Maurice Jones-Drew Down on Consensus Top Running Back Prospect in NFL Draft
5 hours ago
3,445
As the NFL draft draws near, more and more claims and predictions for prospects are put out there, whether good or bad.
Some top guys will suddenly drop, while others will have sharp rises in value. Some opinions are more valued than others by the public based on their backgrounds.
In terms of the running back position, the opinion of a former NFL running back in theory is well respected.
That is why seeing consensus first-round pick Omarion Hampton, widely considered the second-best running back in this year’s class behind Ashton Jeanty, ranked as the seventh-best running back in the draft is a bit jarring.
More news: NFL Mock Draft 2025: Predicting the Entire First Round
Maurice Jones-Drew played in the NFL for nine seasons, eight coming with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In 2011, he put up 1606 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, the best season of his career.
Jones-Drew was a great back in the NFL, which has earned him the right to be a football analyst for the NFL network.
Seeing Hampton, an elite running back prospect out of North Carolina, all the way down at seven raises lots of questions.
To be fair, this year’s running back class is loaded, so there are a lot of elite guys besides Hampton and Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty.
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA – OCTOBER 14: Jared Harrison-Hunte #81 of the Miami Hurricanes tackles Omarion Hampton #28 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the first half of their game at Kenan Memorial Stadium… CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA – OCTOBER 14: Jared Harrison-Hunte #81 of the Miami Hurricanes tackles Omarion Hampton #28 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the first half of their game at Kenan Memorial Stadium on October 14, 2023 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Grant Halverson/Getty Images
However, Jones-Drew is in the minority in his opinion of Hampton, who has often been mocked late in the first round of the NFL draft by teams like the Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos, and even as high as 12 or 10 to the Dallas Cowboys or Chicago Bears.
Another top back that is surprisingly absent from Jones-Drew’s rankings entirely is Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson.
Johnson is considered by many to be a top-five back in this year’s class, making him being outside the top 10 feel a bit extreme.
Overall, as the draft gets closer and April arrives, it will be interesting to see how people continue to view this year’s running back class.
In what appears to be the deepest class in years, teams could always decide to wait on the position to get a better value later in the draft. That could mean a guy like Hampton could fall out of the first round.
With the combine happening already, it is hard to imagine much changing in terms of consensus rankings, but it will be worth keeping an eye on if consensus starts straying closer to Jones-Drew’s running back rankings.
More NFL news:
NFL Mock Draft Predicts Major Shakeup After Shocking Top 3 Picks
Abdul Carter Shockingly Falls Out of Top 5 in New NFL Mock Draft
Browns Projected to Trade Up, Take Quarterback in First Round
A legjobb élmény biztosítása érdekében olyan technológiákat használunk, mint a cookie-k az eszközadatok tárolására és/vagy eléréséhez. Ha beleegyezik ezekbe a technológiákba, akkor olyan adatokat dolgozhatunk fel ezen az oldalon, mint a böngészési viselkedés vagy az egyedi azonosítók. A hozzájárulás elmulasztása vagy visszavonása bizonyos funkciókat és funkciókat hátrányosan érinthet.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
