Senior Bowl: Yale RB Tyler Varga Catches Everyone’s Attention
The 2015 NFL Draft might lack for some superstar power, but it’s a really fun draft class looking at the depth of it. The Senior Bowl typically showcases some of that depth, and especially when you consider how phenomenal this year’s class of running backs are, it’s eye opening to see a guy like Yale’s Tyler Varga as a complete afterthought.
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Varga averaged over six yards per carry this past season and also had 22 rushing touchdowns to go along with 1,530 yards of offense and four receiving touchdowns. He received a Senior Bowl invitation this year and is currently practicing as both a running back and fullback, a position he’s never played before.
This dude stole the show at the weigh-in when he checked in at just under 5-11, 227 pounds of chiseled muscle. Varga’s physical appearance led to a barrage of Tweets about how he must have never missed a day in the weight room, and people generally blown away by how big he actually was as a 227 pound running back.
It might seem like an odd talking point, but that at least got people talking about Varga, who otherwise might have gotten lost in this pre-draft process among the seemingly hundreds of other running backs that entered this year’s draft. Now, people will remember his name and it forces scouts to take a second look at his game.
When you do, you’ll see that Varga is a pretty good player.
He’s probably not got much better than a 4.6 second 40-yard dash, which is why he’s being tried out at fullback, but Varga has good lateral quickness and burst through the hole. He drives his legs really well and has a good understanding of where his blockers are going to be. Sometimes, he hits the hole so hard you wonder if he’s being patient enough to wait for his blockers, which is something scouts will grill him on.
Still, this is a back that averaged over six yards per carry grinding it out between the tackles. He could be a really effective power back or fullback in a committee in the NFL, and he might be able to really boost his stock if he can prove this week at the Senior Bowl that he has soft hands and can catch passes out of the backfield.
That way, teams that employ a fullback or H-back will be thrilled about the prospect of adding this young man. Even if he doesn’t work out as a fullback, I think Varga still has potential as a running back. You certainly aren’t seeing Melvin Gordon here, by any means, but this is a solid player that blew people away with what you assume is extremely hard work in the weight room. Little things like that get you noticed, but now he’s got a chance to back it up on the field.