Fantasy Football WeeklyIn the deepest class of rookie runners in years (ever?), Thor Nystrom carpet bombs your brain with intel about the second tier of rookie running backs.
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and whatever stupid stuff they decided to drop into the show. Now here's your host, Paul Chargion.
Welcome to Part two, Rookie running Backs Fantasy Football Weekly with Thorneistrom fantasylife dot Com.
Hey Thor, how are you doing.
Charge Great to talk to you again. I'm excited to get a little deeper dive on the running back draft class. Last week you told us there were roughly thirty NFL draftable running backs in this class. That is nuts. We hit the top six last week. We can't possibly do twenty four in one show, but we do want to dive into some of the deeper guys. But I want to start here and I think the deepest running back class that I could find. Doing some just quick work on this, and I'm not saying this definitive thirty years ago. God, I can't believe it's thirty years nineteen ninety four. So I'm using five thousand yards as the as a successful running back season. That would be five one thousand yard seasons. Can we agree that that's a pretty good barometer.
I like that.
Okay, here's your nineteen ninety four draft class. And there were a bunch of there were several running backs who did not pan out at all. But let me give you the guys who hit, and this is the order in which they were taken. Among guys that hit five thousand or very close to five thousand yards, first, Marshall Fulk. That turned out. Okay, yep, that's you want to do it. By the way, you want to put a guess as to how many total yards Marshall Fulk had in his career, rounded to the nearest thousand. You got it, nicely done. Twenty thousand. That's right, well done. Twenty thousand total yards from Marshall Fulk. The next notable running back, and this is a name. See this is I don't want to know how old you were in nineteen ninety four. Were you born?
You were?
You were born?
Right?
I mean I was I was ten?
All right, you're ten? All right?
Good? Alright?
Kay? Good? Eric Rhett. Does that name mean anything to you?
Tampa Bay Bucks, Yeah.
Yes, yeah, Dreamsicle uniform era Eric Rhett almost five thousand total yards. Charlie Garner do you remember Do you remember him? I'll see if you can get the teams these guys are on. Do you remember Charlie Garner?
Yeah, Garner was forty nine ers Eagles.
Right, that's right, nicely done. You got the second half of his career with that, and between those two ten thousand totally yards. That was a great career for him. Yes, all right, this one was harder. A guy that I had really completely forgotten about, but had seven thousand total yards in his career. Lamar Smith. Does that name, Riabelle?
Yeah?
You remember the team? Uh, maybe later in his career, but Seattle was his primary stop.
I believe I was screwing up with Lamar Miller.
Oh there you go, Lamar Miller. Way much more recently, and somebody that I'm pretty sure Brian Johnson still thinks Lamar Miller is going to work out in the NFL. Shot shout out, Brien. Okay. Another player with almost five thousand yards, Bong Morris as we called him at the time, it was Bam Morris was his given name. But oh, we had a lot of fun with him and his his multiple arrests, marijuana arrests, so we renamed him Bong Morris at the time.
Uh yeah, yeah, but Bam Morris he was he was fun, bam bam.
Yeah, you remember him? Okay, do you remember the team that drafted him and he spent most of his career with that team?
Was it was it? Steelers?
You got it nice? So far? Perfect? Well what we mistl Mars Smith? But I don't blame me? Yeah do or see elevens? Oh sure you remember him? I know you know a team he was on.
Packers yep.
Seven thousand total yards for him.
He had a good career. He was a good player.
He was a good player and a good receiving back too. And then in nineteen ninety four seventh rounder Jamal Anderson to the Dirty Birds.
Oh wow, yeah, yeah.
Another good career. Seven thousand, seven thousand total yards for him. So that ninety four draft class was awfully good. That's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight eight players that put together five thousand yard seasons or nearly five thousand total yard seasons. That's not bad.
That's pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah, and this class maybe maybe we can get it topped.
