Seattle Seahawks 2024 Draft Pick Deep Dive Part Three: George Holani - The Tape

all right everybody welcome back to the George hanani experience and now we are taking a look at some of the tape with him I wanted to actually watch some of his uh tape and see what I thought of him now he played for Boise State Boise State doesn't have a ton of their games on major broadcasts and they're recently they've recently been a relatively low impact school there was a time where they were cooking but um that time is kind of passed so there wasn't really a lot I could pick from and George helani did not help by getting injured a pretty decent amount in his career so he missed some of the games that I could have looked at so I only actually took notes from one game uh it was last year where he played against Washington in week one actually so I saw this game live and I rewatched the game um for for the purposes of this video and it wasn't one of the games where helani did anything super dominant but it was a game where he was generally playing pretty respectably and it was a game where he did do some stuff that was worth um breaking down and discussing and evaluating so we're just going to take a look at this one game last year at Washington Week 1 Boise State actually hangs around for a little bit actually plays okay but ultimately gets blown out by the end uh helani basically splits uh the carries with the what was his name g Janine another running back on that team and honestly Janine looked like he was maybe the more productive running back in this game and probably played better overall not that that's an indictment on helani necessarily but um I will say there was about an even 50/50 split between running back usage in this game so let's go into it George helani looking at the tape against Washington first snap of the game he gets a Zone read carry right up the middle there's no blocking I think there are like three guys on him at the line of scrimmage he gets one yard out of it uh you I will say you do see that ability to fall forward that I talk about he makes sure he gets that yard and on this particular play it doesn't really matter that much but it could matter on a different play and the point is he is getting that extra yard by Falling forward uh second snap of the game he leaks out into the into the right flat for a screen pass uh he was able to stiff arm a safety a little bit past the line of scrimmage and ultimately get about five yards nice looking play clearly a designed screen by the way it wasn't a checkdown or anything like that he just caught the little uh popup pass and turned up field got the safety off of him and got chased out out of bounds by the linebacker and uh fairly productive rep um next possession uh next two possessions he's off the field so the second drive and third Drive of the game he basically got completely off I didn't see him and again he's almost always in the back field so it's not that hard to see him when he's out there but I'm pretty sure he just got that drive off in favor of the other running back uh he got back into the game on the fourth drive uh there was a play action out of shotgun and he went from Faking getting the ball to trying to pick up a rusher and he just couldn't quite pick him up it seemed like he just wasn't POS positioned well the angle wasn't right for him to be able to stop the rusher from making his way to the quarterback now there wasn't a sack or anything like that but I I do kind of view it as a it it was supposed to be a chip block it was supposed to help the offensive lineman so the offensive lineman is the one who ultimately gets blamed for what happened but it just looked like he didn't have his body squared up relative to relative to where the quarterback was to be able to actually get him in front of him now some of that's because he's coming off play action and he has a very limited window to get in the right spot but he didn't uh he gets another Zone read run a little bit later it's well blocked and he was able to get about eight yards shows off a nice little burst um it's obviously not some Elite NFL caliber burst but it is there is some ability there to actually get up field quickly see the hole and just explode through it so that's the kind of stuff that you you like to see from helani because that's the kind of stuff he's going to have to do in the NFL because there is only so much stuff this guy is capable of and that is his calling card uh there was a QB roll out where he was like hanging out in front of the quarterback blocking for him he throw a chip block to help out one of his linemen and then kept climbing up in front of the quarterback to help Block in case the quarterback had to take off or there was a free rusher that came in so I get the sense that he wants to block he's willing to block I don't get the sense that there's any kind of like oh he's a lazy blocker there's just some technique stuff that needs to be cleaned up here and in this game I actually thought most of his blocking was pretty good however one play that stood out in the negative was a third and two where Boise State picked up the first down but helani gets whistled for a 15 yard penalty on a block he threw on a blitzing defensive back he didn't need to do it he was squared up with him pretty well and then the back made a little bit of a move as he was going towards the quarterback and it felt like he panicked because I don't think he needed to go low he just needed to stay in front of him and mirror him and it would have been fine the pass was coming out pretty quickly anyway and he should have known that felt like he just panicked and then he just basically took the defensive back's legs out 15 yard penalty take off the third down conversion it's third and 17 drive basically over so that's not so great again it it's kind of a thing where he's trying he's just not doing it right rather than him not trying I would rather have him try but I don't think there