Looks like a pretty competitive RB Room this year, thoughts on what the Chief's plans are with this group?
CEH
Rojo FA
Gore
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Isaih Pacheco RD 7 - Rutgers
Rutgers’ Isaih Pacheco is a productive running back who looks to make his mark in the NFL after four successful seasons with the Scarlet Knights. Pacheco has been the focal point of Rutgers’ offense for three straight seasons and earned Honorary All-Big-Ten honors as a senior in 2021. Pacheco is a well-built running back who offers good size, power, and strength. He’s a thick back with good height and has a muscular frame throughout. Pacheco flashes above average vision as a runner as he is able to quickly find open holes and seams when pressing the line of scrimmage. He is a better inside runner where he shows good contact balance, power, and physicality. Pacheco is a straight-line runner who is best working downhill. He lacks fluidity, burst, and explosiveness to consistently generate big plays and has just average speed to get the edge. In the passing game, Pacheco is an excellent pass protector, showing the necessary awareness to scan and pick up blitzers with a firm punch and stout anchor. Additionally, he is an above average receiver out of the backfield with good hands, although he is primarily a get-what’s-there runner after the catch. Overall, Pacheco is a tough, physical runner with good size, power, and contact balance but lacks any sort of dynamic trait that would get you overly excited about his projection to the NFL.
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Tayon Fleet-Davis UDFA - Maryland
Fleet-Davis is a redshirt senior from Maryland who led the Terps in rushing this season with 721 yards and 8 touchdowns on 128 attempts to go with another 305 yards on 32 catches through the air. Didn’t time well in the 40-yard dash (4.73 seconds) at his pro day but Chiefs clearly want to see more.
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Devin Darrington UDFA - Harvard
The running back originally went to Harvard but transferred to Virginia as a graduate student to finish up his collegiate career. The 5’9″ back might be one of the impressive late-round flyers that Brett Veach alluded to before the draft, saying this class had a lot of late-round options he liked in the backfield. Was Harvard’s leading rusher in 2019 and rushed for 7.4 yards/carry last season in limited duty for the Cavaliers.
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Jerrion Ealy UDFA - Ole Miss
Jerrion Ealy is a former 5-star recruit out of Jackson Prep High School in Flowood, Mississippi. According to 247sports, he was the number 3 running back in the nation coming out of high school. After seeing his high school stats, it is very clear to see why he was a top running back in the country. According to MaxPreps, Ealy was a four-year varsity letterman who got plenty of snaps his entire career. He played a total of 43 games, had 424 carries for 4,097 yards and 73 rushing touchdowns. I’m not done yet, he also racked up a total of 1,454 receiving yards for 21 touchdowns. With numbers like that, I am surprised he wasn’t the number one running back in the nation. Not too mention teams were calling to see him on the baseball diamond as well. Ealy is a two-sport athlete at Ole Miss. Ealy was a productive back at Ole Miss who recently ran a 4.43 second time in the 40 at his pro day. Got solid hands and can be a weapon out of the backfield, but he has to work on blocking and lacks elite speed to get outside well. That said, his agility and acceleration make him a solid returner and he comes with plenty of experience there. [Reply]
Well, I don't see CEH or Jones losing a spot. That pretty much leaves 1 on the team and 1 on the PS.
Pacheco, I like. Pacheco looks like an NFL back with his speed and his ability to hit the edges, run with power between the tackles, block in pass sets, etc. He has a solid shot of supplanting Gore but my gut tells me he ends up on the PS this year and Gore is on the 53.
Tayon Fleet-Davis couldn't stay healthy in college and ran a 4.73 at his pro day. Not exactly a ringing endorsement when you don't look fast on the field either. Going to be tough to expect him to press the corner on those outside zones. I really don't think much of him.
Ealy... I don't know man... 5'8" 185 isn't much for an NFL back. Seems like a camp fodder guy for special teams practices more than anything to me. I'd like him a lot more if he were a tad bigger. Not that he can't/won't make it in the NFL but the chances are pretty slim. Could end up a PS guy that never gets off of it.
It's actually Devin Darrington... 5'9" 215. Now, this is a guy where I like his running. He also wasn't very fast running a 4.73 though. One cut runner for the most part but has really good lateral agility and quickness to make outstanding jump cuts and move through the trash. Looks a bit faster on tape than that time in shorts. Don't know if I see him as a better player than Gore or Pacheco though.
