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NFL Draft Prep: A Loaded RB Class! Emory Hunt Gives His Favorite RBs (04/17 Fantasy Football Podcast)
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- [00:30]
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- [01:00]
Dave Richard
This is Fantasy football today from CBS Sports.
- [01:04]
Jamie Eisenberg
What a play.
- [01:05]
Dave Richard
Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
- [01:11]
Emory Hunt
Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. This is gonna go the distance.
- [01:15]
Dave Richard
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
- [01:21]
Emory Hunt
What's up, everybody? Welcome to fantasy football today. Oh, I am so excited for today's show. We have saved the best for last, which is probably my favorite Vanessa Williams song. Guys, if we want to. If we want to, you know, get into that. But we're talking running backs, the best position, at least of the skill positions in the NFL draft. And we've got Emory Hunt, arguably our best guest and a former running back here to break it down. Emery, what's going on? Follow him at F ball game plan on X or Twitter. And what. What have you been up to the last few months?
- [01:56]
Dave Richard
Oh, putting together this massive scouting guide. Where. And here's a. Here's the funny part, man. We talking running backs. I've graded 145 running backs where I have a sickness like, it's. It's insane.
- [02:07]
Emory Hunt
104. I was just saying before the show, I scouted 12 or 14 or whatever it was. You're 145, Dave, where you at? 144.
- [02:17]
Heath Cummings
Oh, no, I'm at 273. I saw a guy running through the grocery store parking lot. I find him at 4, 5, 5. Pretty decent contact balance. Had a gallon of milk in each hand. I think he might be able to be a good backup in the league.
- [02:34]
Emory Hunt
Was contact balance something we were saying 10 years ago?
- [02:39]
Dave Richard
No, absolutely not. You just call it break tackle ability.
- [02:42]
Emory Hunt
Yeah, I see. I hear it all the time now. But anyway, I want to. Want to welcome you all to the show. Jamie's here as well. We are really excited about this position. But also, you know, Jamie, Emory was saying before the show he might not. He wouldn't be surprised if some teams double up on running back in the draft. So it's like we're Excited for this class. But it also could create some confusion in fantasy drafts in terms of good running backs, you know, couple, you know, sharing a backfield with a veteran and there's a lot to be sorted out and determined. But a week, a week from now, well, I guess nine days from now, the NFL draft, the NFL fantasy landscape will look very different at this position.
- [03:23]
Jamie Eisenberg
You know, you're all over the place. When Adam says in the email about our notes, we have no notes today, we're just gonna wing it. That's how you can tell the way he's talking. First off, you can't call him our best guest if he's going to ruin our fantasy landscape like that by saying teams are going to take multiple running backs. Yeah. It would not surprise me at all if we see, you know, a team, let's say like Dallas or Denver or you know, any of these running back needy teams that you know, go early and then, you know, find something that they like that they scouted, that they get great value on know on day three. And now we have a whole new backfield essentially, you know, so it's, it's definitely there. And you know, then there's the 49ers who always take a running back. So maybe they take two also. So there will be probably a team or two that does that. And, and then we have to just sort of say, okay, that as we said yesterday, the Jalen Warren, love the, I forget who, some of the other guys but Najee Harris, you know, the, the signing there and, and the Chargers taking, you know, a guy or two to upgrade their backfield. You know, so those guys may not, they don't, they won't become irrelevant clearly, but they'll become problematic for, for what we like to talk about.
- [04:30]
Emory Hunt
All right, let's get into to the show. So let's start with this Emory. How good is Ashton Gente?
- [04:37]
Dave Richard
I think he's a solid back man and he's definitely a first round back. If I was to say is he better than, you know, Jameer Gibbs or Bijan Robinson, I wouldn't go that far. But you can't knock what he has done productivity wise. And listen, here's how I compare the whole thing. I compare it to the Barry Sanders E.M. smith comparison. When we all, you know, coming of age and we're watching the whole EMT Smith, Barry Sanders debate take place, you're like, well, I see why Barry Sanders is good. Like he has a wiggle, he has spe. Explosiveness, he's exciting. Why is Emma Smith this Good, because he does nothing flashy. Even Michael Irvin said it when they traded Hershel Walker for EMT Smith, essentially he was like, we got rid of Herschel walk for this dude, like this slow dude. But when you look at jy, it's a lot of that. But at the end of the day, there is value in his ability to have the stamina, the ability to break tackles and, and not just regular tackles where he's just sliding through tackles, but the fact that he looks dead in the water. You really can't bring him down. Elvin Kamara had that same type of lower body strength, is able just to plow through guys. So I just feel like Genti's consistency and, you know, functional power is really good and we haven't really tapped into his receiving ability. I have in my notes. He has excellent hands as a receiver. You, you can tell right away if a guy is natural as a pass catcher or if he's, you know, kind of like just hoping to catch the football. He's very much natural. So that's something that's going to be unlocked as he gets to the pros.
- [06:12]
Heath Cummings
I've said this before, Adam. It's one of my favorite little nuggets on Aston. Genti is in his first year playing high school football in America. It was in Lone Star High School in the Dallas area. He was first team all district at wide receiver.
- [06:30]
Emory Hunt
Yeah. Sorry, what?
- [06:34]
Jamie Eisenberg
Said he would be a first round pick at wide receiver.
- [06:37]
Emory Hunt
Who said that?
- [06:39]
Jamie Eisenberg
Genti. I. I think it was on K. Adam show that he would be a first round pick. A wide receiver.
- [06:43]
Emory Hunt
Yeah. He had 43 catches in 2023. Only 23 catches last year. All right, so he tried to get.
- [06:48]
Heath Cummings
Him the record in 2024. That's why he didn't catch as much.
- [06:51]
Emory Hunt
He. Yeah, and he almost did get the record second most rushing yards in a single season in college football history behind Barry Sanders. He had 2, 601 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns in 14 games. Un believable. And how. Okay, how good is this running back class in general? Emory?
- [07:09]
Dave Richard
I. I've said this and we talked about this off air. This Rivals 2017 class that had Christian McAffrey, Leonard Fournette, Alvin Kamara, Joe Mixon, Samaj P. Ryan, Tariq Cohen was in that class. Jamal Williams, Dvin Cook, Aaron Jones. That was a running back class. This class reminds me a lot of that one.
- [07:30]
Heath Cummings
Gets a mention he's still.
- [07:32]
Emory Hunt
In the league, man. You know, he's had a good career, but yeah, no, that was obviously an Amazing class. How many first round picks do you think we have? Two.
- [07:41]
Dave Richard
You know what, honestly, looking at it, I think we may see three because the wild card in this first round is Sean Payton and we've seen Sean Payton not be afraid to take it back in the first round. Reggie Bush was taking second overall. We saw him take Mark Ingram in the first round. Sean Payton does not shy away from taking backs. He also doesn't shy away from taking the high backs and refusing to give him the football. So we still may see him take a first round back and give, you know, every other back on the roster some opportunity. We saw this with Ingram, we saw this with Bush. Like, why are you just not leaving Bush in the game? So, so that's the wild card. I think Denver would be that third team. Chicago and Dallas I think are the other two that could end up taking backs.
- [08:22]
Emory Hunt
And so Genti, Hampton and Henderson.
- [08:27]
Dave Richard
Henderson would be the guy off the board.
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Emory Hunt
I like Travion Henderson. Emery.
- [08:33]
Dave Richard
What's going to get him on the field early is his elite trait of pass pro. So if you're on the field now, you, hey, we kind of got to give him the ball. When you give him the ball, like, oh, he's actually pretty doggone explosive. So he is the, the underrated complete back in the class.
- [08:49]
Emory Hunt
Yeah, he's 5 10, 202 pounds. Ran a 44345 star recruit. Trayvon Henderson shared the backfield with Quintean Judkins at Ohio State. All right, let's get a top five from, from Emory and from Dave, top five running backs. Emery.