We might just get it topped right here. So we did the top we did your top six running backs. You get the benefit of the doubt. My big QUI I think Devin Neils can be more impactful than the than the sixth best running back. We'll find out landing spot a lot of things, wild course change all of that. I want to go to your number seven running back, d J. Giddons from Kansas State, and I've got I want to start here. His rass is nine point seven to eight, which is remarkable. Tell people your comp for DJ Giddons.
He reminds me a lot of Zach Charbonet from very recently that some of the comps we were doing for the top six guys. I was going back in the time machine. But this one we have a recent one. It's it's a tall, bigger back. It was two Giddins at the combine six foot two twelve. He plays a little bit heavier than that, but similar physical package to Charboney and similar athleticism, and they run very similar. It's it's the upright thing, the sort of the upright runners, and they have smooth feet between the tackles. It's it's, you know, the light on the feet thing, making people miss bouncy and light there in the in the tackle box and picking your way out to the second level that way. And and Giddins the other thing that reminded me of Charboney is so smooth.
At that size.
There's just a lot of fluidity there, really good feel for the position and for running. You see Giddins out in the second and third level. He does some cool things with toggling his tempo and setting guys up or waiting for a blocker to wipe out, you know, an oncoming defender. He's really smart. He doesn't press the issue. He has really good awareness and and really good vision. I think DJ Giddens is a good back. I'm curious in the NFL the the receiving DJ Giins is not a He's not a very good pass blocker, we know that, but the receiving thing he has shown flashes. There's inconsistencies there, so I'm curious to see what we get out of him there. I know he's going to be a really good peer runner in the NFL. The receiving thing, though, like there'd be times where Kansas State would shift him out into the slot or boundary. He moves and he looks like a big boundary receiver and he moves as fluidly as any of those guys, and they would run him on like drag routes, you know, just simple stuff over the middle, but somewhere he could pin the defender to his back and you just sort of lead him into space. He showed he could do that stuff, but there was also extreme inconsistencies with the hands, with the drops, and this past season in twenty twenty three, I think he dropped like five balls. And so in the pass offseason they signed a receiving back who was originally from Kansas but came via Colorado and Dylan Edwards to give him some of the receiving down stuff. And Giddins didn't drop a ball this year, but it was his work with that was way part back. I think, like like I said, I think that there is ability there. And when he gets a ball in his hands, he has a problem. So you see what you can work on there. But as a runner, his game speaks for itself.
I'm gonna give you one other competent. See if this makes any sense you. I'm looking at this taller back. It's upright runner with this long, fluid strides. Robert Smith. Okay, anything there is there anything there, ye think, So no, I like that, Okay, yeah, I like that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Robert Smith coming out of Ohio State, I forget what it was sort of before my time, so I don't know what he ran, but Giddens obviously had the burning forty four to four three, Yeah, was Robert Smith had to be right around there, But.
Yeah, Gidden's it was.
It was surprising how well, like we knew that he was a good athlete and and but the fluidity is the thing that catches your eye when you're watching him. It's not one of those things where it's like, you know, it screams off the athleticism, because he does the things like toggling the tempo and it's.
Just everything is just so smooth.
But just keep in mind you're you're talking about a really premium athlete in a big package.
I was not familiar with Damian Martinez of Floor of Miami, and boy, when I started watching him, I got pretty interested in what this kid could do. Your comp is Lawrence Moroni. To me, he seems a little more physically stout than Maroni. And but you know, you've seen way more him that I have talk to me about about Damian Martinez, who I when I looked at him, I'm like, dude, is a tough tackle, always moving forward, always finishing forward, bigger physical back with nice feet. I I like that kid. And I also like by the way that you comp guys who didn't necessarily have great NFL careers, uh, because there's a there are a lot of people in your position that always comp to guys that had successful NFL careers. The Lord Smerni didn't, but he was great in college.
Yeah he was.
