The NFL Combine just happened and it completely changed the pecking order for the running backs in this year's draft class.

What once looked like a draft class that really only had one standout running back now has a handful thanks to these performances at the Combine by the following players.

And let's start with the guy who easily at the running back position won the Combine, arguably was the best performer right up there with one or two other players at the

entire combine, no matter what he did, Mike Washington out of Arkansas, for starters. This is a 6-foot-1,

223-pound running back. Arguably, the ideal size is around 220 pounds, but it's only ideal

if you could also carry that weight while being nimble, explosive, and have speed.

And that's exactly what Mike Washington has because this dude ran a 43340 time.

A 433 is a hundredth percentile speed score.

A speed score of 127 is the number one speed score in this class.

And it makes Mike Washington the number one most athletic

running back at his size speed and also his explosiveness that we'll get into to ever attend the combine

out of over 2,000 backs. I mean, this is insane. In the past, Isaac Curendo, the 49ers running back,

he also had some very solid speed in size, but he didn't have the burst. He didn't have the college production, the film, all that, like Mike Washington does. And then when you start to get into his jumps, it gets insane here. So this is his RAZ score, his relative athletic score. It's a way to kind of just look at every single running back or player at different heights and weights and kind of compare them against each other. You could see right here. His vertical jump was a 949 out

his broad jump was a 964. So he's basically grading out as like the perfect athlete when it comes

to his size, when it comes to his explosiveness. Those are his jumps. And what this means is that for

probably the first time ever since I've been doing this, a running back came in with the perfect

10 Raz score, a 10 out of 10. Normally if you're a good prospect, you're in the upper 8s, you're

somewhere in the nines. A 10, a perfect score for Mike Washington literally puts him, as you

could see right here from the rad score database, number one at a 2,100, or 2,115 running

backs to ever attend the combine since 1987. This is insane. Okay, so it's one thing if you're a freak athlete. We've seen these freak athletes, especially on offense at the wide receiver position. Oftentimes, they flame out. In the past, it's been guys like Kevin White. We just saw it like Bryce Ford Wheaton a couple of years ago. He never even did anything in the NFL. But the important part for Mike Washington is not only does he have the size, not only does he have the speed and the explosiveness. Ninety second percentile birth score is top 8% of all time. He also comes in with a very solid college production profile. Last year in college, he goes over a thousand rushing yards. He did it on 6.4 yards per carry. So he's highly efficient. You You come into the receiving production. Last year in college, he goes over 1,000 rushing yards. He did it on 6.4 yards per carry, so he's highly efficient. You come into the receiving production. Last year when he actually took over with more work in his fifth year in college, after not getting much use as a true freshman at 18 years old, 28 receptions and 11% target share. So this shows you that on the opportunities he actually had with his team, he was earning targets, he was catching passes, he was putting up efficient production and carries on the ground as well. Everything is starting to check boxes here. He also is at Arkansas, so he was facing good competition. And for people who say the NFL combine doesn't matter, the 40 and all these drills don't matter. You're kidding yourself. Mike Washington was not on anybody radar before this draft. He was nowhere near the top five running backs in this draft class, which is saying something because this isn't a good draft class, objectively speaking, for the running back position. Now Mike Washington, it is a very clear that he's going to be top five in this draft class, probably top three, and I wouldn't be shocked that this performance at the NFL Combine pushes him all the way up to number two, depending on how his interviews go with teams over the next couple of weeks. In some ways, if you're looking at like a more recent running back taken last year, he kind of reminds me of an Amarion Hampton. There is similar style build at 221 pounds, except Mike Washington is much more athletic when it comes to the speed. If you were to scroll down a little bit just in terms of Amari on Hampton's college production, obviously Hampton was the mega producer as the main lead back with 250 plus carries in back-to-back years at UNC, 1,500 plus yards. So from a production standpoint, Hampton's going to look better. But he also had more opportunities. If you're talking about an efficiency standpoint, Mike Washington actually averaged more yards per carry in his final year pretty easily than Amarion Hampton, but I just look at them as similar players somewhat from the film and more so just the body and play style. Now, if you look at Mike Washington, I mentioned that he, it's not like he was playing this cupcake schedule. He was playing a very difficult schedule. And right from the start of his season, He's putting in performances for nine carries for 116 yards,

facing a ranked number 17 Mississippi team, Old Miss, 13 carries 65 yards, multiple scores,

adds 53 yards in the receiving department in this game to go over 100 total yards.

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