What Rookie Runningbacks will Break Out this Year?

Intro we run the ball we play we throw play action being able to run the ball more effectively and and uh we just got to run it more sometimes the illusion of wanting to run the ball a lot is just as powerful as the ability to so have you ever stood up on a Sunday afternoon and looked at your TV and yelled run the damn ball well then I'm glad you found yourself here we're talking about running backs today specifically we're going to look at five running backs five rookie running backs that have caught my attention in some regard this preseason or post-draft not to bury the lead here but I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that the five we're looking at are kamani Vidal brillan Allen Ray Davis Jaylen Wright and Bucky Irving and I'm not going to waste any more of your time let's get Kimani Vidal right into it in terms of how the Chargers are going to use Vidal we have to start by looking at the top of their back field Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins come over from Baltimore along with the return of Greg Roman as he wields his traditional thunder and lightning Duo there isn't really one run concept that Roman leans on and for all his warts the man can design a run game but getting back to Vidal for now he won't start the season as a starter in fact some people suggest that he's battling for a roster spot with Isaiah Spiller and Jared Patterson now I'm confident he will ultimately be the Chargers thirdd back despite all of this and I'll explain why now going back to Vidal's College tape tackling him looks like trying to tackle a ball of snow rolling down a hill I mean he's built like a tree stump and that creates some hilarious tackle attempts from Desperate Defenders and early Returns on that translating are pretty good I would of course like to see more reps against starters but the contact balance was on full display last weekend against the Rams the other thing about Vidal is that he can run a wide variety of run Concepts because in addition to his power and contact balance he also showcases great burst so if you want him to handle short yardage snaps he can put his head down and get tough yards for you if you want him to get on the edge and run outside Zone yep he can do that too and of course know Greg Roman loves counter so naturally Vidal's First Carry of the preseason was a GT counter play and of course he squeezed through the Gap at the second level and picked up 13 yards I'm also shamelessly using this as a way to show how freakishly athletic Joe Al is by the way Chargers fans he was the right pick at five regardless I think kamman Vidal has one of the more well-rounded skill sets of any of these rookie running backs he's pretty much everything you'd want except he's not a dynamic receiving back but you can still have him out there on passing down since he's a very good pass protector being 5'8 does have its perks when it comes to getting leverage on rushers so despite the fact that the Chargers have two starting running backs ahead of him I could see him getting on the field rather quickly due to how many running backs the Greg Roman offense demands and unfortunately considering the history of a guy like JK Dobbins but now it's time to move on to the next running back that I wanted to Braelon Allen talk about and that is brillan Allen Allen was really a curious case at Wisconsin he's obviously a very large lar man at 61 and 245 lb but he doesn't really play like it he isn't a Bruiser like at all in fact his contact balance is one of his weaker traits strange for a guy his size however he is incredibly Nimble and explosive again despite his enormous frame he's just a very perplexing player who needs an NFL coaching staff that understands who he actually is to maximize his skill set so do I think Nathaniel Hackett is going to be the guy to do that I'm not exactly confident in that and considering he's behind a certified dude in bree Hall and also sharing the backfield with another rookie running back that I liked in Isaiah Davis his opportunities might not be abundant but I will say he has shined in the exact areas that I expected him to in the preseason out in space on these stretch plays picking up explosive gains I also mentioned how Nimble he is well watch him operate on split Zone here the cutback lane on inside zone is a great way to generate explosives if the entire second level of the defense flows with the offensive line and overp pursues The Way Washington does here specifically note number 57 Anthony Pitman out of position completely abandoning the weak Side sea Gap pair that with a great cut block on the sift by Zack C and you could probably drive a box truck through that lane but it's still good on Allen to be able to identify when the defense is out of position and exploit that and he also happens to have the explosiveness to plant his foot in go in a way that very few backs at all can do let alone one pushing Edge rusher weight that being said if you were hoping to see this paired with Allen finally using his size to his advantage and running through tackles you're going to be disappointed while he's able to burst through gaps on the interior he still isn't really going to make tacklers bounce off of him he'll fall forward in a pack of players due to his weight but if you were expecting him to suddenly become 61 Jaylen Warren sorry but it's not happening and now speaking of guys named Jaylen we're going to be moving on to our next running back just kidding it's not Jaylen Wright it's Ray Davis time real quick I just wanted to take a Thank you second to thank the people that have been supporting my videos watching my videos liking them leaving comments I I really appreciate interacting with you guys and I like going over to Twitter and just having conversations with people about football or having conversations in my comment section it's stuff that I never really thought I'd have the chance to do and I I know it's a small platform but it's still a platform and that's more than honestly thought I would ever get so thank you guys and I hope you guys continue to support and if you like the videos please like And subscribe it helps this channel continue to grow and it's it's really what I want to do so thank you all and now back into the video as a Ray Davis prospect Davis was more of a receiving back than anything else not that he wasn't a good runner but he separated himself as a guy who could run a few different routes and make plays after the catch so on a team where James Cook had some significant drop issues last year Davis could craft a rooll for himself as a third downback if he continues to hone his pass protection which he showed a willingness to do at