- [09:04]
Dave Richard
All right, so we talked about Genty Hampton. I, I have a half point grade higher for Genty. So Hampton and Ginty are right there for me. Then the tenderson. And then here's where it gets interesting guys, because I am a big fan of his vision. I think he has the best vision in the, in the draft class. And that's Trevor Etn out of Georgia. And rounded out number five, the explosive game breaker, very Chris Johnson. Like to borrow that comp from our colleague Brian McFadden. Jaden Blue.
- [09:32]
Emory Hunt
Oh, wow. Okay. So Dave, how about you? We got Genti Hampton, Travyon Henderson, Trevor Etn and Jaden Blue for Emory. How about you, Dave?
- [09:41]
Heath Cummings
I see it with Jaden Blue. I don't have him in my top five just yet. Genti is going to be number one. I've got Henderson second, Hampton's third, Quinshot Judkins fourth. Don't really have a fifth. I, I'm not blown away by the Samsons, the, the Caleb Johnsons, the Scatterbos. I, I'm a little bit worried about which one of those guys could actually end up making a difference in the NFL. So I, I, I don't have a fifth yet, but those are my top four.
- [10:08]
Emory Hunt
And so you're basically going to let the NFL draft figure that out for you. And look at the landing spot, Dave, and, and go from there. And that's kind of how I felt. You know, just like I said to Emery before this, I don't, I mean, I don't really know. This is why we have Emery on.
- [10:23]
Jamie Eisenberg
Right.
- [10:23]
Emory Hunt
I don't know if D.J. giddens is going to be better than R.J. harvey and whatnot. So we'll, we'll see what the NFL draft has to say about it. Tell me about Trevor Etienne and Jaden Blue. Emory.
- [10:34]
Dave Richard
Kareem Hunt was also in that draft class too, in 2017. That's crazy.
- [10:39]
Heath Cummings
It's easier to tell us who wasn't in that draft.
- [10:41]
Dave Richard
Bingo. For ecn. It's, it's funny watching his, his tape because the, the vision I, I compared to, it's like if we're all sitting atop in the upper decks of the stadium and we're seeing the run play play out and we're saying, oh, the hole is over here, he should and he hits it right. So he's seeing it real time while being field level as opposed to us to having that 10,000 foot view level of the play. So it's always in conjunction with the run, with the blocking. So it shows you he understands offense. He understands how to, you know, be slow too fast through that whole running back situation of, you know, how to be patient and really explode through the whole accelerate. And I like how he finishes runs like he finds a way to fall forward. And especially when he gets near the goal line. He really has a good sense for putting the ball in the paint. So the vision combined with the patience and the footwork, he may not be the most explosive like his brother, but he definitely has a vision and the balance and the finishing ability near the goal line.
- [11:40]
Heath Cummings
Do you see him as a Taij Spears type of back, Emory?
- [11:43]
Dave Richard
I see him more along the lines of not spear. Spears has a little bit more juice. I would say ETN is more along the lines of I don't think he has the juice of this guy, but kind of the same, sees it the same way. Josh Jacobs, like they got good vision, speed, kind of tops out a little bit pass pro. I would say both guys are A work in progress, but they do attack a half man, you know, better and just kind of get in the way, which is all you can ask for as a back. But I would say he's more Josh Jacobs than Tajie Spears.
- [12:19]
Emory Hunt
And give me a scouting report on Jaden Blue out of Texas.
- [12:23]
Dave Richard
If you blink, you missed him. That's how explosive and his acceleration is. So he's one of those guys that you can see in a San Francisco 49ers outside zone scheme where he presses that edge, and if you slow play him, he's going to beat you around the corner. He's going to go. He's also very good at catching the ball out of the backfield, but because of his acceleration and in speed, you can get him involved in a downfield passing game very much on that Jeff Wilson type of ability where he has, like, tremendous, like, quickness and twitch. The problem is, you know, with some fast guys like that, they tend to go down so easily. So he has to be stronger through contact, still has room to kind of add mass to his body and pass pro. He's a liability. So let's just, you know, we'll say that. So he definitely has to get better there. But in terms of the playmaking ability, we saw that a lot when he was given the opportunity. But he has to be able to break tackles a little bit better or run through contact a little bit better in order to be that sustained guy. So right now he's probably going to end up being that compliment to someone's feature back.
- [13:30]
Emory Hunt
So what's the difference between Jaden Blue, who you have fifth, and let's say Rashard Smith out of smu, who's got similar build and one year as a running back, was very good at smu. And Tootin out of Virginia Tech is another small guy that a lot of people like. What separates Jaden Blue from. From those guys?
- [13:50]
Dave Richard
Blue is more of a natural runner. And that's a great question because Blue to me has the. You could tell Blue is a running back by. By trade, as opposed to converting from another position to running back. And that's what you see with Smith. So that tell, obviously that tells you Smith has, you know, some upside because he's still learning the position. Kelly Joyner out of South Florida is another one of those guys that played receiver and then moved to running back. And I feel like Joyner has a little bit more of the edge there because he's done it a little bit longer than Smith. But also when you think about Tootin was at North Carolina A and T was outstanding there and we know he has to kick off return ability. So when you are a kickoff returner that tells you about your speed and your ability to see a lane and just accelerate through it, there's not much creation that's involved. So for Tootin, he has to be a little bit more cognitive of, you know, how to be patient, how to find the right lane, how to press the hole and all of those things that come with time. But, but a lot of times in these offenses we're seeing guys with the zone read the holes are kind of already there for them, so you can't just, you can't blame them for doing what's there and just exploiting through. But if it's clogged up, he won't be able to create, in my opinion.
- [15:05]
Emory Hunt
All right, Jamie, any takes on the running backs? Anyone you want to bring up?
- [15:10]
Jamie Eisenberg
Oh, I have a lot of questions for Emery. I don't, I don't want to step on your toes, so.
- [15:14]
Emory Hunt
All right, we'll take a break and come back and let Jamie ask Emery a question. I want to get some more running back ranking. We're going to talk about a lot of guys today, too, and I think what, what fantasy managers want to know is, is who has, who has the fantasy starter potential. So, you know, they don't want the guys who are going to be getting 10 touches a game. They want the guys are going to emerge as stars. So we'll find that out as well. All right, we'll be right back on fantasy football today.
- [15:38]
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- [16:10]
Jamie Eisenberg
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Dave Richard
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Jamie Eisenberg
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Heath Cummings
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- [16:39]
Emory Hunt
All right, Jamie, you have questions. Emory has answers. Go ahead.
- [16:43]
Jamie Eisenberg
Two guys that really intrigued me. Cam Scatterboo and RJ Harvey. Your thoughts on those two guys and maybe a comp and a fit that you think makes sense in the NFL.
- [16:53]
Dave Richard
RJ Harvey. Now here's the comp I have for Harvey. There's two comps. I'm looking at my notes here. For Harvey, it is mostly a stylistic comp body wise. Kind of reminds me of Leon Washington who started with the jets in Seattle. I love his elusiveness and I love his explosiveness once he hits the open lane so he's able to make the guy miss and then boom, he's gone and pull away from defenders. I think he is criminally underrated in this draft class. And I love the fact that talking about a guy in Ash and Jensen being RB1 at 58215 because Harvey at 58205 is right there in the mix. You can't knock Harvey for his size if you're parading as Genti as RB1, you know. So I like that. So that shows you Harvey. And Harvey has done well every time he's faced a a bigger team or better defense or whatnot. He has. He was the most consistent piece on offense at ucf. And then when you think about someone like Scaboo, we saw him two things gonna hurt Scatter Boo. People gonna be concerned about his age because you know he was a star at Sacramento State and then you look at what he did at Arizona State and then you also come his style. Like he takes on a lot of contact and you can't he even though he has a little bit more elusiveness from a lateral agility standpoint than Ashton Genti does. But at the end of the day he is still a bullish runner. Like he looks to looks for the contact in the open field. That's going to yield itself to him being more of an RB2 on a team, more of a closer or four minute guy as opposed to a leadoff guy. But I do like the fact that in the playoffs we saw Scatter Boo's receiving skills downfield capability be a little bit more highlighted as opposed to just your meet Texas expectations, swing screens, flares and flats. So I see more of a RB2 for scatterable but I also see more of a a pathway for RB1 for a guy like RJ Harvey.
