In the time leading up to the 2016 NFL Draft, there will be a lot of athletes composed of many different shapes and sizes. Dwayne Washington is a former high school receiver who got converted to
play running back for the University of Washington. While he never became a starter in college, this talented athlete may translate better to the NFL I reviewed his games against Arizona (2014) and Oregon State (2014) to give me a chance to see his talents and attributes that he will bring to the next level.
RB-Dwayne Washington, Washington 6′ 2″ 226 lbs.
Cons: The back does not have a lot of experience with only 267 career touches in three years which makes him a very raw, untapped athlete. He runs too tall by not sinking his hips and does not show a lot of patience waiting for plays to develop. Washington needs to be given a crease to work with on the line of scrimmage. As a receiver, the runner has concentration issues in the flat fighting the ball into his hands and rarely tracks how close he is to the sidelines. He also missed his final three college games due to a knee injury. I did not see any plays to determine how he pass blocked, so that is an unknown to me.
Pros: His athleticism jumps off the gridiron with bouncy feet and breakaway speed! Washington has the knack for making the first man miss, glides across the field, and uses spins and hurdles to get into the open field. He has loose hips that allow him to change directions without slowing down, finds the cutback lane, and gets small to squirt through the line of scrimmage. The runner shows good pad level, is more powerful than you think, and always falls forward by keeping his legs churning until he is on the ground. Teams can use him split out wide in five wide sets. Washington was quite impressive on middle screens than took advantage of his ability to make defenders miss in space.
Overall thoughts: Washington is an impressive fast twitched athlete. His limited experience will probably make him more of a project than an immediate dynasty contributor. Draft him in the later rounds of your rookie draft if you have a taxi squad. Thanks for reading.
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