Kentucky even though wasn't fully fleshed out but what I'm here to talk about now is his ability as a ball carrier as that is the biggest question about his game coming into the league and if you look at week one only you may still have some concerns sure the blocking wasn't great but there were some slow decisions from Davis in there on this play the bills are running Duo which is similar to inside Zone as they often get confused but the main difference is that the center will always be going backside and the run will always be going towards the Y side of the line on Duo the reason it's called Duo is because you get double teams all across the line from the front side tackle and guard to the backside guarden center before peeling off to the second level the point is for the running back to put the linebacker in a bind and then choose the Gap to burst through if you want to see a master at this go back and watch Le'Veon Bell in the mid-2010s for Pittsburgh so on this play and again I know the blocking is not great Ray Davis has a cut back Lane but he's late to get there and in the NFL this is a lane that you need to be able to hit to separate yourself from other running backs so with that being said let's move on to game two same concept same cutback Lane except this time he finds it in time and explodes for a 19 yard gain in fact the bills ran Duo over and over and over again against the Steelers and Ray Davis just kept pushing forward with brutal efficiency same concept both gaps filled cut back lane is closed and he immediately bounced this outside for an 8- yard gain so what I'm getting at here is that Ray Davis showed tangible Improvement as a runner from game one to game two and considering that I already think he's going to have a role in the pass game for Buffalo continued Improvement in terms of decisiveness could expand that role as time goes on now I spoiled it a little bit last time sorry about that but now I will get to Jaylen Wright jayen Wright like many things in Miami Jaylen Wright can be defined by at least one major thing speed since hiring Mike McDaniel the Dolphins have doubled tripled and even quadrupled down on speed whether or not this philosophy is sustainable well we'll see but at the very least we don't have to do much guesswork to Envision him in this offense if we go back to Tennessee many people like to point to the fact that Wright saw a ton of light boxes which is true but guess what he's most likely going to see a ton of light boxes in Miami this year anyways these light boxes allowed him to be fourth in yards before contact per attempt among power five running backs last year but he also averaged 43 yards after contact per attempt so all I'm trying to get at here is that all of his production was not manufactured but he is definitely at his best out in space rather than in between the tackles and and now finally getting to the preseason game he played in against Atlanta that's exactly what they had him doing but there were a few in between the tackles runs with mixed results although the best in between the tackles runs were directly downhill like power on this touchdown where you could get a running start and just shoot through the whole one given space now based on what I've seen so far in the preseason I think Miami is going to try to mix in more Gap scheme runs this season and hopefully Wright can show his worth in that area so it's a quick summary on right because of the small sample size of plays in the preseason but I trust the Dolphins to be able to find creative ways to get him out in space just like they did with Devon hn last year and it also helps when he can make plays like this and finally we're going to talk about Bucky Irving but Other Notable Names before I go on I do want to talk about a few guys that weren't in this video not really talk about them in detail but just bring up their names so you guys know I didn't forget about them Tyrone Tracy audri EST and Trey Benson were all guys that I wanted to talk about but didn't end up bringing to this video also he's not going to make the team but Dewan Edwards from Georgia has been fantastic for the Steelers in the preseason just want to throw his name out there also Dylan Johnson for the Panthers he got cut which I kind of can't believe so if you're an NFL team that needs a running back I would take a look at a guy like him got that out of the way okay cool let's go back into the Bucky Irving video Bucky was a guy who myself and the general draft Comm Community adored last year and then his combine happened and that seemed to absolutely destroy any momentum he had going for him but if you stood strong and didn't jump ship you could see that he played way faster than his 40 time would suggest and that he was far more athletic than his R score suggested and sure he's not the most physically imposing back you'll ever see but he's a damn good back his height or lack thereof is actually an advantage that allows him to play Closer to the ground and fight through contact despite his lack of weight and while it might prohibit him from being a true Bell cow back I see no reason as to why he shouldn't immediately be a twood down back for the bucks I understand Rashad White's value in the pass game but I think Bucky Irving is just a better Runner and that the Bucks should utilize both let me show you what I'm talking about I'm going to drop Duo once again here but there's a little wrinkle that offensive coordinator Liam Cohen brings with him from his Rams days where the Z or the F folds in behind the Y to take care of the S backer regardless it plays out the same and Bucky Irving needs to set up the second level Defenders so when he sees the corner overextend himself inside he bounces this thing and he does so with a vicious jump cut spanning multiple gaps goes to show that he truly does have burst and you can see it again on this play where he hits the cut back Lane on inside Zone and punishes the contained player for not closing the gap between him and the backside tackle he's so sudden with the ball in his hands again no matter what the test testing scores say Bucky Irving Outro forever so that'll do it for this video I want to say that I'm looking forward to the regular season and one of the cooler things about being a smaller Creator is that I get to interact with and know some of you who all watch my videos so with that being said if you guys want to see a video on a certain subject or a certain player you can always leave suggestions in the comment section and plenty of you already follow me on Twitter and I'm extremely active on there sometimes to a fault so I'm always willing to listen on there and now I'm out of things to say have a nice day draft Bucky Irving and until next time