Top Running Backs in NFL Draft: Best of the Rest

This group of 10 running backs is led by a prospects who might be viewed as the best in the draft by some teams but off the board by others.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Apr 1, 2020 7:08 PM EDT

There are six clear-cut top running backs in this year’s draft: Georgia’s D’Andre Swift, Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins, Florida State’s Cam Akers, Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor and Utah’s Zach Moss are five members of that group. The sixth is LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

Edwards-Helaire won’t be for every team. At 5-foot-7 1/4, he falls below some teams’ height parameters. The Green Bay Packers, for instance, haven’t selected a running back shorter than 5-foot-9 1/8 in the almost 30 drafts directed by Ron Wolf, Ted Thompson and Brian Gutekunst.

No. 6. Clyde Edwards-Helaire, LSU (5-7 1/4, 207): Edwards-Helaire had a monster junior year with 1,414 rushing yards (6.6 average) and 16 touchdowns and 55 receptions for 453 yards and one more score. He was a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player.

Edwards-Helaire is short, not small. There’s a big difference. According to Sports Info Solutions, he had a missed-tackle rate of 35 for every 100 touches. That tied Moss for the best rate in the draft class. Of note, while the shortest of the top six backs, he had the biggest hands at 9 5/8 inches. Correspondingly, he had excellent ball security.

“I can do first down, second down, third down,” he said. “I was pretty much the guy as far as what they wanted all-around. You need me to run the ball in between the tackles. They say I’m small, but ultimately I just think I’m a little shorter. I weighed in at 207 and I played in between 210 and 215 last year. I put it on display this past season. I know I’ll do it in the next level.”

Edwards-Helaire, a three-star prospect, was overlooked in recruiting because of his diminutive stature. At LSU, he had only 370 rushes in three seasons. Taylor had 926, Dobbins had 726 and Moss had 710.

“If you’re a car guy, for like a Pirelli P Zero tire fresh off the market, you kind of wear it out,” Edwards-Helaire said. “That’s my thing I feel like my lifespan right now is pretty long. Zero surgeries. I tweaked a hamstring before Oklahoma, did an MRI (and it) wasn’t even a grade-1 strain. It was just tightness. I feel like I’m one of the healthiest guys and most valuable.”

No. 7: Antonio Gibson, Memphis (6-0 3/8, 228): Gibson played two seasons at Memphis. A receiver/running back, Gibson didn’t get many opportunities but he was a big play waiting to happen. In 2019, he caught 38 passes for 735 yards (19.3 average) and eight touchdowns and carried 33 times for 369 yards (11.2 average) and four scores. He also averaged 28.0 yards with one touchdown on kickoff returns. As a senior, despite the lack of touches, only one player had more 50-yard plays than Gibson. For his career, 14 of his 44 offensive touches wound up in the end zone.

It was obviously an incredibly small sample size but Gibson was No. 1 in the class with 38 missed tackles for every 100 touches and 8.0 yards after contact per carry. While Gibson went through drills at receiver, his 4.39 in the 40 would have tied Taylor for the fastest back at the Combine. However, his 8 5/8-inch hands could knock him off some teams’ boards. He’s a man without a true position; in the past, that might have been a problem but today’s it’s practically an asset.

No. 8: Ke’Shawn Vaughn, Vanderbilt (5-9 5/8, 214): Vaughn rushed for 1,024 yards in two seasons at Illinois and 2,272 yards in two years with Vanderbilt. His best season came in 2018, when the junior rushed for 1,244 yards, averaged 7.9 yards per carry and scored 14 total touchdowns. He rushed for 1,028 yards and had a career-high 28 catches as a senior.

Vaughn ran his 40 in 4.51 seconds, though his 8 7/8-inch hands might be below some teams’ thresholds. His missed-tackle rate was 31 for every 100 touches and he averaged 3.5 yards after contact per carry; both of those figures were among the best in the draft class. He thrived in a zone scheme and against boxes that were frequently loaded to stop him. He’s ready-made for one key phase of the game. “Pass protection, that's the biggest thing, especially in a league that you've got this quarterback getting paid $100 million behind you,” he said. “You get him hurt, no job for you. So, that's the biggest thing as far as what I need – I won't say improvement – but I know that's the biggest obstacle that I have to achieve.”

No. 9: DeeJay Dallas, Miami (5-10 1/8, 217): Dallas rushed for 1,527 yards in three seasons, including 617 yards (5.7 average) and six touchdowns as a sophomore and 693 yards (6.0 average) and eight touchdowns as a junior. Half of his 28 career catches came in 2019, a season cut short by a gruesome arm injury.

Dallas spent part of his freshman season at receiver before moving to running back. In 2019, he averaged an impressive 3.7 yards after contact per rush and 28 missed tackles for every 100 touches. He ran his 40 in 4.58. In 2018, he fumbled four times and went to a sports psychologist to get that squared away; he didn’t fumble in 2019.

“I feel like I’m the most versatile dude in the draft,″ Dallas said. ″I can play receiver, running back, catch punts and catch kicks. At running back, I’m an every-down back. I don’t have to come off the field. I’m physical, gritty, ready and a leader on and off the field. So you won’t have any problems out of me. I think I’m the best, if not top five.″

No. 10: Darrynton Evans, Appalachian State (5-10 1/8, 203): Evans finished with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. As a sophomore, he replaced injured starter Jalin Moore and led the Sun Belt Conference with 1,187 rushing yards. As a junior, he had 1,480 rushing yards (5.8 average) and 18 touchdowns and 21 receptions for 198 yards and five touchdowns to win Sun Belt Player of the Year. He joined Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey (2015) and East Carolina’s Chris Johnson (2007) as only FBS players this millennium with at least 1,400 rushing yards, five TD receptions and a kickoff return for a score in same year. He was a prolific kickoff returner, with a 25.7-yard career average and a touchdown in each of his three years.