And you know, it's it's a bigger back and with the athleticism, and it's another guy with with good feet. I do think Martinez is a little bit more physical with than Maroni, but the the athletic package in that frame with the feet is what reminded me of of Moroni coming out of Minnesota. But with with Martinez, you get the dichotomy of a hammer type physical back. He has a really uh a physical to his game, but you also get the really good footwork and feet and so you see the thing with Martinez where oncoming defenders like sometimes they'll they'll sort of break down and you know, and sort of square up, try to load up to tangle with the battering ram and then he can evade you with the footwork, and then sometimes when you know you're hanging back seeing what he's gonna do, he'll just then bear all through you, right like. So it's he becomes a little bit of a puzzle because of that, he can both make you miss and run you over. The receiving element of his game. That's where I dinged them on and that's why he's number eight. I think as a peer runner, he's he's better than that and a nine to three two ras at two hundred and seventeen pounds. He played most of his career between two twenty and two thirty. He was listed higher than that, And it was funny at Oregon say he's listed at two forty one. I think of Miami as two thirty six. And so I had asked him at the Senior ball, did you lose weight because you're going to be playing in the air raid system. And I told him what his listings were at the two schools, and he looked at me and he laughed. He goes, bro, I've never played a game above two thirty, And I said, you were.
Never listed below two thirty, right, he just.
Started smirked at me, but like nobody questioned when he was listed at two forty by Oregon, say it because of how physical he is.
So that's the stuff that you like about about his game.
But yeah, the receiving end, the pass pro work did take a step forward in twenty twenty four. Can he keep improving that? As a receiver mediocre at best. So it's a guy where you want a receiving back with him, But as far as an early down guy and a short yardage guy, you could certainly be worse than Damian Martinez.
Let's go to another player with really good footwork, r J. Harvey from UCF. Now your comp here is Taj Spears. I feel like he had a little better power than Taj Spears, but again I defer to you on a lot of these things. But it's the footwork that really jumped off the screen to me when I looked at RJ. Harvey.
Yeah, he has really good full work, particularly for a guy that runs as fast as he does. You know, he has legitimate by for four threes or low four fourth speed. At the combine he was let me pull it. It was a four to fourth flat. Yeah, four four flat. Nice at the combine. But he you know, a burner, but you know, like you said, with good feet and in the sort of classic bowling ball type frame five to eight flat two hundred and five pounds, and he can get up a little bit bigger than that, you know, closer to that two twelve threshold that we were talking about. He cut a little bit of weight in order to do the testing. But I like his work between the tackles, especially for a smaller back. He runs low at the ground, Yeah, and he's really bouncy and darty between the tackles, and and sometimes like he can do the thing. He denotes danger really quickly, and so in college he could get flat down the line, he has a really violent cut and then he can just shoot out the other way out the back door. He got a lot of explosive runs at UCF that way. He's not going to be able to do that same thing to that degree. But what I like is the vision that denoting the danger. And I also embollish on a modulation of his running style, And it doesn't need to be major. It's not like he was doing that every single time, but a modulation of it to more often take what you're getting between the tackles, because I think he is good at that, like the work that he has done between the tackles.
You're mentioning.
He runs with a little bit more power than you would think because he is always going to win the leverage game. And then you have the speed to power element with him as well. He's going to run through the arm tackles and he can make people mess with that really quick, sort of Darty type side to side agility.
Yeah.
I really like his game.
You get the explosive plays, you get some of the between the tackle stuff. He is also a really strong receiver who brings the same home run ability when he's catching the ball. I talked to him down at the senior ball and I was asking him about, you know, what do you want to prove to the NFL here, and he was saying as a receiver, and he started to go into this thing of you know, he was being nice about it. He sort of tiptoe on around it, but you know, he was sort of insinuating. UCF didn't use me. I think like they could have as a receiver. And I said, RJ. That being said, I said, are you aware that you are one of two backs? In this class who had one point twenty five yards per route run or more each of the last two years. And he goes, really, and I said, you sure were, but I agreed with him that they did not use him in a diverse enough way. He piled up those yards. That was RJ. Harvey's doing, right. It was like a lot of this stuff of running after the catch, Whereas I think RJ. Harvey is going to be a really good receiver in the NFL down the field right where you can do different stuff and have him shaking the linebacker or the strong safety out of his boots and then he'll find himself. They'll create the space and you know, get him the ball and then he can run with it afterwards. But it's a good receiver who I think has the ability to show even more in the NFL.