- [18:50]
Emory Hunt
I got a comment in the chat. Scatter Boo is CMC meets Mike Allstot. He's a tough dude. I mean that my. I think of all the runs I've watched, I, I yesterday and today, it was the first time I watched running back. So yesterday and today I probably watched six hours of running backs in this class. He has my favorite run. It's first and goal from the one or something in goal from the one. He gets a carry against Cincinnati. He's immediately met by two defenders in the backfield. They've got him at about the five yard line. He somehow gets away from both of them. He scores a touchdown and on his way in, he trucks a third defender, runs him over. This is Cam Scatter Bove out of Arizona State. I mean this, you can't help but love watching him play, right? But he ran a 4, 6, 5 at his pro day. Reportedly he ran about a 4, 5, 5 in a private workout for scouts. There's a huge difference there. And you just don't like 4, 6, 5. You talked about Kareem Hunt. That's an example of a guy who ran something like that. I think he ran a 4, 6 3. 4, 6, 5 is really slow. So I do think people are going to be worried about that. And you mentioned his age. Just want to mention RJ Harvey is also RJ Harvey's 24. I think he's one of the oldest guys we're going to talk about. So scatter was 23. Dave, what do you think about those guys, Scatterboo and Harvey?
- [20:09]
Heath Cummings
I, I tend to agree with Emery on Scatterboo being like a 1B type of back where he's the thunder and a Thunder and Lightning, but he can catch and, and he can do all kinds of other things that. Pass protection, for example. I think he's good at that. I think he could get even better. I think he'd get better at everything. But the one thing he'll never get better at is being fast. And so not having that long speed. That's. That's going to be an issue that defenses will be able to key in on him and they'll just try and tee off on him. I think Harvey's got a little bit more of that speed to go along with his size. I mean, it's kind of obvious when, when you watch him play and you know that he's got that gear. I like that he's got those two last two years at UCF just absolutely dominated and he, he's got to get better on passing downs. Maybe these two together would be an interesting duo in the league where Harvey's your leadoff guy, right? Emery kind of thinking like that. And then you use Scatterboo as a grinder, short yardage, maybe third downs. It kind of makes sense that those are the roles that those guys go into. But I agree with Emory. RJ Harvey's the one that has the better path to being a full time back in the league.
- [21:20]
Emory Hunt
Jamie, when you look at a guy like Scatterboo, right, Takes on some contact, not going to run away from guys. Maybe Caleb Johnson, who did make a lot of big plays, we had a 4, 5, 7 than 40. He's 6 1, he's 224. Damian Martinez out of Miami, more of a bruiser. So let's, let's call them the David Montgomery or something like that, right? Where do you want to see a guy like that go? And how about Chicago? All right. I mean, to, to Ben Johnson's offense where they could use a guy like that, but think about a guy that would be a first and second down type of player. Take on a lot of contact. And I don't want to pigeonhole Scatterboon into not playing on third downs. But I'm just saying one of those bigger types of running backs, where do you want to see somebody like that go? For fantasy purposes?
- [22:04]
Jamie Eisenberg
I mean, the three teams that make some sense I think would be Chicago would be one, you know, could be a good complement with DeAndre Swift. And like you said, Ben Johnson sort of had that one, two punch clearly much different, but had that one, two punch in Detroit. I think of the Raiders. Clearly there's a need for anybody there to come into play. But you know, where, where sort of the, the jump point, jumping off point came for Pete Carroll was when he had Marshawn lynch and that physical style runner with the Seahawks. You know, once he got that, you know, the, the ball rolling in terms of, you know, making them a perennial playoff contender. It was the, the beast mode run, you know, in the, in the playoffs. And then Russell Wilson came and made them a Super bowl contender. And then I think you look at Pittsburgh obviously with the whole of Najee Harris being gone and what Jalen Warren may or may not be as a lead guy, but certainly we've seen him have a lot of success as the second guy. And I think we're all excited to see maybe do in that role. But you know, right now their top two running backs are Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. And you could talk all about, you know, they're, they're both very good in pass protection, but can they replace Naji Harris as that physical runner. And, you know, I know you, Adam, for example, obviously have talked a lot about the drawbacks of Naji and the lack of big plays, but he does have the ability to fall forward as opposed to necessarily falling backward more times than not. So for a guy like Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith and what they're probably looking for, you know, so it's kind of why I mentioned yesterday that if they go past the draft, because their lack of draft capital, you still have a Nick Chubb out there. You still have a J.K. dobbins out there. You know, those two guys make a lot of sense if they are unable to necessarily get a premier back in this class as opposed to just maybe settling for somebody later in the. In the day. Day two, day, excuse me, day three, range of, you know, someone who can fill a role, not necessarily step into a role.
- [23:49]
Emory Hunt
Emery, how good is Omarion Hampton, who seems to be close to the consensus number two running back in this class two straight years with over 1500 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns, 5.9 yards per carry both seasons. He's 6 foot 220 and he ran a 4, 4, 6. He had a terrific combine. What do you think about Hampton? How good is he?
- [24:13]
Dave Richard
I think he's really good, man. I feel like everyone got on board with Hampton when they were studying Drake Maytate because you started to see the back like, man, who's this dude, like 28, nice. And you know, you watched him be a good piece of that offense that was searching for playmakers, right? He was the playmaker. And then this year you saw him just continue to elevate his game. Sort of DeMarco Murray, like, with a little bit more fluidity, but one cut downhill, explosiveness and go. He has a nice smooth stride, so he's able to pick up those jars and chunks. And I think that's the kind of guy that coaches, as much as we love to give coaches and coordinators credit for being, you know, evolved, you know, in terms of how they view things. They still view things from a meat and potatoes perspective, right? They'll always view a guy like Amari and Hampton as. That's the feature back, right? So that's why those guys you talked about, like the Caleb Johnsons, the Damon Martinez even, you know, down to someone like a Jaquinden Jackson, Ali Gordon, they'll look at those guys, be like, okay, this is my feature back, and we'll let these other guys, these other shorter guys and smaller guys be our scat back. Change the pace, satellite guys, right? Even Though sometimes it should be inversed. But when you think about Hampton and he has a contact balance, he bounces off a lot of tackles. He also has the body lean. That's why he's able to run through arm tackles and also not lose acceleration. So I think he is closer to RB1 than many people are giving him credit for. Some people may have him as RB1, and I'm not disputing that. But also I can understand why if some people do have him that as the starter back, even some teams may view him as RB1.
- [25:50]
Jamie Eisenberg
I, I while we're on Hampton, just because it seems like he's the one getting mocked the most to the Broncos at 20 and you said three guys and, and Payton being sort of the wild card there. So do you think that Genti and Hampton are off the board before 20 and just how you're viewing the players in the class and the team's needs?
