Bryce Love, Stanford
Height: 5’9″
Weight: 200 pounds
40-yard dash: N/A
Vertical Jump: N/A
Broad Jump: N/A
3-Cone Drill: N/A
If you were to watch Love during his junior season when he finished second in the Heisman voting, you likely would’ve thought about him as a potential first-round pick. What a difference a year can make, as Love is now someone most analysts are expecting to fall into the later rounds of the draft. After tearing his ACL in the final regular season game of 2018, he was not able to participate in the NFL Combine.
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There was some real Jekyll and Hyde going on while at Stanford, as Love straight-up dominated in 2016-2017 where he racked-up 2,901 yards and 22 touchdowns on 374 carries (7.76 yards per carry), but then stumbled when he returned to school in 2018, totaling just 739 yards and six touchdowns on 166 carries (4.45 yards per carry). Some say that he was never really healthy in 2018 and that he kept trying to push through an ankle injury that hampered him all season, while others say that his 2017 season was a mirage. What team will draft him, and which player will they be getting?
Vision/Awareness: 2.0 out of 5 stars
A lot of stutter-steps and indecisiveness when approaching the line of scrimmage. He needs to get downhill much faster, as I watched holes close while he took his time processing. He’s not going to create yardage on his own at the line of scrimmage, but once he gets to the second-level of the defense, he knows how to angle his runs to maximize yardage. He’s not someone you’ll bring on the field for his awareness in short-yardage situations, as he’s always a bit hesitant, waiting for a hole to open rather than getting to the first-down marker.
Elusiveness (twitch, juke, tackle-breaking): 1.5 out of 5 stars in 2018, 3.5 out of 5 stars in 2017
I felt it necessary to split this into two sections: (2018) He didn’t look like someone who was going to break tackles very often. He also ran with his body straight up-and-down which offers a big tackling window for a player who’s just 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds. For a smaller running back, he didn’t offer a lot of juke to his game, as he was more of a one-cut runner who stays on a linear path. He’s also someone who’s going to lose a lot of yards when the offensive line caves in, as he’s not going to be able to slip many tackles without getting his wheels spinning. (2017) Looked like a different player, bouncing off tacklers regularly, using cuts when in-between the tackles, and lowered his shoulder when he needed to. Saw him use a spin-move to slip tackles quite a bit, something you didn’t see much of his senior year. He seemed to get much lower in his stance and lower his hips more than he did in 2018, so maybe there’s something to those who blame the lower-body injuries for his lack of production in his senior year. He does over-exaggerate his movements, very animated right after the snap, almost winding up.
Speed: 5.0 out of 5 stars
His speed and burst are special. He hits a turbo button when he gets past his stutter-steps in the backfield. There’s no mistaking his speed, as it’ll translate at any level of play. He pops off the screen when he gets into the open-field and he gets up to speed very quickly – provided he isn’t dancing behind the line of scrimmage.
Pass-catching/Pass Protection: 2.5 out of 5 stars
For a smaller guy, he kept his head up in pass-protection and squared-up the rushers quite often. The issue is that when he meets bigger rushers, he’s going to have problems at just 200 pounds. You were able to see it at times while at Stanford, too. He’s better served as a pass-catcher on third downs. Speaking of that, it’s odd they didn’t give him a bigger role in the pass-game. After catching 15 passes for 250 yards and a touchdown his freshman season, he tallied just 34 receptions for 215 yards and one touchdown over the next three seasons combined. Using him in the screen game would have been wise, as he’d get some room to spin his wheels, and it’s not as if he showed bricks for hands when he was targeted. The fact that we didn’t get to see him in a big receiving role does hurt his grade, though I don’t think he’d limit what an offense could do.
Versatility: 2.0 out of 5 stars
He’s not someone who should walk into a workhorse role, though when healthy, he might be able to do so. For now, he’d be best if paired with a power-back who can handle short-yardage situations while they look for the homerun in-between the 20’s with Love. He’s another running back who’s not going to create much yardage on his own, so a spread offense or one with a solid offensive line in place will work best. If you were to put him in an I-formation in a run-heavy offense that continually sees eight-man fronts, he’s going to have issues. Because of that, he gets a slightly below average grade on his versatility.
Potential Landing Spots
He’s another running back who could last until Day 3, which gives every team a shot at landing him. I think he’s the perfect candidate to land with the Raiders, as they may not be a team that’s competing now, but they can afford to draft his potential, as they have plenty of draft picks to make it happen. Another interesting team would be the Titans, who could get out of their high cap situation with Dion Lewis after this year (they’d only eat $1.1 million in dead cap), snagging Love would make sense as he’d pair well with Derrick Henry moving forward. It’d also allow him time to regain all his strength.
NFL Comparison
This is going to draw a lot of controversy and I promise that’s not my intent, but Love reminds me of Chris Johnson. Love does have a bit more hesitation and doesn’t have quite the same vision, but they’re very similar players. Johnson didn’t break many tackles and would often look for that cutback lane to hit his turbo button to get upfield. It happened quite a lot, which is what people remember, but he also had five-plus yard losses quite often. Bottom line: get Love into the open field and special things will happen.
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Mike Tagliere is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeTagliereNFL.
