the New York Giants Dedicated to including expertise to their roster. And whereas meaning discovering the best freshmen on the depth chart, it additionally means including depth all through the record.
Kentucky working again Chris Rodriguez doubtless will not be drafted early. Nonetheless, he has a helpful talent set that may make him a stable piece in a working again spin. With the depth of 2023 drafts in place, the NFL’s evolving angle towards particular person run worth, and Rodriguez’s potential issues off the sphere, he may show to be a late worth.
May the Kentucky product be a low-cost enchancment to the Giants’ depth again chart?
Prospect: Chris Rodriguez (24)
Matches watched: vs. Georgia (2021), vs. Ole Miss (2022), vs. South Carolina (2022), vs. Mississippi (2022)
Purple flags: He’s arrested for a DUI in the summertime of 2022
measurable
Peak: 5 toes – 11
Weight: 224 kilos
Profession stats
Matches performed: 40
carry: 592
Yards (YPC): 3,643 (6.2 per being pregnant)
Receptions: 20
Yards (YPC): 116 (5.8 per catch)
Complete Touchdowns (speeding/receiving): 36 (33 speeding, 3 receiving)
2022 stats
Matches performed: 8
carry: 175
Yards (YPC): 904 (5.2 per being pregnant)
Receptions: 5
Yards (YPC): 41 (8.2 per catch)
Complete Touchdowns (speeding/receiving): 6 (6 speeding, 0 receiving)
Fast abstract
higher: Dimension, energy, athleticism, imaginative and prescient and aggressive toughness
worst: Lengthy tempo, recreation passer, off the sphere issues
prediction: It performs an essential position with its versatility and 3-down upside
recreation bar
(Rodriguez is the twenty fourth Kentucky RB)
Full report
Kentucky redshirt Chris Rodriguez Jr. is a compact, robust and versatile working again.
Rodriguez has body and measurement to put on the NFL stage, measuring in at 5-foot-11 and 224 kilos. It’s a versatile again and is able to working out quite a lot of alignments and layouts. Rodriguez has expertise lining up alongside the quarterback on the shotgun, or behind heart in I, power-I, offset-I, or pistol formations. He was required to hold the ball into a person hole, into the realm, and outdoors the realm, and he was able to execution in all circumstances.
Rodriguez runs at a extremely good tempo behind the road of scrimmage. He is a affected person runner who does job of letting his males floor their blocks earlier than urgent to the road of scrimmage. He additionally exhibits good imaginative and prescient behind the road of scrimmage, anticipating holes in addition to defenders on the second stage. Rodriguez combines sudden bursts of acceleration with the endurance of a runner. He’s able to blasting by means of holes, altering angles on defenders rapidly and forcing poor sort out makes an attempt.
He’s a robust runner with a powerful decrease physique and nice contact steadiness. This can be very troublesome for defenders to deliver down Rodriguez rapidly, because the safety and linebackers usually have to sort out him or quit yards after contact. His taking part in energy, steadiness and low heart of gravity enable him to get by means of unintentional contact and ignore tried arm tackles. He does job of securing the ball together with his palms as he prepares for contact.
Rodriguez has wonderful agility to go together with his preliminary blast. He is ready to differ the trajectory of his steps and has a fluid decrease physique, which permits him to drop his hips and minimize all of a sudden. Good flexibility within the ankle permits him to hold pace by means of his runs.
Whereas Rodriguez has spectacular acceleration and stride, he does not have a very excessive high pace. He lacks the lengthy tempo to be an actual breakaway menace and may run from behind. Likewise, whereas Rodriguez shines together with his potential as a passing professional, he’s comparatively inexperienced. He wasn’t an everyday a part of Kentucky’s passing offense, and appeared considerably heavy and mechanical as a discipline receiver.
Rodriguez has unbelievable aggressive energy and does not hesitate to name on larger defenders or put blocks in entrance of his teammates. Nonetheless, it nonetheless must develop on this space. His blocking type is inconsistent at finest at this level, and he could be sluggish to select up the strain or take the stand. He has the potential to be go protector, however he is not but.
Complete marks: 7.0
prediction
Rodriguez plans as an essential position participant in a backfield rotation to start out his profession. He has the attributes that he can play by means of quite a lot of alignments and schemes, which ought to make him appropriate for nearly any offense. Likewise, it should be capable of deal with a excessive quantity of being pregnant early on. His energy, leg energy, imaginative and prescient, pace and acceleration are prone to make him a shortstop or shortstop early in his profession.
Groups should perceive that whereas Rodriguez is a flexible runner who ought to be capable of achieve yardage persistently between the 20s, he in all probability is not a lot of a menace. His imaginative and prescient, steadiness, and acceleration make him troublesome for defenses to cease rapidly. Nonetheless, he lacks the highest pace to be a constant breakaway menace with the ball in his palms.
Groups will doubtless need to keep away from utilizing Rodriguez in apparent passing conditions early in his profession.
He has the aggressive toughness, taking part in energy, and leverage to be a succesful go protector on the NFL stage. However now he’s very inconsistent in his type. There are events when he units the strain rapidly and assaults the defender and buys the quarterback time within the pocket. However there are different situations when he could be late in figuring out strain, not attacking a defender, or confronting a defender with dangerous method or leverage. Equally, Rodriguez was not used fairly often as a receiver within the Kentucky offense, with solely 20 receptions in his 5-year profession. It does shine some upside on this space, however it would want improvement.
Groups will need to do due diligence and examine his summer season 2022 DUI arrest.
Assuming his character off the sphere, Rodriguez has the potential to be an actual motion, three-bottom NFL quarterback. Nonetheless, he could have to develop and practice for a season earlier than he realizes his full potential.