'16 NJ RB Kareem Walker (Michigan Verbal)

[TomHaverford]

I agree, he's a nice RB prospect but was probably a little high early on. He seemed to mature quickly and then kind of max out so far. I'd bet he's able to get to another level in college, he just wasn't able to do that from last year to this.

yeah, I'd agree with all of that.

To me a 5* HS RB looks like Adrian Peterson or Reggie Bush or Leonard Fournette or Beanie Wells or Jabrill Peppers. Hell I still think Peppers is the best RB on Michigan's team right now today, and he could be an All-American type player at that position if he focused on that position only.

Hell I didn't think Damien Harris was a 5* RB even when he was committed to Michigan for that long stretch of time.

I think this goes back to the conversation of what is a 5* and how do you rank a kid a 5*. For me a 5* should be cream of the crop.

Go ahead and rank kids 1-300 or 250 or 247, but imo limit the 5*'s to those really deserving of it. It's not a big deal if you only have 5 or 10 5*'s and then the rest of the 90 or 95 kids are ranked as 4*'s and ranked in order 6-100 or 11-100. Or whatever. IDK to me that's just a way better way of doing things. I don't see the need for... "we have to have 32 5* STARZ every class!" like 247/Rivals or the "we have to have 50 FIVE STARZ every class" like Scout.

 

[woolybug25]

Hell I still think Peppers is the best RB on Michigan's team right now today, and he could be an All-American type player at that position if he focused on that position only.

While I agree with you, what a waste of talent that would be. RB's last to about 30 years old in the NFL... if they're lucky. From a financial and health perspective, safety is clearly his best position.

He can be in the league longer.

 

[TomHaverford]

I watched a couple quarters of Michigan football this year and Smith really impressed me. A very hard runner. I told my U of M fans that I thought he was good and they laughed at me.

That leads me to another thing about You people. I do not get why Michigan fans always hate on their own players? I mean we had Joe Schmidt but that was universally known that he shouldn't have been on the field.

Hey, I like Smith a lot. He's a very hard runner, very tough son of a gun to try and tackle. He had some great runs this year and ran hard. He's got half the talent that someone like Derrick Green had but he's got 10x the effort and heart. I'll take that all-day.

I'm not hating on him. I'm just calling it like I see it. He is very slow (maybe the slowest starting RB in the nation) and his vision isn't the best. In the 90's/early 2000's Michigan used to pump out NFL RB's. Tyrone Wheatley, Tim Biakabatuka, Anthony Thomas, Chris Perry, Mike Hart. All of those guys were high draft picks and had ideal size and speed except Hart. Hart was so productive he still got drafted despite his size and speed limits. De'Veon doesn't have the quick feet and change of direction and vision of Hart to make up for his lack of speed. Hart lacked speed but he was great at making the first guy miss then finding an opening that wasn't there. They need to get back to those kind of backs. No offense to De'Veon Smith.

 

[TomHaverford]

While I agree with you, what a waste of talent that would be. RB's last to about 30 years old in the NFL... if they're lucky. From a financial and health perspective, safety is clearly his best position.

He can be in the league longer.

I agree with you 100%. It's way better for him and his future to play DB.

A great RB will have 8 great years in the NFL if he's lucky.

A great DB can play for 12-15 years at high level.

And the pay is just as good for elite DB's as it is for elite RB's. Makes no sense to want to play RB if you can play DB at a high level IMO.