One of the former Oklahoma Sooners looking to find a new home in the 2021 NFL draft is senior running back Rhamondre Stevenson. After returning from his suspension midway through the season, he became the bellcow back for Lincoln Riley’s offense. Stevenson would lead the team in attempts, yards, yards per attempt, and touchdowns. He only played in six games overall.
His 6.6 yards per attempt according to Sports Reference, led the team by a wide margin among the four running backs. Overall he finished with 7.4 yards per touch and only Marvin Mims out-produced Stevenson in terms of total touchdowns by just two. At the next level, he could find a well-defined role and be a productive back for years to come. It remains to be seen if he can find a way into the starting lineup in the NFL.
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According to ESPN (subscription required), he has an above-average projection at the next level.
Stevenson will command a relatively high pick, but at least from a BackCAST perspective, there is not much to distinguish him from other prospects who will be available later in the draft. He had a great yards-per-attempt mark (7.2) but only 165 career attempts. BackCAST assumes that a high-efficiency, low-carry back like Stevenson will regress to the mean, so his 7.2 yards per attempt on 165 attempts translates to an adjusted yards per attempt of around 6.0 yards per carry. That’s still good, but not quite elite.
Moreover, after Stevenson arrived at Oklahoma, he never dominated the backfield. As a senior, he outrushed fellow back T.J. Pledger by only six attempts (although to be fair, Stevenson also missed some time). He has good size but is relatively slow, running a 4.64-second 40-yard dash.
Overall, Stevenson grades out as an above-average prospect, but only slightly so.
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Stevenson, along with a handful of other former Sooners will find out their fate at the NFL level in less than two weeks.
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