt average type of a player. I know that was a lot No, it's great. You guys could understand that and I made that as simple as possible It's something that will make a better effort of to start shows. So summer scouting is partially a peek behind the curtain of our process and what data matters to us that we're trying to find on film or match on film or look for on film or could be a lie. As we talked about with receiving production as well.

Like you mentioned with Desmond lie as we talked about with receiving production as well. Like you mentioned with Desmond Reed, you talked about his miss tackles forced per reception and after the catch, like that's another category that highlights a playmaker's mentality. So just so you guys know, the two metrics that I consider to be the most stable for the running back position,

miss tackles force per attempt and yards after contact per attempt. You want that number at least over three when you're in college, cause you know it's going to go down a little bit in the NFL, but if you have it over four, okay, now we're talking about somebody who really knows how to bounce off tackles and get you the most out every time they touch the ball. So anyways, Quinn joiner can do a lot of those things from a playmaker's mentality perspective. I think the division from him was good, but I think he could

be a little bit more decisive in certain situations. His tape being that of just a true sophomore, it's understandable there. I think that he is on the lighter side weight wise for an NFL back. And because of that, you see him get bullied a little bit in pass protection. So I'm not sure he's ever going to be that reliable pass protecting type of a back for you. He seems much more like a potential receiving back but more of an early down type of running back first and second down, utilizing his dynamic ability and his speed. So I'm excited to see him at Texas Tech. Texas Tech has got a really nice transfer portal class coming in this year. They should be a team that makes some noise. And I think the Quintin Joyner is a reason why.

So you had Joyner at five. I had Bryson Washington at five. Yep. Do we move on to four? Yeah. Who do you have a four? Did you watch Darius Taylor of Minnesota? I did. I did. I don't like Darius Taylor. Top 10. OK.

Darius Taylor for me is let me just pull up my notes here. True Jr. at Minnesota that has been, PJ Fleck is just obsessed with this guy, right? I had Fleck at Big Ten Media Day last year. Taylor was there as well as before his true sophomore season, which like at Big Ten Media Day is obviously the coaches decide what three players they want to bring, and it's kind of a shine on their leadership and their belief in them and their representation

of the program. So Darius Taylor being there before his true sophomore season just speaks to what this program thinks of this guy. Absolutely. Last year, you know, not all of Russian yards are created equal. And being a running back in the Big Ten, especially being a running back in the Big 10, especially being a running back in Minnesota's program, Darius Taylor had 986 Russian yards, he averaged 4.8 yards per carry, which is not overly impressive on paper in college.

I think this dude's Russian yards are created a little differently. He also had 54 catches and 350 receiving yards, but this is just a total battering ram that brings the pain to tacklers. If you liked Quinchon Judkins, I think you is not Judkins level. I want to make that very very clear. I think last year's running back class going into last season was on stronger footing than this year's running back class. But that battering ram style to just drop his pads and plow through defenders. And if you watch the Michigan tape last year, like think of all the defensive

talent that Michigan has. This guy, the way he brought it at the goal line, he is going to run through NFL defenders to score touchdowns. But what I love about him is for all the violence and ability to just, when it comes down to it, like football is a grown man sport, he's got really good patience in outside zone. He's got a gracefulness, I think, in outside zone

that shows he can be a pretty scheme diverse running back is he he's not listen He's not fast. I'll be the first one to say that like he's not fast. Yeah, and You know, that's some people are just gonna be out on him with a lack of overall speed, but He's a good route runner. He had some snaps in the slot and out wide last year He only fumbled one time and it was after a catch where he was kind of collecting himself. He does not fumble the ball off handoffs. He really reminded me of the late, unfortunately, rest in peace, Marion Barber, just that like nobody can tackle me.

I'm going to turn a dead play into seven yards and I can also have soft hands at my size to catch the ball and be a quarterback helper. And this Trevor is a little bit now he's played more than when you had CJ Baxter in your rankings where you're projecting forward. Darius Taylor has played more because he's played since he was a true freshman and he's only going to be a true junior this year. But I am projecting forward a monster year for Darius Taylor. Yeah, I think, man, if you if you believe in the NFL potential, I think that the Marion Barber comp is a pretty good one there for Darius Taylor. I had him just outside of my top 10.

