2020 NFL Draft: Top 5 running backs entering 2019 season

2. Travis Etienne, Clemson

2018 games watched: Alabama, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Georgia Southern

Height: 5-10
Weight: 200 pounds
Year: Junior

2018 statlines:
1,658 yards rushing, 24 rushing touchdowns, 8.1 yards per carry
12 catches, 78 yards receiving, 2 receiving touchdowns, 6.5 yards per catch

Strengths:
FAST. Travis Etienne is the fastest back to make this list and maybe in all of college football. The dude has speed to burn, which allows him to beat just about everyone to the boundary and around the edge.

For being just 200 pounds, Etienne will not be stopped by arm tacklers as he bursts through the hole and keeps his legs driving. By the way, his burst is great as well. He is the most explosive back of the bunch.

Etienne has the ability to make plays out of almost nothing. As the expression goes, he makes chicken soup out of chicken poop and a play is never over if the ball is in Etienne’s hands and he is not on the ground.

He has an immense amount of patience as he waits for holes to develop for him to run through, then he has great initial vision to find that hole and work his way upfield. He has good footwork to make cuts into those holes and to work defenders in one-on-one situations in the open field.

Weaknesses:
Etienne can be a bit careless with the football as he had multiple fumbles, bad exchanges, and dropped and bobbled passes in the games watched. He must become a more reliable weapon in the passing games for Clemson and prove he can be a strong security blanket for Trevor Lawrence this year.

While Etienne has speed to burn and can beat just about anyone to the edge, he is sometimes a bit overeager to get to the edge. This plan of attack works at the college level, but in the pros he will not have the luxury of heading to the boundary as often as he does in college.

Because he heads to the edge quickly and often, he sometimes outruns his blockers and completely ignores opportunities to put his foot in the ground and head upfield. In 2019, it would be nice to see a bit more decisiveness out of Etienne instead of attempting to outrun everybody.

Pro Comparison: Tevin Coleman (San Francisco 49ers)

(There really wasn’t a great pro comp for Etienne, so Coleman with a higher ceiling is what comes to mind.)