- [26:09]
Dave Richard
I think so, Jamie. What makes me feel that way is because of how you kind of perceive the draft to fall and Chicago, because of what they did in free agency, they really have the luxury of going up and targeting a specific guy. There's no immediate holes on Chicago's team because they invested so much in their holes in free agency with starters, especially on the O line and D line. So it's like, okay, we could take pick 10 and go up to pick whoever we think. Let's say that you think the Raiders are going to take Ashton Jenty, right? Let's go up to five with Jacksonville and get Gente because we have essentially the luxury of doing that with the pick, with the 10th pick in Jacksonville. Let's say they want to take Mason Graham, probably could get Mason Graham. Mason Graham at 10 as opposed to spend a top five pick on it. So if you're Chicago, you have that luxury. So if that's the case, let's say Chicago moves up and takes Jitty. Dallas is like, well, we got to get, they took the best back. We got to get the, the next best back. You may see them move up to go get Hampton, you know, and so that kind of pushes that, that run on, on backs, which could open up the door for a team like Denver to either take him at 20 or maybe they trade back into the first, you know, so, so I can see a scenario like that where someone takes the first back early and then the other team that needs it back. Although Dallas could use a wide out as well, I can see that happening to where the Broncos say, well, why not? You know, let's just grab a guy right here that we kind of like, makes sense.
- [27:45]
Heath Cummings
All right, I've got a question about Hampton for you. Emory Processing and pad level. Do you see issues with either of those things with Hampton?
- [27:57]
Dave Richard
I don't. I think the, the knock I have on him is that he takes on far too much contact. Right. At some times, it's like a, It's. I know Jerome Bettis talked about this before, where the running back. He was with the Rams. He had to change when he became a Steeler. It's like, I can't keep taking on every piece of contact. I'm not going. I'm beat up. After my second year, he goes to Pittsburgh. He has a little wiggle, but it helps him sustain his durability. I feel like Hampton. Okay, we got it, dude. You proved the point. Make that first guy miss, bro. Like, there's no need to run through him. You know what I'm saying? There's no more 19 year olds out there in the NFL, you know, or in the NFL, like, try to make a guy miss or, or give him a half a body to, To, To. To tack or to hit as opposed to taking on full contact and a little bit of more patience he needs to add. But I'm. I, you know, I, I'm not worried about his pad level. I think that's what helps him. But the taking on too much contact, being a little bit more judicious in that regard is where I feel like he has to grow.
- [29:01]
Heath Cummings
Okay. Because what I see with him is there are far too many plays where after he gets the ball, he's got that Le'Veon Bell style pause in the backfield. And I, I don't know if that's like, you know, purposely trying to be patient and judiciously waiting for Elaine to open up or if he's just not sure about what he's seeing. And I. And that combined with the fact that he's a big target. All right, he's a big guy. It makes me nervous that he'll take on a lot of contact in the backfield and not have a lot of runs of like, plus 3 and 4 yards. Those runs turn into 012 yard gains. But there are also plays on this film where he doesn't have that hesitation and he just takes off and he's just seeing it. It's so clear, it's so evident. And that's the guy that I wonder if teams can try and just work on with him so that he can be a lot more fluid. Once he gets the ball, things are more defined for him and he doesn't have to take that little. That little half step, that hesitation that I've seen a lot of when he gets the ball. I'm wondering if you had seen that too.
- [30:05]
Emory Hunt
And I just want to cut in and just add one more player to this discussion, Dave, because I was. I was actually going to bring this up with RJ Harvey. I also saw the same thing from Harvey. A lot of stutter step and then go. And he made a lot of big plays out of it. He averaged 6.7 yards per carry for UCF. But yeah, I did want Embry's take on that, because then I looked at Ashton Genti and I don't really see that Astin Genti gets the ball. He goes. He runs over people, runs around. What do you. Do you like that? I mean, is that a good thing when a running back is taking that little stutter step in the backfield? What. What is going on there?
- [30:36]
Dave Richard
There's a. There's a fine line to skate there because when you think about Brashard Smith, he does it in an extreme case where he literally, like stops his feet to try to. But that's the case of a wide receiver trying to play running back. With Hampton and with Genty, it kind of peaked behind the. The curtain a little bit and say, okay, maybe we're asking them to do something that doesn't jive with their skill set. Some backs are better gap runners. Like, you know, hey, 34 dive, boom, three back four hole, I'm gone, right? Or more inside zone, where you're only reading a gap to a gap or a, you know, slightly B to. To backside B. That's about it. Outside zone between attack, right? You got a little bit more options. And that process of analysis creates like, man, there's too much to. I can go here, here, here. Now you guys, you find out your feet are stopping, right? So I feel like, I think Genti would be best in, you know, between the tackles, inside zone or gap, getting these guys to go outside that don't really have that patience or that fluidity within their decision, which is why I'm a big fan of Trevor Etienne and what he does from a vision perspective, because he see he's able to do both, but he's also able to tie it up with the patience as well. So I think it's more along the lines of having these guys in the right scheme, run game scheme. And you. You hope that these dudes making these decisions and drafting these Guys and putting them on their team is not trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, because we've seen that a lot at the NFL level, too.
- [32:15]
Emory Hunt
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that update because I do notice that for some running backs, and I wonder if it's going to translate to the next level.
- [32:20]
Heath Cummings
And it's something where landing spot will matter, and obviously it matters across the board. But who's going to be coaching these running backs? Is it. Is it a. Is it a coach who has gotten a running back to change his style and been successful with it in the past? You know, it doesn't have to be Bobby Turner or anything like that, but it's got to be a coach that has gotten a running back and made him a better player. And that's why I think that's. That's the key to Hampton for me. Like, he's got the skills, but if he can really refine his game, he could. He could be almost as good as Genti. I'm crazy about Genti, so I think he could be almost as good as Jetty. But right now I think there's some. There's some things that he's got to work on.
- [33:03]
Emory Hunt
Emory, if I did, you know, if I entered the scouting world and I put out my rankings for the first time ever and I had Travion Henderson out of Ohio State as my number one running back, would the industry laugh at me?
- [33:18]
Dave Richard
Probably. Because, listen, I. I've been on that side where I had Genti one, Genti one, Gibbs won one year, I had Jashan Corbin one, one year, I had who I had one in my top five. I had Tariq Cohen. But sometimes you gotta let things play out. And so. But you could make a legitimate case for Henderson being RB1. So, Bill, the people laugh at you because it would be abnormal. But if you look at it like, it won't be that bad of a take when we let things play out right, because you talk about someone that has home run hitting speed, right? Check. You talk about someone that has gotten better with his vision. He put it all together this year because last year he was missing a lot of opportunities and he didn't see it properly. But this year we saw him tie in his agility with his footwork and his vision. And then the pass pro. So. And we always talk about what gets you on the field first. It's the pass pro as a rookie and the skill set. So it's like I can see him being RB1, and so it's not that Wild of a take, but people will, because it's not the consensus that everyone puts out what everyone else is thinking type of rankings and mocks.
- [34:33]
Emory Hunt
Right, right, right.
- [34:33]
Dave Richard
And it'll, it'll, it'll ruffle some feathers. But when you're right, nobody will bring up the fact that you had Henderson RB1.
- [34:41]
Jamie Eisenberg
And isn't it more of like Henderson that he never had more than 16 carries in a game?
- [34:45]
Dave Richard
This is a. And that's a good question because I was in the studio the other day yesterday with, with Beanie Wells, former Ohio State great, our colleague over here at cbs, and we was talking about how when Henderson came to Ohio State, he was billed as the next great. And he tried to give him that, that role early in his career. He just couldn't seize it. Right. And then you saw other backs like Mike Weber, you saw Mayan Williams, you know, then you see, you know, them go out and grab a quin shot Junkins Jenkins to go. And so it's like he couldn't really kind of push forward as the guy. So maybe we saw to your question, maybe we saw him as potentially, hey, maybe he is just a complimentary guy. Maybe he is a 1B or 1A to somebody's 1B or 1B to somebody's 1A and not be the feature guy. I think his case might specifically have to go to a certain team. Yeah, right. You know, I think his is more, you know, the, the Shanahan, you know, McVeigh Tree. Right. As opposed to saying he's gonna go to Dan Quinn offense or Cliff Kingsbury offense and, and be good on his own there. So that's where it was funny because we were just having that discussion yesterday about, you know, how he came into Ohio State and he was a five star, highly touted, this is the next great Ohio State back, and just never materialized that. But he also became a very good runner.
