Thread: 2017 draft prospects.

Originally Posted by WARHORSE

Slip due to size?? He's 6' tall 200 plus. He can add to that and will before the combine.


Production is off the charts.


Remember this name: Detrez Newsome.

I think hes gonna be a very good back in this league......

6 ft and 200 lb. Most 6 ft RB are 215lb plus. Arian foster is prime example. Adrian pederson is 6-1 220lb. Leveon bell 6-1 225lb.

My question is his strength at breaking tackles. For 6 ft he seems a little slim.

RB can not just add size without impacting how they run. Several random ranking sand reports have him as "undersized" .

Weird thing about all this Eddie Mac Jr. talk is the RB I'd REALLY like probably WILL slip because McCaffreys rise forced him to transfer to his dads alma mater:

Barry J. Sanders

Just googling, I found WalterFootball ranks Cook 2nd and McCaffrey 3rd among RB draft prospects, but Sanders is literally DEAD LAST on their list at #31. Whoever takes him will do it cheap because the knock is that he was "only a backup" who "hasn't played much." But he was a backup until transferring last year because McCaffrey's so electric in so many phases of the game, and "hasn't played much" is just a negative way of saying, "low mileage."

Football is literally in Sanders' blood every bit as much as in McCaffreys, except HIS dad actually WAS a RB—the greatest since Jim Brown.

His highlight reel's pretty light because he couldn't beat a senior for the starting job as a freshman and McCaffrey DID beat him for it a year later, so most of what anyone who doesn't make a good living scouting players shares on YouTube is Sanders making everyone look stupid in HS (the pick six is especially impressive since he's unmistakably just jogging for most of it.)

Yet even scant clips of his carries and returns at Stanford and OSU show the same quickness and elusiveness that made his dad a first ballot HoFer. That threat's all the more serious because he's almost impossible to catch from behind in the open field (though is 40 time is a hair slower than his dads.) It stands to reason and isn't just an appeal to genetics; every dad plays ball with their kids from a young age, chases them around from the moment they're old enough to crawl.

The dad chasing THIS guy around from the cradle was BARRY FREAKIN' SANDERS!

Think about the anemic Swiss cheese that is our line and ask yourself: Is there ANY back in history we could use more than the quick shifty Barry Sanders?

Maybe he won't slip far enough and/or Elway won't want to "reach." After all, if you're a garbage team, spending a 4th or 5th round pick on a guy named Barry Sanders is a fairly low risk gamble; even if he "busts" (is that even possible for a midround pick?) no one's going to blame you for trying. But if he's even HALF the player his dad was he'd be a steal in the middle of the draft.

Sanders jr. isn't any good.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

Sanders jr. isn't any good.

Sincere question: Based on what? I don't follow college, and there's apparently not much to follow there on him anyway. But if being kept on the bench by a great player proved a player subpar, the original Barry Sanders never would've been the #3 overall pick after being benched by Thurman Thomas until his final year. His scanty stats look good, as do the few college clips I can find of him, but, again, I DON'T watch college games, so encourage elaboration.

Read some scouting articles. Good reason he is not getting college snaps. Not that good. Got every possible opportunity based on name. Can't recall but I think he transferred schools and couldn't crack lineup there either.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

Read some scouting articles. Good reason he is not getting college snaps. Not that good. Got every possible opportunity based on name. Can't recall but I think he transferred schools and couldn't crack lineup there either.

Yeah, I covered the transfer: He couldn't win the starting job as a freshman, and a year later McCaffrey came along and won it as the more dynamic player. That doesn't prove Barry J. Sanders sucks any more than sitting behind Thurman Thomas until his final year proved Barry Sanders sucked. So after the younger Sanders graduated from Stanford (and in just 4 years, no mean feat in itself) he used his final year of eligibility to transfer to his dads school and tried to get up to speed by seasons end. He failed, but a walk on RB failing to win the starting job in a spread offense doesn't mean much either.

I can't find much of ANY scouting reports on him; what little there is all seems to be from the last offseason, probably because he got <30 carries this season. Despite beginning his brief OSU career with a 58 yd punt return on his very first snap. I found this:

​The Positives.
1) Runs with good power
2) Possesses good speed
3) Shows the ability to run through tackles.

The Negatives.

1) Lack of playing experience
2) Possibly undersized.

