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We’ve arrived at the big-boy portion of our positional draft rankings! After already breaking down the best running backs, linebackers, wide receivers and cornerbacks of this class, we will spend these next two weeks talking about the guys inside the trenches both inside and out for offense and defense – and we are starting with the offensive tackle position!
I believe there are four small-dunk first-round players among this group, who can all be week-one starters, with varying degrees of technical advancement compared to physical upside. After that, there are five names, who I’d have no problem with all going inside the top-75, including a couple of athletic specimen, who aren’t close to the potential of players they can become one day. At number ten, there’s one more highly talented prospect, who may actually go earlier than a few names I have listed above him, based on the ceiling he presents. After that, you’re looking at more so serviceable players, who will largely be backups, along with a couple of underdeveloped kids you may want to take a flyer on day three, if you have the edges of your O-line secured for now.
Just to clarify – North Dakota State’s Cody Mauch will see his name listed among the interior offensive line.
Here’s how I have this group stacked up:
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1. Paris Johnson, Ohio State

6’6”, 315-pounds; RS SO
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The top-rated offensive tackle in the 2020 class, Johnson saw the field for just 22 snaps as a true freshman, before taking over as the full-time starter at right guard in ’21 and earning second-team All-Big Ten honors (13 games). Last year he improved to consensus first-team and second-team All-American this past year, when he moved out to left tackle. His steady presence on C.J. Stroud’s blindside enabled the Buckeyes to finish first (45.7) and second (44.2) respectively in points per game in FBS these past two seasons.
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+ The grip strength, demeanor and leg-drive are all there in the run game and he really works up through contact to create that momentum
+ Out at tackle, he can really widen that edge and cover up guys responsible for contain, routinely allowing backs to stretch out and get out to the corner or cut underneath, At guard, you saw him come in from the side on nose-tackles to push them over into the opposite A-gap, so that guy can’t two-gap
+ Shows the hip mobility to reach-block three-techniques, as well as come off combos late and get a piece of the linebacker, while having some extra room for error if his angles up to the second level aren’t perfect
+ With the way he covers ground on zone concepts, Johnson can execute fold-blocks and make the job easier for the guard inside of him, to just seal the down-lineman
+ Swiftly establishes the inside foot and gets his base turned, in order to force edge defenders to have to go through him on the backside of gap schemes
+ Gets after second-level defenders with tremendous urgency and you actually see him seal off true MIKEs straight over the center at times
+ His dexterity to twist defenders and get his lower body turned simultaneously to open up lanes is highly impressive, You saw that when LBs try to blitz the play-side gap and he pins them away from it, to present a wide hole (B-gap at guard)
+ Displays good awareness for defenses walking down a linebacker late outside him and how that changes responsibilities on run schemes
+ Clearly has that mobility to play in space, with impressive success getting his hands on corners and safeties in the screen game
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+ Johnson features a well-coordinated, patient kick-slide and uses his wingspan well to not present a free B-gap
+ Arms for days at just over 36 inches and edge rushers have to take wider angles consistently, while being able to stab with the inside arm at the near-shoulder to actively elongate those
+ With those long branches and strong upper body to control rushers even if his elbows are outside his frame
+ Smooth lateral mover, to stay in front of inside counters and help out on the interior in a hurry, if his man drops out
+ It also enables him to slide in front of interior linemen in the play-action game and full-line slides before they can even get that first step down regularly
+ When defenders sell out for the bull-rush and create movement, Johnson can increase his step frequency and knee bend to re-anchor effectively
+ No problem at all flipping and riding aggressive upfield rushers towards his own end-zone
+ Shows the ability to recover and still ride loopers off track, as he has to transition on delayed T-E twists
+ Playing at guard, you saw Johnson actively looking for work if he doesn’t have a direct assignment, delivering some significant chips from the side, And that transitioned along with moving out to tackle, where week one against Notre Dame, the next-closest rusher ended up being in the A-gap and he still made sure that guy hit the ground
+ Did allow two sacks last year, but only one other QB hit across 910 pass-blocking snaps since the start of 2021 (26 non-sack pressures)
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– His base can get a little narrow as he churns his legs in the run game and it may lead to him landing on the turf more regularly against pros
– Tends to stop his feet when he throws his hands and heavily relies on the two-handed punch – he will need to adapt more independent hand usage
– His hands overall are pretty high and wide, particularly picking up loopers and blitzers
– There’s room to still get stronger, when it comes to swallowing initial power and snatch guys late, not allowing them to escape as plays are being extended
– Can overstride at times selling play-action and allow his D-end to slip inside of him
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Based on his height and general skill-set, Johnson was a miscast at right guard as a redshirt freshman in 2021, but did show he can excel in the run game right away. Once he moved to his designated position at left tackle this past season, the pass-blocking skills were able to shine as well. He’s one of the smoothest athletes you will find for the position, yet has the strength in his hands to take control in both facets of the game. Where I do believe he needs to improve is not using two-handed punches regularly and his base to anchor against power leaves things to be desired at this point. Considering what an easy mover he is and the length he possesses to counter-act that, those should be fixable areas though. I do believe he’s best suited for a zone-based rushing attack, where his mobility and leg-drive can really shine, rather than just blowing defenders off the ball vertically, but there’s upside to utilize him even more as a puller across the formation or out towards the perimeter. I don’t see Johnson making it out of the top-15.
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2. Broderick Jones, Georgia

6’5″, 315 pounds; JR
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Right outside the top-10 overall recruits in 2020, Jones only started four games over his first two seasons (all at left tackle in 2021). He ook over on the blindside this past season and was absolutely dominant, paving the way for a Georgia offense that averaged 500 yards and 41.1 points per game (fifth nationally), which made it all the way to an undefeated championship season (their second straight title). Jones himself was named first-team All-SEC.
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+ Jones has good girth in all the right areas, without any excess weight in the mid-section
+ Imposing road-grader in the run game, Gets after people whether the score is 0-0 or his team is up by 50
+ This guy regularly tosses the edge defender on the front-side of zone runs out of the way and forces linebackers to fill the B-gap in a hurry
+ Can absolutely blow D-tackles off their landmarks when coming in on an angle on double-teams, particularly in short-yardage and goal-line situations
+ If he gets underneath the arm-pit of linemen, he can wash them down and create significant cutback opportunities, And he has the grip strength to twist defenders out of running lanes, even if he can’t block down on an angle
+ Understands when he has to add a gather-step against wider alignments, to not presents easy opportunities for edge defenders to jump inside of his blocks
+ On combo-blocks his eyes are usually up and he doesn’t struggle to work up to the backer with space, with the force in his hands to shove them to the ground
+ Regularly was utilized as a puller on GT power, where he’s light on his feet as he skips out of his stance but heavy at contact, and has the reactionary agility to adjust on the fly
+ This dude is scary to be in front of on screens and pulling out to the corner, where most defenders try to go low on him, to avoid getting thrown around
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+ Even if his technique isn’t perfect yet, Jones presents the athletic lower half and strong upper body to ride edge rushers off track
+ If defenders go into the chest of him, they quickly realize there’s not much they can do anymore
+ You rarely see guys turn the corner when engaged with Jones, where they try to dip-and-rip, but he still guides them enough off track to not affect the QB
+ He packs a lot of strength in those hands, to widen their arc significantly or push them into the pile, if they try to quickly crash inside
+ Linebackers trying to get around Jones on delayed blitzes seem to have no clue how to actually approach this and are content with just standing there with his arms extended
+ When Jones’ guy slants away from him and he’s unoccupied, he delivers some devastating rib-shots on somebody tangled up with one of his teammates
+ Watching the 2022 season-opener 49-3 destruction of Oregon, the pass-pro reps for Jones was so clean throughout the day and he completely shut guys out trying to work against him
+ Wasn’t responsible for a single sack and just nine other pressures across 470 pass-blocking snaps this past season
+ Ran the best 40 time among all O-linemen in Indy this year at 4.97 and his movement during the on-field drills was well-coordinated
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– His feet can get a little heavy late and defenders are able to work off his blocks, where you’d want more flexion in the lower rather than upper half, and that’s in part due to imperfect hand-placement
– Too often in 2022, you’d see Jones drop his eyes when initiating contact in both facets of the game, and defenders being able to pull him off
– Makes himself vulnerable to inside counters on a regularly basis, when he should keep his shoulders and hips squared, but instead opens up to the edge rusher, who doesn’t even have the angle to beat him around the corner
– When he did face a legit speed-rusher in LSU’s B.J. Ojulari, you saw him punch with the outside hand and had that left foot in the air as well, creating a soft shoulder to get past
– Has to do a better job of coming to balance at times when working up the field in the screen game, as guys have the ability to side-step him
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This is still clearly an ascending tackle prospect, who won’t turn 22 years old until after the draft and only logged 19 career starts at the Bulldogs. However, his natural talent stood out right away and he was already one of the premiere players at his position in his first season as a full-time starters, despite facing a loaded slate of SEC edge defenders. Now, some of those guys were actually the ones who gave him trouble, because they could threaten the edges of his frame off the snap and were more technically advanced, but there’s no reason to believe he won’t be able to get to that level sooner rather than later, with the natural power he possesses and the awareness he showed as a young player already. I want to see him eliminate this nasty little habit of not keeping his chin up, but in terms of brute force in the run game and ability to snatch up pass-rushers, he has a chance to turn into the most complete guy of the bunch.
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3. Peter Skoronski, Northwestern

