Matt Waldman shares his pre-draft NFL scouting report of Seahawks RB George Holani, who enters training camp as a surprise contender for a lead role.
George Holani lacks the NFL Draft capital of Jadarian Price or the contributor-level experience of Emanuel Wilson, but the third-year veteran has developed enough behind the scenes in Seattle that he’s earning an opportunity to lead the RB room when training camp begins next month. We know draft capital and prominent free agent signings usually win out when it comes to opportunities for playing time, there has been a prominent history of exceptions.
The Seahawks have a history of giving late-round and UDFA prospects opportunities. The list includes UDFAs Doug Baldwin and Thomas Rawls, fifth-rounder Richard Sherman, and seventh-round pick Chris Carson. There’s also third-round pick Russell Wilson earning an opportunity to compete with free agent signee Matt Flynn and winning the franchise role.
Pre-Draft, Holani had notable contact balance, footwork, good route skills, and true receiving chops. If injuries didn’t cost him most of 2020, parts of 2021 and 2022, and half of 2023, we might have seen Holani develop more of his game earlier in his career.
It’s why I noted in the scouting report below that Holani is an intriguing player who I could see having more success than his NFL Draft capital—and likely lack of it—will initially indicate.
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RB George Holani RSP Scouting Report
RSP Ranking: RB15
Height/Weight: 5-11/205 School: Boise State
Comparison Spectrum: Jeff Wilson/X-Salvon Ahmed
Depth of Talent Score: 78.2 = Contributor: Starter execution in a limited role; diminishing returns beyond that scope.
Games Tracked (Opponent/Date/Link):
- Ok State ‘21
- USU ‘21
- Fresno State ‘21
- Fresno State ‘23
- UCLA ‘23
The Elevator Pitch for Holani: A scat back with speed to flip the field, Holani has gradually improved his game during his career. He has become a capable runner with outside zone in addition to gap blocking. He still can be tentative with tight creases.
He has good enough hands and contact balance to generate gains in space if called upon as an outlet receiver. He’s an agile runner who can create efficiently and dynamically with his footwork.
Holani maintains a strong pad level and body lean as an open-field runner. He gets his feet high enough to work over low shots and he has functional power.
Like Jeff Wilson, Holani is a good receiver with potential to become a competent, if not underrated runner. Despite having the dimensions of a complementary runner, Holani has enough size to earn starts as a committee back if the lead back gets hurt.
He’s an intriguing player who I could see having more success than his NFL Draft capital—and likely lack of it—will initially indicate.
Where Holani has improved: Holani has improved his footwork with edge assignments, shuffling his feet in timely fashion to meet the pressure and ride out away from the pocket.
Vision: Holani will press behind his backside puller on Counter and pin-and-pull concepts. He finds bounce and cutback lanes with the middle is clogged early in a run. He also identifies penetration into the backfield as he takes the exchange and he can adjust his path or his feet to avoid getting tackled.
With outside zone, Holani will press an inside gap within a step of a defender with a leverage advantage to slow the flow of the defense to the outside and then continue outside, gaining the corner.
With wind back runs, Holani could earn more yardage if he works inside of the wind-backs that block the penetration off the edge. He tries to work back inside but he hasn’t figured out how to press and cut downhill efficiently enough in these situations.
Holani’s desire to find an open crease can lead to tentative behavior behind the line of scrimmage where he tries to change direction laterally three times in the backfield. He needs to understand when this leads to diminishing returns and to take what’s given. When he has a wide enough crease, he’s decisive. He needs to be as decisive with smaller creases.
He has to develop better pre-snap awareness of the line so he can determine potential cutback or bounce decisions that will work rather than bouncing away from penetration directly into an unblocked player when there was a better option based on the pre-snap look.
In the open field, he has a good feel to work against the grain of pursuit to prolong gains against defenders that would otherwise have angles.
Elusiveness: He can open his hips with the point of a toe to bounce to the edge. He can adjust his stride length as he approaches the line of scrimmage to read how the leverage of his linemen develops. He can also drop his weight to reach a sudden stop and flip his hips to get downhill and inside pursuit.
He has the lateral movement to cross the face of pursuit and make them miss. He only needs two quick steps to transition from a sideline approach to a downhill approach from the exchange point to the edge of the box. Holani also has some curvilinear movement to transition downhill seamlessly when working between the tackles with a perimeter runway.
He does a good job of getting his feet and knees up to avoid shots to his legs from backside penetration into the backfield. His pace variation is effective in the open field, baiting defenders into bad angles.
Holani has effective spins and short jump-cuts to avoid penetration into the backfield. Holani can deliver multiple moves in succession to avoid two defenders in the backfield and do it efficiently as he’s continuing downhill.
Acceleration: He can beat the outside linebacker at the nearside hash to the flat with his burst.
Speed: Holani can beat most linebackers and hold off some safeties in the open field. If the corners are playing close to the box, he can maintain his early lead on all defensive backs for gains that flip the field (40-60 yards, at least).
Power: He can pull through reaches to linebackers. He also uses the stiff-arm to ward off pursuit. His pad level can be lower when he’s working between the tackles, but he has a strong body lean when running and changing direction in the open field or at the second level. He keeps his feet and knees high through contact when using this lean. When he has a long runway to drop his pads into a safety, he’ll do so and keep his feet moving while also pushing off with a forearm. He’ll drag defensive linemen 1-3 yards when wrapping Holani from behind.
