NFL Draft: final running back rankings

The NFL Draft is now only nine days away. That’s about nine days too many for most of us that are excited to see where all the top rookies will be playing next season. But before the excitement begins, I need to get my final running back rankings published.

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Before I list out all rankings, here are a few notes on the draft class:

Ameer Abdullah is criminally underrated by the draft media in my opinion. His slow 40 time at the combine is killing him, which is strange since he is still the highest SPARQ player at the position accord to Zach Whitman over at 3 sigma athlete.

To discount his great game tape and athleticism because of a slow 40 isn’t wise. You know who else doesn’t have a great 40 time, guys like Alfred Morris, DeMarco Murray, Arian Foster and Marshawn Lynch. (You’ve likely heard of that last one.)

On the flip side, Boise State’s Jay Ajayi is getting a lot of undeserved hype. The Marshawn Lynch comparisons simply aren’t accurate; perhaps in body type, but definitely not in his tape. Ajayi goes down too easily, and doesn’t run with the power you’d expect from a guy his size. He is much more similar to Robert Turbin (Lynch’s backup) than Lynch.

Another guy that is overrated by the draft media in my opinion is Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon. Gordon’s highlights are amazing, but there are some serious red flags in his tape. Gordon seems to pick running lanes at random, meaning he’ll occasionally choose to run into heavy traffic instead of through a wide open hole. Because of this, he leaves a lot of yards on the field.

Here are the overall rankings:

[table id=53 /]

A few notes:

I only rank players that I’ve completed my eval for. There are a lot more player that are draft edible than this. I’ve seen quite a few of them, but I haven’t scouted enough of their games to include them here.
These rankings are my own, and not necessarily in agreement with the other writers on this site.
These ranking are done through the lens of the Seahawks and their scheme. Backs that will excel in a zone blocking scheme are thus rated higher, while receiving backs are related lower.

Next: 2015 NFL Draft: final wide receiver rankings

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