Top 10 running backs in the 2019 NFL Draft

#4 Miles Sanders, Penn State

Sanders had a really hot start as he put together 884 yards and eight touchdowns from scrimmage through the first seven weeks of the season

The expectations for this Pennsylvania Mr. Football were already sky-high coming to his homestate school, but he was asked to fulfill an even tougher task last season, taking over for All-world running back Saquon Barkley.

Sanders had a really hot start as he put together 884 yards and eight touchdowns from scrimmage through the first seven weeks of the season, but then cooled off a little, highlighted by a seven-carry, 14-yard effort versus Michigan’s number one defense. However, overall Sanders went for over 1400 yards from scrimmage on 5.8 yards per rush.

Sanders truly made it his mission to beat Barkley, as he went after his records in the weight room as well as on the field. Similar to his former teammate, Sanders gets low into his breaks and has the ability to go laterally on his jump-cuts before instantly getting back to going North and South.

When Sanders runs some type of zone and sticks his foot in the ground to go upfield he seems to gain speed – not lose any. He also has some nifty moves to avoid traffic in the backfield and that guy definitely has some hops, which he shows off near the goal-line and also did so versus Wisconsin when he hurdled a defender almost from a standstill.

Sanders keeps his off-arm ready to hold off defenders and finishes runs the right way. The top-end speed he gets to is surprising because he is quite big when you looks at his quads and torso.

However, what I really like is the way this kid changes up his running style during one play. HHHe might cut his stride length down and cut upfield, then get into a hop step and simultaneously convert that into a type of euro-step to get to past a defender before going into full speed.

Sanders can hesitate behind his blocker to enable that guy to gain better control of his block and then get skinny through the hole, in combination to pulling his legs out of the grasps of the potential tackler

He just has so many different things going on that it is hard for defenders to settle in and adjust.

Sanders might not run any sophisticated routes down the field, but he is dangerous on swing screens when he can work in the open field and burn pursuit angles as well as putting stress on the flat defender by running up the sideline on wheel routes.

Overall, he picked up 75 combined first downs and touchdowns, in combination to avoiding 49 tackles.

While I like most of what he picked up from last year’s second overall pick, Sanders tends to fall into Barkley-ism when the opening closes and he tries to spin or juke out of it in order to make something happen, when there really isn’t anything to be had, producing even more negative plays.

I don’t question Sanders’ effort as a pass-protector, but he fails to hit his landmarks on plenty of occasions and only strikes one half of the approaching defender, which slows the rush down at best.

I thought he would have benefitted from another year at Penn State because his ability to translate information he gets from a defense and make decision in a matter of a split second is not quite there yet.

Sanders offers a shifty and explosive running style, while also carrying a certain physicality, which is very intriguing to me. Of course, having just that one year of production as a lead-back brings questions with it, but you can’t really blame him for who had to sit behind.

I think he would benefit from being part of a committee early on, where he can learn some of the subtleties at the position from a veteran and really shine from year two forward.