Ask Farrell: How should height factor into RB rankings?
ASK FARRELL: Over or under on 11 regular-season wins for Bama, Clemson?
Since Rivals.com’s rankings are based off expected college performance and projection to the NFL Draft, it’s important to study which players were selected where and what NFL teams are looking for in today’s game.
Let’s look at running backs.
The first 10 running backs selected in the NFL Draft were all under 6-feet tall and the only one picked in the first four rounds at 6-foot exactly was Memphis’ Tony Pollard.
In the first two rounds, only two running backs were picked at all with Alabama’s Josh Jacobs (5-foot-10) going in the first and Penn State’s Miles Sanders (5-foot-11) selected in the second round.
In the first four rounds, three running backs were picked who are 5-foot-9 or shorter in Oklahoma State’s Justice Hill (5-foot-9), Memphis’ Darrell Henderson (5-foot-8) and Florida Atlantic’s Devin Singletary, who is 5-foot-7.
Do Rivals.com’s rankings match up with this trend? Not really.
In the 2020 running back rankings, the top two backs, Houston (Texas) North Shore’s Zachary Evans and Clovis (Calif.) Buchanan’s Kendall Milton, are listed at 6-foot and 6-foot-1, respectively. Five of the top eight running backs in the rankings hit that 6-foot plateau or taller.
We ask Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell if the surge of running backs drafted under 6-feet tall is a one-year anomaly that should only be slightly considered when the position is ranked or if there has been a change in thinking and pro teams want smaller, more-compact running backs in their offensive attacks and that should be more seriously looked at when we rank the position as a whole?
FARRELL'S TAKE
“This seems to be very fluid. Remember guys like Todd Gurley, Derrick Henry and Melvin Gordon are tall, upright runners while Saquon Barkley and Christian McCaffrey aren’t as tall. This year, in a very weak draft year for running backs, it just happens that most of the backs are shorter.
"I’m not going to overreact to it, but I’m also not going to discount shorter backs who are thick, powerful and fast either. I don’t think these trends last for too long. Remember when big receivers were all the rage and now we’re in the era of dominant slot receivers? My point is things change all the time, but this data will allow us to be more balanced and open-minded moving forward.”