I actually had him at number 11. And the reason why is because man, I agree with a lot of what you said. He's patient, he's smart, he's a hard nose runner. He's got good averages. He's big as hell too. Really high workload as a wide receiver, or sorry, not as a wide receiver, as a receiver out of the backfield,

has the ability to be really good impact. Like this can be a third down type of back. Like if you have Darius Taylor short yardage back who can be there for you in pass pro great as a receiver as well, just an ideal third down back. I just think he's slow. And, and I just, I, I, I worry, I worry just how slow he is.

Does he get lost in the NFL? And I hope that he doesn't get too lost because I think that's a really good context that you brought up with him being chosen as sort of a leader to represent the school, even as just an underclassman, like a younger dude, like all that is gonna go into it. I think coaches are probably gonna love him

because very clearly he takes attention to the detailed parts of playing the running back position. But it is a position that the reason why there is so much turnover is because you're always searching for the better athlete. You're always stretching. You're always searching for the guy who can, when I put the ball in his hands, is he going to be able to be dynamic enough to be a major difference maker for me? I don't know if Darius Taylor has that ability. And so that's why he was outside of my top 10, but as a floor,

I really do like a lot of the same things that you like. Um, maybe I am just a little too harsh on the athleticism. Perhaps he shows me something a little bit different this year, because I do think there can be a place for him in the NFL. I just think that at this point in time, it's more of like a day three, very specialized type of third down type of a back. But that's why he ended up missing my top 10. But if you believe a little bit more in the athleticism, you mentioned six feet tall,

215 pounds, 73rd and 56th percentile there for him. Behind those power, man gap, run blocking concepts. I mean, this dude can be valuable for you. It's just a matter of how much value you think he brings. So what do you got a four? Uh, I have Nick Singleton at four. Okay, I have Nick Singleton at four. Uh, now a senior at Penn State, uh, talk about a guy who checks basically every box physically and athletically that you possibly could want.

Six feet tall, 220 pounds, 73rd percentile and 61st percentile. Former five-star running back from the state of Pennsylvania. Uh, rushed for 116 touchdowns with over 6,300 yards in his career. Oh, booby miles. As a senior, he rushed for over 2,000 yards with 41 rushing touchdowns, was the Gatorade football player of the year in the state of Pennsylvania. He is also a track star despite him being a giant athlete. He ran the 100 meter in sub 11 seconds, which is incredible. He ran the 200 meter in sub 23 seconds, which is incredible. He ran the 200 meter in sub

30 in 23 seconds, which is incredible and also was a member of an all county four by 100 relay team. He chose Penn State over basically any school in the country, specifically Alabama, Notre Dame and Ohio State where I believe the ones that he was down to started eight games, a true freshman rush for over 1000 yards played in 13 games in 2023, but only rushed for 700, played and started in 12 games last season, rushed for over a thousand yards again. Bruce Feldman on the Freaks list from 2023. This is from two years ago at 228 pounds.

Singleton runs a four three nine 40 yard dash, has a four eight one shuttle, a 10 foot broad, but also power clean 385 pounds and bench presses, 425. Absolutely nuts. He's a freak dude, every bit of it. Every bit of the word and phrase Feldman freak is Nick Singleton here. He has all the physical gifts that you could want as a running back.

Elite blend of size and strength and explosiveness, power to run through tacklers, good receiving production throughout his career. He can be light on his feet in past protection work. Connor, the reason why he's number four and not a little bit higher on my list, despite all that praise there is, I don't always love the vision from him. And we're three now about to be four years into his career. And it's not like he was lightly used in high school He was certainly used in high school as well. And here we are going into his senior season last year

He had just a zero point one nine Mistackles force per attempt despite being that gifted of an athlete and his yards after contact despite again being that gifted of an athlete below four at three point six, so he's never been somebody who's been high in the State the efficiency numbers that are stable metrics that we have at PMS athlete below four at 3.6. So he's never been somebody who's been high in the, uh, state, the efficiency numbers that are stable metrics that we have at PFF. It's lower than you would expect from a player that is as physically gifted as him. And the vision to me, it's very straightforward. It's okay. Here's the play. Here's the blocking concept.