Overall, I don't see much real competition. Had we landed a guy like Shermari Jones, I might be singing a different tune. [Reply]
The Chiefs have carried 4RB's in the past, so i wouldn't be surprised if he clung to that fringe roster spot. But any dreams of him being a significant role player are pretty much over. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Couch-Potato:
I was really high on taking a late-round flier on Ealy before the draft, stoked to see him get a chance. I like that he can run, catch, and return!
But WOW! Just now getting my first look at Devin Darrington and he's really dynamic running the ball!
I liked Ealy too, much more robust than his size suggests. I'd be willing to bet he has a better shot than Pacheco unless the latter's size means he can block. There's not a lot I like about Pacheco but CEH and Rojo are hopeless blockers and it's the obvious glaring issue amongst our RBs. [Reply]
It'll be interesting to see how the special teams units play out. Most of the special teams stalwarts are gone, and some of these bottom end guys are going to have to pull their weight on ST.
Invariably that will lead to some meltdowns here, because better players will get cut for special teams production.
I hope Pacheco can be a competent back because he has the best physical tools to work with. Selfishly, I hope he sticks and develops.
Ealy I hope we can keep on PS. Again, Speed. Reid can get backs in space and I don't hate that. Everybody's leaning into the power game because that's the guys we have on the line, but Reid....doesn't really do that. At least in volume.
Guys can't be ineffective running between the tackles, but I think they have a better chance at being effective if they can excel in space. That typically means catching it.
If those guys are really running 4.73 on the field, that's too slow. We have that. [Reply]
Pacheco can do kick returns, has the best physical traits in the RB room and can block too. So imo he has a great shot at making the roster and even more so having been drafted. I think it could end up being....
Rojo
Ceh
Pacheco
Ealy
Gore can make it back to the PS with the other two hopefully but we'll see. Maybe they impress more than Ealy and sneak in. [Reply]
I guess, maybe I'm hammering on the 40 times a bit hard but I don't have their splits at 10 and 20.
The 40-yard time is great if you're looking at a guy to be a gunner on special teams but you can generally count on 1 hand how many times a guy will run 40 yards in an actual game and those are almost exclusively going to be WRs and CBs. It's a near useless stat. What makes it even more useless is that these guys are running it from track blocks in an unnatural alignment.
They should run QB, WR, TE, RB, CB, and LB from a standing position and produce the splits at 10,15,20,30, and 40 yards. Do the same for OLine and Dline from a 3-point, and I don't need 40 yards, maybe 30 as a max. Then the thing has some value because I can see their release and know how fast they'll be when they are playing football.
It's the most f'd up stat in all of sports as it sits. Very valuable stats like 3-cone and 20-yard shuttle get tossed aside as if they don't matter in the draftubator community. It's stupid. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Couch-Potato:
I was really high on taking a late-round flier on Ealy before the draft, stoked to see him get a chance. I like that he can run, catch, and return!
But WOW! Just now getting my first look at Devin Darrington and he's really dynamic running the ball!
Originally Posted by kccrow:
I guess, maybe I'm hammering on the 40 times a bit hard but I don't have their splits at 10 and 20.
The 40-yard time is great if you're looking at a guy to be a gunner on special teams but you can generally count on 1 hand how many times a guy will run 40 yards in an actual game and those are almost exclusively going to be WRs and CBs. It's a near useless stat. What makes it even more useless is that these guys are running it from track blocks in an unnatural alignment.
They should run QB, WR, TE, RB, CB, and LB from a standing position and produce the splits at 10,15,20,30, and 40 yards. Do the same for OLine and Dline from a 3-point, and I don't need 40 yards, maybe 30 as a max. Then the thing has some value because I can see their release and know how fast they'll be when they are playing football.
It's the most f'd up stat in all of sports as it sits. Very valuable stats like 3-cone and 20-yard shuttle get tossed aside as if they don't matter in the draftubator community. It's stupid.
I think Pacheco makes the team. Devin Darrington looks like a CEH clone to me. Unless he can be a better CEH than CEH, I don't see him making the 53 man roster. Pacheco is actually a threat to house some runs, and has speed teams will need to respect, in spite of his off-putting running stride. [Reply]