RB Rookies In The 2026 NFL Draft

Hey! It's the Harris Bookball Podcast with your host, Christopher Harris. Welcome! Hey everybody welcome in my name is Chris and this is a show for which I am upright. That's about all I can tell you. I am upright. Hello there. Thank you very very much for listening today. I'm so happy to be talking to you. I hope you're doing great. If you were in the yacht club you may know that I wasn't actually on a Harris football show. For the very first time I think ever on Monday, can you really call it a Harris football show? There's no Harris. Absolutely you can. We just proved it. And actually it was planned. The barons and I had been planning for Andy to do a show with Eric at home for weeks. And then it turned out I got a stomach flu over the weekend. And I've pretty much been in bed since then. I am creeping out here to the microphone to talk to you and to recommend very much to all my many many many friends who are listening not to get the stomach flu. If you can possibly avoid it. But I am here. I'm so happy to get to talk to you. We are very deep now into our draft bag at this point last Thursday. We had Matt Waldman on the show to talk through the wide receivers in this upcoming NFL draft. If you haven't listened to that one, I strongly recommend it. And then on the yacht club on Monday, Andy did talk with Eric at home about this draft kind of an overview of it with a few mentions of some specific prospects that we will be tracking. I enjoyed listening to that show. If I could summarize it, it would be that sure. Yeah, people say bad draft, you know, not so not as much talent this year or whatever. But also as they talked about on Monday, people are wrong about the draft every single year. The consensus comes from I mean, misinformation because the teams aren't going to tell us the truth beforehand. And also the basic impossibility of actually knowing who will be good and who will be bad in the NFL. So certainly we should learn and know all these guys names. And then for fantasy, we'll be prepared to have them be overvalued as they are most years. So today on the show, we'll have Paul Pertakizzi. And he'll be my guest. We'll talk about the 2026 working running back class. And then next week, we'll talk about the quarterbacks and the tight ends. So we are certainly learning, which is a good thing. I got to give a little non-football talk here a little bit probably partly because I've been stuck in bed. And there's not a lot to do when you're in bed. There's a lot going on in the world. You know, some of the behavior of the country where a lot of us live, the good old us of A's not been feeling amazing at times. I've talked a lot about that on the show throughout this podcast, recent history. I don't want to do all that today. I just want to talk about real life a little bit. And just I want to make sure you're all okay. Just specifically about like doom scrolling, doom or ism. I think part of the project that's behind crisis after crisis after crisis, outrage after outrage after outrage is just to make us feel no matter where you might be on the political spectrum. You don't have to be agree with me about anything. But just that wow, things are awful and hopeless and you know, you can't pay attention to all of it. You can't stay cranked to 11 on the outrage, joe meter. And therefore you should disappear. You should detach. You should, you know, you should start a Reddit flame war about the new Harry Potter show or whatever. And listen, I'm not here to judge that. If you're, if you love Reddit flame wars about the new Harry Potter show, that's great. But the point being having everything cranked up to 11 at all times, it is really easy to get cranked down into a spiral doom scrolling spiral. And I just wanted to talk about that here in case any of you are doing that. If you're not that great, great. I don't want you to. It can really affect your mood. It can make you feel like nothing is worth enjoying because how can I enjoy this meany old trivial thing when something real and these things are real are going on. I mean, we're going to talk about the NFL draft like it really matters here in a couple of minutes. And of course it doesn't matter. It's just a place where we derive some pleasure out of life. If you're not careful, you can start denying yourself pleasure. However, you take it because it's somehow not worthy of the real life events that are definitely scary and real and idiotic and do matter. And I'm sorry, this is a both sides issue. There are smart people who I like and who I personally agree with politically who get on the internet and just frickin spiral. And social media eggs them on presenting yourself as a wise up person who knows that everything is completely effed and everything every single outrage is the worst thing that's happened. That gets you likes. You know, we have regular guests on this show who I really like who behave this way on social media. They've built followings based on taking every outrage and cranking it up. And I'm not here to say that those things aren't outrageous. But I just what I'm really here to say is that I don't think we should be living our lives in a perpetual state of outrage. Nor should we never be outraged. Nor should we live ourselves lives in a total haze of everything is perfect. But as I say, I think the project of keeping you cranked to 11 is partly to drain the fun from your life. I'm thinking about the US Olympic hockey team. People who might have otherwise derived great pleasure from a pretty incredible event and a beautiful moment with Johnny Gurdrow's tiny kids on the ice after the game. Like, you know, the folks who might otherwise have liked that some allowed a few idiots with childish opinions. To make it so now, nope, I can no longer enjoy this. I mean, that's just an example. If that's how you felt like you got to do you, I'm not trying to tell you how to feel. But I hate to break it to you. That is how they win. And every individual person has to draw their own bright lines about how much is too much and whether the circumstances around one particular thing should determine whether you enjoy that thing. There are things that I don't consume or root for or go to because of politics for sure. Nobody has those. I'm not trying to get on any one specific thing. My point here is for those of us who are extremely online, I think we would do well to take a step back and just catch ourselves from riding wave after wave of negativity. You personally cannot fight every battle. It'll just make you very, very sad. You got to let something roll off your back and not let it ruin the stuff that you really love. And despite quote unquote, "everything totally falling apart," come on. Not everything is totally falling apart. I'm not advocating burying your head completely in the sand, but there has to be some middle ground, he said, where everything, every second isn't filtered through how bad that we're all sure everything is. I personally am, you know, just spent a week in bed and I am trying not to be on social media as much. I'm trying not to meet every single moment with cynicism, trying to legitimately enjoy something. Definitely fight for political causes, help people in need, recognize things that are wrong, help people fix them, just don't succumb to the temptation of doom scrolling or like doom posting, not all day anyway, not all day every day. No matter who you are, listening to this very, very stupid show. There's somebody out there who's not AI who you can connect with and share a nice moment with and that's life, baby. And I hope for all of us, me included that we can try to diversify a little bit. I care about you. I really do. You're amazing. If I think too much about it, I'll cry on the show because you've given me a pretty incredible job and a great life. I owe it to all of you and you're just so engaged and amazing. You make songs like it's just a