NFL Draft Profile: DeWayne McBride, Running Back, Alabama-Birmingham Blazers
#22
Pos: RB
Ht: 5102
Wt: 209
Hand: 0948
Arm: 3058
Wing: 7318
40: 4.52
DOB: 7/8/2001
Hometown: Starke, FL
High School: Vanguard
Eligibility: 2023
DeWayne McBride
Alabama-Birmingham Blazers
One Liner:
McBride is one of college football’s most productive running backs because of his muscular frame and ability to create yards after contact, but he lacks third-down potential at the NFL level.
Evaluation:
McBride’s frame is fairly unique among the most productive running backs in this draft class. He has broad shoulders and a thick frame that carries a lot of muscle. While the rising junior displays excellent burst for his size and is willing to finish through contact, he lacks many of the versatile and dynamic traits NFL teams covet. McBride is unproven as a pass catcher and uninspiring in pass protection. He appears to be too linear or stiff of a runner to display sudden cuts or twitchy movements and rarely makes elusive moves in the open field. McBride’s stop-start agility occasionally gets him in trouble behind the line of scrimmage. He shows a powerful stiff arm, successfully bounces his runs outside at a high rate for a player his size, and carries a ton of momentum as a runner. McBride almost always finishes plays falling forward. His contact balance and play strength are on the high end of the spectrum for running backs in this draft class. While he is patient behind the line of scrimmage, McBride knows when to get north to south in a hurry. He averaged roughly 4.7 yards after contact per attempt in 2021 and finished among the top five running backs in the FBS in total yards after contact. According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, McBride is a weight room warrior. He cleans 345 pounds, bench-presses 385, and squats 550. McBride’s unofficial 40-yard dash time is in the low 4.5s.
Grade:
6th Round
Quotes:
“For a guy like DeWayne McBride, there’s not enough weight we can put on the bar. We start looking at different measured metrics like power output, speed, repeatability and those things like that. You see how his game has moved forward. He’s a guy who went from 225 pounds to 215 pounds. He’s more elusive and (improved) change of direction.” -- UAB Director of Athletic Performance for Football Lyle Henley on RB DeWayne McBride
“I knew, almost immediately, that he was going to be a very good running back. It wasn’t until probably 2-3 games into the fall season did I realize he was going to be an elite running back.” -- UAB running back coach Hindley Brigham on RB DeWayne McBride
Background:
McBride was a three-star recruit from Vanguard High School in Ocala, Fla. in the class of 2020. He was the No. 1,914 recruit according to the 247Sports Composite board and No. 1,583 for On3.com. McBride was an unranked three-star recruit for Rivals and an unranked three-star recruit for ESPN with a 73 grade out of 100. MaxPreps credits him with rushing for 963 yards and 12 touchdowns on 121 carries in nine games as a high school senior. McBride earned 2021 Second-Team All-Conference USA honors after rushing for the third-most yards in a single season in UAB history. He was born on July 8, 2001.