This is where I'm running into the football. And sometimes obviously, even with this physically gifted as he is, that can work. And it works plenty of times. And so when I'm sitting here, it feels like nitpicking, but I'm nitpicking because he is gifted enough to be a first round caliber running back. But I don't see, I don't think that he sees the field the way he needs to,

to be considered a first round running back in my opinion. So I think that he is a day two type of a player right now. We'll see what the vision, the creative ability. I wish you would just, I wish you was just more creative as a runner cause he's got the athleticism to be incredible. If he was, let's see if he enters this last year, more confident, uh, with higher awareness, higher anticipation than ever. And if we see more creativity from him, man, he's got the rest of it there. But we need to see those efficiency stable metrics go up because that will show us that that creativity is getting better from him.

Totally agree on the creativity. That was the top of the weaknesses list for me, where it was not a ton of short area quickness, not going to make a ton of people miss and reaccelerate just that overall creativity. You'd love to see it take a jump up. But why is number two for me? And he can kind of have a similar trajectory towards the NFL like Breeze Hall, who went in the second round, but was not a first round running back.

But there was aspects of his game that you believe can be first round caliber. This guy just is an explosive runner. He just doesn't need to make a ton of people miss because he has such straight line speed and he drives his legs through these interior lanes. He's not afraid of the blue collar gains. The pass game work is everything you wanna see. The blue collar gains?

You like that? Brother, that's what I'm calling my next workout plan. There we go. Is it the next blue collar gains day? The next bench press deadlift squat. Is called the blue collar gains. Barbell work only. Dude, if anybody is listening here and they're doing it during a workout,

take a picture of the weights, tweet it at us. These are blue collar gains. At NFLSC show, just say, listen to the podcast, getting some blue collar gains in. That's what we want to see, folks. I love that for all of the Ferrari speed, weightlifting, aesthetic and ability that Singleton has, he also is not afraid of the dirty runs, the blue collar gains. And he carries that over to Pass Pro, which really mattered to me. The size and mindset he wants to meet pass rushers, blitzers, helping with rushers, with physicality that he runs with. So this to me is somebody that has been a productive

football player in Penn State's offense for three straight seasons now. He is built every bit of a way you want an NFL running back to be built. He's a three down player. He's got home run hitting ability. He's got physicality. I love this player. I really, really do. I think Nick Singleton is a really, really good prospect.

And I agree with you, Trevor, that he doesn't have the creativity that we saw from Jameer Gibbs and Bijon Robinson and Ashton Genti that there's a reason those guys went in the first round. But in the right offense, if you put if you give me Nicholas Singleton in the second round to the Minnesota Vikings, this guy could be a top six to eight running back in the NFL. I also can't read. He's number three for me. He's number three. So he's actually not number four.

You're reading- Plot twist. Numbers is hard, but he is number three for me. So he's two for you. Where's Jonah Coleman? Jonah Coleman is three. Okay, all right. Jonah Coleman is three. Jonah Coleman is four for me. Okay. So we have him pretty similarly. So Jonah Coleman, senior rusher, Washington now, started his career at Arizona,

three-star running back, started two games to true freshmen in 2022, played in all 13 games in 2023, transferred over to Washington, played in 13 games with 11 starts last season. And boy, howdy was it good. 5'9", 20th percentile, 228 pounds, 87th percentile, thick young man. He had phenomenal efficiency scores in the stable metrics. 0.36, Miss Tackle's first per attempt. And throughout his career, generally, very high numbers there. And the yards after contact was over four, which you

love to see. 4.3 there from Jonah Coleman. I think that this dude, I mean, he might lack some top end speed, right? I think the top end speed appears to be well below average for the NFL level, but this is sort of like the way that you talked about Katron Allen, but better like that's, that's sort of what I see from Jonah Coleman because this is somebody who is not afraid to run behind their pads with serious power. He has got much better lateral agility than you would expect for a player of his weight class up in the 225-230 range. I think that he has even more than K-Tron

