2021 NFL Draft Running Back Rankings Top Five
5. Trey Sermon, Oklahoma
Size: 6-0, 215
The Good: With excellent bulk, enough quickness and speed to matter, and with everything else in place, he’s got the tools with all the prerequisite pro traits.
He was always good, but he became a whole other back once the calendar turned to December of 2020, ripping through Michigan State before destroying Northwestern for 331 yards in the Big Ten title game and hammering Clemson in the CFP.
That back is an NFL franchise guy who can carry an offense, but …
The Not-So-Good: That back didn’t show up all that often over the first three years and two months. He went from mid-November of 2018 until early December 2020 without a 100-yard day.
To be fair, Ohio State seemed to save him for the finishing kick, and he ran like a fresh back taking his final exam. However, he got hurt right out of the gate against Alabama and was out for the back half of the 2019 season at Oklahoma with a leg injury – and missed the Texas game, too.
— Trey Sermon (@treyera) April 3, 2021
NFL Draft College Perspective Thought: It’s not like he didn’t produce before December of last year. Again, he was always good – he averaged over six yards per carry at OU – but he wasn’t a workhorse since that wasn’t the team’s style.
When he got the ball 20 times – which wasn’t all that often – he produced. In the back-is-half-full way, he’s the rare four-year key running back with just 455 carries.
Projected Round: Third