Top 10 running backs in the 2021 NFL Draft

#10 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Khalil Herbert (Virginia Tech)

[5’ 9”, 205 pounds; RS SR]

Khalil Herbert

Khalil Herbert is a former three-star recruit. His only Power Five offer came from Kansas.

After four years with the Jayhawks, where he was never the workhorse because he had Pooka Williams in front of him on the depth chart and going down with an injury after four games as a senior, Herbert decided to add on another year as a graduate transfer.

Throughout his time at KU, he totaled 1853 scrimmage yards and 14 touchdowns in 35 games. However, when he came to the Hokies, he took his game to a completely new level, recording 1362 scrimmage and nine TDs on 7.6 yards per carry and slightly more than that per reception.

Herbert is a very elusive big-play back and one of the very few who seems to have equal energy and speed 40+ yards downfield. He can make those 90-degree cuts upfield in the wide zone game in one fluid motion and turn on the burners as he gets downhill.

However, you also see him put different footwork together on the fly. Herbert has superb ankle flexibility to open up, curve and cut off either foot and can be very creative with his sequence of steps.

He shows urgency in his approach to the line of scrimmage on downhill runs, but on more lateral concepts, he can also be very patient with letting blocks develop and then hitting downfield when defenders are shaded to one side. And oftentimes, he dictates where the defender will go by nodding to the inside and getting the defender pinned on that side of a block while he works towards the sideline or setting them up by attacking the outside edge and then sliding underneath.

If he sees the play-side linebacker leveraged too far inside or the edge defender peaking that way on zone runs, Herbert will bounce out wide and beat them around the corner. And once he gets to daylight, he has pure speed to defeat angles. He can swerve through defenders with subtle shifts in his running path or make them stop their feet with stutters.

I really like how consistent Herbert is in keeping the ball high and tight, which resulted in only one career fumble on 509 total touches.

During Senior Bowl week, he not only showed he could get skinny through the hole and then shoot out of it, but he also put Ohio State linebacker Turf Borland on his back in pass-pro, despite giving up almost 40 pounds on him.

He is far from perfect in that regard but shows the willingness to surrender his body to stop blitzers from getting to the quarterback. While the production in his pass game is rather underwhelming, there are no glaring issues with his ability to catch the ball while being a dangerous threat on screen passes with a convoy in front of him. So I think he will only grow in that area when he enters the NFL.

On the flip side, a power element is certainly lacking in Herbert’s game. When he has built up momentum, he can pull that shoulder through and defeat arm-tackles, but he won’t get away from any head-on collisions or drive for additional yardage through contact consistently.

He doesn’t quite have that instant acceleration to get himself into open space if a lane doesn’t open up wide enough. Considering that he will be looked at as more of a space-player by most NFL teams, it’s kind of worrying he only caught 34 passes in his entire collegiate career, with ten last year being the most in any season. While he does show a willingness to stand in pass-protection, he doesn’t do so with great success and is mostly limited to initial contact before rushers can shrug him off.

There’s a lot to like about what we saw from Herbert last season. With 782 yards after contact and 19 carries of 15+ yards, he was the second-most productive back coming out of the ACC behind only Travis Etienne – and there wasn’t much of a gap.

I believe Herbert would be best served as part of a one-two punch for an offense that features a lot of wide zone. His amount of touches at the next level will greatly depend on how much he can develop as a pass-catcher and contribute in that area. But I think his skillset could translate much more cleanly than the guy who took most touches at Kansas, Pooka Williams, whose vision and ability to set up blocks isn’t nearly at the same level.