- [36:19]
Jamie Eisenberg
I don't know how many examples there are of this, but I wonder if that will raise any red flags if. Let's just say he falls around two and Judkins falls around two and the Raiders pass on both if they don't take a running back in round one knowing that Chip Kelly had them.
- [36:37]
Emory Hunt
True.
- [36:38]
Heath Cummings
That's interesting.
- [36:39]
Jamie Eisenberg
And you know, does he say, okay, I had enough or not a good fit, or Pete Carroll, you know, and, and front office there say, you know, okay, we like them, but no, but that. Those things are always interesting to me about, you know, whenever there's a college coach coming into the league and they're like, you know, I'm, I'm good.
- [36:55]
Heath Cummings
Sure. But it could also be like, what do the Raiders really need? And they, I don't know.
- [37:01]
Jamie Eisenberg
I'm sorry. Let me, let me retract. If they take a different running back.
- [37:05]
Emory Hunt
Oh, yeah, that would be a red flag. All right, let's take a quick break. I want to talk, I'm talking round two.
- [37:12]
Jamie Eisenberg
Obviously, if they have a chance to take Genti, they're taking Genti.
- [37:14]
Heath Cummings
Right. But okay, so you're saying in round two, they take anybody but those two.
- [37:19]
Jamie Eisenberg
Right. They're both on the board and they.
- [37:22]
Heath Cummings
Say, you know what, they opt for somebody else.
- [37:23]
Emory Hunt
Right.
- [37:24]
Heath Cummings
Yeah. Okay then that would be very interesting.
- [37:27]
Emory Hunt
I've got to take a quick break. I want to talk more about Judkins, some statistics on him and we'll be right back. There's so many more guys to discuss. Dylan Sampson and DJ Giddens, Caleb Johnson, etc. We'll be right back.
- [37:41]
Jamie Eisenberg
Emery, the, the Hurricanes guy hates Martinez.
- [37:44]
Emory Hunt
Not hate. But yeah, I want to talk about him too. We'll be right back. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for 15amonth plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com.
- [38:06]
Dave Richard
Switch upfront payment of $45 for three.
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Jamie Eisenberg
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- [38:16]
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- [38:48]
Emory Hunt
All right, so Dave, you have Judkins fourth. Emory, you did not have him in your top five. I'll get six through ten. Why don't we get six through ten and then we'll talk more about Judkins here. Judkins, six, six foot two hundred and twenty one pounds. Ran a four, four, eight forty. That's really good. Had a very good ten yard split. Kind of gets me is like, he. He averaged what, 5.7 yards per carry. And Travion Henderson averaged 7.1. No, sorry. He averaged 5.5 yards per carry. Trayvon Henderson average 7.1 in the Big Ten. This is what really gets me in the Big Ten. Quintean Judkins averaged 4.2 yards per carry, so he's obviously beaten up on the inferior opponents in the Big Ten. Trayveon Henderson averaged 6.5 yards per carry, so kind of a hard case to make for Judkins. I know he's a lot bigger than. Than Henderson, but much less efficient. And by the way, I just want to go Henderson. Jamie, you said he never had more than 16 carries. He did in previous seasons. In 2024, he actually never had more than 12 carries in a game. But I think he has five career games. Henderson with 20 or more carries. But you're right to point out that they did reduce his workload. All right, so before I get to Judkins, your thoughts on him, give me six through ten in your rankings.
- [40:01]
Dave Richard
Emery, number six is Devin Neal, number seven is RJ Harvey. Number eight, we have Damian Martinez. Number nine, Cam Scatter Boo. Number ten is Quinshawn Juckins. Wow.
- [40:15]
Emory Hunt
Okay, Dave, you have six through ten.
- [40:17]
Heath Cummings
I don't have a six through ten.
- [40:19]
Emory Hunt
Okay, that makes sense. So. So top ten for every five, but.
- [40:26]
Jamie Eisenberg
I got six through 22. I mean, I just don't like that five.
- [40:28]
Emory Hunt
Yeah, you guys have the same top three of Genti, Hampton, Henderson, and then four Judkins for Dave, ten Judkins for. For Emory. Emory has Trevor Etn, Jaden Blue at four five, and then Devin Neal, RJ Harvey, Damian Martinez, Cam Scatterboo, and Quinchon Judkins at six through ten. All right, so now let's talk about Judkins here. And Dave, you're higher on him. So you like him.
- [40:54]
Heath Cummings
I do. I think he can be a 1A back. I think he can work in any type of scheme. I think he's patient. I think he's strong. I think he's well balanced. There's room for development as far as receiving goes, but he's capable there. I. I think that he just. I. I don't. For whatever reason, I don't think he chose to use his agility as much in. In college and especially last year than he should have.
- [41:18]
Emory Hunt
He.
- [41:19]
Heath Cummings
He tried to be a little bit more of a physical back. Overall, speed is really what's going to slow him down and keep him from being. I don't think he's going to get picked ahead of Henderson. I don't think he's going to get picked out of Hampton. Wouldn't surprise me if a couple of other running backs got picked up out of him because he doesn't have that long speed. I think that that's going to be an issue that teams are going to be turned off by when it comes to Judkins. But three years of good productivity with two different programs, two years at Ole Miss, one year at Ohio State and I think what teams might not like about his speed, they'll like his character, they'll like his versatility, they'll like his strength. And I think he can be a capable, serviceable back as, like I said, like a 1A back. Like, I'd rather have him than Scatterboo if I'm looking for someone to handle first and second downs.
- [42:09]
Dave Richard
Emory, just to give full disclosure. So he's number 10 and my number one back has a 80.5 grade. Number 10 has 77. So you think about the. That's why when we talked earlier about the depth of this class, you know, this is still a very good back. What I want to see, you know, Judkins improve on is his patience. Like there's a lot of times where he is hitting the hole before it opens and he's crashing into his blockers or crashing unnecessarily into defenders and just a half second more of waiting until, especially when you see it more prevalent when he has pulling linemen, you kind of want to let those guys get around and then you hop in their hip pocket, you ride the wave, as we call it, let those guys get outside and you ride that. You can either cut it back inside where the screaming linebackers have already scraped over top or they've cleared out two additional defenders. Now you could a. You could accelerate past them and then use your speed. But I feel like the patience to the hole is it has to get better. And that could happen with either taking a step back, you know, maybe getting your depth to seven and a half as opposed to seven or six and a half just so you could see it a little bit earlier. Therefore you could then time it up perfectly or just work on slowing down and not being as aggressive to hit the hole. And you know, the speed part is quite is interesting because we saw him rip off of off a 90 something yard run against Marshall and then we saw him do the big run against in the playoff game and so it was like, all right, so it is there, but he could probably rip off More long runs if the patience is there as well. Yeah.
- [43:59]
Jamie Eisenberg
Emory, as a, as a former running back and a running back guru, how would you define a long run?
- [44:06]
Dave Richard
Listen, I would say a long run is, That's a good question. I say probably like 40 yards, right?
- [44:14]
Emory Hunt
Wow.
- [44:15]
Dave Richard
Because anything outside of that is endurance and angles. You know, now how quickly you get to the 40 yards, that's the difference between the game breaker, game breaking speed and someone that just has good speed. Because there was this, and I used to use this. I used to spend before Twitter became a thing. Message boards used to be a thing. And I remember as a Dating yourself.
