STRENGTHS
David is a sold running back with good strength between the tackles and the speed and quickness to take the play wide when it is needed. He shows solid vision when running in the open field and has good enough hands to catch the ball out of the back field in check down situations. David shows on film the lower body strength to break tackles when running between the tackles. He also has good explosion running north and south and when he keeps his cuts, eluding tackles…north and south. David is a work horse type of running back and should be a solid player for the team that selects him.
CONCERNS
Although David has good explosion moving north and south he doesn’t have that same explosion when forced to move east and west. That means he is the type of back that has to hit the whole quickly to gain his yardage. This is not a bad thing but it is the issue that separates the good backs from the great ones. David also needs to lower his pads to move the chains consistently when the blocking in front of him breaks down on those all-important third and short yardage downs. Of course, blocking is always an issue for any back to stay on the field and his college team takes him off the field on third downs most of the time.
TALENT BOARD ROUND 3.67
The lack of lateral or east/west, explosion will mean that David will get caught in the back field a lot if he doesn’t have a good offensive line blocking in front of him. It also means on those third down/check down situations, that unless he uses a spin move to elude a tackler who gets on him quickly, he will also get caught a lot behind the line of scrimmage on those downs too. David is a good solid back and with blocking in front of him can be very effective. Nevertheless, I can say that about a lot of running backs coming out in the draft and unless David can improve catching the ball down the field better and blocking on third downs than David will struggle to impact because his time on the field will be limited. Then again…good blocking in front of him in a spread offense like he has played in college and David becomes a focal point for your offense. For me personal, if I select a running back early in the draft I like him to have the multiple skills, talents and high football IQ to play in any offensive system and impact. But that’s just me…talking to myself.
