INDIANAPOLIS — The best running back in the draft for the Bucs will remind you a lot of Doug Martin. Before the pills and the punishment.
He’s 5-7¼, 207 pounds with 9⅝-inch hands, 29-inch arms and a 70⅝-inch wingspan.
But small backs are given very big roles in today’s NFL.
“As a player, I’ll say I’m exclusive,’’ said LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire. “I feel like everything I do is something that can’t be matched. I feel like I’m kind of making my own category."
More than anything, Edwards-Helaire is a back that never has to come off the football field.
Unlike Peyton Barber, he has breakaway speed. Unlike Ronald Jones, he can catch a football. Unlike Dare Ogunbowale, he’s the best athlete in his family (sister Arike led Notre Dame to a national title and plays for the Dallas Wings).
Edwards-Helaire was the best athlete on LSU’s national championship team, according to quarterback Joe Burrow.
“For him to say that means the world to me,’’ Edwards-Helaire said.
He’s the perfect running back for the Bucs. Don’t believe it? Listen to Bruce Arians.
“For me, you can see them all run. I want to see them catch,’’ Arians said. “In college football, they don’t do a lot of pass blocking. So that’s always a big step for them. But can they be a receiver? That separates guys from having to come off the field. I had Christian Okoye who led the league, but he never played on third down. Edgerrin James never came off the field. Marshall Faulk never came off the field. For me, I’m looking for that type of guy. The David Johnson-type guy. I can’t use his name. That skill set.’’
Edwards-Helaire has it. So did Martin for a couple of seasons.
As a rookie, Martin rushed for 1,454 and 11 touchdowns while catching 49 passes for 472 yards and a score. He went over 1,400 yards again in his contract year, which earned him a new $6.5-million deal. Then came the four-game suspension and drug rehab and back to back seasons when he barely rushed for 400 yards and less than 3 yards per carry.
When the Bucs drafted Jones in the second round from Southern Cal two years ago, he was expected to provide explosive plays in the running game. His rookie season was a disaster: 44 yards on 23 carries (1.9 avg.).
Last season, Jones rebounded with 724 yards rushing and six touchdowns. But he was a liability in pass protection despite catching 31 passes.
“I thought he really progressed well this season,’’ Arians said. “I think the area that he can still (get better) is pass blocking.’’
Edwards-Helaire also still is hungry to prove something, and for one of the premier running backs in the nation, he has a lot of tread left on his tires.
The Baton Rouge Catholic star had to wait his turn behind some NFL-ready running backs at LSU. As a freshman in 2017, he was stuck behind Derrius Guice, a second-round pick of the Redskins. The next season it was Darrel Williams, who rushed for 820 yards but went undrafted. You probably remember him running over the 49ers for the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54.
When Edwards-Helaire got his chance this season, he was ready.
He rushed for 1,414 yards and 16 touchdowns. Perhaps more impressively, despite only 14 receptions in his first two years for the Tigers, Edwards-Helaire had 55 catches for 453 yards and a score.
He dominated in the win over Alabama with 103 yards rushing, 77 receiving while scoring four touchdowns.
But the naysayers kept coming up with things they said he couldn’t do.
“Every week it was always something," Edwards-Helaire said. "‘Does he have breakaway speed?’ And then bust an 80-yard touchdown. ‘Can he make a guy miss?’ Made plenty of guys miss. ‘Is he going to show up Bama game?’ Ultimately, all the questions were answered, so I feel like my résumé is all checked out.”
This is a pretty solid class of running backs. Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor rushed for more than 6,000 yards. Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins carried the Buckeyes to a Big 10 title. Utah’s Zack Moss and Georgia’s D’Andre Smith were explosive.
In a position of attrition, Edwards-Helaire enters the NFL with only 370 career rushing attempts.
"I feel like my lifespan right now is pretty long," Edwards-Helaire said. "Zero surgeries. I had the hamstring, tweaked hamstring before Oklahoma. Did an MRI. Wasn’t even a Grade 1 strain. It was just tightness. So right now I feel like I’m one of the healthiest guys and most valuable.”
The NFL hash marks are narrower than the college game and cut in the center of the field. You must create room for playmakers like Edwards-Helaire by getting them on the move in space, particularly with favorable matchups in the passing game.
But unlike Jones, they have to be a quick study when it comes to pass protection or you can’t afford to play them without risking injury to the quarterback.
Edwards-Helaire has been well-trained by LSU running backs coach Kevin Faulk, the former Tigers star who played 13 seasons with the Patriots.
"Ultimately it was, he walked in the door, I asked him about pass (protection) and we immediately got working on it because I understood his standpoint from it,’’ Edwards-Helaire said. “I mean, he blocked for Tom Brady — one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the football league.’’
Taylor, Dobbins, Moss, Smith and perhaps even Florida State’s Cam Akers may be rated higher on some draft boards than Edwards-Helaire. But if he’s still on the board the second day of the draft, and they haven’t made a deal with the Cardinals for Johnson, the Bucs running game could get better in a hurry.
“I feel like I can do everything,’’ Edwards-Helaire said. “Like I said, the adjective I describe myself as was exclusive. And I feel I can exclusively do whatever you want me to do. That’s what I’m standing behind.’’
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February 29, 2020 at 09:00PM
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