Running Back

Oregon

6-0 241

40 time: 4.62

Draft board overall prospect rank: #148

Draft board running back rank: #13

Overall rating: 60*

            LeGarrette Blount burst onto the national stage in a big way this year. The thing is, he probably wishes he hadn’t. Blount burst onto the national stage by punching on opposing player after a poor performance in Oregon’s week 1 national televised game against Boise State. Blount was initially suspended for the season, but reinstated for the last two games of the season to put together a very disappointing senior season with 22 carries for 82 yards and 2 touchdowns. Already with red flags about his weight and work ethic, Blount slipped from a late round pick to a guy who was most likely going to go undrafted, which was very disappointing for a guy coming off a junior year in which he rushed for 1002 yards on a mere 137 carries and looked poised to break out as a senior. However, Blount’s pro hopes turned around when he was invited to the Senior Bowl. Blount was given one last chance and made the most of it. In my opinion, he was the best running back there. He had a lot of very nice runs and looked impossible to stop in the open field. His looked in as good of shape as I had ever seen him in, and ran with a great pad level and bulldozed guys over in the open field, on one play breaking a tackle and then jumping 4 yards, over a defender, and into the end zone, and on another play, literally dragging the entire defense with him from about the 6 yard line to the 2 yard line on a play that set up a touchdown. Most importantly, he looked determined and committed to turning his life around and playing football. He looked like a younger Jamal Lewis or Brandon Jacobs. Now, its easy to get excited about that one game. Though he showed a lot of good things, the character red flags are still there. You can’t punch someone in the face on national TV and expect that to go away just because you had one good game. He also needs to lose about 10 pounds to become more mobile and break more tackles with quickness rather than pure brute strength and pad level. His hands are pretty much bricks. He did catch 2 passes in 3 games this year, which isn’t bad, but he had only 2 in his entire junior season. His ability to break the big gain is fairly limited and for that reason, any team that runs with him often will have a fairly limited, however consistent and grinding, offense. As the Bengals showed us this year, that doesn’t always work. In the end, I think someone takes a chance on Blount late, say 5^th round or later. It is likely going to be a team that doesn’t put a ton of stock on character, but he has good upside. I don’t see him as an every down back, but he’s, at the very least, a solid goal line back, granted he keeps his emotions in check.

NFL Comparison: Lendale White

*=For a breakdown of what this means, click here