6’4”, 300 pounds; JR
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Slightly outside the top-100 overall recruits in 2020, Skoronski stepped in at left tackle as a true freshman and was named to the All-Freshman team, when Rashawn Slater decided to sit out the season due to COVID concerns. Then he improved to a first-team All-Big Ten performer in 2021, which he repeated this past season, along with being a unanimous first-team All-American. His grandfather Bob Skoronski was a starter and team captain for all five of Vince Lombardi’s championship teams.
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+ The best compliment I can give Skoronski is that his tape can be almost boring at times, because every rep is clean and there’s not much to note
+ His aiming points and angles are excellent for such a young player
+ Operates from a wide base and with good leg-drive, while lifting up through contact with his elbows in tight
+ Does well to establish positioning with the inside foot sealing edge defenders on the backside of run concepts
+ Gets underneath the arm pit of D-tackles on angular blocks and rides them down the line
+ Brings plus grip strength and ability to twist bodies to expand running lanes, along with the dexterity to keep his hands latched as defenders try to slip or turn away from contact
+ Consistently works with square shoulders and stays tight to his teammate on vertical combos, to maximize force and not allow defenders to split those
+ Patient and under control working up to the second level, being able to get under the chest with great consistency
+ Also getting out to the corner on fly sweeps or those completely horizontal handoffs, he rarely overruns targets, just blindly hustling out there
+ Somehow people are inferring that Skoronski isn’t a great athlete, when he tested in the 70th percentile or better among all combine events other than the three-cone and his jumps were 96th and 97th percentile respectively
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+ Already a very sound and comfortable pass-protector, who consistently is first off the ball, gets to his landmarks and doesn’t throw his technique out of the window
+ Shows an understanding for the depth of the pocket and how to manipulate rush angles, along with the easy lateral movement to mirror guys across multiple moves
+ Adjusts the length of his initial dependent on where combat will occur and is able beat wide-nine alignments to the spot
+ His hands are so consistent with landing inside the frame of rushers and controlling reps, because they typically stay attached throughout
+ Varies his approach and excels at using his arms in independent fashion, whether he’s trying to widen guys with the inside hand or wants to take charge off them on power rushes
+ Rarely does his weight shift too far to the outside foot and he’s ready to negate angles as guys are trying to slice through the inside shoulder
+ Extends his inside arm when deciphering through the pressure and is ready to redirect towards guys slanting to the B-gap if there’s no threat off the edge
+ His feel for shuffling along and how to pick up loopers with the two-handed strike, to guide their path is impressive for a young player
+ Allowed just two sacks on nearly 700 snaps as a true freshman and did the same in ’21 on over 800, along with 18 additional pressures, However he quietly just had his best season in that regard (one sack, two QB hits and three hurries)
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– The big hold-up with Skoronski of course is only having 32 and ¼-inch arms, while I also believe he played below 310-pound mark
– You see edge rushers really create problems for him with long-arm maneuvers, where he can’t place his hands or has the kind of super-strong base to just swallow those
– It can also show up in the run ground where guys can just out-reach him and therefore pull him off when leaning into contact
– Doesn’t create a whole lot of knock-back at first contact with his strike generally and you rarely see him take linebackers for a ride, the way you’d like to
– While I love with how much control he plays, at times I’d appreciate a little more urgency to just negate space in the first instance rather than trying to establish position
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At the risk of sounding like a cop-out, it’s pretty easy to find a comparison in terms of player profile for Skoronski, if we just go to the guy he replaced at Northwestern, in Rashawn Slater. I do believe the now-Pro Bowler was a greater athlete, particularly with some of the insane stuff he did in the weightroom, to balance out length concern. However, Skoronski is clearly the most technically advanced tackle in the 2023 class. The way he fits his hands and is able to transfer force from the ground up in the run game, along with reading rushers and using different combat-maneuvers to counter them, are tremendous. There’s not much to criticize on tape, but you just wonder how high his ceiling may be, due to always having a disadvantage in that one area. Ultimately, I believe a team will start him out at tackle and he will play it at a pretty high level, but he transitions inside a couple of years into his pro career. Having him down at number three almost feels wrong, but it only speaks to the strength of the top of this class, as Skoronski will be a top-15 overall prospect for me.
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4. Darnell Wright, Tennessee

6’6”, 335 pounds; SR
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The number two offensive tackle recruit in 2019 behind only Alabama standout and now-Giant Evan Neal, Wright started seven of eleven games as a true freshman (five at right tackle, two at right guard) and then nine of ten available for in year two (all at RT). In 2021 he started all 13 games at left tackle and helped the Tennessee offense score a team-record 511 points, before moving back to the right side this past season, when the Vols immediately broke that record (599) and Dwight was recognized individually as a first-team All-SEC performer.
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+ When you look at this guy, everything you see screams “power” at you
+ Shows a natural ability to sink his hips and work up through contact, to create movement on angular blocks
+ You’re just not going to rock this guy’s pads backwards or squeeze him down on backside seal-blocks
+ Has the explosiveness out of his stance to work cross-/fold-blocks and skip pulls in the run game
+ For a man his size, the agility in short areas and flexibility in his lower half to reach-block edge defenders on fly sweeps is pretty impressive
+ Just engulfs smaller bodies stepping down or replacing edge defenders, when he comes across the line on kick-outs
+ Really strong with that inside arm, to extend and create that little bit of extra movement, while riding bodies on the interior into the trash when given the opportunity
+ Can create some significant momentum on B-gap defenders as the angular element to combo blocks by accelerating his feet through the target
+ Showcases the dexterity to keep his hands in place with the hips of the man he’s responsible for, as they’re trying to slice past, and he rides them off their landmarks
+ Doesn’t look uncomfortable getting out in space and has the natural power to put defenders on the ground by just getting a hand on them
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+ His feet are quick enough to match legit speed off the edge and then sit down to not allow himself to be ridden into the quarterback’s space at the top of the arc
+ Shows good awareness for that platform of the guy padding the ball back there and when to flip with the rusher, to ride him past that point
+ His base is so strong, that even when rushers seem to set up speed-to-power well, Wright can stymie their charge and force them to look for different strategies
+ Can work in some independent hand usage to keep rushers in line with his frame, along with really snatching cloth and dropping his hips, in order to take control of reps
+ Displays impressive body-control, to quickly puts his outside foot back down and mirror inside moves, even by twitchy guys at nearly 100 pounds less
+ Once rushers get off balance, he can quickly put them on the ground and exploits of the opportunity to jump on top of them
+ Extremely battle-tested against a collection of impressive SEC edge rushers and more than held his own – Allowed just one hurry all day against Alabama in 2022, largely going up against a lock for the top-five in Will Anderson, who simply couldn’t work his typical speed-to-power against him
+ Didn’t give up a single sack and just eight total pressures across 507 pass-blocking snaps this past season
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– Carries a little excess weight in the mid-section I’d say and he’s not quite up to par with the top-three guys in terms of foot quickness
– Doesn’t consistently play up to his size and brings the aggression to create displacement in the run game, while other times he gets his weight shifted too far out in front as he really goes for it (partially due to the type of offense the Volunteers ran)
– Gets too far over his skis at times and ends up stumbling forward when he can’t connect with his hands as D-linemen reduce their surface area
– While you like the mobility to get to the second level, he doesn’t break down and secure blocks consistently enough to take care of his assignments
– Regularly late off the snap and has a certain up-kick to his pass-sets, which didn’t become as much of a problems with less than a quarter of his work being labelled as “true pass-sets” by PFF (tons of RPOs, screens, etc.)
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I’ve been a fan of Wright for a while now and he’s been ascending his draft stock throughout this process. He came in at a massive 342 pounds for Senior Bowl week, yet he showcased impressive movement skills, effortlessly mirroring a couple of spin moves, along with taking the fight to more power-based string, showcasing his strong upper half. Then he moved around extremely well during the on-field drills at the combine and you heard those bags pop when he landed his punches in pass-pro. This guy has 2746 career snaps with full years starting at both left and right tackle, put together an incredible track record against a murderous row of SEC edge defenders. So I have no doubt that he should and will go in the first round. I’d like to see him enforce his power on a more consistent basis and there’s a little bit of a tweak that he has to work on his kick-slide, but I don’t think there’s much of a gap between him and what is generally accepted as the “big three” at offensive tackle.
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5. Dawand Jones, Ohio State

6’6”, 350 pounds; SR
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Just outside the top-1000 overall recruits in 2019, Jones appeared in nine games as a true freshman and then in six of eight contests in the COVID-shortened following campaign, including his first start, In 2021, he started all 13 games and was a second-team All-Big Ten selection for the Buckeyes, which he repeated this past season, Then last year he was a second-team All-American, as a mainstay on that right edge
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+ Massive upper half and can knock defenders off balance when he just lands those hands in the run game, And with the long arms he can deliver that last push to get the man further off track to create room late
+ I thought overall Jones’ urgency off the snap and willingness to impose himself physically was a lot better in 2022
+ You see him dish out some literal two-handed shoves to blow the front-side wide open
+ When he grabs the shoulder-plate and extends though, you see put guys flat on their backs at times, especially linebackers mugged up in the gap
+ If D-ends try to crash across him face on the backside of zone runs, he will wash them way down the line and optically show the ball-carrier to cut back behind him
+ Because of how massive he is, when he tries to reach-block guys on the edge, they often try to peak around and get off balance, to where he can ride them along and allow the back to stay behind his block
+ Yet, if he’s tasked with simply sealing the back-side, extending that outside arm in the chest of edge guys and bringing the opposite hip-around is very effective
+ When he arrives at the party, with no direct assignment, he can help move the significantly and allow the ball-carrier to hide behind that wall or push through it
+ Some of his tape is just hilarious to watch, when he puts guys on the ground seemingly without breaking a sweat
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+ Offers a quick jump out of his stance to cut off the angle for edge rushers, has his hands ready at his mid-section and is patient with his punch
+ The way he snatches and traps guys when they do get closer to his body makes him basically negate guys completely
+ His insane 7’6” wingspan allows him to constantly put a hand on defenders before those guys could even get to his frame, and it gives him a ton of room for error in his technique
+ If guys try to loop wide around him and don’t actively try to find an angle, he’s fine sitting back and waiting there, but if he does go for it, those long arms can really stymie rushers in their approach
+ Even if the outside hand is swatted away, he can push guys further off track by still reaching them with the other arm
+ When he does overset and rushers create that lane to the quarterback seemingly going underneath, Jones is typically able to ride those guys across the QB’s face, to leave him unaffected
+ Buries guys underneath himself with regularity, if they shift their momentum too far out in front
+ After surrendering three sacks and eight other pressures in 2021, Jones didn’t even allow his quarterback to be hit once due to him last year and only hurried five times
+ PFF awarded him with their highest pass-blocking efficiency of any draft-eligible tackle at 99.4 last season
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– You see Jones just throw his hands and not move his lower body at times, when he can’t get his body positioned accordingly throughout run plays
– Appears disoriented when his initial assignment is changed post-snap and he has to come up solutions on the fly in that regard
– The way he puts his hands on the face-mask of defenders and some of the pull-downs will be flagged more regularly at the pro level
– Short-setting guys and forcing them to go way around him, because of his size and length, was an effective strategy at the college level, but that won’t fly in the NFL
– At this point, Jones does get by with his massive frame and length along with natural strength, which won’t be as prevalent going against pro players, who will force him to get on their level technically
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Jones only took part in the first practice at the Senior Bowl, but he just stood out from the moment he stepped on the field with his giganteous size and unheard of wingspan. Edge defenders quickly realized that they weren’t going to get through his chest, but the one rep that really stood out to me came during individual run-blocking, where he was supposed to reach-block his man but didn’t gain enough ground laterally with that first step, yet he was able to create so much torque on the far-shoulder of his man, that he ended up turning and pinning that guy inside anyway. That’s what you’re dealing with here – an absolute mountain of a man, whose strength and length give him a lot of room for error and when he puts it altogether, he can dominate people. Now, while he has definitely shown technical development, he does heavily rely on his natural gifts and will have to overhaul his pass-sets in order to actually cut off angles for more talented and crafty NFL rushers than he’s faced so far. However, he has things you can’t teach and the potential(!) to become a more athletic version of Orlando Brown down the road.
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6. Anton Harrison, Oklahoma