Allen. I think he's got decent processing speed to try to find those open lanes and I feel like we saw that behind both power blocking concepts and zone run blocking concepts. I think he's actually got pretty decent work as a receiver as well. Only one drop on 77 targets over the last three years, zero fumbles, count them zero on over 400 carries in his career. You absolutely love that. And I think that he's got great vision, technique and effectiveness in pass protection. So you talk about a guy who, Hey, all right, maybe he's not dynamic enough where you really want to play him a lot on those first and

second down situations. You talk about a guy who could be the power part of a 1-2 committee in the NFL. This guy will be able to give it to you because he is reliable as a receiver. He doesn't fumble the football. He runs behind his pads. He's got good vision. He can make those jump cuts behind the line of scrimmage to sift through that chaos and he could pass protect for you. So to me, Jonah Coleman is the ideal third down and power part of a one, two smash and dash running back committee in the NFL. Coleman is awesome, man. He is, his build is just so impressive in terms of the muscle mass. He is the classic case of, you know, 30 pounds of muscle in a 15 pound sack.

Like that's, he's just, he is just so dense and compact and he's got jacked legs, arms, and shoulders. I mean, truly, like it's just muscles on muscles through those three places. And you see it play to a field where guys just don't really have an answer for him on how to, you know, deal with his contact balance. But Trevor, the times where he just jumps over people,

it's just ridiculous what this guy can do. The tap dancing feet, he's so savvy at the line of scrimmage that it's hard when somebody has that much power and it doesn't take a lot of momentum for him to generate power. With Darius Taylor, I thought it was like, okay, when you get in and K-Tron Allen, when they get momentum, you don't wanna meet them. With Jonah Coleman, really one step after

he gets the football, he generates that power. And I think it's the compact muscle that and the low to the ground running style. Didn't fumble last year. Soft hands. Didn't fumble ever. He doesn't fumble. This is the Kyle Menungai thing all over again. We'd have to go back to high school. We don't have high school stats. You know what? I'm going to look it up.

I'm going to see if we can find it. And he so he's another guy had a Big Ten media last year. And he is somebody out of Stockton, California, plays with a chip on his shoulder. Like there is a feeling I think that he was overlooked as a recruit and had to go the extra mile to earn everything he has. And that's, and his teammates love him.

I remember talking to a guy on Washington and they had only been through Spring Ball and I was like and keep in mind this is Jed Fishes like Jed Fish brings Jonah Coleman. We has to have Jonah Coleman with him. I think that says a lot about a player when Jed left Arizona to Washington. They would do anything to make sure Jonah was coming with him. And I asked a teammate on Washington after spring ball. I was like, has it been like, you know, when you guys got Jonah and he was just like this dude in practice, like he is everything

that he is that he is hyped up to be and he is a character, but he is tough. He is he brings it like there's a different mindset here with him and you kind of see that with how he has built his body as a runner his play style his determination how he plays on all three downs he doesn't have the long speed there's a couple times where he likes to get bounce happy but if I need somebody to break tackles create his own yards create explosive runs, never put the football on the ground

and I could leave him on the field for all three downs, that is Jonah Coleman. Every bit of it is Jonah Coleman. There is a world Trevor, where if I had to say, like get away from, who's our number one, because I know we have the same number one, I could tell. If I had to pick someone else

that you think can unseat this guy, because the number one guy is the consensus guy across media and college football, I would say Jonah Coleman has a shot to be the first running back taken. I don't disagree with you. Now, obviously, I have Jonah Coleman four, and there's the player that we're going to talk about who I have at number two, who I believe in a lot, who is excellent, who I think would be my answer to that question. But the next player is Jonah Coleman. I agree, for the spirit in which you are bringing this up

and saying that, I do agree with you. I cannot find detailed high school stats of whether or not he fumbled the football when he was in college. So when we get to Indianapolis, when we get to the combine, I will ask him this myself. Or wait, are you doing, are you doing Big Ten again? The 80s stuff? Yeah

I don't know yet cuz that's still a little bit of ways away If you are and he is there if I'm there, please ask him if you be like dude, so you haven't fumbled the football Since you've been in college football. When is the last time you fumbled the football and if he just goes like Fourth grade. I mean, yeah I've never put a football on the, on the ground in my life. I've never, not once, not once, not once. Okay. Number two for me is the guy who's number seven for you.