- [44:39]
Jamie Eisenberg
You're dating yourself now.
- [44:40]
Dave Richard
I'm very much so. Die hard Saints fan growing up and in my earlier years of professional world in this business, I'm arguing back and forth with Saints fans on the message board. This before football game plan, I started in 07. So I'm arguing with them because it's like Reggie Bush can't, you know, break long runs. So, like, listen, man, he can. There's. I said, if you look at Jerome Bettis, right, Jerome Bettis has had at that time the long, longer runs than Reggie Bush. His longest run was 65 yards. Bush longest run at that time was like 22. I was like, we can all see that Reggie Bush is faster than Jerome Bettis, right? Like, so it shows you that the long runs happen when you work a little bit more patient within the, the run game. And so that's the thing with, with long run, sometimes it's about patience more so than it is about raw speed.
- [45:31]
Jamie Eisenberg
Well, the reason I asked, because Adam defines long runs by like 12 and a half yards, so.
- [45:35]
Emory Hunt
No, that. What are you talking about?
- [45:37]
Jamie Eisenberg
Like, you know, whenever he's deciding to azer stat it, you know, if he likes the guy and he goes like, you know, 13 yards, he's like, oh, he's got such good, you know, long speed. And then if he goes like, you know, 11 yards, he's like, he never breaks any long runs.
- [45:48]
Emory Hunt
No, I, I actually for these running backs, I looked at runs of 20 or more yards. And I looked at not all the guys that you heard in Emory's top 10, but 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 running backs. And the guys who had the best rate of carries of 20 or more yards. Caleb Johnson. I didn't say this on the air, did I? I said it off the air. I don't think I said this yet. Right.
- [46:12]
Heath Cummings
Say it again.
- [46:12]
Emory Hunt
Okay. Caleb Johnson had the highest rate. DJ Giddens was second. They both had a carry of 20 or more yards on more than 8% of their carries. RJ Harvey was third, Travion Henderson fourth. Ashton Genti fifth. I would say the worst two were Cam Scatterboo and this one really stands out by far the worst. Quintean Judkins.
- [46:36]
Heath Cummings
Yes.
- [46:38]
Emory Hunt
So though. So the best were. The best in terms of runs of 20 or more yards were Caleb Johnson, D.J. giddens, and I would say R.J. harvey were the three, like real standouts, followed closely by Trayvon Henderson, Ashton Genti, maybe one or two other guys. The worst was, was Quinch on Judkins and also Cam Scatter. Boo was pretty bad here too. And I was, I was disappointed in, in Dylan Sampson, 4.7%. You know, I feel like Sampson at his build should be. Should be ripping off bigger runs than that out of Tennessee. I want to get to him. I had a question here in the chat about Caleb Johnson. Interesting guy. I was pretty high on him last time. We talked about running backs like a month and a half ago, but I don't know. He had the worst 10 yard split of all running backs. Not a great 40 time, like 4, 5, 7 or something. He's big, right? He's like over 220 pounds. So this question from Ricky, between Quintean Judkins and Caleb Johnson, who's more likely to fall into the fourth round? I did find it interesting that. That Johnson a much better home run hitter than Kate, than Quinton Judkins. But I don't, I don't see anybody who has Johnson ranked higher than Judkins. Including you, Emory. What do you think about Caleb Johnson?
- [47:47]
Dave Richard
I think Johnson is the one more likely to fall to the fourth round. And this is. I always tell the story because this was, this was pretty interesting. So during the season you're seeing tweets about, oh, Caleb Johnson, Caleb Johnson, the Iowa back boy. Gotta. I sound like I hadn't watched him yet because I'm covering NFL, also covering college football, but also preparing for a broadcast. So I had a broadcast this Saturday and it just so happened that I'm in the hotel. Just so happened that that Friday night was this 9:00 kickoff for Iowa and UCLA. Like, all right, cool. Let me watch this. This Iowa back. Everybody talk about probably the worst game I could have picked to watch live for kill. I'm like, this the dude they talking about. Like they like they stuffing him in the backfield. And so I'm like, man, like either. But also that's when I became A big fan of swing J. Like Whoever's wearing this ugly 49 on defense is a MAZ, you know what I'm saying? So I was like man, this, this the guy that they're talking about. So now I, I earmark that and then so when I go study him, I see why certain things happen. So what I do like about him, he is someone that he, if the hole is there, he will find it, whether it's in, whether it's outside zone, gap, crack, toss, whatever it is. So he's not going to go broke making a profit, right? He's going to always fall for, always get those yards. What happens is, and this is the issue I had with Brian Thomas Thompson in Washington is if you beat him to the spot, it's over. So he's not going to be able to hit the cutback, he's not going to be able to bounce back across, you know, the, the, the, the formation and hit the back side, you know, a gap or B gap. Right. He's a primarily front side runner and beating him to the spot bottles him up in the backfield and he's going to have to make a physical decision to, you know, plow through some defenders to get positive yards. And when you look at some of these big runs that he's had, you talk about whiteboard execution where we drawing up my ex blocks your. Oh, here he's going to kick him out here. It's perfectly. I, I graded a game. I was grading the Illinois State edge rusher and so in the Illinois State safety. So obviously I'm gonna watch their game versus Iowa. He had a long run in that game. I'm like, wow, this is the most beautifully blocked. It was almost like a seal here and a seal here. You're running the ball. It was like that, it was like man, they blocked this thing perfectly. So he was unaccept from the, he got touched in a huddle and then after that no one touched him on en route to like a 40 yard touchdown run. I was like, so this is some of those type of runs where it can skew the perception of him being a game breaker in terms of that. But when you go and watch the UCLA game, obviously that's a big, that's, that's the extreme opposite of the, the end. I was like, okay, there, there's some, there's some concern here. Good back, but he'll be somebody that's going to be a tandem guy.
- [50:46]
Emory Hunt
Okay, I gotta do a little bit of business here. Was the draft contest already mentioned? Question from the FF Dads. No, it wasn't. I'm sorry about that. Follow Thomas Schaefer on Twitter. What is it just at Thomas Schaefer. Is that what it is? Or the FFT account? What are we doing, Thomas? You want to help me out here?
- [51:05]
Dave Richard
Yeah. We'll post it on the FFT account.
- [51:07]
Emory Hunt
Okay.
- [51:08]
Dave Richard
Once the Google forms up.
- [51:10]
Emory Hunt
Yeah. So he's going to do a Google form, and you'll just fill out what you think will be the top 10 picks. I would wait is, you know, wait till next week, let some more information come in. But it's got to be obviously before the draft happens. And you. The first 10 picks, you don't have to tell us the team, just the player. And you got to get the order right. Just because you got a guy going in the top 10, you know, if you had him fourth and he went eighth, that's wrong. So whoever gets the most right is in the podcast league. Thank you for the question. Your number six guy is Devin Neal. All right. All right. I'm gonna be. I'm the guy. I'm gonna be the jerk who's mean to his guest here. This is what I wrote in my notes. I have now watched 12 running backs. Devin Neal is clearly the least athletic of them. I'm not a Devin Neil guy. Too slow, doesn't avoid enough tackles. Why am I wrong about Devin Neal?
- [51:55]
Dave Richard
Well, I think he's more elusive. But the problem with Devin Neal, it was shocking. There's some things that are shocking in a positive way and some things that are shocking in a negative way. What was shocking in a negative way was when I found out he was 215 because he at times plays like he's 173. It's like you go down way too easily, man. Like, for a guy that's 215. And so I kind of want to see him be a little bit more active in terms of breaking tackles through contact, running through contact, especially. We're in this draft class where contact balance is the. The. The peewee Herman's word where everybody goes screaming around, shout out to cbs. I used to watch that growing up, but. But, yeah. So in. In this draft class where contact balance is the thing, your contact balance better be up to par with everyone else. But what I love about Neil, he was the playmaker, the most consistent playmaker on their offense. Because as much as we like Jalen Daniels very much inconsistent game to game, but can. But Neil as a receiver, as an elusive runner, was more so the consistent guy. So he Is someone that could probably be that DeAndre Swift role for a team in the backfield.