Direct Contact Balance: He can push a safety backwards if he earns a long enough runway to accelerate and drop his pads. He can also knock a linebacker backward in the hole. He knows to take one side of the defender’s chest to win the collision.
Indirect Contact Balance: He can take hits to his feet from linebackers and smaller edge defenders without losing his footing. He can also drop his pads into a linebacker crossing his face and drop the defender to the ground. In the hole, he can meet a defensive tackle and bounce off the hit, forcing the tackle to drop down and wrap up.
Routes: Holani settles into the open zone underneath second-level defenders and works to the open area when his quarterback scrambles. He displays awareness of the boundary as he does so, tapping both feet inbounds and attempting to extend inside the field of play to the pylon when close to the end zone with catch-and-pierce technique.
When running routes against man coverage, he has a two-quick and stick combination at the top of his stem, but it’s all sudden without the patience of slower pacing to set up the defender. He needs to cultivate the right combination of patience and suddenness with the footwork patterns to bait his opponents.
He has a double-swat at the top of stems into breaks that earn him separation on in-breaking routes.
Receiving: Holani uses underhand technique with targets at the numbers and he allows the ball into his frame rather than attacking at its earliest points. He’ll use overhand position with targets just above the numbers but still allow the ball tight to his frame.
He can track the ball over his shoulder with his hands away from his frame in underhand position. He can also make catches over his shoulder and extend for the ball on vertical routes with his back to the defender and in stride.
He catches the back shoulder against tight coverage with a good jump back and torque of the frame to pull the ball away.
Holani has boundary awareness and drags both feet at the sideline when targeted outside the sideline.
He leaves his feet unnecessarily for targets at shoulder and helmet height. He can make these catches and turn into an oncoming hit to his pads and bounce off the contact.
Blocking: When split from the formation, he’ll work back to the box and deliver his hands on an edge rusher.
Holani identifies A-Gap pressure, squares the opponent at the entrance of the pocket and throws his hands with tight position and elbows bent. He overextends slightly and jabs rather than uppercutting. Despite throwing shots with some force, he’s off-balance when he does so. He can really throw the jabs with force but it doesn’t help him sustain contact.
If he keeps his head up, it will be the first step for him improving his attack as a stand-up blocker. He can also get beaten to the punch.
When he can catch contact against lighter opponents, he can get his chest into the chest of the edge rusher and move his feet to ride the opponent around the pocket—usually a safety or cornerback, but he’s technically sound enough to slow the bull rush of a defensive tackle on a twist.
When his punching efforts throw him off-balance, he’ll follow up with a second shot and move his feet.
Holani can be a beat late with chips as well as double teams off the edge. It costs him angles to attack. He spots edge pressure from a safety at a distance, but he may miss edge pressure at the opposite side tight to the line that could be his assignment. He also missed a safety blitz through the interior gap in the same game against Utah State.
Holani has improved his footwork with edge assignments, shuffling his feet in timely fashion to meet the pressure and ride out away from the pocket. Although he still has some lapses with double teams against edge pressure where he thinks the defender has it handled but there was clear evidence otherwise, he has become more reliable against edge pressure, including spotting corner blitzes off the edge. He can get baited into missing delayed corner blitzes, but the execution of the defense to bait and disguise is more commendable than his lapse.
As a cut blocker, he gets across the frame of the opponent, keeps his head up, and earns good height. He’d be able to shoot through the opponent if he began his cut after closing the gap with the defender. He shoots too far from his opponent. He’s quick to transition from stand-up to cut if the faster defender gains the advantage on an edge rush.
He’s had lapses with cut blocks where he telegraphs some edge assignments by leaning forward and low before shooting and it gives the defender time to change direction. This leads to partial contact and missed blocks. When he’s timely, he can drop defensive ends at the point of contact.
Holani transitions effectively from receiver to blocker when his quarterback breaks the pocket. He seals edge containment with good position to the defender’s inside shoulder to turn the opponent away from the ballcarrier.
He delivers chips before leaking to the edge and doesn’t hit so hard that he knocks the defender from the tackle’s control.
Ball Security: Holani carries the ball under the appropriate sideline arm. The elbow is loose from his side, but the ball is close to his chest.
Durability: Missed two games in October with an aggravation of a lower body injury in September of 2021 that cost him a game. He also missed most of 2020 after tearing his MCL.
It appears he tore it in October 2020, aggravated it in December 2020 and then returned in late March to hold off competition for the starting job.
Missed six games in 2023 with lower body injury.
Pre-Draft Fantasy Advice: His draft capital will likely be low enough that you can monitor him from afar. If you’re in a league that has a rookie draft of 10-12 rounds, Holani could be worth taking in rounds 10-12 until we see if he’s a late-round pick in the NFL Draft or a UDFA.
Boiler/Film Room Material (Links to plays):
- Georgie Holani Highlights
- Holani vs Penetration into the Backfield
- Transition and Balance
- Cut Blocks
- Creative and Agile in the Open Field
- Riding the Wave
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