And funny enough, if I remember correctly, a player who you were much higher on than I was in summer scouting last year. And I did some extensive, much more extensive watching. I would say that I watched a lot more games on this player because of how much I liked him. And that's Jade Knott. I have him at number two. I think Jade Knott's awesome, man. I think that this is a potential feature back in the NFL.

So you mentioned it. He was a cow for three years. Now he is at Oklahoma for his senior season listed at six feet tall, 210 pounds. So totally fine. Checks the boxes for what you want as a running back. That's 73rd percentile, 41st percentile. It's fine. Four star running back coming out of California. He initially went to Norco High School in California, which is where he was from. But after his freshman season, moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, played for Bishop of Ormond High School, which is one of the best high school football programs in

the country, committed to Cal. Played in 12 games, started 10 as a true freshman, made PFF's all true freshman team in 2022 played in 13 games with 12 starts in 2023. In 2024, he played in 10 games, but he was very limited by an ankle injury that he suffered in the first game and cows offensive line all do respect cheeks. So the offensive line was not good last year is not. And he also was trying to play through an ankle injury since the very first game of the season. So that's why a lot of his production was down. And so I watched much more of that 2023 tape than I did the 2024 tape. I watched some of the 2024, especially I watched that first game.

It's against UC Davis and like, he looks great in that game. So the rest of the season, I really do think that he was playing hurt, but this Connor, I think Jayden not does it all. I'm not trying to say that he is a perfect running back prospect. Like I'm not trying to say like he's Adrian Peterson or something, but I don't really know a lot of what he doesn't do well other than that. Like last year wasn't good. And he obviously a lot of his numbers, both from an efficiency and a volume perspective were down last year. But I think there's,

there's very good context as to why he had a handful of fumbles in 2023. So like, yeah, okay. You want to make sure that you're, you're holding onto the ball better, but I don't have many weaknesses written down for this player. I think that this is a very high floor running back at a future NFL running back, who just to list off the strengths and weaknesses, I'll list off the strengths, because I guess I mentioned the weaknesses I have are the fumbles. I don't really have much else. Good acceleration with long strides for adequate NFL top speed, consistent receiving production in all three years when he was at Cal, decent strength and balance for pass protection that can only get even better.

Very confident and quick in his jump cuts to adjust to blocks and avoid defenders behind the line of scrimmage. Very impressive plays where he tempos his approach to reach blocks and rushing leads with perfect timing and seems to have a very high football IQ and does the little things well, which hand the ball is in, how he's moving his feet and pass protection, how he is setting up defenders when he is running routes to fake him just a little bit with the shoulders to create that little subtle separation, the technique in which he is hauling the ball in to be catching the ball with two

hands and then corralling it as well as he possibly can. I mentioned tempo and things, whether it was behind inside zone and seeing, okay, well, the offensive line's moving a little bit quicker than I thought. They're reaching exactly where they need to. They're reaching their landmarks. Okay, I need to speed this up a little bit. Or whether it's behind pulling and power concepts where he goes, okay, let me take the football and I got the ball in my hands a little bit sooner than I needed to. Maybe the guard is looping a little bit more than we thought that he would. Let me sort of tempo the way I'm going up here. Okay. He makes contact. He's got the block secured. Boom. Now I'm putting my foot in the ground.