6’4″, 310 pounds; JR
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A four-star recruit in 2020, Harrison already logged over 1000 snaps at left tackle through his first two seasons with the Sooners. As a junior, he started all but on one of 12 regular season game on the blindside yet again (one at right tackle and opted out of the Cheez-It Bowl) and received more recognition on a national scale, when he was named a first-team All-Big 12 performer.
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+ Presents an athletic frame with minimal excess weight and long arms (34 and ¼)
+ Can create some knock-back as he lands his hands inside the frame of defenders, shoving linebackers off track regularly
+ Last season I thought he was more assertive near the point of attack, to drive-block edge defenders or block down on three-techniques and get guys off their landmarks
+ You see him lift stand up D-tackles in order for fellow linemen wrap around behind him regularly
+ On the backside of wide zone runs, if linebackers try to shoot the B-gaps Harrison hits and rides them way down the line, to open up massive cutback lanes behind him
+ When guys try to dip underneath him or get around blocks, Harrison typically rides them towards his own end-zone to blow the front-side open
+ Has the quick burst to help secure the down-linemen on combo blocks and then deliver some force to open up a lane inside of them as somebody from the second level behind it steps down
+ Bends off the inside foot and uncoils force through defenders in the hole wrapping around on powecounter schemes
+ Frequently is able to face-plant defenders as he catches them off balance, with one foot off the ground, with the triceps strength to extend and push them down
+ Makes the job of his teammates a lot easier, when he’s passing off down-linemen on front-side combos by extending with the inside arm and allowing the guy next to him to bring his base and secure the block
+ Rarely overruns his targets in space and forces guys to work around him consistently, being able to put his hands on third-level defenders in the screen game
+ His 4.98 in the 40 was tied for the second-best mark among all offensive linemen at the combine
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+ There’s good rhythm and a certain calmness in his kick-slide, with the light feet to guide edge defenders around the loop
+ Times up his strike as rushers try to throw their hands, frequently hitting them as they’re off balance and taking them to the ground every once in a while
+ His initial hand-placement may not be great always and he gets caught with his elbow out wide, but he does work to re-fit them and finds way to gain control
+ And he finds ways to maximize his length to out-reach his man
+ Can really snatch rushers as he grabs cloth of guys trying to work through him, without giving them a lane to escape
+ Plays under good control generally and doesn’t overreact to defensive movement, picking up games and mirroring guys with space to work
+ Smoothly transitions from the slanting linemen to the looper on E-T twists
+ Has some impressive recovery moments on tape, where rushers have him on skates and he’s somehow able to drop his anchor due to his high-level balance
+ Allowed just one sack and eight hurries (no QB hits) across 447 pass-blocking snaps in '22
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– Can’t reduce his height very well and you can see them roll his weight over his shoulders at times trying to establish contact with smaller linebackers
– Doesn’t set the tone in the run game like you’d want to see for that size, having to become more effective with his hand-placement and re-work the way he transitions force from the ground up
– You see some of that as well in the pass game, when his chest folds forward instead of working with sink in his hips and then he kind of tries to chase after guys up the arc, where if timed correctly can leave the inside lane to the QB completely free
– Carries his hands fairly low and comes in wide with the punch, to where guys who sell out on attacking his chest can take him for a ride a few times, as he doesn’t seem ready to land his hands – You see that at times when he’s not ready for somebody coming his way on twists
– There’s a few reps, where he tries to ride edge rushers up the field, but he doesn’t maintain contact and that guy is able to slip underneath him
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It’s never easy projecting tackles in particular going from offensive systems that relied heavily on a few run concepts, off which they build their RPO game and offer limited reps for pass-protectors to prove themselves. The areas of weakness in Harrison’s game right now are pretty clear – he struggles to bend at the knees and maximizing his power in the run game, while his hands and feet aren’t married regularly enough in pass-pro. On the Brightside, he does bring plenty of shock in his hands and well-coordinated movement to work to the second level, while being light on his feet to deal with speed off the edge and being able to clamp down on guys once he takes control of reps. There is a fairly steep learning curve in front of him, but he has all the physical tools and the mindset to become a plus starter on the blindside, which is why he regularly finds his name late in first-round mock drafts.
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7. Matthew Bergeron, Syracuse

6’5”, 320 pounds; RS JR
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Just inside the top-1000 overall recruits in 2019, Bergeron played in 12 and started five game as a true freshman. Other than missing two games this past season, he started all of the other 34 games, with all but three of those at left tackle. He earned honorable mention and then second-team All-ACC accolades most recently, whilst being a team captain in 2022.
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+ Nice girth throughout his frame and effectively rolls his hips through contact to create movement in the run game
+ Even with sub-optimal hand-placement, he can widen the edge pretty consistently on the front-side of zone concepts
+ Shows a strong grip with the inside hand, which doesn’t allow edge defenders to back-door or slip his blocks typically
+ When having to block down on three-techniques who aggressively try to get through his gap, Bergerson does well to get his hand on the defenders’ hip and use that momentum against that guy
+ Does well to on hinge-blocks and just get the job done when tasked with sealing guys on the backside of concepts
+ In formations with a tight-end next to him, where the C-gap was uncovered, Bergeron effectively was able to able to pick up and ride smaller bodies at the edge of the box out of the picture
+ You really like what he presents blocking on the move, sweeping around the edge and taking linebackers for a ride or blowing DBs trying to set the edge out of the picture
+ Was utilized on some skip-pulls, where he would wrap around on GT power plays and looked pretty light on his feet to get to his landmarks
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+ Shows a real plan in his approach as a pass-protector, changing up between quick sets, jumping out of his stance aggressively versus speed-based rushers, etc.
+ Covers a ton of ground in his kick-sets in order to counter true speed-balls off the edge
+ Carries his hands at his hips and is ready to punch and counter the movement of rushers
+ Will land some surprise stabs quickly at the chest of rushers, to throw off the timing of the moves they want to set up
+ Displays the body-control to re-anchor even when it looks like power rushers are under control of reps
+ Transitions well on twists by the D-line, whether it’s the strong base to absorb force by the initial slanter or the lateral agility to slide in front of the secondary looper
+ Quickly redirects from the initial kick to a lateral shuffle in order to help out or take over stunting interior defenders, if his man on the edge peels off
+ Generally can use the momentum of defender to guide them away from the quarterback
+ Takes advantages of chances to pull off-balance rushers to the ground and pins them down there
+ While he was officially charged for five sacks by PFF last season, in terms of total pressures he was at 12 compared to 11 the year prior, with 770 combined pass-blocking snaps
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– His hands regularly start off high and wide already and he minimizes the force he can apply in the run game, as well as make him vulnerable to get flagged, because the refs can see everything
– Pro Football Focus only credited his with 33 positively graded run plays last season, which I wouldn’t judge as such (in terms of a net plus), but in terms of having his hands latched onto the aiming points, that number is probably about right
– Tends to pick up his inside foot too much, as he’s trying to gain ground vertically in his pass-sets and becomes vulnerable against guys with a great long-arm – Clemson’s Myles Murphy was in control of that matchup for most of the day, even if Myles didn’t get to finish many plays
– Edge rushers frequently are the ones to get their arms inside and Bergeron ends up with his elbows out wide, which limits his ability to slow down power
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Bergeron has nearly put together the exact same resume during his pre-draft process as Tennessee’s Darnell Wright. Throughout Senior Bowl week, I thought his movement skills in pass-protection were highly impressive, not allowing guys to gain an angle on the quarterback, as well as being able to mirror and shut down some challenging counter moves. And while he didn’t test at the combine, he had a tremendous on-field workout. He looked so light-footed, changed directions and reacted to the coaches’ indications without any issues. His hand-placement in both facets of the game drove me wild at times on tape, but that area already looked improved down in Mobile and I also understand that he will receive the type of coaching to see major benefits. How well he carries 320 pounds, being able to cover ground vertically and horizontal in protection, is rare – and he doesn’t even yet take great advantage of his play-strength all the time. I would not be shocked if he ends up being one of the last few picks of the first round and he’s probably a top-50 lock.
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8. Jaelyn Duncan, Maryland

6’6”, 320 pounds, RS SR
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The rest of the analysis can be found here!