crazy audience. I love you. I want you to be happy. You know, think about football, talk about the draft, listen to the very stupid podcasts that you listen to, including this one. After all, we're talking about football around here. But we're not really talking about football. Today's kickoff. Okay. Today's show, yes, let's talk about football. He's from Saturday to Sunday football.com. We'll talk a little bit about that site and the stuff he's got there. And then we will also have a conversation about the rookie running backs to be from Jeremiah Love to all the other guys who are kind of all the same and nobody's really guaranteed to be great. But someone probably will be. So let's talk about who there is a chance. We'll turn out to be really terrific. Let's have a good time. And I thank you again so much for listening today. We are sponsored again by Pre-Alcohol from Zbiotics. If you haven't tried it yet, I sure do recommend you try it. [BLANK_AUDIO] my absolute go-to drink, if I know that I'm going to be having a couple drinks of alcohol. When I make pre-alcohol, my first drink of the night, I know I'll feel my best possible in the morning. This is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic designed to tackle rough mornings after drinking. The science checks out, this is real, it really works. What makes us feel bad after we drink is not dehydration. In fact, alcohol gets converted in the gut to ethyl aldehyde, a toxic byproduct. Pre-alcohol breaks this byproduct down before it can get downstream. Make pre-alcohol from Z-Biotics your first drink of the night, enjoy responsibly, I know I always feel better than I had any right to. It really works. And Z-Biotics has a 100% happiness guarantee. You have nothing to lose if you try it and it doesn't work for you. They will refund you. No questions asked if you're going to have drinks, maybe watching the masters. Couple of beers at a baseball game. If you're going to a party this weekend, Z-Biotics.com/Harris, you'll get 15% off your first order when you use the code Harris at checkout. 15% off, Z-Biotics.com/Harris, use that code Harris. And today's guest, like clockwork once a year, by Golly we have him on the show. He's a great friend. He teaches me about all things and it felt draft. I appreciate him being on it is Paul, perdekezy from the Saturday to Sunday, podcast and notebooks. And basically if you want to know about these draft guys, Paul is one of your men. Hello, Paul. How are you? Hey Chris, thank you for having me back. Always looking forward to this annual tradition we got going here for quite some time now. Yeah, man. I think we had a little chat beforehand because we only really connect this once per year. Hey, tonight you'll be starting the little league season. Yes, yes. So definitely will keep me busy from the school teaching during the day to little league in the afternoon and then eventually circle back to watching film for these NFL draft prospects, continuing to finalize final ranked year over the last couple of weeks leading into the NFL draft. Nothing stops here at Saturday, Sunday, right up until draft night. Love it. And of course, also a part of Saturday to Sunday, we will also have the little leagueers ranked I assume. Yeah, absolutely. I'll be judging them on all their physical traits straight across the board. So if you want to find what Paul is all about, it's Saturday to Sunday football dot com and the two is the number two. I'll put a link in the show notes. You can type it in yourself or click it in the show notes Saturday, the number two Sunday football dot com. There is podcast and we were talking about that before we started to wide ranging conversation, which is great, great podcast. And then there are also the scouting notebooks. And so I look at them to prep for my own rookie drafts for dynasty leagues and Paul is gracious enough to have sent me like previews of them and they're going to inform this conversation because I'm going to know kind of what you think about some of these players. But once again, can't recommend it enough Saturday to Sunday football dot com. You were tasked this year with the running backs in this class and you know, the consensus seems to be that while we don't really ever know these things for sure and especially running backs, you know, can turn into little Swiss utility knives that that in the right situation turn out to be really, really good for NFL teams and fantasy football. But from that, from that, you know, 20,000 foot view, I think you're probably going to tell me that this class is not super amazing except for one guy. Yeah, and that's very much the picture we have here this year with this class. I know we're going to get in the specific prospects. But my number two running back this year would have been like my eights running back last year. It's simply put it in the perspective, the difference just from last year's class to this year's class. Yeah. And that's because you're essentially trying in some way to come up with a score. And a lot of that score for you is obviously it's got to be somewhat qualitative because there's no way to quantify per se. But you know, you're doing your best. You've been doing this a long time. You have your evaluation rubric and you watch a ton of film. And then you're trying to, like you said, being able to imagine from year to year, I'll just ask you this question before we kick it off with the main guy, which is when you do think about your own personal evaluation from year to year, do you worry over the years because you've been doing a long time that it's changed that you've gotten tougher, that you've gotten softer to make a comp like you just said where Gidarian Price, you're running back to for this year would have been RB 8 next year or sorry last year. Does it, does it enter your mind like I'm not, I'm not the, I don't have the same eyeballs that I had last year or 10 years ago. Yeah, I do think every year we're adapting and evolving in terms of the process, in terms of what I'm looking for, things that I maybe used to put a little bit more emphasis on. I think the NFL game has started to change a little bit. I think what they asked the projects in college. So I do think it's a, it's, I'm adapting and evolving from year to year. So that does change the overall narrative, but I do mostly stick with like film based analysis in terms of judging their traits and how I think they're going to transition to the next level and looking for that maybe that above average to go to a very good calling card that I do think will resonate at the next level. So it's changing, but at the same time I'm trying to still keep the same film analysis in terms of what I saw on film at the college game in terms of translating to the Sunday game, how they, how I think they're going to make that transition and kind of put it overall. This is where I would have it if I do, I do like a combined ranking show usually from last year to the most present year, just to kind of keep that fresh in my perspective, comparing like the two previous draft classes. Well I find myself in the, in the pleasant position of not having to do any of that because you know, like this, this thing started whatever this is going to be the, is it the 11th season, the 12th season since I left ESPN and have been doing it, but it's not like I ever go, alright let's compare 2026 Sake 1 Barkley to 2016, you know, you know, name your guy. And I don't do that if I did. My answer to the question that I just asked you would be, I don't remember that guy, I do not know her. But that's why you're, that's why you're good and I'm not. So let's start with Jeremiah Love. I think now by now pretty obvious, I don't know anybody who's talked themselves out of Jeremiah Love that I've seen on the internet as the best running back available and a definite first round pick whether or not it winds up being as high as, you know, in the top five or top 