I'm going up the patients in with the pay, the combination of patience and vision. People ask sort of how we scout in the categories. I have a bunch of different categories for every player. Normally it's around 10 and I sort of break we scout in the categories. I have a bunch of different categories for every player. Normally it's around 10 and I sort of break it up in different percentages. So not every category is just an even, okay, 10 points, 10 points, 10 points, 10 points,

we get to one out of a hundred. It's weighted differently for the traits that I think matter more for translating to the NFL level. Vision and patience without question, the number one trait for me for the running back position because if you can see it well and anticipate it well, you can play. And I think that Jay not does that at a very good level. And he's a really good athlete. He's not a crazy elite athlete,

but he is certainly a good, maybe great athlete for the NFL level, depending on how healthy he comes back. And we get to see a little bit more of that explosive from him, but he's at least a good athlete for the NFL level. To me, he just, he brings such a

beautiful package of what you would want for the running back position as a prospect. So really excited to see him in Oklahoma. Oklahoma, please block better this year. 55.6 run blocking grade from Oklahoma last year. Come on, you got John Matier now, you got Jaden Ott now. Please, please, please block better. Cause if you do, I think this guy's gonna make, I think this guy's gonna make beautiful music

for you outside of the backfield. And I think he's gonna turn into one hell of a prospect. So I'm a big Jaden Ott guy, I like him a lot. And it's easy to become that because Jaden Ottts best is as good as anybody's obviously in this class with his ability to have that breakaway speed, the burst. You know, you mentioned this and it's funny. We had like almost the same note watching him when Cal ran power. Did you say he averaged over eight yards per carry? No.

Yeah. So they ran power 42 times with him. Yep. And yeah, he averaged over eight yards per carry. I absolutely believe it because of how good his vision and patience are. Absolutely believe it. Yeah, I believe that was when he was fully healthy in 2023.

Yeah, it had him. Yeah, because obviously last year was just a lost year. I mean, he had that high ankle sprain in the season opener and that was it just limited him Yeah, the things that worry me is I know he's listed weight is fine. He is this upright slender Build of a runner where I just hope the injuries don't have a trickle effect. Don't you put that on me? I know it's the thing where that evil on me, Ricky Bobby. Just don't be the guy getting banged up because even he like certain running backs can just be the same guy through injury. Jaden Otts skill set is just really special when healthy,

but he needs to be healthy and he wasn't last year. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a lofty comp, obviously, for how good this player was in the NFL. But there are times when I'm watching Le'Veon Bell, like with the way that he approaches the line of scrimmage, which such a high confidence and understanding of the timing of blocks and when to put his foot in the ground and go and all of that.

And you see that high of a yards per attempt average behind those man gap power run blocking concepts. That was like that was that that was the Levi-Anne Bell thing when he was in Pittsburgh is you would watch him behind the live scrimmage. He would get the football and it's almost like he would just like start walking, not even like running and playing the game. But then, boom, there was the perfect timing and he was able to hit the rushing lane. So I'm not quite saying he's Levy on Bell, but there are, there are moments where man, if he has another great year, where he looks like that again, that could be, it's a lofty comp. Trust me. I understand. I'm not trying to take it lightly,

but there are moments when he reminded me of that type of play. Last guy, number one, same for both of us. I assume it will be the same for every draft analyst out there. Yeah. And that is Jeremiah Love, the now junior, first time draft eligible running back from Notre Dame. Just a little bit of a background, and then I'd love for you to kick this one off

with sort of the strength and weaknesses and how you see him. Six feet tall, 212 pounds, a 66th percentile, 40th percentile, actually that's 73rd percentile and 40th percentile there from him. Four star running back in that 2023 class, first time draft eligible here from St. Louis, Missouri. Played football, basketball, and ran track. He was the Max Preps Missouri High school football player of the year and the Missouri Gatorade player of the year in the state championship game. He rushed for, or he had 317 total yards, 211 rushing 106 receiving and five touchdowns. You talk about somebody who plays their best when the lights are brightest.

I think that has carried over to college football as well in track. He also won the Missouri class five state title in the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.76. That is flying. At Notre Dame, he played in all 13 games with one star as a true freshman in 2023. And then he played in and started all 16 games of their national championship run in 2024.