was any need for him to be throwing that low block he could have just blocked him normally and everything would have been cool uh and then on the third and 17 he ran a short Crosser from the slot he was just a distraction he was either going to be a checkdown if Boise State was going to just wave the White Flag or he was a distraction um either way I think that was the only time he lined up somewhere that wasn't the Back Field a little bit later gets another Zone read carry and this was one example of a rare play where I felt like he had a hole in front of him and he tried to bounce it outside when he didn't need to and because he tried to bounce it outside he got coralled for No Gain um there seemed to me to be at least a few yards he could have gotten right in front of him and he just tried to cut it outside and he didn't need to so we don't like to see that because again that's his calling card the ability to see the hole and hit the hole quickly uh runs a draw play from behind the quarterback and Pistol so there is a decent amount of pistol in this Boise State offense where the quarterback lines up in a kind of shortened gun and the running back's behind him manages two yards before going down not much to say there um there wasn't a lot blocked in front of him he got what he could and then the very next play there was a nice hole and he was able to explode through it for about nine yards another carry out of the pistol so we're seeing some of the stuff that we need to see there's a stretch play that they run out of the gun and I thought he did a really nice job of taking it outside where the area was mostly vacated and then he cut back to the inside at the right time to go pick up eight yards and um I I I I think it set up second and two so you're seeing his ability to make one cut and go which is what we talked about that's what we need him to do that's what he's going to have to do in the NFL so he gets the stretch play and it looks like he's going to take it outside the defense is kind of swarming to the outside and then he cuts it back and is able to knife through for about eight yards um there are more pass block reps as this game goes on and it seems like he's trying I feel like he's not squaring up the way he needs to but there's effort and there's reason to believe he could get better at it and for the most part in this game even the Reps that aren't ideal he is getting the job done he just isn't Square enough to really hold up he's just kind of distracting the rusher more than anything uh out of the pistol he gets a third and two carry and he immediately has to make a man miss in the back field and he actually does it he does I think call a do a little bit of improv to make sure he can get out of the back field gets through finds the first down and then stiff arms a Defender to get about 10 yards so he's busted out the stiff arm a couple times it's a pretty good one I don't know if it's an elite one but it is one that can do some damage here uh another play action where he leaks out to the right and gets a screen and there are blockers in front of him but one of the blockers completely whiffs and his uh the defender comes up and takes him down at the line of scrimmage not much he could really do he was getting smacked right as he turned up field I wouldn't expect most players to do anything there the blocker just missed his Target uh another similar oh I'm sorry another play action rep comes up and this time he goes over to the left to pick up a pass rusher and I thought he did a good job on that rep he helped a chip lock um I'm sorry this wasn't a chip lock this was actually just picking up a a free Blitzer I think and I thought he did it well he was pretty square with his back directly to the quarterback and was able to occupy him Zone re carry goes right up the gut behind the blocking for three nothing fancy about it just go get your three yards another block out of play action doesn't hit him square and has limited effect again I think that these blocks that he's throwing out of play action are affecting the rusher but they are not taking him out of the play the way you would prefer uh targeted on another designed screen where he just kind of floats out to the right and the quarterback supposed to just drop it to him and then he's got blockers in front of him unfortunately the quarterback who was getting very quickly pressured threw it right to the linebacker just threw it right to him the uh ball never even got that close to helani so no opportunity to catch it almost a pick six and then we get to garbage time gets a carry off tackle and bowling balls his way for about seven yards you can really see his power that he runs with despite him not being that big and it's just a matter of him keeping go keeping going forward even when he's getting hit he just keeps going next garbage time Carrie gets he faints outside and then Cuts back inside shows the vision to see the crease and hit it after cutting eight- y pickup Lots ofn at the end in pass Pro still feels like he's struggling to hit square and there was another snap late where he went low on a Defender he didn't get whistled for it but I did notice it and again you don't need to do that you he didn't need to as near as I could tell he could have just blocked him straight up uh I'm seeing a little bit of agility and elusiveness to squeeze out a second and two late in the game as well was able to actually make a guy Miss so you don't see a lot of that on his tape but I saw it there and that's what I got on helani from watch uh the only good 2023 tape I was able to find that he actually played in so it pretty much confirms the stuff that I've already talked about but should be more than adequate as a fourth running back I think all right I'll see you guys later gohawks uh probably no more videos later today I'll see you guys on Twitch possibly and um tomorrow we are moving on to our next udfa player that is worth breaking down see yall later