FanPost

Repost of my analysis of Ryan Mathews.

I've been looking at potential RBs in the second round, and I took a notice at Ryan Mathews out of Fresno State.

Mathews is 5'11", 220 lbs and runs a 4.4 40 time. As I watched highlights of him, I analyzed some great things about him:

1) He has above average speed. He can break it from the outside, inside, and his speed works great with his weight and toughness.

2) His toughness. Each time I saw him about to get tackled, he lowers his shoulder, and either breaks free or gets 2-5 more yards. Also, he keeps his feet moving. I saw him bounce off of people, get hit to the side, etc, and he maintains balance and keeps his feet moving.

3) Balance. He has the necessary balance that running backs like frank gore and shonn greene has(yes, shonn greene has great balance).As I said above, he bounces off of people, and sometimes uses a second tackler to eliminate the first tackler, and break free(sometimes). If he gets knocked back, he keeps his balance, and I like that(unless of course that the hit overpowers him).

4) Vision. As I stated, he can run in and outside of the line. When he sees a hole, he bursts through. If not, he goes to the outside. Even if the hole is sort of small, he cradles the ball and bursts forward. When he goes to the outside, he knows he has a better chance(in other words when he feels that the line is too clogged, he uses the assumption that the outside is where less defenders are, and goes in the logical direction).

5) Power. This guy is mostly a power back, especially a guy his size(under 6 feet with 220 lbs.) and speed. At least, when I watch him it always seems that at least 1-3 guys try to tackle him(especially from the side) he basically shrugs them off. Pushing them aside with the stiff arm, or keeping the legs moving and wrestle the guy off. And when he bursts through the line, and goes through the tackles, defenders try to get a hold of him. Key word is try though.

6) Quickness. Although the guy has good power, his quickness surprised me. Out in the open, he's awesome. He has great quickness to make a great juke, and he has the vision to know which direction he's going to. He makes people miss tackles.

Here's his 2009 stats against opponents:

UC Davis(W: 51-0): Att-11, Yards- 106, Avg- 9.6, Long- 60, TD- 1.

@ Wisconson(L: 34-31): Att- 19, Yards- 107, Avg.- 5.6, Long- 55, TD- 0, Rec- 2, Rec yds- 9

Boise State(L: 51-34): Att- 19, Yards- 234, Avg.- 12.3, Long- 69, TD- 3

@ Cincinatti(L: 28-20): Att- 38, Yards- 145, Avg.- 3.8, Long 11, TD- 1, Rec- 2, Rec Yds- 32

@ Hawaii(W: 42-17): Att- 24, Yards- 149, Avg.- 6.2, Long- 19, TD- 0

San Jose State(W: 41-21): Att- 20, Yards- 233, Avg.- 11.7, Long- 59, TD- 1

@ New Mexico State(W: 34-3): Att- 25, Yards- 157, Avg.- 6.3, Long- 68, TD- 2, Rec- 1, Rec Yrds- 27

Utah State(W: 31-27): Att- 23, Yards- 185, Avg.- 8, Long- 46, TD- 2, Rec- 2, Rec Yds- 26

@ Idaho(W: 31-21): Att- 26, Yards- 143, Avg. 5.5, Long- 77, TD- 3, Rec- 3, Rec Yds- 18

@ Nevada(L: 52-14): Att- 8, Yards- 32, Avg- 4, Long- 20, TD- 0, Rec- 1, Rec Yrds- 10

Louisiana Tech(W: 30- 28): did not play.

@ Illinios(W: 53-52): Att- 32, Yards- 173, Avg- 5.4, Long- 42, TD- 3

No fumbles either.

I know that it's basically a wasted post just talking about one guy. So I might as well throw in a poll of all RBs in the 2nd round. But this guy caught my eye. Gerhart seems great too. Also, I went onto that draft site, and couldn't find info on Mathews, so I'll post the link to his 2009 highlights video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlZOFsVkjAo

He reminds me of a slightly more of a frank gore, with a dash of LaDanian Tomlinson.

I had a poll on here as well on which RB in the second would be the best to pick. And just to make this post slightly relevant, if we trade McFadden away for another pick(maybe late second), then we should pick him up to be a tandem with Bush. That would be awesome. However, I know LB comes into play with our second round pick, so getting a LB is a must. If dwyer is at san diego's pick, they would definitely pick him up, which leaves mathews more or less available in the early second. Unless there are no MLBs that we can get from a late second rounder, then It can be slightly worth considering(just because bush would get tired from carrying the rock 24 times a game. imo).

I basically brought this post up again just because we were talking about who would be busts and who will not.