Alabama’s Derrick Henry declares for NFL Draft but won’t be first round pick
Alabama Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry is headed to the NFL Draft, but where will the Heisman winner be drafted?
Derrick Henry declared for the NFL Draft, as expected, and now the Heisman winner hopes to crack the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Henry set SEC records for rushing yards and touchdowns with 2,219 and 28 en route to winning the Heisman Trophy and leading Alabama to the National Championship with a win over the Clemson Tigers.
His draft projections don’t have him in the first round mix despite his otherworldly success with Alabama in his first year as the starter with scouts questioning his straight-line speed, agility and explosiveness. Alabama fans will counter by pointing at his stats, but stats alone don’t make a great college player a great NFL Draft prospect.
Alabama RB Derrick Henry, the Heisman Trophy winner, will enter the NFL Draft, source tells ESPN. Henry had 2,219 yards and 28 TDs.
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) January 14, 2016
Henry projects to be a Brandon Jacobs type of back or in a best-case scenario could have a similar career to that of former Heisman winner Eddie George. That’s a wide range there but I think he projects to be closer to George than Jacobs or other “big” backs who had a modicum of success but didn’t have the longevity that George had.
The 6-3, 242-pound Henry won’t be a first round pick, but I think he could be good value in int he top half of the second round for a team needing to boost their rushing attack. And if there’s a change-of-pace back with that team to complement Henry, it would be a tremendous fit and would rival what Nick Saban had at Alabama with Kenyan Drake.
More saturday blitz: 30 Best College Running Backs of All-Time
Henry infamously carried the ball a ton this year for Alabama with 395 carries, so there are concerns about the mileage he accumulated this year, but the previous year he only had 172 with T.J. Yeldon in the starting role and as a freshman he only had 35 carries, so he hasn’t been beaten, battered and abused for all three years like Yeldon, Eddie Lacy or Trent Richardson and he doesn’t have any injury concerns like Mark Ingram had when leaving Alabama.