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The (Potential) 2020 Draft RB Class


Jeezla

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20 hours ago, Jeezla said:

Have to admit I'm disappointed Holyfield looks better than Swift for UGA so far. No sleight to Holyfield, who is a good or even very good prospect himself, but I thought Swift was going to be a super stud this year.

Looking like Jonathan Taylor is the creme of this RB crop through 3 weeks, but you do wonder what he'd look like running behind FSU's OL instead of Wisconsins OL, which is probably better than 5+ NFL OL's.

I also think we have to wait til next year to really see what Najee Harris has. He looks good when he gets opportunities but with D. Harris and Jacobs to also feed he just doesn't get a lot of touches.

Right now I think I rank them
Taylor
Harris
Dobbins
Akers

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Jonathan Taylor at 10 is ridiculous. He’s a top 3 pure runner, with an argument for RB1.

His contact balance and burst are legit. His two main worries are the carries he will already have on his body after a third monster season and his lack of receiving production. I’m not particularly bothered by the receiving. Gordon had 22 catches in three years out of there and has been nice in the nfl.

Travis Etienne has some freaky qualities. He is rapid and runs violently, but also with a lack of vision sometimes. I think he’ll improve with that and is also another that has more receiving ability than he has needed to show in college.

D’Andre Swift is an excellent prospect. Perfect RB name. Best dead leg move in the game (Jerry Jeudy has the best among WRs!). He is built like a three down back and has obvious dual threat qualities. 

Those are my top three backs. If forced to pick tomorrow which back I’d take first... it’s tough but I think I’d go for Swift. He has the most all-round things going for him that I look for out of a feature back.

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22 minutes ago, BleedTheClock said:

Why are people sleeping on Cam Akers? That dude is gonna be a superstar RB. 

Because his production the past two years have been sub par.  Has not been nearly as explosive in terms of getting big plays as he was expected to be.  Talented yes but has yet to actually put together a good season, sucks for him his OL is absolute trash but I would expect more dominating play out of him than what he has shown and more explosive plays.  Also hurts that he has been on trash FSU teams the past two seasons which is super rare.  They lost freaking 13 games the past two seasons and that has not happen at Florida State since the 1975 and 1976 seasons for back to back years where they lost 14 games over that span.  Was a span in the 2000's where they lost either 10 or 11 games in a two year window but never 13.  

They were bad that last year with Jimbo where the team seemed to quit and they were even worse this past year. 

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10 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Because his production the past two years have been sub par.  Has not been nearly as explosive in terms of getting big plays as he was expected to be.  Talented yes but has yet to actually put together a good season, sucks for him his OL is absolute trash but I would expect more dominating play out of him than what he has shown and more explosive plays.  Also hurts that he has been on trash FSU teams the past two seasons which is super rare.  They lost freaking 13 games the past two seasons and that has not happen at Florida State since the 1975 and 1976 seasons for back to back years where they lost 14 games over that span.  Was a span in the 2000's where they lost either 10 or 11 games in a two year window but never 13.  

They were bad that last year with Jimbo where the team seemed to quit and they were even worse this past year. 

look at when DLs get contact with the RBs. FSU has/had the worst OL in the country. There is not much you can do. Plus he injured himself vs VT I believe. Even as an FSU fan I can see I wish he would have went to LSU, Georgia or OSU because he absolutely would dominate there.

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1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

Because his production the past two years have been sub par.  Has not been nearly as explosive in terms of getting big plays as he was expected to be.  Talented yes but has yet to actually put together a good season, sucks for him his OL is absolute trash but I would expect more dominating play out of him than what he has shown and more explosive plays.  Also hurts that he has been on trash FSU teams the past two seasons which is super rare.  They lost freaking 13 games the past two seasons and that has not happen at Florida State since the 1975 and 1976 seasons for back to back years where they lost 14 games over that span.  Was a span in the 2000's where they lost either 10 or 11 games in a two year window but never 13.  

They were bad that last year with Jimbo where the team seemed to quit and they were even worse this past year. 

Exactly. FSU, particularly offensively, is a nightmare. Akers is the only redeeming thing about that team. Their OL is putrid and their QB play is about the same. Teams are loading up against Akers and teeing off against their OL. Can’t really blame him for that. Also, he’s not a Saquon Barkley that can bounce everything outside. He needs SOME semblance of blocking to make things happen. When he gets it, he is a monster. 

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1 hour ago, BleedTheClock said:

Exactly. FSU, particularly offensively, is a nightmare. Akers is the only redeeming thing about that team. Their OL is putrid and their QB play is about the same. Teams are loading up against Akers and teeing off against their OL. Can’t really blame him for that. Also, he’s not a Saquon Barkley that can bounce everything outside. He needs SOME semblance of blocking to make things happen. When he gets it, he is a monster. 

Akers is not the only player who runs behind a poor OL as a RB, just look at Dalvin Cook this last two years.   Had a talented group of potential OL blocking for him his freshman year but his SOPH and JR seasons, two years where he was far better and flat out dominant at times, only two players from those two OL cores were drafted in the NFL Roderick Johnson and Rick Leonard, Leonard is most likely going to be out of the NFL shortly and Johnson has not done much either.  So he did not have this amazing line blocking for him either but was crazy successful regardless and would have been even more so if he did not have the injury issues from time to time.  Kid was dominating out there especially that junior season.

Sure those were better teams with better defensive units that kept giving the offense the ball.  But Akers to me is not at the top of the list or even close compared to the other backs out there right now.  He needs to show up regardless of the blocking ahead of him.  You know any of the offensive line blocking for Barry Sanders on the Lions or even in college?  Great backs can make things happen regardless more often than not.  Good OL play helps of course but Akers if he was so athletic should be much more explosive in the passing game catching the football and much quicker to the hole and able to separate and make big plays in the open field running away from defenders.  Has show flashes of that but nothing consistently, will see if he can finally do that this season.  Again his lack of big play ability this past year was disappointing, possibly it was the scheme change but will see, generally Willie has good run units and run production.

There is something to be said about running through contract something Akers does not do all that well and making people miss, also something he does not do all that well.  More than a few backs could do that easily on Florida State with that blocking because they have that skill set and that is a needed skill set for the next level I feel.  So yeah some of it is on the back to make the defender miss or to run through them.

 

 

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