Rewind: A New Way to Spot Middle-Round Running Back Breakouts
5/26/202623 min
JJ revisits a classic episode on identifying middle-round running back value through yards per route run, highlighting a handful of 2026 candidates who could stand out in that area.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJJ Zachariason· Host0:00
This is an iHeart podcast. [gentle music] Guaranteed Human. [upbeat music] This is the Late Round podcast with your host, JJ Zacharias. JJ Zacharias. Hey, guys. No, this is not your typical Late Round podcast. Every once in a while during the off-season, I'll bring back an evergreen episode from the past that's still relevant today. I'm doing that here because it's a holiday weekend, it's May, and there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that I need to put some energy into. More on that coming very, very soon. But today, I'm gonna throw some research at you that I did last year on middle-round running backs and their pass-catching ability, specifically spotting middle-round running back value by simply looking at previous season yards per route run. You'll hear the study on today's rewind episode, and you'll also hear some names from last year who fit the criteria of being red flags within that statistic. Not all of them completely flamed out, like Rhamondre Stevenson, who had a resurgence at the end of the season after kind of a mediocre start. But there were a lot of hits with this method. Chuba Hubbard, Jordan Mason, Tony Pollard, Tyrone Tracy, they all weren't that special. In my opinion, it's a really interesting way to look at these middle-round running backs. And since I know I'm gonna get questions about it, I'll talk very briefly about running backs who fit this criteria at the end of the show. But first, give the episode, A New Way to Spot Middle-Round Running Back Breakouts, a quick listen.
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