I'm a big fan RJ. Harvey.
So to give people a reference point, r J. Harvey is your ninth overall running back. Are we in about the fourth round right now? In terms of where you think the ninth running back is gonna go?
Late third, early fourth? Yes? Okay?
In there, okay, all right, all right, probably probably the third, probably the latter half of the third.
I okay, right now, all right, which you know, nine backs in the first three rounds is still remarkable. A lot of people familiar with Cam Scatabo, and he's going to be, I think, a very polarizing player his When you see the highlights, you can't not love Cam Scatabo, But when you watch the totality of a game of his, there's some there's some work in there that just doesn't really pop for me. So, you know, he's the most he's one of the most physical and I think contact seeking running backs that we've seen in years, and a fascinating study. You and I talked about him two weeks ago and we didn't end up getting all the testing we were hoping to get out of out of the combine with him, unfortunately. But let's talk Cam scatable Arizona State.
Yeah, the ones we he did do were the jumps and and he jumped well. But yeah, they we're wondering about the forty time and he's gonna make us weight on that. You know, I hope he runs it at the Proga. Yeah, I hope so, But speed's.
Not his game.
Uh, you know, like in his defense, it's the thing you're talking about the physicality. He has some agility as well, and it's he while he does not have that elite top end speed, the elite trade, or maybe not elite trade, but the really good trade as far as that goes, he accelerates to his top speed almost immediately and you see that that sort of suddenness in the jumps that he did in Indianapolis. But yeah, he is a pure tackle breaker. He we were talking about bulling ball frames before. You're not going to see a more bowling ball frame than this. He measured in a five foot nine at the NFL Combine, but two hundred and nineteen pounds, and that's a guy who plays more like two twenty five to two thirty yea in a five foot nine frame. So I mean he runs solo to the ground and he's a berserker. It's a street fighter thing where he's just fighting people off of him. And again he can get through closing holes, closing gaps really really quickly because of that acceleration. He ain't running away from any one in the NFL, and he didn't really at college either. But this is an efficiency back. He's a good receiver as well. He's not going to drop the ball and it's the same thing where it is extremely difficult in space to tackle that guy. So Arizona State, I mean, he finished number two on the team last year in receptions, even though they gave him a billion carries. He was like the entire offense, you know, and like it was really impressive.
The end of the season.
Jordan Tyson, who he was the guy who led their team in receptions by far, Arizona State really didn't have other receiving weapons that scared people with Tyson, and then it was Scattaboy. But Tyson got injured at the end of the year. So then in the college Football playoff, Scatabu was a marked man and he was still, you know, admiral getting his as much as he could. I think this is a good player. I comp him to David Montgomery. He has a very similar frame to David Montgomery. He's an in shorter, but it's basically the same build with the same weight. And keep in mind David Montgomery, He's had a good career. He was really good at Iowa State. He didn't test well at all. In fact, I think cam Scatable was going to test better than David Montgomery. David Montgomery had one of the worst verticals you will ever see in that position. It was like twenty seven and a half inches or something like that.
Yeah, so scatable. You could argue he is a.
Better athlete than than David Montgomery, and I think he's gonna have a solid career.
I'm gonna try to get you to my comp Mike Alstott. It's you know, all Stott. It was as contact seeking as any running back in memory. He never put up. He was never like workhorse back. He was never three hundred carries and it was usually in like the one hundred and fifty to twenty five carries and he'd finish out at like seven hundred yards. But he could also catch, you know, and he would chip in, you know, thirty forty receptions. He was. I just feel like those two just remind me of each other so much that you know, the build is a little different because also that I was a lot taller. He was six foot one and it was two hundred, like forty pounds, so I mean the build was different, but just the style stylistically, that's that's the guy that that Cam Scatabo reminds me of. And I hope, you know a little bit like work done and and Mike Alstott, I hope Scatibo finds himself into a one two punch where he can be goal line guy. He can be third down tough yards, you know, third and one, you know, third and short. He can he can fill that role. And I'm excited to see where lands, and I hope he can be part of it. Like I said, a great one two punch.