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9. Tyler Steen, Alabama

6’5”, 315 pounds; RS SR
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10. Blake Freeland, BYU

6’8″, 305 pounds; RS JR
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The next names up:

Jordan McFadden (Clemson) Wanya Morris (Oklahoma), Ryan Hayes (Michigan), Richard Gouraige (Florida), Warren McClendon Jr. (Georgia), Asim Richards (North Carolina) & Carter Warren (Pittsburgh)
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If you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider checking out the original piece and feel free to check out all my other video content here!
Twitter: @ halilsfbtalk Instagram: @ halilsrealfootballtalk

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling will air its 03/18 GRAND PRINCESS ‘23 show live from Ariake Coliseum.
Those with Wrestle Universe can watch the show here.
Those who are interested in the show but do not yet subscribe to Wrestle Universe but would like to get a teaser of the show, the preshow, opening match and match 2 will stream on Tokyo Joshi’s official YouTube channel. Direct link to the stream can be found here
Opening bell for the event is 3:00 pm on Saturday, March 18th in Japan. That's 2:00 am Saturday, March 18th Eastern US time and 11:00 pm Friday, March 17th Pacific. (I believe it’s 6:00 am Saturday, March 18th in the U.K.)
If you are new to Tokyo Joshi and would like to know more about the promotion you can check out my "Beginner's guide to Tokyo Joshi" It’s just slightly out of date doesn’t include the 2023 rookies however it should give you the gist of things.
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3/18 card:

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Main Event – Princess of Princess championship title match
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• Yuka Sakazaki (champion) VS Mizuki (challenger)

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Semi-final match – Princess tag championship match
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• Wasteland War Party [MAX the Impaler & Heidi Howitzer] (champions) VS 121000000 [Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh] (challengers)

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Match 8 – International Princess championship match
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• Miu Watanabe (champion) VS Rika Tatsumi (challenger)

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Match 7 – Special singles match
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• Yuki Arai VS Aja Kong

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Match 6 – Tag team match
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• NEO-Biishikigun [Saki-sama, & Mei San-Michelle] VS Yuki Kamifuku & Billie Starks

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Match 5 – Tag team match
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• Kyouraku Kyoumei [Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao] VS Neko Haruna & Andreza Giant Panda

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Match 4 – Special singles match
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• Moka Miyamoto VS Ryo Mizunami

Match 3 – 6 woman tag match
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• Hikari Noa, Nao Kakuta & Ram Kaicho VS Yuki Aino, Raku & Harajuku Pom

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Match 2 – Haru Kazashiro & Runa Okubo debut 8 woman tag match
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• Mahiro Kiryu, HIMAWARI, Wakana Uehara & Shino Suzuki VS Kaya Toribami, Touga, Haru Kazashiro & Runa Okubo

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Opening match – Singles match
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• Suzume VS Arisu Endo

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notes

• Tokyo Joshi will hold its their huge spring event Grand Princess ’23 on March 18th at Ariake Coliseum. This will be the first joshi pro wrestling event held within its walls in over 19 years. This will be the second year that Tokyo Joshi holds this mega event and is their first mega show of 2023. This comes after highly successful string of major events in 2022. This show is set to have 10 matches.

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• There is an underlying theme on this show of tag partners and friends battling on another for something important and this culminates with the main event. Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki have been tag partners and near inseparable friends since their team formed in 2018. They are almost never even placed on opposite sides of a multi-person tag match. They hate fighting one another if they can help it. However, there are just some things that are so important that you must fight for. On the January 4th show a battle royal was planned pitting some of Tokyo Joshi’s top contenders against one another for the next shot at whoever came out champion at the end of the show between Miyu and Yuka. Mizuki would win this match, and was declared the next contender. She would never proactively challenge Yuka for the PuriPuri title but once Yuka defeated Miyu, the match was set. So now, there’s a swirl of emotions surrounding the match. For Yuka, leading Tokyo Joshi and holding the title are extremely important. She will defend the belt with all her might, but she’s scared because she’s convinced that she’ll win and she’s worried that Mizuki will hate her for it. Overconfidence? Maybe, but Mizuki and Yuka have had had a handful of singles matches over the years, and the best Mizuki has ever been able to do is wrestle her to a draw. She has never beaten Yuka. But the drive to become champion has become stronger and stronger since Mizuki started with ToJo. She’s seen the champions, especially Yuka, carry Tokyo Joshi on their backs as champion and Mizuki has grown to love ToJo more and more since she started as a regular and eventually a signed wrestler that she wants the chance to herself carry ToJo on her back and lead the roster and company that she loves so dearly on her back. This will be her fifth time challenging for the belt and she’s more determined than ever to get it even if she has to go through her beloved partner Yuka to get it. It won’t be easy. Yuka has been near unstoppable recently. She completely outclasses Mizuki in terms of power and strength, and is comparable to her in speed if she needs it. Yuka and Mizuki both have aerial ability and a wealth of submissions with their deep knowledge of one another its difficult to say one has a clear advantage over the other. Yuka has several potential strategies to victories, she could try for an all out assault and just deal enough damage Mizuki enough to win. She could also try to focus on damaging Mizuki’s legs as she needs them for many of her attacks including stomps, running dropkicks and her cutie special. Mizuki’s strategies are similar, she could also potentially go for Yuka’s legs to hamper Yuka’s offense. Mizuki could also try working on busting up Yuka’s ribs with double stomps and other attacks to potentially inhibit Yuka’s breathing. There’s also the possibility of a trap pin which should never be discounted when Mizuki is involved. However the match goes down, its bound to be a thrill for fans

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• Since January 4th of this year, the Princess Tag championship have been under outsider control. The Wasteland War Party which consists of Heidi Howitzer and MAX the Impaler defeated Yuki Arai and Saki Akai at Kourakuen Hall and returned to the U.S. with the pink belts in tow. In the meantime, Tokyo Joshi held their now annual MAX HEART tag tournament to determine the next challengers for the belts. Of the 10 teams participating, Maki Itoh and Miyu Yamashita’s 121000000 (one to million) managed to break through the competition and assert themselves as the next challengers to the titles. This is especially impressive given Miyu’s past record when it comes to tournaments (granted she wasn’t the one to win the final match, but still.) Currently, the Wasteland War Party is bringing the belts back to Grand Princess after defending them 3 times in America. 121000000 hopes to reclaim them for ToJo in this match. Maki even promised Pom that she would reclaim the stuff MAX took from Pom. But will it be that simple? It’s a ticking clock situation. Maki and Miyu are both primarily strike type wrestlers with an intermixing of slams and submissions. Neither are known for their counter or parry specialists so while they’ll both likely be able to avoid some damage, they need to be inflicting more damage more often than Heidi and MAX are able to dole out. Heidi and MAX are two of the biggest wrestlers to ever appear in ToJo and they are well known for their brawling style and a strong constitution. It take a lot to bring either one of them down. So the central question is can the challengers deal enough damage to the extremely resilient champions to get a win before succumbing the pounding that Heidi and MAX are bound to give?

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• This is another match that follows the theme of partners battling it out. Rika has challenged Miu for her International Princess title. With Miu defending the belt 3 times now, Rika has seen how Miu has glittered as the champion and has felt a bit of jealousy because of it. She too wants to shine with the belt and take on international talent. She has also noted that if she wins she’ll have held all the belts in ToJo (and the ironman heavymetalweight belt) and would be the first to be considered what she calls a grand slam champion. The last time these two battled, their roles were ironically reversed. Miu was Rika’s first challenger after she captured PuriPuri. They’ve both developed since then so while Rika may have beaten Miu in 2021, her victory is anything but assured here. This match will be quite interesting again given how well the two competitors know one another. Rika is a technical wrestler at her base, she’s got a lot submissions and limb damaging attacks in her bag of tricks she’s especially well known for destroying her opponent’s legs with vicious precision. Miu on the other hand is a power wrestler with 20 pounds of heart in a 5-pound bag. She will run into her opponent until she has nothing left. Miu excels at finding ways to get back into a fight when things seem all but lost. She has the strength to pick up everyone on the roster for a slam or a swing. Speaking of the swing, Rika has consistently pointed out how much she hates being spun. She has something of a complex about it. Miu’s competitors have all tried to gameplan for the swing, but Miu’s cleverness has always allowed her to successfully execute the move in some form. Will this be the deciding factor of the match? Will Rika be able to avoid it? This match is expected to be one of the highlights of the show. Look forward to it.

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• The special singles match for this show features joshi legend Aja Kong battling against SKE48 star and young ToJo wrestler, Yuki Arai. This will be Arai’s 3rd confrontation with Aja and her first singles match. Their first match took place at Wrestle Princess 2 roughly a year and a half ago when Arai teamed with Miu Watanabe to take on Aja and Moka Miyamoto. While Arai lost this match, it was a major turning point in her career and made her want to learn more about wrestling. She decided to continue wrestling and grow stronger. Now that she has a one on one opportunity with Aja, she really wants to use her “Finally” finisher and take a win. But this is far easier said than done. For herself, Aja is taking the challenge quite seriously. Yuki’s idol career matters little to the joshi legend, Aja considers her a wrestler and will come at her full force. She’s studied Arai and is thinking of countermeasures for much of Arai’s offense. She fully expects Arai to do the same. Arai’s has a real uphill battle in this match. She is outmatched in terms of both strength and experience. Furthermore, much of Arai’s standard offense is unlikely to work due to Aja’s size. Arai will primarily have to rely on her various kicks and her advantage in speed and agility to gain the upper hand. She needs to be wary of Aja’s Uraken and backdrop especially. Arai is tenacious and has shown herself to be surprisingly resilient for her size, but she’ll need to summon all her strength and grit to be able to weather the storm that is Aja Kong.

