2019 NFL Draft: Bryce Love is a boom or bust RB prospect

Stanford RB Bryce Love was once a Heisman Finalist, but things went wrong in his Senior season. Here’s why he’s a boom or bust RB prospect in this draft.

Stanford running back Bryce Love finished his Junior season as a Heisman Trophy Finalist. Instead of entering the 2018 NFL Draft, Love chose to stay at Stanford for his Senior year.

His Senior season didn’t go as planned, leaving many questions about how his game will translate to the NFL. A combination of success and struggles make Bryce Love a boom or bust RB prospect.

School: Stanford

Year: Senior

Height: 5’10″

Weight: 202 pounds

2,118 yards, a yards per rush average of 8.,1 and 19 rushing TDs. Those were Bryce Love’s stats during his Junior season at Stanford. At the end of that season, Love won several awards and earned himself a spot as a Heisman Trophy Finalist.

His decision to stay in school instead of entering the 2018 NFL Draft came as a surprise to many. To be fair, Love would have entered into a draft with a loaded RB class, including second overall pick Saquon Barkley, Sony Michel, Nick Chubb, Derrius Guice, and more. It makes sense Love decided to return to school, but his decision may have cost him more than any of us thought.

During his final season at Stanford, Love followed up his Heisman finalist season on the wrong foot. In his first game against San Diego State, Love ran for just 29 yards on 18 carries. Things looked up for Love after his second game against USC, in which he rushed for 136 yards and one TD.

Unfortunately for Love, that 136-yard game would be the only time during his Senior season he would rush for 100 yards.

Love had a couple bad games during his final college season, but he never really had a great one. Even his 136 yard game wasn’t great compared to what we saw the previous season. Love finished his final season at Stanford by rushing for 739 yards and six TDs in 10 games.

Looking at his stats for each of his college seasons, it’s clear Love is a boom or bust RB prospect in the 2019 NFL Draft. He only eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards in a season once. That season resulted in 2,118 rushing yards. Outside of that one great season, Love’s career high in rushing yards is 783.

His production is an important factor in him being a boom or bust RB prospect, but it’s only one factor. Let’s take a deeper look into what makes Bryce Love a boom or bust RB prospect in this draft.

Strengths:

• Home run speed

There’s no question about the speed of Bryce Love. Unfortunately we won’t get to see Love’s official 40 time at the NFL Combine because he’s dealing with a knee injury, but his projected time is in the 4.4 range. That’s the kind of speed home run RBs need.

Just looking at his accolades from his Heisman Finalist season in 2017, Love had several big time rushes showcasing his speed and big play ability. Below is a breakdown of his big plays.

• 20-yard rushes: 30
• 30-yard rushes: 24
• 40-yard rushes: 15
• 50-yard rushes: 13 (FBS record)
• 60-yard rushes: 7

These numbers clearly show Love has the ability to make a home run play any time he touches the ball. It’s too bad Love won’t run at the combine. If he did, his stock would likely skyrocket from having a fast 40 time.

• Vision & instincts

Having speed is important to any RB, but a RB can’t win on speed alone. Great RBs have to be able to hit the right holes at the right moments. Love is one of the best at doing this. Watch the following video to see just how good Love is at finding the right holes. Watch specifically the second and third plays, as the first play is a receiving play made by Love.

In addition to watching his vision, watch for how Love displays his speed. He outruns multiple defenders on every single play shown below.

Now, talking just about his vision and instincts, what did you notice? I noticed how well Love was able to find a hole. He knew where not only his guys were, but where the defenders were on the field at all times.

I also loved how he waited patiently for his blocks. Specifically on the third play of the video, Love didn’t just dash through the middle of the line. Instead, he waited for things to develop, found an opening on the right side and made a nice cut move to get through.

• Underrated strength

One knock on Love is his size, which we’ll talk about in his weaknesses. Despite being undersized, Love has the strength of a bigger back. Love isn’t a guy who’s going to consistently run over and through defenders, but he does have enough strength to at least fight through contact.

His underrated ability helps him pick up a few extra yards and keep plays alive. He’s not a bruiser, but he’s no slouch when it comes to taking and giving contact. This will be important for Love in the NFL, especially early on, due to bigger and stronger defenders than he’s used to.

Weaknesses:

• Durability

Durability and availability are the greatest qualities an NFL player can have. Love doesn’t really have that. His ability to stay healthy is one of the biggest reasons why he’s a boom or bust RB prospect.

Love suffered through ankle injuries during his time at Stanford. It’s impressive he was able to play through them, but you can see how it impacted his Senior season. He just wasn’t the same. To make matters worse, Love tore his ACL at the end of his final season. That’s why he won’t be participating in the NFL Combine.