Yeah, that's that's that's what it is.
And he's kind of a throwback player, you know, like you're mentioning with that sort of you know, it's like woke up and shows violence. Yeah, yeah, right, And that's that that's a similarity with him at all Stott. They every morning they woke up and they chose violence. And one interesting sort of thought experiment with Skataboo, a throwback player into this this modern era is now you know all Stott and then you know, you go back further than that in the three yards in a clouded dust type era. That that era you had the slobber knocker linebackers, you know, the two hundred and fifty pound guys with the enormous shoulder pads and everyone's coming downhill. You had more of the boxes were packed and stuff like that. This era you have, this field is more spread and the defenses are getting smaller to get more speed on the field.
Is Cam Scattabu's game? Could it? Could it be a really good fit here?
Like could they get him into an offense where you are you're always spreading the field with at least three receivers forcing thin boxes because the you know, again the super duper difficult thing.
It's to tackle Skataboo with one dude.
You need a bunch, Like sometimes you need four guys, right, I mean, because he'll just keep carrying people like he just has such strong legs. So in those thinner boxes, I think that could project pretty well for Cam. You're not gonna get explosive plays out of him, but you're gonna get all kinds of efficiency with him, both as a runner and as a receiver.
All right, let's take a break. When we come back, I want to zip through and you know, like two minutes or less, let's zip through another like five or six guys, and don't just get it. Get a little bit smarter. And I'm gonna be honest, most these guys I haven't seen yet. And the guy I'm really well, I don't, I won't. I won't preview it yet, but uh, there's one guy that has taken a precipitous fall from where he was generally ranked even a few months ago. We'll talk. We'll talk that guy through in just a moment, a segment too. Fantasy Football Weekly coming up in just a moment. All right, welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul charchiing thorn Eistrom with you. We've already knocked down five six I don't know, five six players. Let's let's jump into some uh, some guys that are going to be Day three running backs, including a guy that I didn't know anything about until honestly a few days ago. Help me, and if I if I get this pronunciation wrong, please just go easy on me. Bacial Tutin. That's pretty good, Mike, am I in the ballpark here, Basal Teuton.
That's no, that's that's good. After the NFL combine, I just call him King Tutin.
I like it, tingk King Tutin. That's great, that's great. The Virginia Tech running back who ran a four three two forty Holy cow.
Yeah, that that guy can burn.
It's it's a high school track star and and the athleticism you see it in spades out there on the field. He certainly showed that in Indianapolis that forty time match Devin Autchane. Only Tuton was eighteen pounds heavier than when au Chane ran his coming out of Texas A and m that that four three two. The jumps were also crazy with him, they both both of them vertical and bro jumps. We're both ninety six percent. So you're talking about a truly elite athlete here five nine, two hundred and six pounds nine point twenty nine raz. He reminds me of Ijaa Pacheco. It's the same thing of the it's not only breakneck speed, it is a breakneck style and it is extremely unorthodox. Like I mean, you remember Pachecko coming out and like sometimes for the NFL defenders, like initially seeing him, it's unpredictable heat. He descends on you really quickly. That the movements. You know, it's like this kinetic, unpredictable, unorthodox type running style. That's what you get from Tuton as well. And when you're moving at such high speeds, any indecision that you can put in a defender's head. Yeah, it makes you even faster, right, Like you're slowing them down even more and you're already faster than they are. So that stuff is really cool. You get the explosive plays from Tuton, he racks those up. He's a solid receiver as well. Although the one thing with him that they got to work on is the hands with him. Last year Virginia Tech, they started to cut his receiving work down because he had dropped some balls. But like you do get the explosive elopment with him as a receiver when he is catching it. So I'll be curious to see the development with him there. Hands though is the question with him both as a receiver and then as a runner. He fumbled the ball nine times the last two years. So it's a guy where on the field last couple of years. Because he came up from North Carolina, A and t it was at Virginia Tech for two years.
You got the.