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• NEO-Biishikigun is back! Saki-sama and Mei-san are returning to Tokyo Joshi after not being seen since this time last year. For those not familiar with the Saki-sama and her household of loyal followers, her credo is that beauty is strength and strength is beauty. She despises ugliness an often seems to see it permeate throughout ToJo. She is one of the strongest wrestlers in Tokyo Joshi’s ranks and has had numerous confrontations with may of its major stars. The ToJo landscape almost always gets shaken when Saki-sama and her allies appear so be ready for anything. This time around NEO-Biishikigun are matched up against Kamiyu and Billie Starkz. Its been over 3 years since Kamiyu has faced off against Saki-sama and she has no experience with her newest maid Mei-san. This of course will be Billie’s first time dealing with the beautiful duo. As a first time pairing, is there any way Kamiyu and Billie can stand against NEO-Biishikigun, a team that has numerous times climbed to the top of Tokyo Joshi’s tag division and is often beautifully unscrupulous in their avenues to victory? Only time will tell.

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• Pray that there’s still an arena left to perform in after these titans clash. Hero of love and peace in Tokyo Joshi teams up with a big kaiju to defend the masses from a wild giant panda and its house pet. You heard correctly, Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima will be battling Andreza Giant Panda and Neko Haruna in an epic struggle at Ariake Colosseum. Kyouraku Kyoumei have likely spent the lead up to the match developing numerous response plans for the incoming global neko-panda threat. Andreza has been terrorizing the Japanese wrestling scene for a number of years now. His headbutt and powerful chops can easily knock out even some of the toughest opponents so Shoko and PaMi will need all their faculties and possibly some bamboo if they hope to survive this black and white peril.

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• Recently it feels like going through Aniki is a rite of passage for the younger members of the ToJo roster. Last year at Summer Sun princess, Aniki faced off against Miu Watanabe. Then at Wrestle Princess 3 it was Suzume’s turn to take on the task. Now, Moka has been selected to battle the veteran joshi. This is the biggest challenge Moka has faced in her young career. Aniki is a 15 year veteran of the ring who has wrestled in most of the major joshi companies of the last 2 decades as well as overseas. She has posed a threat to most of the major players in joshi wrestling over the last few years. Moka has never faced a powerhouse of Ryo’s caliber before. In the match she’ll want to do her best to avoid Aniki’s powerful striking and slams. Moka is not normally a stick and move type wrestler but in this match-up she’s completely outmatched in terms of strength, so wrestling Aniki to the ground and locking her up in submissions, even Moka’s powerful Rashomon, will be difficult. Good luck Moka!

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• An interesting 6 woman tag has been set for this show. On one side there’s the regular 3 woman pairing of Yuki Aino, Raku and Pom. On the other side of the match, Free wifi, Nao and Hikari, are joined by the person that makes this match interesting: Ram Kaicho! Ram hasn’t been seen in Tokyo Joshi since Grand Princess last year. Many fans will remember her spectacular entrance at that show leading Raku down the aisle…er.. entrance ramp. Thus, Ram being on the opposite team from Raku is a big surprise. What will happen when Raku and Ram square off is anyone’s guess. This match is filled with chaos agents with 4 out of the 6 competitors in the match being instigators of brattish behavior, 1 competitor having the ability to throw ectoplasm, 1 competitor being some kind of magical sleep deity and the most normal person in the match being a complete sympathizer to her partners’ antics. This all adds up to near 100% likelihood that this match will be filled with complete and utter wonderful nonsense. Be ready for it.

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• Match 2 will put much of ToJo’s future talent on display. Mahiro will take Wakana, HIMAWARI and new Up Up Girl, Shino, three wrestlers that have all debuted within the last 3 months, and lead them to battle against Kaya and her team barely experienced rookies, Toga, who has a single match worth of experience, as well as Runa and Haru who will make their in-ring debuts in this match. The amazing statistic here is that Mahiro has more experience wrestling than the combined experience of every other wrestler in the match. Can she use this to her advantage and lead her team to victory? Or will she apologize for everyone’s lack of experience. And what of the newly debuting wrestlers? What will they show us in this match? How will they fare being thrust immediately onto the big stage? Exciting questions to be sure.

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• There is an underlying theme of partners battling throughout the Grand Princess card, that theme begins with the opening match of Suzume vs Arisu. Arisu debuted at the January 4th show in 2021. Suzume was her opponent in her debut match. Since then, the two were paired together as tag partners and quickly gelled both as a team and as friends. While they have battled on occasion on opposing sides of tag team matches, this will be the first one on one confrontation the two have had since that debut match. Going in, there’s no animosity between these two. Their intent is to show off what they can do on a big stage. For Arisu, she knows that Suzume is a strong opponent and she often feels like she is the weak link in their tag team that keeps them from winning in big matches, so she intends to use everything she has to take Suzume down and prove herself a reliable partner. For Suzume, she is the senpai of the team so she she’d rather not lose to a junior but she doesn’t know if it’ll be that simple. She hears Arisu and others sometimes say that Arisu isn’t strong, but she feels that Arisu has gone from a junior that she leads along to a reliable partner that stands beside her as part of their team. She even if she’s the senpai, Arisu is her partner and she doesn’t know who is stronger. This match will provide the current answer to that question. Again, since these two are tag partners they know one another extremely well. They’re both speedy and dynamic wrestlers that will likely bring out the best in one another and one underestimation by either of them could be the deciding factor in the outcome of the match.

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• Wrestle Universe is available both as a website or as an app. The app is available on iOS and for android. You can get more information and find links to download the app here. If the app is not available yet in your country, please check back later. The regions where it is downloadable is steadily increasing.

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• DDT wrestler Chris Brooks and Shota of Ganbare pro wrestling fame will provide play-by-play for this show.

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• Juria Nagano injured her hand during the MAX HEART tag tournament and is currently in recovery. Thusly, she is not scheduled to have a match on this show. However, she is will be at the show and is scheduled for some commentary duties.

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• Natsume Nakayama from the Hello Project! idol group OCHA NORMA will be providing guest commentary for the event. She will be joined in the booth by regular play caller Haruo Murata as well as sports journalist Sayoko Mita and pro wrestling writer Kagehiro Osano who will provide analysis and color commentary.

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• Cheering and kamitape paper streamers will be allowed at this show. So be ready for the full Tokyo Joshi big match experience.

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• The Up Up Girls will debut a new song at this show.

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• Notes for foreigners attending the show:

1. While mask rules in Japan have relaxed, wearing a mask is still required for attendees of this show.
2. For those familiar with Kamitape and have the intention to throw it, please only throw during the entrance call for each wrestler. If you are sitting in the stands, please quickly move to the arena to throw without disturbing other patrons and promptly return to your seat.
3. Special PA announcements for the show will be recorded by Juria Nagano and Moka Miyamoto. Please listen for them in the arena prior to bell time.
4. There will only be 2 special meet and greets after the Saturday performance. Andreza Giant Panda will be on hand for 2 shot photo ops for 1000 yen each. Also, Neo Biishikigun will be signing for those who purchased portraits during the online sale. No Neo Biishikigun portraits will be available on the day of the show.
5. All other signings will be held in Asakusabashi the following day starting at noon. Please refer to Tokyo Joshi’s official twitter for the signing schedule.
6. Portraits for any available wrestlers, as well as pamplets, posters, t-shirts, and the new special “Fun” book will be available at the vendors station at the performance. Unsold portraits will be available the following day in Asakusabashi however it has not been stated what other merchandise will be on hand. Presumably it will.
7. Universe members generally get a special present at Tokyo Joshi shows. If you are a Wrestle UNIVERSE subscriber. Please present your ticket and profile info (not your username and password, but your user profile) at the designated table to receive your gift.
8. Those who have purchased arena A seating or higher can claim a special portrait book as part of their seating package. Please present your ticket at the table near the merchandise area where the portrait books can be found to claim your copy.

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• Numerous items are currently available at www.tjpw-store.com including preorder reservations for the new GP23 show pamphlet with preorder bonus of one random signature , entrance music CDs, past show pamphlets, t-shirts and photobooks. Please note that the Japanese TJPW store does not ship internationally so international purchasers must use a 3rd party shipping service when ordering.

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Also if you just want to follow along on social media or interact, search for or use #tjpw and #tjpwGP23

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It’s positional draft rankings time! As I outlined on social media and my most recent video on the biggest risers and fallers from the NFL combine, over the next five-and-a-half weeks, I'öll be releasing top ten lists for each position in the draft. That means two groups every week, starting with running backs and linebackers, and I will follow that theme of talking about an offensive position first and then their defensive counterpart (wide receiver – cornerback, offensive tackle – edge defender, etc.).
As far as this RB class is concerned, we have a legit superstar prospect at the top, who draft evaluators have long held in high regard and were just waiting for to declare. I also think there’s a pretty clear number two – who might actually be underdiscussed – and number three has remained steady throughout this process for me as well. After that, you can argue there’s about ten names in one big bucket, where it largely depends on what flavor your team is looking for. Not all of them will, but I would have no problem with any one of them coming off the board before day. Even after that, there are lots of useful players, who you can find in the later rounds and be contributors for you to a certain degree.
This is how I have them stacked up:
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1. Bijan Robinson, Texas

