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Honorable Mentions:
# NFL Draft Prospect: Monty Rice (Georgia)
6’ 3”, 240 pounds; SR
Once a four-star recruit, Monty Rice was called the next Roquan Smith after the All-American linebacker. While he didn’t quite live up to that hype, he recorded just under 200 combined tackles, 8.5 of those for loss, two sacks, five PBUs, three fumbles forced and a scoop-and-score in his last three years as a starter.
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For his exploits, Rice received the second-team All-SEC honors in 2019 and was first-team all-conference last season, right in the middle of one of the elite defenses in college football.
Rice is quick to work downhill in the run game and won’t shy away from contact while keeping his hands busy to disengage from blocks. He uses his hands well to avoid any cave-in or crackback blocks and works over the top,to chase the ball-carrier out to the sideline.
He doesn’t allow eye-candy to get him out of position too many times, as he plays with good control and rarely overruns plays, yet he displays great pursuit and hustle across the field. And he has some sudden movement to get his hands on the running back, as he slaloms through the blocking at the second level to go with often beating linemen on the backside of zone runs quite a bit.
Rice is also a pretty fluid mover in space and can move in any direction without any problems. I’ve seen him carry Alabama receivers Devonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle down the seams, and Rice didn’t look like he was totally out of place, maybe he was a couple of steps behind them.
He has also really improved his timing and hand usage as a blitzer to get around problems. Rice made an unbelievable play in the Tennessee game in 2020 when he came on a blitz, worked around the back for a strip-sack, scooped it up and took it to the house to pretty much seal the win.
However, Rice sinks too deep at times and can get lost in coverage. He doesn’t look super comfortable taking down guys one-on-one in open space and still has to learn how to break down and wrap up properly.
His lack of height and length means he has issues dealing with blockers in his face, and he tends to read the action in the backfield rather than ID-ing blocking scheme, which gets him out of position on play-action and counter runs at times.
Rice has been taken off the field quite a bit on passing downs. The numbers may not tell the entire story because they just take into account which the closest defenders at the moment of the catch are. But according to PFF, Rice allowed completions on 24 of 25 targets last season. And he isn’t very effective lining up in the gap or on the edge because when linemen get their hands on him as a blitz in general, he has a tough time making any impact.
Nevertheless, you don’t turn yourself into one of the top linebackers in SEC – which nowadays has much more wide-open offenses than it used to – if you can’t play.
Rice is a really solid all-around linebacker, with good feel for the position and excellent pursuit. Outside of 2019, when he missed a highly uncharacteristic 16 tackles, he has been a very dependable tackler, with just five misses in 113 attempts between 2018 and 2020. He may have some limitations in coverage, but he can be a quality starter in any NFL team.
# NFL Draft Prospect: Chazz Surratt (North Carolina)
6’ 1” ½, 230 pounds; RS SR
This young man was actually recruited as a three-star quarterback and started seven games as a redshirt freshman for the Tarheels. However, with the struggles he had, especially with the arrival of Sam Howell on the horizon, Chazz Surratt decided to switch to the defensive side of the ball in 2019.
That move paid off big time, as he was a first-team All-ACC selection in his first two years of playing the position. Surratt tallied just over 200 combined tackles, 22.5 of those for loss, 12.5 sacks, two INTs, five PBUs and two fumbles forced and recovered each in 24 games.
Surratt instantly turned himself into a TFL machine in the run game. He is quick to shoot gaps and oftentimes gets through almost unblocked. He has the speed to beat blockers across the face routinely and can dip underneath them to open a lane behind him.
He has got a lot better at finding ways to sort through blocks on the inside, stepping around them, keeping his hands active to disengage and meeting the ball-carrier in the hole. Surratt has long arms, which help him wrap up ball-carriers from the side and bring them down as they try to make him miss.
He simply doesn’t stop pursuing the gets in tackles late constantly. In zone coverage, he brings a lot of range to the table and has really improved his feel for targets in space in 2020.
Surratt can run and carry slot receivers down the seams as well as chase guys down towards the sideline when they catch a crosser and try to turn it upfield. He presents a large radius in the middle to break up passes.
When quarterbacks threw it underneath, Surratt went from an absurd 27 missed tackles to 'just' 11 last season because he is super patient and always seems to get a piece of the man.
Surratt was also brought down late and rushed off the edge quite a bit, where he shows good lean to shorten the corner. He was used on cross-dog action as well. Moreover, he was deployed as a spy in certain matchups and situations, where his long arms allow him to take away passing lanes, and he covers a ton of ground bailing out of A-gap pressure looks.
However, he is still very new to the position, and it shows in his angles, block-deconstruction and tackling consistency. Surratt’s eyes can get trapped in the backfield rather than reading the blocking. And he is just not very physical when dealing with blocks, almost backing up as he tries to get around them at times, getting driven out of the screen or pancaked a couple of times when coming down against pullers.
Even on draw plays, he seemingly waits for the center to work up to him and give the ball-carrier a two-way go almost. While he has had some success as a blitzer, when he is charging down in-between the tackles, you rarely see him actually drive linemen backwards.
So this is definitely more of a project. I think Surratt has already shown a lot of improvement from years one to two, and with the right coaching, he'll continue to rise.
My problem with him – and this is not supposed to be about quarterbacks being soft – is that he simply isn’t a very physical overall player. However, I like the range he presents as a coverage defender and the length he has to work with.
I don’t think he deserves to go ahead of anybody in my top ten, but after them, I like bringing him in if you feel comfortable about the way you can develop him.
The next names up:
Garrett Wallow (TCU), Paddy Fisher (Northwestern), Charles Snowden (Virginia), Tony Fields II (West Virginia), Justin Hilliard (Ohio State), Grant Stuard (Houston) and Derrick Barnes (Purdue).
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Make sure to check out my social media outlets for more NFL Draft coverage. I've also put out a video version of this top ten running backs on Youtube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaQOLbHIS_I).
