The Rookie Scouting Portfolio (RSP)

Category: Running Back

  • The RSP Blog’s Top 20 RBs (2006-2011) Pt II

    The idea of compiling a rankings analysis across several years of Rookie Scouting Portfolio publications has been a popular request by readers for years, but something I have resisted doing. For a complete explanation why please read Part I. If you want to know how my ranking of these players differs from the actual process…

  • The RSP Blog’s Top 20 RB Prospects (2006-2011) Part I

    One of the most frequent requests I’ve heard from readers over the years is to rank players at their position across several draft classes. It’s an entertaining thing to read, but I’ve always been reticent about doing it. There are a lot of approaches I could take with the ranking process and I’m not sure…

  • RSP Flashback: DeMarco Murray Q&A and Analysis

      DeMarco Murray’s 25-carry, 253-yard debut as the Cowboys starter bested Emmitt Smith’s single game rushing record for the team. As with most accomplishments of this kind, the performance tends to be the product of a confluence of factors: a weakened defense, a big lead, and talent allowed to get into a rhythm. With Sam…

  • Behind the Blue Curtain – Part III: Making the Cut the Hard Way With RB Chad Spann

    Imagine 15-years of work riding on a 60-minute performance that is only partially choreographed and half of the individuals sharing the stage with you are trying to undermine everything you do. Now imagine suffering an injury three minutes into that performance. Welcome to rookie free agent Chad Spann’s world the night he faced the Cincinnati…

  • Behind the Blue Curtain: A Glimpse at Colts Training Camp With RB Chad Spann

    If I didn’t know better, I would have thought Chad Spann was messing with me. Every few minutes during our hour-long conversation the running back would grunt, yell, or laugh without any discernible rhyme or reason. At one point as he talked his voice quavered as if someone was jumping up and down on him.…

  • Maryland RB Davin Meggett

    I finished studying Maryland RB Davin Meggett’s performance against the Miami Hurricanes and I discovered that someone posted all of Meggett’s touches from this game. So I’m providing my analysis of Meggett’s performance with these highlights. When it comes to the son of the former New York Giants star, four things stand out: Meggett has…

  • Talented Understudy: Lions RB Jerome Harrison

    If you distill the role of a running back to that of purely a ball carrier, I am a huge Jerome Harrison fan. I’ve always been. However, I see Harrison’s NFL career as a sad story. Starter talent as a pure ball-carrier rotting on the vine.

  • A Case for Canton: William Andrews

    This isn’t the play versus Lott, but it was a lot like it. William Andrews legendary run through Ronnie Lott was a part of a recent conversation I had with NFL Films producer Greg Cosell. When I listened to Cosell’s thoughts on Andrews and added that to the litany of fans who revered the Falcons…

  • RSP Flashback: RB Jamaal Charles

    He was going to make the school forget Adrian Peterson. That’s what Jamaal Charles told the media when he arrived at the University of Texas after Peterson had spurned the Longhorns for Oklahoma. Bold stuff, but Charles did enough to back it up that at times, you at least had a momentary lapse of memory…

  • Who is Phillip Tanner?

    If you watched the Cowboys-Chargers preseason game last night then you saw a rookie running back putting on a display of what Cecil Lammey likes to call, “running hot.” There were probably 4-5 running backs in this game that ran hot. However, if I were to provide a photo next to Lammey’s definition in the…