Ryan Moats' Draft Position

[Bigdog13]

Interesting list. I think Texas' Cedric Benson (#1) is overrated, while Minnesota's Marion Barber (#10) may be underrated.

And I often wonder if either of the "Auburn guys" (Brown #2 and Williams #3) could handle the week to week workload that Ryan Moats (#8) had to handle this year as a featured back. (I have the same concern about Louisville's Shelton #6.) Because they played TOGETHER, the Auburn boys have always had the advantage of being relatively "fresh" in their games. In my opinion, they are really untested at this point.

I'm also VERY umimpressed with Florida's Ciatrick Fason (#4). He gained 1,000 yards last season. Big woop. That's about 800 yards less than Moats.

I like Morency (#5) of Oklahoma State allot. OSU RB's seem to do very well in the NFL (Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Tatum Bell, etc...)

I've said all along that Moats' size will hurt him some on draft day. Consequently I've consistently pegged Moats as a 3rd to 4th round NFL draft choice. However, from the looks of this list, I believe Moats could go as high as being the #4 or #5 RB chosen.

But wherever Moats ends up, he will have gotten there the old fashion way; he will have EARNED it.

HD

Good Post HD. I agree with everything you wrote.

[dawg80]

Mighty Moats is not gonna reel off too many 60+ yard runs in the NFL. His 100 yd time is nothing spectacular. But, NFL RB's are not called on to score from 60 yards out. If it happens, great! But no NFL OC depends on that for scoring. NFL DBs and even LBs are too athletic and too fast, to allow any RB to make a living on long runs. Nope! The true measure is all those 8-15 yd runs that backs can get by exploding through a hole, making one would-be tackler miss, and getting up field for positive yardage. And that is where GITMO can, and will, excel. Occasionally, he'll reel off a 40-yard gainer, but mostly, it'll be those 10-yarders that will make him a valuable asset to any NFL team.

And of course, a RB has to be able to catch the ball. Mighty Moats can do that too.

[johnnylightnin]

I wish I had typed it while I was watching, but Kiper said there were three very important things that a back needed to be successful. One of them was vision...I think one was the ability to make somebody miss...hell, I can't remember(probably heart or determination or something). Whatever the three things were, Moats had all of them. If he can go out and put some first round line-backers in the dirt, the sky is the limit. He's strong, he's quick, he's got heart...I smell a sleeper.