Not participating and having the injury will hurt his draft stock. His frequent injuries will make teams question if he can really hold up to the punishment NFL RBs take throughout a season. His injuries in the NFL will play a big part in him being a boom or bust RB prospect.

• Pass protection

I’ve noted pass protection as a weakness for other RBs in this draft class, and I’ll probably note it several more times throughout my RB scouting reports. Several RBs need to work on their pass protection, but Love’s pass protection weakness is a little different.

Most RBs will be cited for this because they’re either really bad it or they’re unwilling to do it. Love may not be the best pass protector, but what I love about him is that he’s willing to give it a shot.

Love will stand in their and do his best protect his QB, he just doesn’t have the technique with his hands or the strength to handle the bigger rushers coming through the line. We have to at least give him credit for being willing to block. I think there’s potential here for him if he gets the right coaching.

• Receiving ability

I’m noting receiving ability as a weakness for Love not because it’s actually a weakness, but because he just didn’t do it much in college. If you go back up to the video and watch the first play, Love is being used a receiver on a play in which he scored. Here it is again if you don’t want to scroll back up.

There’s a lot of potential for Love as a receiver, but he needs to get more practice and experience. During his college career, Love totaled 49 catches for 465 yards. His career high in receiving yards came during his first season in 2015. He had 250 of his 465 career receiving yards that year.

However, during the next two seasons, Love totaled 14 receptions for 116 yards. During his Heisman finalist season, Love totaled six catches for just 33 yards. His final season was a down year, but he did have 20 catches, although he only totaled 99 yards receiving.

You can see why he needs some work as a receiver, but you can also see the potential he has to be a legit receiving threat in the NFL.

• Size

Love is listed as 5’10”, but he may actually be shorter than that. He just looks shorter than a lot of guys with similar height out on the field. In addition to not being the tallest RB, he’s also not the thickest. He weighs just over 200 lbs, which is good, but not great. An NFL team would love to see him put on 10 to 15 pounds, if not more.

At his current weight, NFL teams will shy away from his size. Smaller RBs frequently can’t hold up in the NFL, which is going to be a concern about Bryce Love, especially with his injury history.

Pro Comparison: (Smaller) Lamar Miller

Lamar Miller is a guy who isn’t the biggest of backs. He’s got decent size, but he’s not the typical NFL RB mold. Bryce Love is a little smaller than Miller, but I like this comparison because of their speed. Both guys have 4.4 speed, meaning they can make big plays at any time.

Another comparison I like between these guys, is where they’re projected to go in the draft. Lamar Miller went in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. His size was probably a factor in his draft stock, but teams liked his speed. You’ll see below that I expect Love to go somewhat close to where Miller was drafted.

Miller is also a guy who isn’t heavily used in the passing game, but he can do it, just like Love. Although Miller hasn’t had the serious injuries in his career, he has been beat up from time to time.

When it comes down to it, both Miller and Love have good vision and speed, making them big play threats. Love will need to add some weight and hopefully stay healthy in order to make as big of, if not a bigger impact than Miller has in his career.

Best Team Fit: Dallas Cowboys

The main reason I see the Dallas Cowboys as a fit for Love is because they have a history of taking boom or bust players. It may be different for a boom or bust RB prospect, but they’ve certainly been willing to take a chance on boom or bust players at other positions.

For example, LB Sean Lee had an injury history when the Cowboys drafted him in the second round years ago. LB Jaylon Smith had a devastating knee injury a few years back at Notre Dame, but the Cowboys took a chance on him. That has worked out very well for Dallas so far.

So if they’ve been willing to take a chance on other boom or bust players, why not take a chance on a boom or bust RB prospect? Dallas has been looking for a solid backup RB for the last several years anyway, so Love seems to fit perfectly.

Ezekiel Elliott is heavily used in that offense, and it will start to take a toll on him. Even at the end of this past season, you could tell Elliott was tired from how much action he saw. A boom or bust RB prospect like Love wouldn’t require the Cowboys to use a high pick in the draft, but he’d give them a guy who could come in and take a good chunk of snaps in that offense to help not only Elliott, but Dak Prescott.

Projection: 3rd to 4th round

Love could be a potential 1st or 2nd round pick if he was healthy, but his injury will scare teams away. Many teams view Love as a backup RB, so he won’t be taken that high. However, as a boom or bust RB prospect, he won’t have to wait until the final rounds to hear his name called.

Somewhere in the 3rd or 4th round is safe bet for a boom or bust RB prospect who has injuries, but can hit the home runs teams are looking for.