10, like some folks have said, I don't think we're really going to know that until draft night. You know, your game in this analysis, I've known you a long time, isn't so much like, you know, this is the comp, this is the guy. But I also know you do think that. So in other words, that's not your calling card in the notebook, you're not going comp, you know, it's a little bit of Emmett Smith mixed with like, you know, Barry Sanders, great, thanks, that was really helpful. But can you be since Love does stand out in this class? Can you give me like a little bit of a, like put my head in the right space for somebody that's good? Yeah. And I think the name that's being thrown out there as much has been Sequan, but I do think there's a size differential there and there were different players coming out of the college game into the NFL. Sequan was like, 230 free, you know, Love is like like 220 ish. I, when I look at him, I almost think he's a blend of two very talented players in high-level prospects of B. John Robinson and Todd Gurley. I think the size and the initial speed burst reminds me a lot of Todd Gurley, but I think he's a much better receiver coming out of college that the receiving aspect of his game reminds me more of B. John Robinson. So I think it's kind of like a blend of those two who obviously were very highly regarded in prospects both when top 10. I think that's where Jeremiah Love is ticketed. So I see a little bit of Todd Gurley in terms of division, the power aspect of it, and then B. John in terms of the receiving capabilities. I see a lot of, you know, I'm trying to catch up. I don't watch college football. I don't, I'm never going to give you like my take on the rookies beforehand. I just don't have takes. I'm trying to learn because I just don't have the bandwidth to do college football. And so I certainly am playing catch up and looking up the draft experts I know and respect and stuff. You see a lot of people say, okay, Jeremiah Love is not going to go number one overall. He's probably not going to go, you know, number two or number three overall either because running back isn't considered the super premium position. But I do see people who mock him at number five or number eight or whatever say that if I'm listing the most talented players at any position, I'm ranking Jeremiah Love number one. Now you're not on here having evaluated our Vellries. You're not on here having done super deep dives into offensive lineman or whatever. Just I wonder your gut level reaction does love strike you as that level of a, yeah, if position wasn't an issue, he's he'd be the best player on this board. I think in this, I think that's what I'm going to do. draft class, the answer to that question is a definitive yes. And I think that's because you take into the entire picture the top quarterback prospect me personally, I think he's on a jargoth to Matt Ryan type spectrum. Good quarterback, not potentially elite elite. I think the offensive lineman guys, not the minute get into them, but they all have questions about tackle might not be their best position in the NFL. They might have to kick inside the guard. And then we're talking about a safety and off the ball linebacker, the edge prospects. One of them is like a hybrid tween in between linebacker and edge rusher. And then the other one is a good rusher, but maybe not an Abdul Carter in Hutchinson level questions about him first to run. So those are the other guys that and then the receivers are no Malik neighbors in this draft class. So we're talking about those are the guys we're going to make up the top eight top 10 of this draft class. They all come with a lot of question marks where I think just evaluating on his talent alone, if people think he's going to be Todd Gurley or B John or that level running back in Nish Draft class, just on talent alone, I can totally see why on people's overall big boards, Jeremy, I love would come in at the top of that ranks. So you mentioned that you've ranked this class against last year's class. The obvious question that I'm going to ask you is I was I'm pretty sure I was told that Aston Gentie was the second coming last year. Didn't quite turn out that way yet. How would love have ranked compared to Gentie last year in your eyes as a prospect? Yeah, I don't love I mean, I don't ask and Gentie last year was a very good prospect. I wouldn't have had him as a top 10 guy in last year draft class. I thought that was a little rich. I had some question marks about his game, not a lot. He was still a first round guy for me at middle of first round to ladder part of round one. I just thought the level of competition that he faced up against Boise State left some question marks of how that was going to translate and he really started out as college career as a really good receiver and then he really wasn't used much in that regard. And we even sorry bits and pieces in his first year in the NFL. So I do have love. Like I don't put a strong like a specific numerical grade like I know some people those here 100. But to me there would be a little bit of a gap. I didn't put Aston Gentie at the Sequan level or at the B John level. He was a tear below that for me. Let in terms of if I was to put all those running backs together, I would have love in that upper echelon tier and I would have Gentie in the tier like right below it. Like a little bit above like a guy like Melvin Gordon, but not at the next level where the premier guys where we've seen going that top 10 range, you know recently like B John and stuff like that would be where I would put Jair in my love. So I do think there's a little bit of a disparity between their overall town and their overall film. Me Val coming from Saturday into the NFL. So I would have love higher in that regard than Gentie just in terms of what we saw on their Saturday college film and trying to see how they were projected in next level. So I guess the last question I want to ask about love and we're going to spend the most time on him because he's the one that if you're in a Donis DeLieg, you know, you're going to be a real tempted to go 101 in a Donis DeLieg. Maybe I'll ask you that too, but let me ask you this first, which is, other than injury, how could he disappoint us? What could go wrong? If he gets put behind a team with a really poor offensive line, the one sake one comparison to him I will make is that there are times on film where he tries to do too much and if he gets into that mindset, if he's playing behind a poor offensive line and he doesn't show the patience behind the line of scrimmage and he tries to do too much, he can go straight up the middle. He's got the play strength, he's got the contact bounce. Is he willing to take those two and a half the free yards or does he start trying to consistently bounce it out to the outside and he starts picking up negative two, negative three and it's home run or nothing for him. I think that's the one area where I don't want to see him at the next level guys are going to be bigger, faster, stronger. He's not going to be able to get to the outside as freely as he was in college that I don't want to see him have that hesitation where there's an opening on the outside, just pound it in, pick up a couple yards and move on to the next play and don't set the offense back by losing three or four yards. Sometimes he's going to try it and he's going to make it, but I worry a little bit that if he gets put behind a bad offensive line, he tries to do too much and then it leads to him not being as consistent in terms of his overall talent level, which I think he can be. And I think he will. I just think that would be the one area where I'd be interested to see how he performs at the next level. If Arizona takes some, if Tennessee takes some, giants have a lot of online questions. If he ends up going one of there, does he try to do too much and then ends up being a little bit up and down hit or