The Jacksonville Jaguars received some devastating news on Friday when Dante Fowler, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, suffered a season-ending torn ACL on the first day of rookie minicamp.
Fowler is the fifth consecutive Top 10 draft pick by the Jags to start his career off on the wrong foot.
The Jaguars haven't had much luck w/ top-10 picks. No. 3 overall pick Dante Fowler Jr. hurt his left leg today: pic.twitter.com/0YKF9G5kQP
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 8, 2015
But the string of bad luck seems to be reserved for their first round picks, as former Alabama star running back T.J. Yeldon, the No. 36 overall pick in this year’s class, is off to an impressive start.
“T.J. looked pretty smooth,” head coach Gus Bradley said after Friday’s rookie minicamp session, via the Florida Times-Union. “A lot of the same things we saw on tape. His ability to make quick decisions, spontaneous decisions, his instincts. One play really jumps out at me and it’s the same thing we saw on tape [leading up to the draft].”
The 6-foot-1, 226-pound downhill zone runner showed off his agility and acceleration in 11-on-11 drills.
“It went pretty good,” Yeldon said. “I had to get used to the plays and not get them confused with my old plays at Alabama. It’s a little bit of rust, but once I got the hang of it, I got it going and was back to normal.”
Yeldon was the third running back to hear his name called during the draft (after Georgia’s Todd Gurley and Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon, who ended the three-year drought without first-round RBs).
After he “stood out on Friday,” John Oehser of Jaguars.com notes, Yeldon “shined again Saturday, breaking a long run over the left side on the first play of team drills and showing the quick feet and quick moves while in the hole that made him the No. 36 overall selection last week.”
An instinctive runner and consistent chain mover, Yeldon boasts the size, vision, foot quickness, lateral movement and explosiveness to be the much-needed three-down workhorse in Jacksonville.
He drew notable comparisons to current NFL star RBs, including Le’Veon Bell, Arian Foster and Frank Gore.
NFL Films director Greg Cosell keenly heaped praise on Yeldon throughout the pre-draft process for his decisive running style and the way he uses his hips and foot quickness to “get through the small cracks.”
Yeldon actually gained five-plus yards on 46 percent of his carries last year at Alabama, the highest rate among a very strong 2015 RB class despite facing the toughest schedule.
We were skeptical when the Jaguars invested so much in Toby Gerhart and Denard Robinson. Nevertheless, both can be effective effective in backup roles behind Yeldon, who will also help second-year signal-caller Blake Bortles with his rock-solid pass-protecting and pass-catching skills out of the backfield.
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