Extremely high peaks and then you had to put up with some of those valleys. Can the NFL can they can you teach him a little bit of better ball scales as the receiver and as the runner. Can we help him with ball security? Can you do the thing they did in the program? Remember the running back in the movie the Program? They made him walk around campus with the football. Someone else brought it back to the coach y. You know, they got a rewards. Everyone's trying to slap it out of his hands in the hallways. Baseiel Tooton needs to walk around with the football for months and with the same sort of bounty on it. But this is a really, really interesting prospect. I think probably headed for day three after his testing, and he's gonna bring whatever offense picks him a home run threat.
All right, we'll have to be a little bit quicker on Dylan Sampson from Tennessee. Your comp here was James Cook. That's a that's a delicious comp. Tell me about Dylan Samson.
Yeah, I ended up switching it to a mod Bradshaw.
Oh okay, Yeah, Like I was going back and forth with a couple of guys. But he's a little bit you know, yeah, five ft eight, two hundred pounds coming into the combine. So it's a it's a back who was on the smaller side and he just had the one year starting at Tennessee, but he showed all kinds of different stuff last year, both as a receiver and as a runner. He has good feel, he has good agility, and he has strong speed, although that is one thing we're kind of questioning right now because it was kind of weird that Dylan Samson did not run a forty at the combine. His the sportsbooks put out I think he was four three nine or four three eight something like that. They copped his number, and then as the week went on you get closer to Saturday, his number had come all the way up to like it was either.
Four three four or four four four in the sports.
Books, and then he elects not to run me watching his team, So you have a discrepancy here where he has had some explosive runs, and there was reports when he was coming out, like in high school, stuff like that of him running in the high four to three. So that's that's where some of that speculation that he's a burner is. But some of the on field metrics and then just the eye test, he did not consistently look like a four to three speed guy, and that matters in his evaluation because you're only at the two hundred flat size and so that's where you know, you bring up a guy like Cook, or you bring up a guy like like Bradshaw, guys that were able to sort of overcome the smaller frames because you're you're skilled all the way around. You know, you offer your offense a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I think that's the thing with Dylan Samson. You put him up standing next to some of those other guys. He's not as impressive, he might not end up running as fast as some of those different guys, but it's one of those guys you put everything together and he's a bit more than his amalgamation to trades.
All right, let's go to your number thirteen ranked running back Ali Gordon from Oklahoma State. Now, I saw I started when I started looking at running backs during the NFL season. I'm all NFL all the time. And then in January I started looking at some of the running back rankings. I was seeing Ali Gordon being ranked like number five, number six among running backs in this draft class. So I'm looking up film and I don't know much about him, and I'm like, what am I missing here? I'm seeing a guy who had no special traits that I could see. Ali Gordon didn't get. He got little more than what his offensive line gave him. You know, he would he would get, he would take what he wasn't going negative. He wasn't making bad plays. But I didn't see him making any special plays. I didn't see a player that looked to have much of any elusiveness. I didn't see a player that was breaking a lot of tackles. I didn't see explosion. I just maybe I'm missing it, but I just didn't see any the special traits I want to see from Olie Gordon. So that's my that's where I am on him. But again, as always, you you know, you know a lot more about him than I do. Am I seeing it wrong?
Yes, yes, yes, and no. Like the overall, I agree with what you're saying. As far as the trades, by and large, it was interesting. This guy spent three years in Oklahoma State, got on the field right away, and his second year, starting twenty twenty three, he won the Doe Walker.
He yeah, that was that was the year where he looked really, really good.
And then last year in twenty twenty four, his counting even though he wasn't nicked up his counting SATs, they basically all got cleaved in half literally in half. And so it's like a tale of two seats, like which one do you trust? And you see people evaluating him choosing sort of one or the other, like I'm gonna forget the twenty twenty four tape because twenty three was better, or you know, twenty twenty three was a mirage. I trust the twenty twenty four. I'm in the middle of those two things. I think what you saw over those two seasons, it's so what changed Alie Gordon didn't change in twenty twenty four. It was his supporting cast. The offensive line got worse, the receiver play got worse, and then they brought back this like eighth year quarterbacks who can't throw downfield at all. And so there's their system. It was a sideline. They spread the field and then it was sidelined to sideline passing.