missed type player, where I think he's a better overall player than that. So the 101 in a dynasty, I guess, you know, receivers have longer careers. If it's kind of an unlimited, you get him forever kind of traditional, you know, that sort of dynasty. Do you get tempted by Tate over love? We're not going to talk Tate here, but he's clearly he's your one. He's clear the one receiver on the board. Do you get tempted by Tate or do you do you pretty much say love is too special? It's too premium of a position. There's a lot of receivers out there. I need the running back. Yeah, for me, it's love and it's like a massive gap because I do think just to talk to put a bow on that. To me, the wide receivers, these type of wide receiver prospects, I think we see often, I think in a normal year, Cardinal T would be a guy going like 15 to 25. I think we pushed up the board. I think if he hits his ceiling, we're maybe talking about a T Higgins level player who's a really good player. I just I don't see a wide receiver one fantasy season for Cardinal T. That's just this draft list for me at the YRC position. I don't envision that. So to me, I would take the running back prospect to I think if he hits his ceiling could be the best running back in the NFL or right near the top of it in terms of fantasy and on life production. And given what you said about Fernando Mendoza, maybe I should ask this too, which is in a super flex where now there is quarter back scarcity in a traditional, you know, super flex dynasty type league tempted it all by Mendoza or is it still love for you? Would be tempted a little bit more than I would be Cardinal Tate, but not enough to pull the trigger on it just because he doesn't he's not going to add much in terms of the cheat code in terms of his running ability. So we're talking about even if he hits his ceiling, it's probably like QB 6 to QB 10 in best case scenario. And that would probably involve like a 38 to 40 touchdown type season to get up to that level, you know, like a Joe Barrow amazing statistical season would probably be what it would take. I'm not sure that's his upside at the next level Mendoza. Thank you to Lisa for being such a great partner for many years. I sleep on a Lisa mattress I have for the better part of a decade. Back when I started working with Lisa, they basically had one kind of bed, the hybrid, and I love it. I can't sleep without it. Over the years, Lisa has grown. They've now got a bunch of different mattress feels one that is perfect for everybody. And I think most people now are over the idea like I got to go to a mattress showroom. I got to sit on six beds for 15 seconds a piece. You know, now you can do your research online about mattresses Lisa will stack up to any of them. The beds are great. The company is really charitable and great. They donate beds to homeless shelters. They help get plastic out of the oceans and they have a killer returns policy. Sleep on your new bed for four months, 120 nights. Decide if you love it. And if you don't, they will come pick it up and refund you. No questions asked if it's time in your house for a new mattress. Check out leesay.com. Their spring sale is on 20% off select mattresses. Plus if you use the code Harris, that's another $50 off the top. Lisa.com for 20% off right now and an extra $50 off when you use that code Harris. We are back with Paul and we are talking about the running backs. I promised plural running backs. Paul and it feels to this point. We talked about one guy, but that guy was very well worth obsessing over. Now let's get into everybody else. It is Jeremiah love and the love ets. And that is no more appropriate than your number two running back jadarian price. And I say that because played on the same team. Both Notre Dame golden donors. He price does seem to be the consensus RB two as well. I think I think you're going to say you like him. I've read your notes about him, but I also think you're going to say he's number two because there isn't an obvious number two. Yeah, price is a good prospect. I think there's things to like about his game. I really like his vision, his patience, his natural run instincts. But then he plays like he is a shiftier back like big time speed, but that he doesn't really have big time speed. He's he's shifting. He's got quick feet, but he's not going to be a stop in start type of guy like a LaShan McCoy. He's got kick return background. So you do see some open field ability, which is always a plus. I think when you're looking for guys in terms of how they're going to translate, we don't see anything in terms of a receiving game. And I've over the years, one of my things I've talked about before, like kind of modifying and adapting my approaches, not to assume a guy can't do something just because we don't see it in college. They might not ask them. And I think Kent Walker is a perfect example. There was a lot of questions coming out about Kent Walker about his receiving capability. And he ended up being a functional to slightly above average pass catcher as a running back. Jardarian price wasn't gonna get used. Notre Dame didn't use their running backs a lot out of the back field, and when they were gonna use it, they were obviously gonna use Jeremiah Love. So I think there's a complete unknown about the pass catch and ability. And I think that is why some people, there's just a level of uncertainty on how much of a three down back could Jardarian price be at the next level. Can he handle a heavy workload? The body type sounds like it could be, but he hasn't been asked to because his teammate was Jardarian, I love. We don't know about his worth even capability. So there's a lot of unknowns for the consensus RB2 in this class, but the vision, the patience and the run instincts are the aspects of his game that I think will translate and why I think he'll be a part of a committee with the upside to be the lead of a committee I think at the next level. - Yeah, Andy had Eric Edholm on Mondays on the Yacht Club episode, the Paywall episode. And he said prices my RB2 as well. And he said there were times he watches film. There are a few things that price does. And he thinks, whoa, is that love? And then he's like, oh, he's not quite love. And we thought that was funny. That should be a song lyric. Maybe Jardarian prices, nicknames to beat needs to beat the song lyric. But obviously then you watch him do other things and he's not, he doesn't look the same at all. It doesn't seem like he has that same level of juice. Can I just mention that the second guy, I have a little bit of PTSD from the second guy in a college backfield, because I think about, well, Patriots wise, I think of Sony Michelle who was taken before the main guy. I think of Felix Jones, I think of Rocheon Johnson. And I go, you know, is there a tendency for people to bend out, not you, but like, you know, the kind of media, the draft industrial complex to like bend over backwards and say, never, never really got a fair shake because he was with a great player. And therefore I'm going to bump up a little bit. This is probably way too small of a sample size for me to, you know, truly act on. But I wonder if you feel that at all. I do think sometimes it just naturally comes into our evaluation on a player. We're going to talk about a player later in the show. And I think he gets the benefit of the doubt simply because he's new to the position. And I think same thing, Magendarian Price, like, I'm sitting here saying the receiving capabilities is an unknown. Carrying a heavy workload, I'm saying I think he could be functional in the past game. But sometimes we don't have enough data to really nitpick. Like we do like the quarterbacks, right? The quarterbacks always get nitpick a lot coming out of the college game because we watch every single throw that these college prospects make. So for the running backs, if we've never seen them, I think there's a little bit of