5’11”, 215 pounds; JR
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The number one RB recruit in the country for 2020, Robinson had an absolutely ridiculous high school career, rushing for over 2000 yards in three straight seasons and becoming the first guy to be named the top player in the state of Texas twice. As a freshman with the Longhorns, Bijan racked up 899 yards and six touchdowns on just 101 touches, averaging 8.2 yards per carry. In year two, he truly exploded onto the scene, with just over 1400 yards and 15 touchdowns in ten games, which earned him first-team All-Big XII accolades. And he was even better last year, repeating those honors, while being just six yards shy of 1900 total and reaching the end-zone 20 times, making him a first-team All-American, despite some inconsistencies for that Texas offense overall.
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+ Can get skinny and slice through lanes at full speed, but also slow-play and then kick into gear once he sticks his foot in the ground, gaining pace through that plant
+ Displays appropriate vision and understanding of concepts, to run from the pistol or shotgun, from single-back, split or I-formation sets, gap or zone schemes, read pullers and be a gadget player on top of it
+ Can alter tempo, cut down his stride and make subtle shifts to his running path smoothly
+ When having to avoid instant penetration, there’s no wasted movement or panic, showcasing the reactionary quickness to avoid that road-bump without going completely off track
+ Has that sudden burst to leave defenders behind in the dust, whether it’s linebackers having him squared up in the hole or DBs slow-playing him out in the flats and trying to wait for him, and he rarely allows tacklers to get a straight wrap on him
+ Shows that ability where he’s surrounded by bodies but somehow appears totally calm, makes his move and just has everybody reaching for air
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+ Has the speed to split safeties trying to converge on him in two-high looks or pull away from the pack, when he just gets a seam
+ Naturally strings those moves together in sequence, including the lazy/dead leg and those types of in-and-out moves, And he has some of the greatest effort plays you will ever see from a back, where he is all wrapped up, but he refuses to go down
+ Just a very creative runner, Some of the dramatic head- and foot-fakes by Bijan as well crossing over some guys as if he’s on a basketball court with great curvilinear movement, are just things that you don’t really see from other backs at that size at least
+ May not truck a lot of guys necessarily, but he can really drive through contact and churn out extra yardage, Plus his ability to stiff-arm somebody near the sideline and ride that guy for several is pretty crazy
+ Broke 79 tackles on only 195 carries in 2021 and added eight more broken tackles on 26 receptions, This past season, he forced 104(!) missed tackles (a PFF single-season record) on 257 attempts and racked up 1077 yards after contact (along with 41 explosive runs)
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+ Looks so natural catching the ball, which was something I also noted throughout his combine workout (along with what I saw on film)
+ Doesn’t have to slow down when he has turn over the shoulder or slightly reach behind him for the ball – PFF didn’t charge him with any drops and the only questionable ball I can remember was a failed underhand catch on a low ball off an out route
+ The Longhorn coaches made it a priority to find ways of getting the ball in his hands with space, with a lot of swing and seam routes, but also some quick screens when split out wide
+ Can be a legit fifth receiver when you flex him out wide or into the slot in empty sets, with the quick-twitch out of his breaks, but also can attack vertically as part of the pattern on streak and wheel routes
+ Showcases good patience and active feet to square up second- and third-level rushers, along with the quickness to go from being in the A-gap to get a piece of somebody coming unblocked off the opposite edge
+ Lands some forceful chips before releasing into his routes and legitimately slowed down quite a few of the better edge rushers that way
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– When having built up momentum and approaches tacklers, Robinson can gain yards through contact effectively, but in tight spaces, you see linebackers wrap and drive him backwards more than you’d like
– You want a dynamic player like this to bring his style to the table, but there’s a little too much tip-toeing behind the line going on with Bijan at this point
– Not always super disciplined with executing run schemes and following the way it’s drawn up, as well as just making sure he gets back to the line of scrimmage, when the defense has won the battle
– Puts his body in vulnerable positions, including getting flipped in the Texas Tech game last season, where it initially looked like he might have broken his neck, and part of that led to his six fumbles since the start of the '21
– Doesn’t consistently strike up and through the target as a pass-protector, allowing them to slip off his blocks, more so as somebody who gets in the way of blitzers
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This guy is a human highlight reel, who can zoom past the defense in a hurry if you give him a lane, but even when nothing is there, he can create magic. Robinson did it over and over again these past two years, even though everybody in the stadium knew where the ball was going a lot of times. Becoming a more commanding pass-protector will be his biggest area of improvement, but he has the size and natural gifts to as close as we have to a true workhorse/featured back in football today, and he’s the best prospect at the position I’ve scouted since Saquon Barkley. Because of how the NFL undervalues the position, he won’t nearly go as often, but this is a top-five overall prospect in this class.
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2. Jahmyr Gibbs, Alabama

5’11”, 200 pounds; RS SO
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A former top-100 overall recruit in 2020, Gibbs immediately produced for the Georgia Tech program as a true freshman, recording nearly 1000 all-purpose yards and seven touchdowns on just 121 touches (eight kick returns). Then he was named a second-team All-American player at the all-purpose spot in '21, thanks to 1211 yards from scrimmage on 178 touches, averaging 6.8 yards per and reaching the end-zone six times. Following that, he transferred over to the SEC, where he really was the main offensive weapon for Alabama and was named first-team all-conference, combining 151 carries and 44 catches to 1370 yards and touchdowns from scrimmage, averaging 7.0 yards per touch.
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+ Very much reminds me of Georgia’s James Cook last year, in terms of somebody that if you give him that lane to explode through, he may bang his head on the goal-post soon after
+ This kid is like a sportscar, that can switch gears with no issues at all and make defenders look silly
+ You see Gibbs move laterally on zone concepts and then look like he’s shot out of a cannon as he decides to get vertical and hit the crease, And defenders routinely appear be a little late to come off blocks as he gets into the defensive backfield
+ Has some of the most impressive feet in the draft class and an ability to cut on a moment’s notice, as well as bob and hesitate before slicing through (small) creases
+ For being right around the 200-pound size, Gibbs gladly follows concepts between the tackles and does a nice job of slightly hesitating behind pullers before acceleration through creases
+ His start-stop quickness is off the chart, to where it seems like he’s going full speed, then momentarily moves laterally to make a defender miss and be right back in top gear
+ Moves with the control to almost shuffle sideways to allow the play to develop and then explode through the hole
+ There are moments where it appears he’ll be brought down for no gain, but he somehow torpedoes through a narrow lane, where he slithers off arm-tackles from the side
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+ That wiggle he has leads to defenders rarely getting a straight shot at him, constantly dipping underneath defenders after forcing them to leverage him a certain way and just reducing the surface area they can hit
+ Showcases tremendous balance and ability to stay on his feet as he slices underneath blockers in space and there’s some contact, defenders are trying to trip him up and such
+ Times up well when he swipes down with the ball not holding the ball, as tacklers are reaching out for him
+ He may look undersized, but Gibbs breaks more tackles than you’d expect, thanks to the way he dips and pulls his shoulders up through contact when he can’t avoid guys
+ Overall, he forced 69 missed tackles on 232 career attempts with the Yellow Jackets, and he made somebody miss on every fourth carry this past season, along with 15 runs of 15+ yards
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+ Has some of the softest hands you’ll find from a college back – dropped only two of 105 career catchable targets
+ At Alabama, he quickly became the top option in the pass game, whether it was on slide, angle and option routes underneath or even down the field quite regularly
+ Was flexed out wide at least 5-10 times per game and his burst off the ball combined with the way he can stop on a dime, got him open on hitches constantly
+ Quickly recognizes and gets to the right solutions on secondary routes and despite his heavy usage in the pattern, Gibbs averaged an impressive 1.83 yards per route run
+ Has that instant acceleration once the ball touches his hands and instantly turns upfield after the catch, while showcasing good feel for space and recognizing defenses around him, Catching passes out in the flats, you see guys trying to run him down whiff as he turns up the sideline
+ You’ll be hard-pressed to find a play, where he catches the ball underneath with space and the first tackler brings him to the ground
+ Getting him out in space with a convoy on screen games screams house-call
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– Is constantly looking for the big play and can miss some obvious front-side lanes every once in a while
– Gets a little too cute when he gets the ball on tosses, sweeps, etc. and tries to foot-fake somebody tracking him one-on-one, to get taken down for a loss
– Slips every once in a while when he tries to press a crease hard and his momentum is too far out in front as he’s trying to make his cut
– Definitely runs tougher than his size would indicate, but this is not somebody who’ll get the best of straight-up collisions in the hole with linebackers or sustain a big blow from the side
– Close to a zero when locked into pass-protection, just not having the anchor strength to stymie the charge of blitzing linebackers
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When you draft Gibbs, you understand that he’s right around 200 pounds and will never carry the ball 18-20 times per game. I don’t think he’s built to do that, but that would also be a disservice to the style of player he can be for you. The component he can add to your passing game as a matchup asset and just the dynamic open-field skills is highly valuable. Yet, at the same time he is highly capable of reading and executing run schemes between the tackles at a high level, where he packs that instant acceleration to slice through the second level and create explosive plays. He just had an outstanding showcase at the combine, with a 4.36 in the 40, and he looked so smooth in all the on-field drills, to remind people he’s still worthy of consideration for a late first-round pick.
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3. Zach Charbonnet, UCLA