Well.
Defenses realized pretty quick they can't throw down field in twenty twenty four. So all of a sudden, whereas the offensive system, you know, we were talking about this was scataboo. I like, it'd be interesting to get them in a system you thin off the box a little bit for him. But with Oklahoma State last year, defense were like we know, Alan Bowman, you ain't throwing twenty five plus yards downfield, so go, we are gonna take We're only going to play single high safety because we don't. We don't think you're gonna throw downfield and beat us. And that's what happened. So they would load the box and Oklahoma State only had the five or the six blocking back there. So you that's what ended up happening. That's why his his dat's got cleve down. I think what it showed you with Ali Gordon, it's a context specific guy you know in college, and then it's usage specific when you go to the NFL. I think he's a guy who's going to give you. You know, it's sort of like we were talking about with Scatboo. It's just a lower where you're gonna get efficiency as the runner. He's going to get what's blocked for him. You know, it's a Lee Roy Horden maybe kind of a thing. Yeah, a bigger one, you know that. You know, Brian Robinson is my comp or you could do poor Man's naj Harris because it's sort of a similar frame, you know, a knockoff version of Naje Harris, but you get the efficiency as a runner, at least it is blocked for him.
You also get efficiency as a receiver.
He has good hands and he'll turn up field and he'll get what he can, but you don't get the explosion, the four to six speed that is what he is. In twenty twenty three, he was able to get pile up all these explosive runs because of those thin boxes, because you know, defenses have more guys out there, so he was able to get runways more often and then would do the run. Though that's what went away last year. He ain't getting any explosive runs in the NFL.
Okay, I want to hit two more guys. Rishard Smith from SMU. His rass is only a seven point zero seven, which I doesn't disqualify you from success, but that feels like a red flag for me.
Yeah.
Well, but the one thing that's good with his athletic profile, he ran I think the four three nine forty and to me that that was sufficient because in the NFL, I think what you're looking at, it's a really really, really good receiving back. There's some mix and match stuff I think where you can keep him in the rotation as a pure runner, but I think the majority of his usage is going to be as the receiving back. He was a guy who was a ballyhooed slot receiver recruit for Miami earlier in his career, had a hard time breaking through anyone's SMU and I didn't even realize that they had shifted him like he wasn't Like at the beginning of the year, SMU, they had all these former top recruits that were running backs, you know, former four or five star guys. They like three of them, Richard Smith. They end up quietly converting him to running back. Last year in camp he bypassed all of them.
Wow.
And then all of a sudden he found himself at the top of the depth chart for this team that turned out was good. You know, SMU was really good last year and Berchard Smith was a huge part of their offense. He is a awesome receiver. I mean again, this is a slot receiver that is playing running back. You get receiver routes for him. It was not fair in Mobile for some of these linebackers or safeties to have to cover him in.
The one on one drills.
It was a gulf of separation every single time because he runs his again, like a receiver. You see like stuff you don't see what the running backs at, toggling of tempo, setting guys up with shoulder deeks and stuff like this. Like he sells it really well where he'll break a guy's ankle because like I'm going left and you know, it's like a hard deak and then he'll go the other way and it's just you know, you have a six yard halo around him. So that's what he's going to provide for his NFL offense, and he's going to be a valued receiving back at the next level.
Your comp on Burchard Smith is.
My cump on Burchard Smith is Nahim Heines.
It's a similar frame similar similar Yeah, like uh, you know with with that sort of stuff, and I think he could be perhaps a little bit better than than heines in the NFL. But heines, as you recall, you know that he got a ton of receptions there for for a stretch, So he did.
That's what I think you're getting.
Yeah, you're gonna pair him with like the meat and potatoes back and then Burchard's you're just gonna allow him to do his thing.
