NFL Scouting Combine/NFL Draft 2010: The Running Backs

Clemson University RB C.J. Spiller

Darron Cummings/AP Photo

 With the 2010 NFL Draft still many weeks away, Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser takes a look at the NFL Scouting Combine, held in late February and early March at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis. Oehser spent four days at the combine, and in the coming days will take a position-by-position look at the combine and the NFL Draft . . .

A great, rarely-emphasized truth of the NFL is the position of running back in recent years has become closer to an afterthought than anyone once imagined.

Think of it:

RB Chris Johnson rushed for 2,000 yards this season, and the Tennessee Titans failed to make the playoffs. The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints play in the Super Bowl with running games barely more than afterthoughts at times. As quarterbacks go, so go teams, and having a big-time running back is nice, but hardly a necessity. So it is that it's of no huge concern to NFL personnel officials that in the 2010 NFL Draft there is but one consensus big-time franchise running back.

That's C.J. Spiller of Clemson.

Spiller impressed at the combine with a reported 40-yard dash time of 4.37-seconds, with NFLDraftScout.com notes will bring more comparisons to Johnson, the NFL back to whom Spiller most often is compared.

To Mike Mayock of the NFL Network tell it this weekend, the running back draft is pretty much Spiller and the rest of the class, and Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com loves Spiller, but Clark Judge of CBSSports.com broke down the list at the position that has valued beyond the No. 1 player.

“For the moment, the consensus is that Georgia Tech's Jonathan Dwyer or Fresno State's Ryan Mathews is the second-best running back, with Cal's Jahvid Best and USC's Joe McKnight close behind,” Judge writes, “but don't forget about Stanford's Toby Gerhart. He came to this weekend's NFL scouting combine determined to prove he could run, and he succeeded: He was timed at 4.6 seconds in the 40, and while that may be slow for some backs it isn't for one of Gerhart's size.”

Judge quotes one NFC Scout saying, “I was surprised. I think the guy (Gerhart) just pushed himself into the top of the second round.”

That's pretty much what this year's running backs class is, and what most running backs classes figure to be as the league continues to veer more and more toward a passing game -- a Top 10 back or two, maybe, then a fight for positioning late in the first round or early in the second. It's likely that fewer and fewer backs will go in the Top 10 of drafts as time goes on. They have short lifespans, and in the modern NFL, most teams enter seasons figuring you need two or three quality players at the position to get through a season. In a league in which the rules are increasingly protecting quarterbacks and in which runners by nature endure brutal physical punishment, many teams figure it best to invest a late first-round or second and third round selections every few years on a back and use Top 15 selections to find more premium, long-term positions such as defensive end, offensive or defensive tackle or quarterback.

Still, running backs can work their way into the second or late first round, and according to Judge, “another back who helped himself here was Auburn's Ben Tate. He aced all the tests, finishing first among running backs in the bench press and broad jump and second in the 40 and vertical jump. Tate described the combine as 'an opportunity' to excel, and he didn't disappoint. Look for him to start climbing draft boards.”

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