Draft News
Race for 2nd: Mendenhall or Stewart?
After Darren McFadden‘s crazy awesome NFL Combine, it immediately became apparent that he would be the first running back selected in the 2008 NFL Draft. Now, only if the 2nd best option was as clear…..
Most scouts and fans are split over 2 power backs.
Rashard Mendenall, from Illinois, is a 5‘10“, 225 lb nightmare for opposing defenses. He runs a sick 4.37 forty and can catch balls out of the backfield before turning up-field and becoming a human battering ram.
His style is consistent with his gifts.
Mendenhall runs hard and has great field vision. He sees the hole and runs to daylight. He‘s a hard-nosed runner who also has enough wiggle in his step to make things fun.
Jonathan Stewart is a freak of nature. A running back for the Oregon Ducks, Stewart showed up to the combine 235 lbs of rock hard muscle. He‘s 5‘10” tall, which also gives him a nice low center of gravity, too.
Perhaps most impressive are the physical anomalies he exhibited at the combine.
Stewart ran a 4.44 forty and leaped 36.5 inches off the freakin‘ ground in the vertical. His running style is often compared with former Pittsburgh Steelers great Jerome Bettis. Stewart attacks the line of scrimmage with a vengeance when he has the ball, and he‘s a tough, solid blocker without it.
Maybe the answer lies somewhere in statistics. Mendenhall only really shined as a ball carrier for one season. He almost tripled his previous offensive outputs by rushing for 1,681 yards on 262 attempts in 2007. He scored 17 TDs on the ground, adding 2 in the passing game. His 6.4 yards per rush average shows just what kind of hard-running force he was in college, and his 59 receptions showcase his versatility in the passing game.
But Stewart is eerily similar.
Stewart had only one really big year in college, too. He rushed for 1,722 yards at Oregon last season, averaging over 6.2 yards per carry on a team that ended up playing its 3rd string quarterback for the last part of the season. He rushed for 11 TDs and scored 2 through the air. He caught 22 balls for 145 yards.
Both played against USC and Michigan last year. Against USC, Mendenall rushed for 155 yards and 1 TD on 17 attempts. He also caught 5 passes for 59 yards. Stewart faced the Trojans, too. He rushed for 103 yards and 2 TDs on 25 carries, and caught 2 balls for 21 more yards. Meanwhile, against Michigan Mendenhall had only 85 yards on 18 carries on no TDs, while Stewart gainned 111 yards and a TD on only 15 carries.
It‘s really quite simple. Both of these guys are exceptional talents. They both are fast, gifted and powerful backs that will be gone early in the NFL draft process. If you twisted my arm, I‘d tell you I like S