Barry J Sanders is an interesting prospect to look at for a few reasons. The first is his lineage, he is the son of NFL HOF RB Barry Sanders, and that alone means he deserves a look. Once you look at his tape, you are pleasantly surprised. He runs with good power, and he has good speed. Sanders shows the ability to run through would be tacklers, and has ok change of direction. His downside is his lack of playing time. He began his career at Stanford, and averaged 6.2 yards per carry backing up Christian McCaffrey, he has since transferred to his father’s Alma mater Oklahoma St. This will be a big season for him as he is expected to be the starter this season. If he shows he can carry the workload, stay healthy, and be productive, then the NFL will take notice. At this point I have a late round grade on him pending the results of this upcoming season.

Also this:

Strengths:
Sanders isn’t afraid of his father’s massive shadow, he embraces it with confidence that he will make a name for himself.
He has good burst, and an extra gear once he gets into open space. Sanders has a good ability to run outside the tackles and bounce runs outside. He has good vision as a runner, and doesn’t get sucked into closing holes.
Deceptive power for a smaller running back, showed on a couple of bruising runs against Oregon State. He’s good at shedding tackles down field, and showed some upside in pass blocking. Used mostly in sweeps, and zone reads from the tape I saw.
Weaknesses:
Not enough reps, he saw only 115 touches in the time he has been at Stanford in three years of playing time. He isn’t a high volume pass catcher out of the backfield with only 12 passes caught in three years for only 89 yards.
Not a big presence at the line of scrimmage, went down easily at the line. He runs very straight up, and that doesn’t slide at the next level. Usage primarily on runs outside the tackles and reads could make for a hard transition to the NFL, especially after a stop at Oklahoma State.
Overview:
There are a lot of question marks surrounding Barry J. Sanders considering his sample size is very small, and it may not grow any more in Stillwater if he can’t earn time. The lack of tape, and the hurry up no huddle skill set don’t bode well for his draft stock right now. His upside is undeniable, but he’s not worth even a day two selection at the moment due to his status as a project.

The only real red flags I see in any of that are going down too easy at the line. The rest is just lots of ways of saying, "anyone who can't get on the field ahead of Christian McCaffrey and/or while still learning the offense when the coach KNOWS it's his final season must not be any good." That doesn't follow. At all. I'm not saying they're wrong about his ability, only that those are very BAD ways to determine it.

The only actual video I can find (since HS anyway) is the one previously linked and the highlights from his 2015 Stanford game against Oregon St. (the one the second reviewer watched; the second play may be the best, even though it's short yardage, because he has a nice broken field run to the goal line where he's met by no less than THREE defenders at once, yet still pushes them back over a yard to score.)

Again, I don't watch college, but it doesn't sound like losing carries to Stepfan Taylor and McCaffrey should be a black mark on anyone, nor missing out in a spread offense under a coach who'd rather develop someone he can continue relying on next season. What tape there is of him looks good, so I'm just wanting someone cite its counterexamples (which may be harder to find, since no one wants to see, and thus record and share, tape of guys repeatedly stuffed for 2 yd losses.)

Part of my disinterest in college ball is that the rosters are so much larger and recruitment so uneven it's easy for very good players to get lost in the shuffle, especially at high volume positions like RB, WR and LB. So I'm reluctant to just blindly accept a college coachs assessment that a guy's not good enough to start, especially when "not good enough" means "not as good as the top 20 draft prospect we're starting instead."

Understand, I'm not saying he's the Next Big Sleeper, but if no one takes him earlier it looks like there's good reason to take him late. By the 5th round you're basically taking a flier and hoping to at least get decent depth out of it; I wouldn't be surprised if half of 5th rounders don't even survive their first camp.

Originally Posted by Joel

Sincere question: Based on what? I don't follow college, and there's apparently not much to follow there on him anyway. But if being kept on the bench by a great player proved a player subpar, the original Barry Sanders never would've been the #3 overall pick after being benched by Thurman Thomas until his final year. His scanty stats look good, as do the few college clips I can find of him, but, again, I DON'T watch college games, so encourage elaboration.

I saw both play in person. Sanders was decent but nothong flashy. McCaffery was a beast and had wow factor. Mccaffery did break sanders all purpose yards record.

Joel, if you gonna start War and Peacing in the draft threads stop using Walterfootball.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

Read some scouting articles. Good reason he is not getting college snaps. Not that good. Got every possible opportunity based on name. Can't recall but I think he transferred schools and couldn't crack lineup there either.

Went to Oklahoma St.