an unknown and we give them the benefit of the doubt of, maybe they are pretty good at that. And they just weren't asked to do it. So I think sometimes an unknown helps a prospect in terms of we can't nitpick something and call it a negative. And I think that's, Gendarian Price is getting a little bit of that because I think some people are saying, yeah, you probably could be a decent receiver. But we have no idea. So are we just saying that because we like certain aspects of his game because we don't really have any idea, we don't want to knock him for it. But at the same time, I think sometimes it should be enlightened a little bit as like, yeah, it's a legitimate question. And I think sometimes we just kind of assume and give these prospects the benefit of the doubt because we can't evaluate them in every single area if they were the second guy on the team. - So Mike Washington from Arkansas, he's your RB3. I think in general, he's been in most consensus is the RB3, what's the elevator pitch on him? - So size frame, straight line at lettuces and burrs, play strength, power, that's his calling card. But on the flip side, if you tell me he's just going to be a committee back, I could totally see it because he's somewhere on the spectrum of like, he could be Latavius Murray or he could be DiMarco Murray. And there's a big wide gap between those two players' abilities, but there are a lot of inconsistencies in terms of his vision in his patience. There's some ball security issues. They're for a bigger guy who's a pretty functional pass catcher, there's pass protection issues. So he's not going to be on the field much on third down, even though he could be a pretty decent receiver. So there's enough question marks where I understand somebody having him much lower in the ranks, especially for dish draft class, because I think after those first two guys, it's really in the eye to be holder. And I could see someone liking Washington for the size, straight line burrs, a guy that, if he gets to the second level, can take it the distance. But at the same time, other people are going to say, I really have questions about that vision and about the patience. And the overall run aspect in terms of the run instincts that's going to make me prefer, I got like Kate Charnall and over Mike Washington, because I see a little bit more consistency in terms of the vision in the patience. And I'd rather prefer that than the burst and the acceleration and that straight line speed that Mike Washington possesses. Yeah. What we're coming down to is that in this class, it's just not an outrage to have one guy three and one guy 10. It's just not. Like no one is, no one's really selling out in anybody's ranks. Not that they can't be good players, not that we might not be wrong about them. Like we don't really know. We don't know until they get into backfields and we see them play. We go, oh, it turns out Bucky Irving is awesome, but you can't really know that until you actually see them in the NFL. I'll just say by way of comparison, like in his rookie scouting portfolio, Waldman has Mike Washington RB 14. But I don't think he'd be on here pounding the table, saying putting him number three is wrong. He's just saying, what he says specifically, is I get a whiff of Carlos Hyde, who we have great fun with around here, Carlos Hyde, who cousin Josh was predicting would be out of the NFL for seven straight years. But that kind of, he looks unbelievable in gym shorts. Look how could I guy that big run that fast and then you actually watch him try to run and he go, oh, it's because he can never get you know, sure, get him really moster, get him in the one and a hundred runs where he gets in the free, he's gone, but he doesn't get there very easily. So I take your point on Mike Washington. How about Emmett Johnson? Interesting to me, you know, the look like consensus mocks are saying, you know, he's right around a top 100 player, maybe not quite top 100. I think maybe you like him a little bit more than that. I've read like Dalvin Cook as like a totally aspirational comparison for Emmett Johnson. Yeah, I think Emmett Johnson, I think there would be a lot more buzz about him if he had just happened to have a hamstring injury and he didn't participate at the combine because it's combined. I think people are overreacting and athleticism at the combine, I think probably at the running back position of any position, probably has the least value and the least merit in terms of, you know, correlation to them being productive at the NFL level, we've seen Tyron Williams, we've seen plenty of guys who tested out really poorly, you know, go on to be good NFL backs and it wasn't that Emmett Johnson tested out, like poorly like Tyron Williams did. He just, I think people, I think, thought his athleticism scores at his speed looked faster on film than what we saw. So I think there's some doubt that has crept in. I do think he's right on that border, top 100 in terms of a prospect. He's also a little bit of, he came out of nowhere this year. So people who followed a college game for a long time or in Devilie, stuff like that, where they're holding guys. Emmett Johnson wasn't a guy people were talking about. So he's a little bit of a one year wonder. So I think sometimes that people really are into the breakout age and stuff like that in terms of when they come to it. I just watched his film this year and I think he's a good prospect. I think he's a good receiving back. I think he's got really quick feet in terms of for a bigger guy and for a guy who's not gonna have a blade who didn't have a blazing 40 time. I think he's very shifty. So this aspect of his game, very slashing type. So when I hear you bring up that you sort of like the thousand cook is a ceiling. The thousand cook was a great slashing running back. I don't think he's at the thousand cooks overall talent level but I do think there are aspects of his game that he could easily be a late third round or early fourth round and materialize into a team's like lead back. I think that's in the calling card. I think the fact that he's a good receiving back. There's not any glaring holes. Like to me, the space between Mike Washington and Emmett Johnson is very small. And I think that me, it's a coin flip almost for them because I do feel like some of the concerns of Mike Washington, while Mike Washington has some of the splashierness to him, there's less weaknesses in Emmett Johnson's game that I think might make him a more well-rounded prospect. I just, I have Mike Washington slightly higher because of some of the elite traits that he possesses in terms of the physical traits. But I do think Emmett Johnson really solid all around back that probably will come off the board right where you're talking late round three or early round four. - And I just want once again, for you and for the listeners to understand that I'm not trying to hold you to your ranks 'cause I definitely have the impression that you're like, I like these guys all about the same. They all have varying degrees of upside. They all might not make teams. Like I don't think you're calling anybody like us. There doesn't seem to be anybody on your list. Me, I've gone through your list. There's nobody on your list where you're like, everybody's missing it. This guy's a superstar. Like that just isn't this year. So I definitely am. I'm kind of, I'm using your list as a guide post for conversation, but I'm not gonna like say, that was so dumb that you had Emmett Johnson so far behind Mike Washington. No, you're viewing them as kind of the same. Nick Singleton, I mentioned Ed Holm was on Monday. He talked about disappointments in this class. And he said one of his disappointments was that Singleton broke his toe at the senior role because he really wanted to think of Nick Singleton as a player. as one of the two Penn State running backs. He wanted to think of him as a sleeper. You know, probably, like