6’1”, 220 pounds; SR
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A top-50 overall recruit in 2019, Charbonnet had a pretty good debut campaign with Michigan, with 149 carries for 726 yards and 11 touchdowns, but then barely saw the field as a sophomore and transferred ahead of the '21 season. At UCLA he had a fulminant start and put together a strong 12-game season, running it 202 times and catching 24 passes for 1334 total yards and 13 touchdowns, making him a second-team All-Pac-12 selection. Last year, he improved to first-team and earned the AP spot on the second-team All-American squad, by putting up 1680 yards and 14 TDs, increasing his average yards per carry (7.0) and reception (8.7).
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+ Runs with incredible balance and force, but also has impressive feet in tight space to navigate traffic
+ Stays true to the run concept and trusts the blocking for the most part, while manipulating defenders to run themselves to the wrong side of blocks
+ Shows the patience and awareness to maximize his lanes to run through, leaning towards where a defender is leveraged and then slicing underneath it, And he’s become better at changing up his pace and navigating through tight areas
+ Can drop his hips and execute jump-cuts after getting the defense to commit as well as anybody in the country
+ Operates from a wide base and sink in his hips as he’s approaching the line vertically and picks his spots with plus vision and short-area agility
+ Has a way of contorting his body to avoid getting hung up in traffic and navigating around it without running himself into a safety waiting for him
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+ Will never go down without a fight, A lot of times you will see him with his back to the pile and push off the ground to move forward
+ Charbonnet’s ability to bang his shoulder into the chest of tacklers and the relentless leg-drive allow him to consistently churn out extra yards through contact
+ Rarely takes away his own momentum, pulls his legs through wrap attempts and if you do get in his way after he was able to build up steam, the likelihood is that you’ll get run over
+ This guy’s balance is pretty insane, I’ve seen him be completely airborn around tacklers at times and still land on his feet to keep moving
+ Packs a wicked stiff-arm, which I’ve seen him beat defenders on the edge in one-on-one tackling situations with, as he decides to cut back and works around them
+ Last year he averaged 4.2 yards after contact and forced 52 missed tackles
+ Has some shocking pull-away burst, to where he’s gaining ground on safeties, and his 26 carries of 15+ yards ranked fifth among draft-eligible RBs
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+ Showcases some pretty soft hands to not bobble catches at all, which had him only dropping two of 39 catchable targets in 2022
+ Instantly gets upfield after securing the catch and knifes through defenders converging on him on multiple occasions
+ Sets up screen plays tremendously well and understands how to utilize linemen out in front accordingly
+ Carries play-fakes in a very deceptive way and lands some solid chips from the side before releasing into check-downs
+ Does a nice job of striking through the inside shoulder of blitzers and forcing them to take a wider path consistently
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– When going (completely) horizontal and having to make that instant cut upfield as he spots penetration, Charbonnet doesn’t have that ability to plant hard off one leg, but rather patters his feet and loses time in the backfield and at times get tackled for loss because of it
– Watching him after some of the dynamic movers at the position in this class, there’s a lack of lateral suddenness to swiftly change lanes or make people miss in tight quarters
– Almost exclusively was used on swing routes and flare-outs when part of the pattern – we don’t really have any sample size to look at for him being used down the field
– The few times he did actually was assigned with routes that include a break, he seems to lack the quick-twitch to consistently separate, When UCLA flexed out defense, they simply locked Charbonnet on the outside and had him just stand there basically on one-step hitches
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Charbonnet may not have the same kind of dynamic skill-set as the two guys in front of him, but I would argue he’s best pure runner in this entire class. He’s a legit 220+ pounds and enforces himself physically on defenses, but he’ll make guys miss and run away from them in a hurry, if you don’t respect that part of his game. His usage in his pass game was very simplistic, but there’s nothing wrong with his hands from what I’ve seen on tape and if he can still work on sustaining blocks in blitz-pickup, he can be a legit three-down back. These last two years, he’s earned PFF rushing grades of 91.9 and 92.3 respectively, to strengthen his case for being a top-50 selection.
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4. Zach Evans, Ole Miss

5’11”, 200 pounds; JR
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The number one overall recruit in the state of Texas, Evans had one of the weirdest enrollment periods I can remember, pushing his announcement back several weeks and ultimately ending up at TCU – their first-ever five-star recruit. He was on track for a big 2021 season, with 648 yards through six games, before getting shut down with a toe injury. Then he decided to transfer to the SEC and join Ole Miss, where he turned 156 touches into 1055 yards and ten touchdowns.
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+ Just watching the way he can move on the field, you understand why was once looked at as the number one overall player in the country
+ Has that instant acceleration and does not shy away at all from crashing through narrow creases at full force for tough yardage
+ This guy always seems to be going 100 miles per hour, He has tremendous explosion through the hole and can tightly navigate around blockers with ridiculous curvilinear movement, as well as pull his legs through the reach of tacklers
+ You’ll see him run over defensive ends at the line of scrimmage and drive the pile forward in short-yardage/goal-line situations better than most backs at 220-230 pounds
+ The way he can cut on a dime, slide inside of pursuing defenders and then the quick acceleration to beat guys to a spot is crazy
+ In some instances, where you see him completely stop his momentum and redirect, you feel like this guy has ankles of steel, plus then he gets back to full speed so rapidly that defenders can’t track him
+ You see the burst to get around the corner consistently, and as safeties feel like they have the outside leverage working up the alley, he often times makes them wrong be beating them to the sideline – that’s why Ole Miss tossed him the ball multiple times ever game
+ For as naturally talented as he is, Evans’ ability to recognize penetration, hug blockers and stay true to the run design are beyond what you’d expect from a somebody with less than 300 collegiate carries
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+ Offers legit home-run speed to blow through the second level and then give the safety one little head-nod, before forcing that guy to flip his head and chase after him
+ I certainly wouldn’t call Evans a power back, but with how he torpedoes downhill, he can pull through wraps and consistently twists himself forward if he’s built up momentum for a couple of extra yards
+ Displays insane contact balance, to bang off bodies and somehow stay on his feet
+ There are some ridiculous touches on tape, where he’s stumbling and you think he has to go down, but he touches the ground, re-gains control and keeps running, Plus, he consistently pulls himself forward when possible to end his runs
+ Will get you those tough yards by consistently pulling his knees up through contact, and packs a beautiful spin move to work off contact
+ Uses the inside arm very well to swipe down as defenders try to reach out for him making lateral cuts, to not get slowed down by them, as well as extend and almost push off edge defenders as he tries to work around them
+ Forced 36 missed tackles and had 17 runs of 15+ yards on just 144 attempts this past season
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+ Catches the ball with ease, whether it’s securing pitches or catching the ball on swing routes without ever slowing down
+ You can really take advantage of Evans’ explosiveness in the screen game, with the way he can hide behind his linemen momentarily before hitting the jets and outracing defenders to certain spots
+ Plus, once he gets to the open field when kicked into gear, he can cross the bend his path and cross the field, to kill multiple pursuit angles on one play
+ Working across the formation as a personal protector, you see some impressive reps from Evans, where he cuts through the legs of the free rusher and brings him to the turf
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– Still needs work on a lot of the finer details of the game, You see Evans overrun plays and not display the patience to set them up conceptually, allowing defenders to work over blocks because he doesn’t press holes and not altering his tempo
– Relies so heavily on his speed and certainly won’t be able to just run around people as frequently at the pro level
– Freshman Quinshon Judkins took on more of the carries for Ole Miss (289 vs. 156 touches) and handled the third-down role more regularly for this team
– We basically have no evidence of Evans “winning” as a route-runner, with one touchdown on a wide-open wheel route off a gadget play and otherwise mostly swing routes, and with how many RPOs the Rebels ran, we have very little tape of him as a pass-protector in true dropback sets
– Fumbled five times on just 320 career touches, due to swinging the arm that holds the ball too far away from his body
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In a class that to me has a pretty clear top-three (in defined order) and a bunch of names in that next tier, where it heavily depends on which flavor you’re looking for, I think Evans stands above the rest. Other than Bijan, he’s about as talented as anybody at the position, with things you simply can’t teach. The violence and contact balance he runs with are pretty insane, launching himself through tacklers from all directions unlike really any backs around the 200-pound mark. Ball-security and exact deployment in the pass game are question marks, but Evans is instant electricity when he touches the ball and he’s a more mature decision-maker inside the trenches than he gets credit for.
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5. Devon Achane, Texas A&M

5’9”, 185 pounds; JR
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A four-star recruit in 2020, Achane showcased his explosive skill-set right away in a limited capacity with the Aggies, averaging 9.6 yards and scoring five touchdowns on 48 touches, Over the last two years, he became more of a featured player, alongside Isaiah Spiller as a sophomore and then even more heavily last year, rushing 226 times for 2012 yards and catching 60 passes for 456 yards, with 21 combined touchdowns, Last season he was recognized as a first-team All-SEC running back AND all-purpose player.
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+ Texas A&M ran quite a bit of invert veer and sweeps with a QB counter option, because Achane’s speed to beat flat-footed edge defenders and stack linebackers towards the sideline was such an asset
+ Yet, his ability to stop his feet and then re-accelerate to beat defenders to the spot is incredible, Like you think somebody’s about to get him all the way and they just don’t
+ Has the shiftiness to have his feet pointed to the outside and slide inside of blockers/tacklers as he sees that lane opening up all of a sudden
+ Those lateral hops and ability to alter his running lanes without dramatic movement are very effective, as well as those little one-step stutter steps to give blockers that extra split-second
+ Can turn his upper body and reduce his surface area for defenders to grab as he’s working across the line of scrimmage, getting really skinny through the hole
+ Already does a nice job of forcing linebackers to wait on the backside with subtle hesitation and then attacking the front-side
+ Looking at guys with Achane’s level of speed, they usually tend to rely on it in a way where they try to beat guys down the sideline constantly, but he will cut inside of defenders with outside leverage, even though he knows a hit from one of the guys in pursuit is coming
+ Was a highly productive rusher this past season, despite running (somewhat surprisingly) behind one of the worse O-lines in college, where there was traffic in the backfield quite regularly
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+ Officially the fastest RB in the class with a 4.32 in the 40, but I didn’t actually need a number to know that anyway
+ You frequently see safeties spin around and have to sprint after him, once they realize the angle they chose working down from depth won’t cut it
+ Once he gets rolling, he can bounce off guys trying to dive at his legs, and somehow finds ways to get his feet back onto the ground, He’ll get his burned turned momentarily but still not get off track a whole lot
+ Looks like he greased up at times with the way he squirts through creases between the defenders and you just see guys slipping off him
+ And he makes some of the sharpest cuts of anybody in this class, without ever slipping it feels like
+ Forced 53 missed tackles on 173 attempts through his first two seasons with the Aggies and earned PFF rushing grades over 90.0 in each of those, while getting to 53 this past year on 196 carries
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+ With his skills in space, Achane is a legit threat if you get the ball to him on routes towards the flats and in the screen game
+ You can use that speed vertically as well though, blowing by linebackers on streak/wheel routes in man-coverage or splitting the safeties as they widen in cover-two, He beat Alabama’s Christian Harris (third-round pick by the Texans) for a big play on one of those in 2021
+ Attacks through the inside half of the man in pass-pro and at least forces those guys to take the long route
+ There are so many backs his size that cheat effort in pass-pro, while Achane does give up his body and get in front of charging blitzers
+ He has a few nice cut-blocks against mugged-up A-gap blitzers on tape
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– On the very small end of the spectrum with short arms (29 inches) and small hands (8 ½-inches), and he doesn’t appear like he’ll be able to add a lot to his frame
– Doesn’t really have the pure strength to drive through bodies and churn out those tough yards, while being twisted to the ground quite regularly
– When the play is dead, I’d like for him to just run into the backs of his linemen and maybe get a yard, rather than stutter in the backfield and lose a couple
– Achane doesn’t really snatch up blitzers and control pass-pro reps, rather than just doing enough to not get quarterback killed for a couple of seconds at least – was responsible for nine pressures
– He officially “only” had three drops last year, but his catch radius is limited and he tends to cradle the ball instead of catching it away from his body – had a couple of passes go off his hands, where he had to reach out in front of him
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Similar to what I mentioned with Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs, there’s a certain path you should take in order to maximize Achane’s skill-set. The difference between the two is that the latter doesn’t have quite as natural hands and will play at 10-15 pounds less. So I don’t see him ever being a legit RB1 in the NFL. However, while I thought he still had more of a track body in '21 and that was also his play style to some degree, with a ton of one-read runs from shotgun, I think his micro-movements and ability to make most of run schemes has really improved, and not many guys will ever run away from SEC defense as consistently as we’ve seen him do. To me he’s somebody who can deliver real splash with touches in the early teens, but we don’t see many backs at his size be major contributors in the pros typically.
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6. Tyjae Spears, Tulane