So I got him at number one, Connor, you got him at number one. Talk to me about Jeremiah Love. Yeah, Jeremiah Love last year, I mean, averaging almost seven yards for carry. It's so you turn on the tape and it's not hard to see why. Right? There are a lot of flashes of just top level explosive acceleration

through the line of scrimmage. He is somebody that gets downhill with a purpose and churns through contact, drives his legs, has power, excellent. Exactly. The ability to convert that speed to power and that's physical and that's a mentality and he has both that mesh perfectly together. In Trevor, when you get to see him in one-on-one situations, defenders one-on-one really just can't bring him down. He can't, you constantly need to hope for a gang tackle situation with this guy. There's not a lot of examples of Jeremiah Love meeting somebody in the hole

or getting outside in a one-on-one or in space in one-on-one, and a guy has an answer for him because if you hesitate, he could power through you. If you don't hesitate and you tackle with urgency, he could do everything. He can make you miss. he can run through you, he can run around you. There were just multiple plays where he cleanly clears the defender with a hurdle, and it doesn't even look hard for him.

Yes. It's actually the point where sometimes he has those outside runs and it's a dead play, and he cleanly jumps over somebody and then gets smashed, and it's like, well, the run wasn run was really going anywhere anyway but I'm impressed like I am impressed with this athletic ability because some guys really need to have that full momentum he could just stand almost like a vert and just jump over people he is he is stupid athletic He's got springs in his lower half, man.

That first step to get to that top speed, very impressive. And then, like you mentioned, this dude, I would be shocked if he doesn't get more than 40 inches in the vert. The same. You know what? And the playoff touchdown against Penn State just shows his determination at the goal line where he will just drag and carry and power through The playoff touchdown against Penn State just shows his determination at the goal line,

where he will just drag and carry and power through to fall forward as much as possible. Here's a nugget, though, to me that just spoke volumes about the player for how gifted he is, but this is more about the mental aspect and makeup of the player. Notre Dame would obviously run Riley Leonard all the time, or they would run two back sets, which means there's times there's run plays where Jeremiah Love is on the field and Riley Leonard is running the ball or the other running back is running the ball.

This dude's passion as a lead blocker on those plays you just have to tip your cap He's where a man. He is a teammate where He's blocking through the a gap sometimes with 245 pound linebackers or crashing defensive ends or defensive tackles and he is taking these guys on with every ounce of him to And he is taking these guys on with every ounce of him to make a play for Riley Leonard to gain an extra yard, for the other running backs to gain extra yards. I wrote down the final line with a question mark.

I was like, is this UNC Givante Williams? And Givante at UNC was special, special. Injuries have really hampered his NFL career, but that tape of UNC of Givante was insane. That was the vibe I got while watching this guy. I see some Jameer Gibbs in him too. And obviously like we're talking about. Cause he's got it all.

Dude, and especially like the athleticism. I mean, you watch Jameer and it's the same thing. Like he puts his foot in the ground, it's different. And that was, that was the thing about, that was my main takeaway while watching Jeremiah love is I'm watching him play against some of the best teams in all of college football. Very important. And you go, yep, different. He's different. That dude's different. And I think that that is, uh,

you just don't get that very often. And so he got an early, late first, early second round grade from me. And the only real reason why it's not like a straight up first round grade is just cause, okay, like let's continue to see the work in pass protection, get a little bit more reliable, and then certainly your work as a receiver as well. Cause when you bring those things to the table,

who he is as a runner it's all there for him so another hopefully fully healthy season from him and we'll get somebody who I think Jeremiah loves gonna be a first-round running back when it's all said and done because I think he's gonna get better this year so even though that's sort of my starting grade for him in summer scouting I think that this dude's gonna get talked about and understandably so as a first-round running back because he brings a lot of what you would want to the table. There's sometimes in past pro when I feel like he gets a little bit

reckless, you know, dip the head, he'll lunge his shoulder, things like that instead of stay square with somebody. But again, he's only 210, 212 pounds. So he kind of has to make up for it a little bit with power. But the thing that is the constant takeaway, and this is why we try to give some, um, background on, on, you know, where they came from and their high school, um, how they got to this point in college, all that kinds of stuff.