you said with Johnson, like probably we shouldn't let that not make us, if you have a tendency to like him, you probably can get him cheap enough that you can still like him. - Yeah, Nick Singleton is one of those guys that, if you had me on, when you had me on three years ago, if you were like Paul, give me a running back that in three years is gonna be a first round running back. We knew about your own life. - He was the new one with him, would have been the other guy. He exploded onto the scene as a freshman, and he looked like he was ticketing for another one of those guys that we penciled in as a round one guy. That was his pedigree coming out of high school. He hit the ground running as a freshman. There just has been no growth and development in terms of the running aspect, the vision, the patience to run instincts. High, high level athleticism, if you get him on the outside and he has a lane, he's gonna be dancing in the end zone. That's just the level of athlete that Nick Singleton is. He's a really good receiving back. So I think that's gonna have a roll right off the cuff, but I just worry that as much as I like those physical traits, I think there's gonna be a limit that you could only put so much on his plate, the more touches you give him, I think his weaknesses and his flaws that have never developed are gonna come out, which is why Penn State just kept circling back to giving K-Tronow and more and more work, 'cause I think they just trusted him and wanted like the single or double in terms of the baseball reference and not go for the big play at home run, that Singleton sometimes possess, but they were few and far between. - Can I say that just again, I've never seen Nick Singleton run one time in my life. So I'm just listening to your description of him. Can I just say that sounds a lot like Traveon Henderson's rookie year with the Patriots? Is there any comparison there? - Yeah, I think Henderson has a prospect coming out with better vision and some impatience, but what we serve from Henderson this year in terms of his NFL performance, I think a lot of what I just said of it, Singleton, is how I would classify Traveon Henderson's rookie year. So in that aspect, I totally see what you're saying. I do think Henderson coming out was, I do already have better vision and patience. I don't think we've seen that yet at the NFL level, but is Ohio State film, I thought was a lot better than Singleton, but I do see what the similarities and what you're talking about. - So next we have Jonah Coleman, who looks right around again, to be in almost this exact same neighborhood, consensus wise in your ranks, he's sort of everywhere. You know, I think you think he's a good prospect. I don't think again, you see what could go wrong. - Yeah, I think a guy that I know you were a big fan of long time ago, Muscle Hamster, he looks like Doug Martin. That's who he looks like. I don't think he sees the field and as high level of a prospect as Doug Martin was, and I don't think he's gonna have Doug Martin's career, but how he stylistically, that's how he plays. And I think he's gonna have a role at the next level. I just, not sure now teams are all in multiple backfields, a lot of differentiated roles. Coleman is another one of those guys. I do have some concerns that he might be a really bad athlete, because you don't see a lot of running backs completely dodge everything in the pre-drive process, who are healthy. So the fact that he has chosen to do absolutely nothing and he's not this top level, I don't need to do anything in the pre-drive process, leads me to concerns that he might be really slow. So I don't think he shows that he's fast on film. I think he looks average in terms of his place speed and his burst and his quickness and stuff like that. But that does when a player like that is not even willing to put any time on the record, does make me wonder, is it really bad? So I think there's a role for him at the next level. I think he's going to be more of an early down runner, probably a depth piece that maybe can work his way into a part of a committee if things break right. But I don't think I like him as much as some other people, evaluators out there. - We are sponsored by BetterHelp, it's therapy. It's online. We talked about some of it off the top of the show. And that's to say nothing of the fact that it's just really hard sometimes to be a person. We all do our best to live up to expectations of ourselves and our families, sometimes we just don't feel great. And then sometimes there are just really big life events that we need help with. And having someone neutral you can talk with and explain things to like a therapist, it can really help. I do therapy online, it helps me. I don't think every single person hearing the sound of my voice immediately must get a therapist. But I do think there are times in everybody's life where it can help. And BetterHelp.com is a good place to find a therapist. They do the initial matching for you. They've been doing that for 12 plus years. You take a short questionnaire, you get matched, you can change your match at any time. They've got 1.7 million reviews and the average 4.9 out of five stars. When life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Plus you can get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/HairPot. BetterHELP.com/HairPot. OK, we're back with Paul. And we're going to get some more running backs. We've hit, I think, the first six guys on your list at this point, I'll go a little faster just so everybody can feel like they're getting to hear about a bunch of different names that if they're into the NFL draft, they know me. It's first time I ever heard about them. This is great. It's like a Christmas morning. Demand Clayborn. You know, I think you're a little higher on him. And you mentioned him earlier in the show, then maybe consensus is. Maybe I don't-- again, I don't want to say. And that means Paul just told you to take him in the first round of your fantasy draft. That's not what we're saying. But tell us what you like about him a bit. Really explosive, very shifty. He's going to be wanting to running backs that obviously germ I love at different level. But in terms of a guy, I was going to make people mess the cutting ability to stop startability. Clayborn is going to offer that big play ability. The question that I have about him is, I just want him to be a big time. He profiles as he should be a really good receiving back. And his receiving skills are just very subpar for a smaller guy. You want him to be that explosive change of pace guy, which he is. But you want something else with him. You just wonder how much he's going to be used at the next level. If he's not a third down guy, because he can't pass protect. And he's a mediocre or below average receiver. And he's not a big guy. So you're not probably going to see him much near the goal line. Is there enough touches to go around? But when he gets the ball, I think he's a guy who can make things happen. So how a team evaluates that, I think, is going to be the hardest aspect. But there are physical traits in terms of the stop start. There's not a lot of guys in this draft class that have that stop startability, the cutting ability to stack multiple cuts on top of each other and take it to the house. Claymore and offers that, which is why I'm so intrigued by him. But I do wonder if the flaws of his game, potential, hamper, how much opportunity he might even get at the next level. So he's a 510-188 guy, Wake Forest. And I mean, can I just tell you that hearing you describe these guys, even though obviously I understand that a player like this, if he doesn't hit, then he's just every other sort of fast guy. He ran fast to the combine, every other fast guy who never worked out at running back. But for fantasy, I want the guy who with the potential to be whatever, James Cook. How would you compare Claymore and