- [53:12]
Emory Hunt
Your thoughts on RJ Harvey?
- [53:15]
Dave Richard
Love it. Love it. I. I tweeted out about him during the season as I'm watching the game.
- [53:22]
Emory Hunt
Live and I'm sorry, I forgot we already did RJ Harvey. I'm so sorry about that. I was just going through your rankings. Jamie asked you about RJ Harvey earlier. Your thoughts on Damian Martin? Martinez out of Miami.
- [53:32]
Dave Richard
He's one of those foundational backs, those feature backs. He was great at Oregon State, was not used enough at Miami. Just for, obviously, you got, you know, you know, Heisman candidate, number one overall pick type guy at quarterback. We're going to toss the ball around the yard, but he was able to do well with the carries he got. And that type of ability to operate without volume, despite looking like a volume back, is. Is. That's going to yield itself positively when he gets to the pros. He's very much good without the ball in his hands. He's, you know, wants to block. He wants to be a, you know, go out there and block for the other runner. So he's someone that's going to be on the field very much so. As a, as a starter, a 1A to a 1B behind him, another big guy.
- [54:20]
Emory Hunt
You don't see him catching a lot of passes, right. I don't think Martinez is going to be on the field on third down.
- [54:24]
Heath Cummings
32 in his career.
- [54:26]
Emory Hunt
Yeah. How about Dylan Sampson? You know, we had Mike Renner on a few weeks ago, and he mentioned Sampson as a guy who's very young, which is definitely. He's going to be 21 years old in September, and he felt like he could fill out a little bit, you know, put weight on because he's a little small. 5, 8, 200 pounds. What do you think about Sampson? I see him in a lot of top 10 lists. He's out of Tennessee and he had 22 rushing touchdowns.
- [54:52]
Dave Richard
Yeah, he has good acceleration. He's able to get an NFL corner with these. So outside zone, knock yourself out. He's gonna. He's gonna turn the corner. He's gonna. He's gonna help you, you know, get the extra point team ready because he can score.
- [55:04]
Heath Cummings
The.
- [55:05]
Dave Richard
The problem is the vision is just okay. And that is regard to interior running for me, where a lot of the big plays happen. You know, we tend to think of terms of guys with speed hitting the outside. And, you know, that's how you get a guy with speed. The ball in space. Like, no, a Lot of the big runs come right down Main street and then you make a cut and then you accelerate. So for Sampson, it's about getting to that point where he's making that cut to accelerate, which means your pre line of scrimmage stuff has to be on point, has to be consistent. I think that's where. That's why I don't like the Tennessee offense from a rushing perspective because it doesn't. It stymies the development of the vision component that a running back needs to be successful and.
- [55:47]
Emory Hunt
And Jamie seemed to be the knock.
- [55:48]
Jamie Eisenberg
On Jalen Wright last year.
- [55:49]
Emory Hunt
I was gonna. I wanted to bring Jalen Wright up with you because like you talk about Dylan Sampson, some people are very high on him. Dylan Sampson, 5, 8, 2. These are just combined measurements, right? 5, 8, 200 pounds. Ran a 44240 at his pro day. So his combine, 5 8, 200 pounds 44240 at his pro day. Jalen Wright, 510, 210 pounds. So he's 2 inches bigger. He's 10 pounds bigger. He ran a better 44.38. He shared a backfield with Sampson last year or in 2023 and he had. He averaged 7.4 yards per carry and Sampson averaged 5.7 that year. This past year, Sampson averaged 5.8. It's just kind of interesting, you know, just because the guy didn't really explode in his first year. Jamie, we shouldn't forget about them going forward because I think you could look at, at Jalen Wright and say he was a better prospect than Dylan Sampson in some ways, if not in not many ways.
- [56:37]
Dave Richard
I will say.
- [56:38]
Jamie Eisenberg
Sorry, go ahead.
- [56:39]
Dave Richard
No, I'm sorry. I want to say, I will say this. Samson excels in pass pro like from a recognition and getting there to. So he could be one of those guys that coaches trust to get him on the field.
- [56:51]
Jamie Eisenberg
I do think, you know, going back to Emery's, you know, point at the beginning about teams doubling up on running backs, like, you know, these are the type of guys, the Jalen Wrights, the Trey Benson's, the Blake Corums, you know, the guys from this somewhat disappointing class last year. And we've mentioned this a few times, like, you know, which of these guys are going to become irrelevant quickly because the team goes back into the draft pool again and says, okay, that guy didn't get on the field, that guy didn't excel. That guy didn't do whatever we needed him to do, you know, and the Dolphins may have already told us that by signing Alexander Madison you know, losing Raheem Mostert and then going on again another veteran because they don't trust Jalen Wright to be that, you know, one A or second running back. So it's going to be fascinating to see what some of these teams do specifically for the guys from a year ago, you know, so Marshawn Lloyd, for example, you know, I think a lot of people liked him going in last year, like the landing spot, you know, to be the second guy in Green Bay gets hurt, doesn't play and now may be replaced, you know, if the packers feel like they need to go get somebody else. So a lot of these guys are going to become, you know, I think irrelevant. The ones I think that escape the draft and, and have the chance to, you know, so Benson and Wright and some of these guys, and especially, you know, in, in the case of some of these guys playing behind the older running backs, you know, those are the ones that are going to be very interesting for what our audience likes, you know. So, you know, as you said, Adam, you know, you don't want to see the Cardinals go get anybody else from the Benson side of things, you know, you like to see it maybe long term in case Benson's just not legit and James Connor's going to be 30, you know, so dynasty purposes, he could be really good. But that's, to me, the fascinating part of this job is not necessarily the prospects. I, I think there's so many great players here. You know, the fit is going to be really interesting. It's which of these teams tell us we don't like our guys, you know, whether it's the back, backup, whether it's the starter, you know, whether it's, you know, looking at it two years from now, I think it's why, you know, Kyle Shanahan, prior to McCaffrey in last year, you know, he always convinces John lynch to draft a running back every year, no matter what, we're getting the guy.
- [58:39]
Emory Hunt
Emory, your thoughts when it comes to saying.
- [58:42]
Heath Cummings
I've got two questions for Emory. This is about Samson's paths to playing in the league. Did you, did you find Sampson's power to be some so weak. I hate to use the term weak, but not great, that it's a detriment. And then what did you think of him as a pass catcher? This is Dylan Sampson.
- [59:01]
Dave Richard
Yeah, I feel like he has to get stronger. My notes, he has to get stronger through contact. So there's that part, you know, the functional strengths where I tend to focus on, like, guys just go down too easily by one defender. That can't happen if you're trying to be a feature guy. Receiving skills are a plus. I don't have a problem with his receiving skills and also because he's a good pass protector, that's going to get him on the field too, so he can catch and block and they'll figure out the run game part of it as well.
- [59:29]
Emory Hunt
Your thoughts on DJ Giddens out of Kansas State. 6 foot 212 pounds, ran a 44340 average, 6.6 yards per carry.
