Leading up to the NFL Draft many teams will continue their evaluation process on prospects while altering their draft boards in preparation for Draft day. Couch Potato GM will provide you a breakdown of two prospects matched against each other with similar draft projections to get you prepped for the 2015 draft. Voting option below for your input on who you think the better prospect is.
The Similarities: Jeremy Langford and Jay Ajayi should come off the board in the 2nd round after the top tier backs (Melvin Gordon & Todd Gurley). Both backs posses rare three down back potential with the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and pick up blitzes in pass protection. Also, both were given the opportunity in college to play in offenses that ran the ball between the tackles from the I-formation, with a lead blocker, giving them a leg up to succeed in an NFL type offense. Both ball carriers have excellent feet and balance while having the ability to cut on the dime and turn up field. Similar in size at 6’0 tall with Ajayi out weighing Langford by 13 pounds but both players have an NFL build which resulted in heavy workloads over the last two seasons. Ajayi totaling 668 touches to Langford’s 607.
The Differences: Langford possess top end speed to break the long run to the house while separating from opposing defenders running a “RB” combine best 4.42 40. Ball security is a plus for Langford while a weakness of Ajayi as the latter fumbled 11 times over the last 597 carries. Ajayi is powerful through contact gaining extra yards while Langford needs to develop more strength in his lower body as he was tackled on first contact too often at the collegiate level. Although Langford is an former receiver and showed nice hands out of the backfield he was not given a chance to display his receiving skills as much as Ajayi who caught 50 passes for over 500 yards last season.
NFL Comparison: Jeremy Langford – Le’Veon Bell; Jay Ajayi – Matt Forte
The Verdict: Headley likes Jay Ajayi. Strud and Juice likes Jeremy Langford.