5’10”, 190 pounds; RS JR
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A three-star recruit in 2019, Spears saw very limited action in four games as a true freshman and then ended his upcoming season with an injury three games in. In his first full year (12 games) he just cracked 1000 scrimmage yards along with nine touchdowns. Then in Tulane’s Cinderella 12-2 season in 2022, he exploded for over 1800 total yards and 21 TDs, earning himself the title of AAC Offensive Player of the Year and carrying them to a huge moment in the program’s history, in their Cotton Bowl win over USC.
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+ Was the driving force of Tulane’s miracle '22 season, when he nearly had as many scrimmage yards as the next three players on the team combined
+ Has that instant acceleration to shoot through holes and beat defenses around the corner for big plays routinely
+ Effectively curves off either foot accelerate through curvilinear movement, At times you’ll see him aim to the outside, bend underneath a block on the edge without turning his body and after a couple of steps go wide again
+ Despite being labelled undersized, Spears incredible balance allows him to wiggle out of tackles and stumble back onto his feet
+ You see him just give that little shimmy and have linebackers reaching for air as he works around them near the line of scrimmage and not lose any speed
+ Packs this gliding jump-cut almost, where he aims downhill and doesn’t actually pause, but seemingly just turns his body to get out to the edge, Yet he can also stick the inside foot in the ground and open the other toe 90 degrees to bounce out there
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+ Has game-breaking acceleration to get around the corner and then the break-away speed to finish off LONG runs
+ Almost floats sideways as he’s navigating around defenders in open space without losing much speed
+ Yet he can also pull his shoulder away and cut off one foot outside his frame to make those more dramatic moves to win in one-on-one situations
+ His dead-leg move is as good as you’re ever going to see from a college back, and he doesn’t need to have his feet aligned perfectly to make different cuts and pulls his feet out of the trash constantly, as defenders try to trip him up
+ Regularly launches or pulls himself forward and reaches the ball out to maximize yardage gained
+ And he breaks way more tackles than you’d think, as guys slip off him and he keeps himself alive constantly, leading to an insane average of 4.55 yards after contact (1052 total)
+ Put on a show against USC in the Cotton Bowl, rushing for 205 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries, en route to a huge win for that program in a phenomenal season for them
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+ At Tulane, it was a lot of swings and streak routes, but watching Spears at the Senior Bowl, you saw that quick-twitch and ankle flexibility translate to crossing up linebackers one-on-one on angle and option routes
+ You saw the Green Wave line up Spears out wide and in diamond sets, so they could put the ball in his hands on slip screens, or hit him on swing screens off motion, to take advantage of his dynamic ability in space
+ Does well to identify the biggest threat as a personal protector on pass plays
+ Despite giving up 30-40 pounds on most linebackers, Spears doesn’t mind launching his body into those guys when used as a lead-blocker for his quarterback or even kicking out edge defenders in split-back sets
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– Tends to overrun pullers at times, when he should “hide” behind their inside shoulder, to create an angle to ultimately slice underneath the block
– Does rely heavily on his speed to bounce runs designed to hit inside or try to beat back-seven defenders towards the sideline, who aren’t properly leveraged outside – which he was able to in college
– Spears isn’t really going to churn out those tough yards in traffic and push the pile forward
– You’ll see him bang into bigger bodies in pass-pro, but Spears doesn’t have the strength to actually sustain those blocks, That’s why he was largely subbed off in obvious passing situations
– Wasn’t ask to run any type of intricate route tree at Tulane
– Suffered two torn ACLs already heading into the NFL
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When you talk about highlight reels, it feels like you come back to Bijan at the top all the time, but you can argue Spears is the most fun back to watch in this entire class. He has cat-like quickness, sick open-field moves and legit homerun speed, but he runs hard and breaks way more tackle than you’d anticipate from a guy who probably played around the 190-pound range at Tulane. He’ll need to become a more disciplined runner between the tackles and continue to prove he can be a real matchup piece in the pass game as he did at the Senior Bowl to some degree, but it was encouraging to see him have the same kind of juice and make some of the better players in the country look foolish after weighing in just above 200s.
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7. Sean Tucker, Syracuse

5’10”, 210 pounds; RS SO
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Just inside the top-1000 overall recruits in 2020, after some good production his first year with the Orange, Tucker turned himself into a first-team All-ACC and second-team All-American player as a full-time starter, recording 1751 scrimmage yards and 14 touchdowns on 266 touches, averaging 6.6 yards per. He also broke the team’s single-season rushing record along the way (1496), which is highly impressive considering the RB bloodlines for that school. In '22, he averaged one yard less per carry (5.1) on similar workload, but did still reach the end-zone 13 times and more than doubled his career receptions with 36.
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+ Bings some serious track background, where he focused more and more on short-distance and you see that explosiveness show up on his tape, Yet he maintains great balance and doesn’t get too far over his skis
+ Displays natural tempo in a zone run scheme, where he can stick his foot in the ground and shoot through lanes, but he also understands how to press creases on more vertical concepts and stay square, in order to force linebackers to the wrong side of blocks
+ Quick to transfer information from his head to his feet, as he spots defensive penetration and dips underneath quickly
+ Does well to plant his base with parallel feet, open up the hips and allow himself to bounce outside, There’s a lot of turning of his body and manipulating defenders with his body-language, as he’s trying to take the optimal running path
+ However, what I really appreciate about Tucker is how efficient a runner he is before he gets to the second level, where he obviously has the speed to rip off big plays, You don’t see him dance behind the line or stop his feet much
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+ Tucker’s ability to build up momentum and bounce off defenders is on display regularly
+ He uses his off-arm well to swipe down the reach of would-be-tacklers and allows himself to get around the corner by straight-arming at the facemask of edge defenders
+ Has outstanding balance to stay on his feet, Even when they are barely on the ground anymore, as he’s being pulled down, yet Tucker keeps churning them
+ You regularly see him blow through arm tackles as if they’re turnstiles and plenty of tacklers bounce off his large quads
+ Will contort his body a little bit and use curvilinear movement to get through that second level, with defenders trying to converge on him
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+ Was more involved as a receiver in '22, And while it was largely swing and flat routes, just allowing him to catch the ball on the move and being able to use his speed is a recipe for success, where he didn’t seem to fight the catch point at all
+ De doesn’t seem to fight the ball, even though he may allow it to get further into his body, and he doesn’t waste any time to get upfield
+ Just ran by a couple of linebackers on wheel routes this past season
+ Isn’t going to wow you with dramatic moves in the open field necessarily, but what he’s really good at – and you see this at times when he bounces runs out to the edge as well – is pointing the toe fully, as he’s widening and working around defenders after catching the ball underneath, in order to beat to beat them to the sideline with his speed
+ Syracuse also got him involved in the screen game to some degree, where if you give him a crease with blockers out in front, it becomes very dangerous for the opposition
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– Playing behind a lesser offensive line in '22, Tucker showed some impatience and lack of a plan to set up his rushing lanes, while trying to do too much by himself at times
– As fast as he may be, Tucker should try to get downhill at times and take that one-on-one with the safety, rather than trying to outrace linebackers engaged with a blocker and running towards their leverage, And in the open field also largely relies on his speed, rather than showing the ability to make people miss and set up a series of moves
– Considering how much he’s been on the field for the Orange, Tucker’s 28 receptions combined between 2020 and ’21 is pretty underwhelming, They didn’t ask him to go vertical other than a couple of times last year, or run any type of option routes for them
– Dropped five of 42 catchable targets this past season
– At this point isn’t much of an asset as a pass-protector, not showing much of an awareness to scan the pressure and beat rushers to the spot
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The rest of the analysis can be found here!

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8. Eric Gray, Oklahoma

5’9”, 205 pounds; SR
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9. Roschon Johnson, Texas

6’2”, 225 pounds; SR
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10. Tank Bigsby, Auburn

6’0”, 210 pounds; JR
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Just missed the cut:

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https://preview.redd.it/mqa35ojj6xna1.jpg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc4057c3eae7453aee160fb9bf92cfe58ce5c664
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Kendre Miller, TCU & Israel Abanikanda, Pittsburgh

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The next names up:

Mohamed Ibrahim (Minnesota), Chase Brown (Illinois), Kenny McIntosh (Georgia), Deuce Vaughn (K-State) & Jordan Mims (Fresno State)
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If you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider checking out the original piece and feel free to check out all my other video content here!
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