- [59:40]
Dave Richard
Love his agility and it's tied a good portion of it with his elusiveness. So he's able to make a defender miss both in the hole and out in space. Kind of runs a little bit too upright, like a little bit stiff athletically, but has good agility. So sometimes it just works out weird that way where guys can be a little stiff but still also athletic. We see that with the Titan Harold Fannin, who visually looks stiff but somehow it's still considered athletic. We've seen that a lot, you know, and guys are able to have David and Joku is another one that is clearly stiff, but he's also athletic. So Giddens is that that guy. Good receiver. I think Gidden's receiving skills is underrated. Like he's able to catch over his shoulder, able to catch passes deeper downfield. So it can be a good value in your passing game there. There are two guys I feel like are are criminally underrated and one key is stuck in my mind because Jalen Warren keeps coming. Not Jalen Warren. The kid for Pittsburgh is that Warren? The comp I have for him is a guy that no one's talking about is Antero Brown out of Northern Illinois who legitimately lit up Notre Dame. And he's built the same way. So that's one to keep an eye on and land Larson. I talked about him. You talk about San Francisco. The guy plays a lot like Christian McCaffrey and also nearly had a thousand a thousand this year. Had over a thousand yards rushing, close to 1400 and like 890 something receiving. We didn't see him in the All Star game circuit because he got hurt in the playoffs at UC Davis, but he had his pro day lit it up. But those guys are just names to file away. If you see their names on draft day, you're like, well who the hell is that? Those are. Those are those type of guys.
- [61:21]
Emory Hunt
I asked you specifically about one more guy and then we'll just kind of get like sleepers busts and also, I don't think I asked you how many fantasy stars we have in this class, but Jarquez Hunter out of Auburn, I.
- [61:32]
Dave Richard
Think he's going to be a core special teamer and an RB3. You know, I see him as a, as a solid back, as a decent back, as someone that's going to not be as fantasy relevant, if that makes sense. I don't think he's going to log enough touches to where he's going to be a guy that you kind of have to draft in fantasy.
- [61:53]
Emory Hunt
All right, so who, I think you may have just answered this, but who are some sleepers in this class?
- [61:57]
Dave Richard
Well, those are two, like deep sleepers, right, that you may see. Like, why is this guy. Who's, why is he being drafted? But that's why they got legitimate talent. Marcus Yarns is out of Delaware, was at the Senior bowl. But funny story about him. I was on the broadcast for the Mama Delaware game and they had a lot of scouts in the, in the press box. But because, you know, Delaware had, Delaware had this, the corner. Tyron Herring Mammoth has the running back. Sony into that. Had 24 rushing touchdowns this year at 5:11,235. That's another sleeper. As a strictly goal line back. They use him as a wildcat quarterback. He was from Harvard, transferred to Mama, but he scored 24 touchdowns this season. Rushing touchdowns. So keep that under your hat. That's another sleeper. But obviously everybody's also there for Yarns. And I'm like, this is the third quarter. I'm like, this is a tight game. I'm like, everybody talk about yards. I, you know, like then the next play, coming out of commercial break, they threw him a little pop screen. 80 yards, touchdown. Like, okay, that's it. I see it. And so, and he put it in Cruise control after 20. That's how quickly he got out the blocks. I like, oh, so this is someone that could be as dominant as a receiver. Not just because he caught a quick pop pass, but we saw him run routes down at the Senior Bowl. But you understand how that acceleration makes it a problem for people. And so that's another sleeper. The Quint Allen blocking is effort is there good, good footwork. I had, I, I put in my scout notes. He has old school typewriter type feet, you know, agility, right? And so, and he's another one. He's a younger guy, right? He came out early and so he, he, you know, kind of along that lines of how he could be this year's Bucky Irving, you know, Someone that goes in the mid rounds and you're like, wow, this guy's their starter. So that's kind of another guy to keep an eye on. And these Ole Miss guys, like so many people that transferred from Miami that went to Ole Miss that also just are Blaze, Henry Parish, explosive speed. Bentley, good, good elusiveness. Like there's a bunch of these type of guys that's going to end up starting as kick returners that's going to find their way functioning within the offense. And Ali Gordon, somebody's going to draft Ali Gordon. You just don't almost leave the country in rushing and be a dope walker guy and just go non existent, right? So this could be someone for like Dallas. If they don't take it back early, Gordon could be their mid round guy and end up being their starter. Which now should open the door for them to let you know Deuce Vaughn play because you know that's another untapped resource that they have on the roster.
- [64:36]
Emory Hunt
Ali Gordon out of Oklahoma State. He almost led the nation in rushing in 2023 at 17, 32 yards and 21 touchdowns. Pretty impressive. All right, how many, how many fantasy stars are we looking at? You mentioned that 2017 class. You mentioned some really good players there. How many guys are going to be must start fantasy options?
- [64:59]
Dave Richard
I would say based off 2017, if I just hyped up 2017 like that and you know, I would say 12 guys.
- [65:09]
Emory Hunt
Wow.
- [65:09]
Dave Richard
I think, you know, out there, 2017 class, let's say McCaffrey Fournette was fantasy relevant for a minute. Tariq Cohen had a spark. Kareem Hunt had a, had some fantasy relevance early. We know mixing still does. Aaron Jones, Dalvin Cook, you know, so that's seven. Jamal Williams touchdown. I know he had a little run. I would say this class. Let's say about 10 to 12, man.
- [65:36]
Emory Hunt
Wow. Okay. All right.
- [65:39]
Heath Cummings
I think there's enough openings for, for that to happen. I don't think it'll happen like immediately, but between all the teams and their needs, I think they're, I think maybe almost half the league has a need for at least one running back to fill into the top two spots of their depth chart this year.
- [65:56]
Emory Hunt
Did you say Camaro? We also had Camara and James. And James Connor.
- [66:01]
Dave Richard
Yeah, James Connor, like bro. So yes, 10 to 12. Confidently. 10 to 12.
- [66:07]
Emory Hunt
Oh, and Chris Carson too. Holy cow.
- [66:13]
Dave Richard
14 to 16. I'm calling 14 to 16. Let's go.
- [66:17]
Emory Hunt
Oh, man. Undrafted. I don't know, Dave. I'm not sure. All right, Emery, thank you. Any Guy. You guys any. Any more questions for Emery?
- [66:26]
Jamie Eisenberg
No, he covered it. That was awesome.
- [66:28]
Emory Hunt
Yeah, that was really great stuff.
- [66:29]
Heath Cummings
I. I think it's going to be real interesting to see how people in Dynasty leagues change their strategy, because usually when this is how I work in Dynasty, if there's a stud running back, I'm going to take them. But otherwise, I know that longevity favors pass catchers, and I kind of veer toward them, but there are just so many interesting running backs, and if they all end up in. In decent spots, it could push wide receivers down a little bit, especially since this year's draft class at wide receiver not quite as deep or as good as the running back class.
- [67:03]
Jamie Eisenberg
You only favor running backs in Dynasty. Listen, I said it's good that you only favor running backs in Dynasty.
- [67:12]
Heath Cummings
Well, in the. In the rookie drafts. Okay. You know, I like him everywhere.
- [67:17]
Emory Hunt
Yeah. All right. Sorry. All right, Emery, thank you so much for coming on, man.
- [67:21]
Dave Richard
Appreciate y'all for having, man. Always a pleasure.
- [67:23]
Emory Hunt
All right, we will talk to you next week with Ryan Wilson to do a little mock drafting. And then, of course, we've got a show on Wednesday. And then we've got a show Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, after round one, after rounds two and three, after rounds four through seven of the NFL draft, we will recall Austin Eckler.
- [67:38]
Heath Cummings
Daria Gumbawale.
- [67:40]
Emory Hunt
Eckler was in that class.
- [67:41]
Heath Cummings
Eckler was in that class.
- [67:43]
Dave Richard
17 to 20. Fantasy relevance.
- [67:47]
Emory Hunt
Oh, man. All right, just don't say contact balance anymore. We'll be. We'll talk to you on Monday. See you later, everybody. On basic.
- [68:03]
Dave Richard
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- [68:24]
Heath Cummings
But most importantly, we have an unwavering.
- [68:26]
Dave Richard
Commitment to help keep you up and running. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.