his evaluation to James Cook's evaluation? I think Cook, you saw a little bit more-- I don't cook with a really good receiving prospect coming out. So I always thought that was a little bit of a fallback. Now it ended up being a really good, regular, natural runner as well. I think their running upside is similar. But I just had so many less concerns about James Cook, the past catcher. And then Claymore is that the area that NFL teams are going to be a little skittish on that prospect to be able to do that because he profiles more as a receiving back. And that's the questions that I think really linger for Claymore. But I do like in this class, he's a guy would take a chance on in the fourth round of the NFL draft, put him in a backfield and see if you can lighten and kind of strike there because he does have that big play ability. Yeah. Even James Cook as a rookie wasn't a very good runner. Somebody really needed to get through to him. The fact is, players this size with this speed profile. And like you said, not profiling is a great third downback. Usually, don't make it. So that's why he would be lower in the ranks, understand. But yeah, if they do, they are worth more than some of the Carlos Hyde types. Seth McGowan, I guess, really ripped up the combine. Could be a riser. He's your RB8. I don't think you're taking the cheese because you're smart enough not to know that the underwear Olympics are sometimes full as gold. But 223 pounds runs sub four five. Has great jumping results. I'm going to imagine the spreadsheet bros love Seth McGowan. Yeah. Except for the fact that he's a much older prospect. So I think he's going to be 25, I think, when he ends up coming in. I'll group these guys together. Him and Ketra Allen, I think on the football field, play very similarly. Profile as an early down inside the numbers, type running back, power, leg drive, contact, all that aspect of their game. I think McGowan's testing numbers, where I use the combine is a little bit of a breaking a tie between two guys. I thought McGowan and Ketra Allen were very similar on film, but because because McGowan has this untapped athleticism that I didn't see all the time. That's why I personally have him one spot ahead of K-Tron Allen in my rankings. I think I know who K-Tron Allen is. If K-Tron Allen is common unguy from this past year, I think that's what he could be. If he gets a lot of opportunity, I think he could be a good player. I think McGowan might have a little bit more upside because of that athletic testing that maybe they just didn't get a chance to use it. I think K-Tron Allen will probably go ahead of him in the NFL draft. That McGowan had an incident off the field early in his collegiate career that had been publicly out there and talked about, and he's a much older prospect. I think Allen will get more draft capital attached to his name, but I'm a little bit higher on McGowan because there is a little bit more untapped upside in terms of his athletic testing. I think does matter when you're breaking a tie between two prospects. Sure. Breaking a tie, I understand what you mean. We just talked about K-Tron Allen, too. He's the other Penn State kid, the one that couldn't be denied. Nick Singleton just couldn't get rid of him as the unquestion started at Penn State. Don't worry, I'm putting all of these names in the show notes. You don't have to write them down. They're all right there for you. Adam Randall, Ed Holm on Monday mentioned him as a guy that he wants to like. He said, I think Andy maybe just asked him for a head of an off the board, could be a fantasy star. I think the reason Ed Holm said it is because he was kind of parallel. Could he wind up being an unexpected David Johnson type, like a big guy who catches it and therefore while they're not maybe a complete great player, they do the right things for fantasy that if they ever hit, they'd hit in a way that we would like. Randall's the guy I was mentioned before about in terms of, we evaluate guys sometimes and we don't nitpick guys who we are new to a position or just are unknown in terms of can they do something or not do something. Randall was the guy I was referring to. He's an intriguing prospect. I don't see the David Johnson upside to me more Antonio Gibson in terms of the positional change type thing. The aspect of Adam Randall, I think people get excited by the fact that receiver to running back convert. I think the last time I think I was on your show talking running backs, I was a fan of Tyrone Tracy and he was a guy that I think he's had a pretty solid NFL career considering he's a fifth round pick, came from wide receiver into running back. The aspect of Randall that concerns me is that he's a really, really bad receiver which is why I think he came off of the wide receiver line and they made him a running back. So I don't think while it sounds appealing, I don't know of how much an NFL team is going to look at Adam Randall and think he could be a weapon in the receiving game like a David Johnson was or even Antonio Gibson was at times. So to me, he's going to end up being pigeon-in-pulled as a big strong tall back who probably works the interior mostly and I don't think we're going to see him much on third down even though in the background, yeah, once upon a time he was a wide receiver, I think he converted more because that just wasn't it. He was never going to get drafted as a wide receiver under any circumstance and he just really was not very good in terms of his routes, his hands. So I think that's the aspect that makes him a hard prospect. I think a team will be intrigued because he's still relatively new to the position. So I think he'll get some decent draft capital in that round four, round five range. I think people will be a little bit busier on him who just he or former wide receiver and have never watched his film and not realize, I don't think it's going to be something that's like a calling card of his at the next level. Okay, and I think to be fair from what I understand from having listened to Monday show, I don't think really Eric believed it either. He just sort of wanted to. He was like, I would like this to be true, but I don't think he did. The Alabama kid, you know, people watch a lot of Alabama, Jim, Jim Marion Miller, he's in this neighborhood. What's your thumbnail on him? You think he's a guy, I like the quickness stop start. He has a little bit out to his game. He's also showed that he could handle a little bit heavier of workload than a guy like the Montclave born. So this aspects of Jim Miller's game that I do think it's a guy who's going to get taken in round four, round five. I think if the opportunity arose, he can be a functional back. He can be have fantasy viability. I just think this whole draft class is going to be one of those things where they're one year away from just being replaced by somebody who's more talented or the right for age and come the round. A team is going to go out there, you know, like the chiefs went out there and got Kent Walker. It's saying to went out there and got Ethi and like I think everyone who takes these guys, even if they have a solid working year, I don't feel like they're going to there's going to be a lot of stability in their dynasty value for fantasy moving forward because I think they're always going to be looking for a guy who can be an upgrade on it. And I think Jim Miller could be a server symbol back at the next level. I just think he's not going to be a guy that people pencil and as he's going to be locked and loaded for the future. So yeah, he's got some speed. He's got some quickness to his game. I think in that initial F-class, we don't have a lot of running backs that are like speed guys. I think Miller possesses that, but I think he falls in the same bucket of he doesn't have a multiple of traits that are going to make him a guy that stands out. So we've hit everybody in your top 11 such as it is, you