With 4.41 speed, he’s a home run threat who thrived in an outside-zone scheme. However, his missed tackle rate of 19 for every 100 touches and 2.4 yards after contact per rush both ranked 14th of our top 15 backs.

No. 11: A.J. Dillon, Boston College (6-0 3/8, 247): The mammoth Dillon rushed for school records of 4,382 yards and 38 touchdowns in three seasons. He topped 1,000 yards each year, including career-high totals of 1,685 rushing yards, 5.3 yards per carry and 14 rushing touchdowns in 2019. He had only 21 career receptions.

He’s by far the biggest back in the class. But he’s got some finesse and wheels, as evidenced by his shocking 4.53 in the 40. He carried the ball 842 times in three years at Boston College. Only Taylor had more. He ran into a stacked box on a whopping 44 percent of his carries, according to Sports Info Solutions. The aforementioned Evans and Vaughn were a distant second at 25 percent. If this were 15 years ago, he’d be a top draft prospect. In today’s NFL, a back has to catch.

“Underrated is a phrase,” he said. It depends on how everybody rates. It’s an opinion. But I know that I’m definitely the full package and a team would get a hard worker out of me, a leader and obviously a running back who is capable of doing everything.”

No. 12: Eno Benjamin, Arizona State (5-8 7/8, 207): Benjamin had two huge seasons, with 1,642 rushing yards (5.5 average), 16 rushing touchdowns and 35 receptions as a sophomore and 1,083 rushing yards (4.3 average), 10 touchdowns and 42 receptions as a junior.

His game features a wicked spin move that was taught by Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson. “I would say that’s part of my game is being able to make the first man miss and stay up in contact battles are the things that I pride myself on,” he said. “One thing I would say I think I could improve on, I would say pass protection – not from a physical standpoint or willingness, more so the technique of it.”

He ran a 4.57 in the 40 but has smallish hands at 8 5/8 inches. Perhaps related to the hand size: Benjamin and Taylor led all FBS running backs with six fumbles.

No. 13: Anthony McFarland Jr., Maryland (5-8 1/8, 208): McFarland played only two seasons. In 2018, he rushed for 1,034 yards (7.9 average) and four touchdowns. As a redshirt sophomore in 2019, he rushed for 614 yards (5.4 average) and eight touchdowns and added 17 receptions. For his career, he ranks third in school history with 6.7 yards per carry.

With 4.44 speed in the 40, he’s got game-breaking ability. He’s got smallish hands (8 7/8 inches), dropped too many passes (three) and averaged just 2.6 yards after contact. “A lot of guys see me as a speed guy, but I feel like that's not the only thing to my game,” he said. “I feel like I'm very tough in between the tackles and I never really let one man bring me down. Just me being a decisive runner and making one cut and making a decision, those are the things I have in my attributes as being a running back. When people look at me, I just don't want people to look at me being [only] explosive.”

No. 14: Lamical Perine, Florida (5-10 3/4, 216): Perine’s four-year totals were 2,485 rushing yards (5.0 average) and 22 touchdowns and 72 receptions for 674 yards and eight more scores. As a junior, he rushed for a career-high 826 yards with a 6.2 average; as a senior, he rushed for 676 yards and caught 40 passes with five scores.

His home-state team, Auburn – the school where his father played – wasn’t interested because he was deemed too slow. At the Combine, he ran his 40 in 4.62 seconds. His 10 1/4-inch hands are among the biggest in the draft class, which showed up as a senior with zero fumbles and just one drop. While he used his strength to average 3.3 yards after contract, he forced only 18 missed tackles for every 100 touches, third-worst among our top 15 backs. With hands and protection skills, he’s a natural for third down, but does he have the athletic ability to actually excel in that role?

“A guy who can catch the ball out of the backfield, pass protect, anything,” he said. “I am a competitor and I feel like that is one of the biggest things they taught me at Florida, just to be able to compete. … A lot of teams pretty much know I can run the ball … so they were also happy to see me catch the ball out of the backfield as well. … You can’t be one-dimensional in this game, I feel like you have to be able to do everything and that is one of my biggest traits. I am not just a one-dimensional guy, I am able to catch the ball out of the backfield and do everything the NFL wants these days. I feel like I can contribute really early.”

No. 15: Joshua Kelley, UCLA (5-10 5/8, 212): Kelley spent two seasons at UC-Davis before transferring to UCLA. After sitting out the 2017 season to fulfill NCAA transfer obligations, Kelley rushed for 1,243 yards (5.5 average) and 12 touchdowns in 2018 and 1,060 yards (4.6 average) and 12 touchdowns as a senior. That gave him two-year totals of 2,303 rushing yards, 24 rushing touchdowns and 38 catches. In 2018, he rushed for 289 yards against USC, the biggest game in rivalry history.

Davis originally landed at UC-Davis because it was his only scholarship offer. When the coaching staff was fired, Davis bet on himself and gave up his scholarship for a bigger opportunity. After a couple months of hounding UCLA running backs coach DeShaun Foster to give him a look, he got his shot. Kelley ran a 4.49 in the 40 at the Combine. Of our top 15 backs, he was last with 2.3 yards after contract per carry and 14 missed tackles per 100 touches.