Scouting Report: Tevin Coleman, RB, Indiana

Pass Blocking

Indiana suffered from very poor QB, play, especially in Coleman’s senior year when they went through about 5 different QBs, but Coleman did not do his QBs many favors in pass blocking. He simply doesn’t seem to give all that much effort in pass protection. In most of the plays above, he just gives the defender he’s supposed to block a shove and doesn’t stay engaged. That’s not what you want to see from someone who has Coleman’s size. When he does fully engage, he does a decent job. However, he’s also not great at taking the correct angles to block the defender, which you can see from the first and last plays here.

Lacks Vision

When Tevin Coleman gets handed the football, he has a hole that he’s supposed to try to hit. He runs to that hole every single time. I think, out of the over a hundred runs I watched of him, I saw him make a cutback once or twice. He has no subtlety to the line of scrimmage, no patience, and he really does not display good vision. He simply seems to lack the ability to force extra yardage out of a play by finding a crease. The fourth play above is a very good example of that. He has gotten #7 to over-pursue, and lose containment on the A gap. He also has a blocker, #50, free and moving up to the second level. However, he chooses not to take the opportunity and instead pushed further toward the sideline, where he is engulfed by two defenders. If he chooses to follow #50, I believe he would have gotten at least two or three more yards out of the run.

Tackled in backfield by first defender

One of the things that makes a quality NFL running back is the ability to make the first defender miss his tackle. I realize that Coleman’s line was quite bad, but really a quality running back should make it back to the LoS unless there are multiple free defenders in the backfield. For every backfield defender Coleman made miss, there was at least one that was able to make the tackle. This is really disappointing because there are a number of RBs in this class that consistently show the ability to make that first defender miss.

Stacked up

Another big worry I have about Coleman is his ability to consistently push piles in the NFL. I showed earlier where he flashes power, but he has problems maintaining a consistently low pad level, which inhibits his ability to get extra yards after getting hit by defenders because he loses leverage battles. This is yet another shortcoming that Coleman has that will need to be corrected in the NFL.

Athletically, Tevin Coleman is one of the best RBs in this class. He has blazing top end speed. He also has the size teams generally want from a “feature” back. As an athlete, he’s great. As a football player? I don’t think he’s very good at all. He’s not a bruiser, but he gets stacked up all too often. This tells me he doesn’t maintain a proper pad level. He doesn’t display a tremendous jump cut or great on the field agility. He doesn’t show good vision.

Yes, he did have a complete trash team around him. Yes, he did gain a lot of yards on his completely trash team. But if you look at the majority of his long runs (just take a look at the speed section) you see that he ends up running through completely wide open holes in those plays and really only needs to use his great speed to get a huge gain.

While the ability to exploit those opportunities is nice, many RBs can do that. They might not be quite as successful at breaking off big runs as Coleman, but other backs will make up for that by consistently gaining extra yardage on plays that Coleman wouldn’t get because, in my opinion, he lacks the vision and elusiveness a RB needs to be successful in the NFL.

Coleman is also not really an asset in the passing game. He does not do a good job in pass protection and, while solid, is not much better than any other RB in this class at catching the ball out of the backfield. In my opinion, he needs significant development before he could possibly be ready to be an every down back in the NFL.

Pro Comparison and Draft Projection

Pro Comparison:

In my mind, Coleman is almost a clone of Darren McFadden. Both are incredibly fast. Both are good at making big plays happen when the get the blocking. However, when they get the ball they both run to the planned hole with reckless abandon and really lack the kind of vision I feel is necessary for a NFL back. They show no subtlety while getting to the line of scrimmage, and therefore fail to manipulate defenders to get extra yardage. If Coleman gets put in a man blocking scheme with an excellent offensive line that just blows the defense away, he will succeed because he will do a good job taking advantage of what his line gives him. If he is asked to create room for himself in any capacity, however, he will fail.

Draft Projection: Everyone appears to think he will go in the second or third round but I wouldn’t touch him before the fifth.

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