know, it's really a top one with a lot of other guys. Are there, I mean, nobody who we haven't talked about given what we said about the class is going to be a quote unquote massive favorite of yours. But are there any prospects that you feel like, yeah, I'm on this show. I'm as we'll say their names out loud. So people just have them on their radar. Yeah, two guys I'll say. And then that'll be one of the Jaden Ott out of Oklahoma, formerly of California a couple years ago. I thought this guy was ticketed to a top 50 pick in the NFL draft, size speed, athleticism, receiving capabilities. He transferred to Oklahoma, which I thought was just going to increase his value in terms of national attention. And the transfer to Oklahoma over the last two years has been a disaster. And then there's been injuries mixed in there. So I think he's one guy who, like I said, if he was able to come out two years ago, he probably would have been a day to pick. And I thought he was on that trajectory of going much higher than that. So Jaden Ott is one of them because I do think he's got a lot of the physical traits. He wasn't at the combine. So we're talking really, you know, really a diamond in the rough here. He was at the Shrine Bowl, not even the senior bowl in terms of the all-star games. But I do like Jaden Ott. And then the other one is what I don't know if he's going to be a slot option at the next level. I don't know if he's going to be a running back, a dual threat capability of Eli Hendrick out of Navy. Really interesting player in terms of his quickness, his agility, his stop start ability. He's going to be a really interesting guy. I think probably he'll go somewhere in that like round five, early, round six range. And I'm really going to be fascinated to see what role an NFL team puts on him, especially since, you know, playing for Navy, you know, obviously a very funky offense, not a traditional offense. What does the NFL team that drafts him have in mind for a role for him? I think he could be a guy that if we're really digging deep of a surprise, Jaden Ott or Eli Hendrick at a Navy would be the guys that I would say to keep an eye on, stash him late on the dynasty team on the taxi squad. Those would be the two running backs well out there on day three that I'm intrigued by. Sorry, if Belicechek was still in the league, he'd take him in the second round. It's just too bad. Go out of that. You know, he'd be taken for a great experience. Is there anybody who haven't mentioned who you expect maybe gets a little more hyped than you would like? I mean, we're pretty far down the list of a not great class, but like I've seen people say they like Lavy on Moss. We haven't talked about him. Are there other players who are sort of just, eh, I'm not, I'm not so in on. I would say, I mean, we mentioned before I do think most people have K-Tron Allen a lot hired in me. And I'm just, that's the one guy that I'll say that I just over the years, I kept wanting to see Nick Singleton get more and more work because I looked at K-Tron Allen and I kind of just thought he was average. And I think some people are looking at maybe over valuing the things he does really well. I just think the things he does really well, there's less, less of that succeeding at the next level. That's why he wins. I have questions of whether or not that's going to win unless he gets put behind a really strong offensive line pounded in the interior. I'm not sure the athleticism is going to translate even enough to be more than a part-time player. So I do think K-Tron Allen would be the one guy that I would say I think most consensus ranks have clearly a couple spots. I think most people probably have him as there are before to RB6. And for me, he's a little bit further down in my top 10. Maybe the one guy that I'd probably just going to be out on when it comes to the rookie season unless he ends up in an ideal landing spot and then obviously adjust accordingly if I think he's going to have some decent opportunity. To be honest, I hate getting blinded by situations. So I like getting the skinny pre-team. I'm glad to know your opinion on him. In some ways, if a player like K-Tron Allen, who you don't love, winds up in a quote unquote good situation, but he's not going to be the only running back, I like knowing that beforehand, you were like, "Hmm, I mean, you can invest, but don't go crazy. This is good information for us to have." So I feel like I understand these players much, much better having spent this hour with you. I appreciate it so much. You can find Paul at Saturday to Sunday football.com. Remember the two is the number two. So I would love it. Everybody listening. Just check out, you know, subscribe to the podcast, frankly. But also check out the notebooks as well. If you're in Devy leagues, Paul mentioned over the course of this interview, he's got all kinds of stuff inside the notebooks about players that I've. I'm going to learn about in three years, but he knows about now. So it is Saturday, the number two Sunday football dot com. I don't get to talk to you that often, but when I do get to talk to you, it is a great pleasure, my friend. I hope later today the Little League game goes well. And overall, I hope you have a great year. Thank you so much again for doing this. Thank you so much for Chris for having me on. I always enjoy talking to you about these prospects. And thank you so much for listening. Let me also thank the sponsors that made today's show possible. We had Zbiotics and Lisa and better help. You can find information about those sponsors in today's show notes. All the current sponsors are listed at Harris football dot com. When you have the means and you have a need, if you remember that they sponsored this little podcast that could and you use the codes and let them know where you heard about them. That does help the show. I really appreciate how much ownership you do take of the program. Believe me, none of this would have happened if you weren't taking ownership of the sponsors. This crazy that we have a show of this size and in so many folks listen. And if you can't currently support a sponsor, my goodness, I'm so happy to have you listening. It is pretty great. That's going to do it for this Thursday episode. As we've been doing, we'll have two shows for you next week. Monday is the yacht club show for subscribers. And that's going to be a really fun one. Andy and I will be on the show together. And then for part of it, we're also going to have Ross Tucker, your friend and mine, a regular guest of the show. When August rolls around, we always have Ross on to talk about offensive lines for about 30 minutes or so on Monday's yacht club show. We're going to ask Ross what it's like to be announcing games because he's doing that more lately and he's really good at it. I think a lot of you now have caught up to the fact that Ross has become truly one of the best in game analysts out there as the games are actually happening. We're going to talk about how it's happened and maybe talk about his hopes for the future. That's going to be really fun. And then back here on the main show next Thursday, we're going to continue the NFL draft coverage. I got to learn more names. I know for Nana Mendoza. That's about it. We're going to talk quarterbacks and tight ends. My guest for that one is going to be a new friend, Dalton Wasserman, late of profile focus. Well, maybe you talk a little bit about that because a lot of folks aren't there anymore. Unfortunately. So Dalton will be on to talk about the quarterbacks and the tight ends in the NFL draft next week. Until then, thanks again so much for listening. Your hat is awesome. You're awesome for wearing it. I will talk to you next time. The Harris football podcast opening theme is under the gun by Apex Manor. The closing theme is say yes by the wellspray. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and never miss an episode.