Jeremiah love wants to win. Like he, Jeremiah love is a competitive dude. He wants to win a state championship in high school as a football player, doing everything that he can as a rusher and receiver. He wants to win a state championship in high school as a football player, doing everything that he can as a rusher and receiver. He wants to win a state title in track. He wants to win a national championship. He wants to have that key block for Riley Leonard that picks up the first down or the touchdown or whatever it is like the dude wants to win. And anytime that you have a player who combines that competitive toughness with an athletic ceiling and then an IQ for the game, the way that Jeremiah love does,

I think that's going to spell out a first round running back a year from now. I really good chance. He's that good. We would love to hear from you guys. Let us know what you thought of our rankings in our conversation here with the potential 20, 26 running back class here that we have. Give us your own rankings. Actually, Connor, real quick, can you give us your your 10 to one just recap it here at the end of the show? Absolutely. Desmond Reed from pit number 10. Number nine is one of the Texas running backs in Trey Weisner. Number eight is Mackay Hughes

transferring from Tulane to Oregon. Number seven is Jaden Ott who has transferred from Cal to Oklahoma. Number six is K-Tron Allen, one of two Penn State running backs in these rankings. Number five is Baylor's running back Bryson Washington. Number four is Minnesota's Darius Taylor. Three is Washington's Jonah Coleman. Two is the other Penn State running back, Nicholas Singleton. And number one, the very, very well earned of this ranking as we had consensus on this,

Jeremiah Love from the Fighting Irish. Number 10, I got Terryon Stewart, the running back who was at Bowling Green. Now he's at Virginia Tech. Number nine, Le'Veon Moss from Texas A&M. Number eight, got Fat Man, K-Tron Allen, Penn State. Seven, Mackay Hughes, who's now at Oregon. Six, CJ Baxter from Texas A&M number eight got fat man K Tron Allen Penn State seven Mackay Hughes who's now at Oregon six CJ Baxter from Texas five coin joiner who was at USC now he's at Texas Tech for Jonah Coleman from Washington three Nick

Singleton from Penn State two is Jade not from Cal now at Oklahoma and number one is Jeremiah love from Notre Dame I watched a handful of other players guys that I watched I watched no winning ten and watched a little bit of Jamal Haynes, I watched Jaheem White, Mark Fletcher from Miami, a little bit of Justice Haynes, even though he's going over to Michigan because he wants more carries. So there's gonna be a little bit more work for him. But any of those guys, ask some questions to those players and some other guys that we might get our eyes on over the next couple of days.

If you've seen some of these players and like, Hey, because running back, we talk about this all the time. Running back is one of those positions where Connor had a couple of guys on his list that I didn't watch where it's like, Oh wow. Okay. Like I got to watch this guy running back more than I feel like a lot of other positions. You guys, as fans of a certain team, really know if you're running back is somebody that's worth mentioning or worth watching. So let us know if you have somebody that's like that as well. I saw you guys give out some of your top threes,

top five quarterback rankings in the comments. I would love for you to do that again, as we would always love for you to do that here, youtube.com backslash at NFL stock exchange. If you want to hit us up on Twitter and Instagram at Tampa Bay tray at Connor J Rogers, you could also follow the show on Instagram, on Twitter and on TikTok as well at NFLSE show. Hopefully you guys got the hats. Those of you who paid with PayPal, I'm figuring

it out. I'm getting those out to you over the next couple of days. So those are coming. I promise they are there. Thank you for having patience with us. But Connor, anything else before we get out of here? Oh, I'm excited to keep this rolling, dude. We're in a groove now. We're in the rhythm. The week's pretty basic for me. Suck at golf and then do summer scouting. Rinse and repeat. I love it. What a beautiful summer it is. I wouldn't have it any other way. Wide receiver is the next episode and boy do we know that you guys love to talk about

those skilled position players and wide receivers. We got a handful of names that, you know, I'm going to be honest, just a little bit of a preview here. Wide receiver one's up for grabs. And I think some people could look at that and be like, oh great, the class is going to suck. I would not say that the class is going to suck, but I do think that it means that our rankings

could very well be very different. And you guys could also have some great takes that we would love to hear from you as well. So we're going to take a look and rank some of the top wide receiver prospects for the 2026 NFL draft. That's coming up on the next episode for Connor Rogers. I'm Trevor Sikamas saying thank you guys so much once again for watching. See you then. Thanks for watching!