STRENGTHS
As far as pure running back talent, Rasheen might be the best in this draft. His lateral agility, vision, balance, and burst are the best in this draft, and his route running and ability to catch the ball down the field is right up there with the best also. Rasheen is a natural runner and highly intelligent in understanding how to set up blocks to make it easy for his offensive lineman to block for him. He is such a smooth runner that he doesn’t look fast but at the same time, defensive players are flailing and lunging to make tackles as he glides by them gaining yards and scoring touchdowns. Rasheen is a touchdown maker scoring 23 TD’s in the 2021 season and 15 TD’s in the 2023 season coming off an injury. He runs strong between the tackles and seems to find that sliver of space to gain the needed yards when his team needs those yards the most. Rasheen reminds me a lot of former Ravens/Chiefs RB Priest Holmes. (Look him up, I can’t do everything for you)
CONCERNS
There are size concerns, and injury concerns, along with competition concerns that teams will struggle with when listing him on their boards. He got a freak injury in the Senior Bowl along with an ACL tear back in 2022. He came back and produced from the ACL and will do the same from the last injury (a torn bicep) at the Senior Bowl practices.
BOTTOM LINE: 1.83
Let’s take the concerns first. Rasheen and Priest are about the same size and weight. Priest at 5’9” 213, Rasheen 5’ 11” 206. Priest was undrafted and played for 10 years scored 83 TD’s and rushed for over 6,000 yards. He retired with many awards and injuries. As I always say…size matters when it comes to the draft but means nothing once a player gets on the field. To address the competition issue, we all know running back is the one position that is not affected by the level of competition. Good running backs come from any round in the draft and from any competition level from college. As far as injuries…we all know that’s an issue for the running back position so like Priest, Rasheen could go undrafted. Nevertheless, late in the draft why not take a player with 1st RD talent over players who are not 1st RD talented players? I would, especially at position fraught with injuries. It seems to me if a team needs to run the ball because their quarterback is not a “franchise” quarterback, they would have a plethora of running backs on the roster and practice squad. At least I would because if your offense doesn’t control the middle of the field they will struggle to score and that’s what good impacting RB’s, TE’s, Slot Receivers, and OC’s do, control the middle of the field.