Okay, you're number fifteen overall running back in this draft class, la Quint Allen from Sarahcuse, Uh, your comp here is at one point and it was for Shod White. Is it Stillshot White?
It is?
It is still Rashad White. Okay, they're they're taller backs. Uh six. I think Rashad White's six foot as well, but la Quinn Allen's six foot, two hundred four pounds. Rashad White at least he tested as a better athlete than I would anticipate lea Quinn testing. We didn't get to see much of that at the combine. But it's a smooth back who is a tremendous receiver and you watch heraccuse last year and their offense got more fun. They had Kyle mccortz. They were throwing the ball around more. They did such interesting stuff with Leaquinn Allen as a receiver, both out of the backfield, but they frequently would shift him, whether it's to the you know, and sometimes they'd have the four receivers out. He would do the left slot, the right slot. There'd be other times he would go out to the boundary, so they would shift them out and then you're you're getting tells from the defense when he is shifting out and then sometimes you can isolate him in a in a matchup that is extremely advantageous for you. And every time they did, when they had him isolated on some slow footed linebacker, some slow, slow footed strong safety, lea quinn Allen would would eat their lunch. So this is it's a really really talented receiver. That's what I see that with with him and Rashad White, similar frames and just really really good receivers.
All right, llquinn Allen I said, we were just going to do those two guys, but I think if only for name recognition, we should hit on Trevor Etn because people obviously know his brother, and so I think there's going to be automatically some attention paid to him. But maybe people aren't as familiar with this game, although he played at Georgia's, so I think a lot of people are. But what are your thoughts on him? You've got him as your number eighteen overall running back.
Yeah, it's a Trevor Etn. He's undersized, you know, not as big as his brother. He came in to the combine and measured in at five foot just a little bit less than five foot nine hundred and ninety eight pounds ran a four to four two that was better than some people were expecting. He's a decent athlete, you know, no better than that. But it's a guy that I think is going to be a committee back at the next level that will factor in there. I combed him to Miles gask and I do think that there is a cap ceiling there. But he's sort of a grinder guy. He gives you a little bit of speed, he has solid agility, he can he can catch, you know, he do a little bit of the running. You're not gonna want him to handle a lot of the inside the tackles type concepts at the next level. But he can certainly be a guy in a committee at the NFL level.
All right, And I gotta give you a tip of the hat for having a comp on our list for a player we didn't end up getting to of Trunk Candidate. I completely forgotten that he was a guy. Like, Wow, that is a deep call right there to go to with.
Mar Marcus Yarns and Trunk Candidate, they're the pointing spider man. I love Marcus Yarns this game. And by the way, Trunk Canady. We can get into a Trunk candidate thing. If Trunk candidate he missed his era. Don't you agree with this charge? If Trunk Canada come out now, I think you would have seen a better player in the NFL then we ended up getting.
But you know, as we get smaller, as the game.
Goes more towards speedy players like this, they become more valuable. And Marcus Yarns is a guy where it's the speed kills that he's small, but it's.
The speed kills.
And I think you're going to get two developmental bullets with him because if he doesn't, if you don't like him as the receiving back, once you get him in the building, I think you can try him as a two to two at well type, take the top off the defense, whether it be in the slotter or even on the boundary. They played him at Delaware all the time, in the slot or in the ery, Okay, and he looks like a receiver.
Yeah.
They He had some of the funnest usage usage that you'll see, but his receiving skull it is like a receiver. He was one of the few players that the NFL requested at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, specifically that they work out at a different position. The NFL ask Marcus Yearns to work out at receiver, so you might get a guy where you get some of the usage with it. It's all receiving with him, but some of it out of the backfield, some of it with the slot. I think you're going to see really cool things with him at the next level.
All right, Well, we've worked in a couple extra guys. I don't know if we got to all twelve that we had talked about potentially getting to in this one, but this was still a ton of fun. My man, you are so good with the incoming rookie class, and I'm excited to talk to you more.
Can't wait.
Yeah, right, Thor, you are the best. You can see all of Thor's ongoing work fantasylife dot com and it definitely encourage you to check that out as well. Bye bye. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
