Kareem Hunt Scouting Report:The most underrated RB in the draft

Written by Christian Lysek

You can almost always grade out NFL draft positional groups into tiers. The first running back tier in this year's draft is Leonard Fournette, Dalvin Cook, and Christian McCaffrey. The second tier is not far behind, and it includes D'Onta Foreman, Alvin Kamara, and Kareem Hunt, Hunt is Toledo's all-time leading rusher and the Senior Bowl MVP, and yet it feels as though he is flying under the radar. Here's why he shouldn't be:

Measurables: 
Height- 5'10.5''
Weight- 225 lbs (Toledo measurement), 208 lbs (Senior Bowl measurement)
Year:
Senior (22)
2016 stat line:
262 carries, 1475 rushing yards (5.6 YPC), 10 TDs, 41 receptions, 403 yards, 1 receiving TD

Pros: Kareem Hunt runs with fury. As soon as he takes the handoff and sees the hole, he explodes through it. If the hole is open, he accelerates through and gets up to his impressive full speed very quickly. If defenders are in front of him, they are about to get their ankles broken. Hunt has extremely quick feet and can stop and start his movement on a dime. If he does not juke Hunt uses his powerful frame to barrel through defenders. Hunt also has a strong lower body and great balance, so it makes him extremely hard to tackle. It makes him slippery and people bounce right off him. He is also not bad at receiving screen passes and other simple running back routes and is always a threat to break into the open field. He is a solid blocker, especially with blitzers coming up the middle.  On top of that, he has only fumbled once: ever.

Cons:  Hunt is very much a see and go runner, but sometimes he does it too much. He sees the hole and runs into his moving offensive lineman or he gets into the open field and instead of adjusting and running to space he plows into a safety. He just needs to be slightly more patient. While Hunt does catch lots of balls, he is a body catcher and does not run a big route tree so he will need to expand in that area. As a blocker, he struggles with rushers who come from the outside. He needs to work on adjusting and slamming into them at the point of contact.

Pro Comparison: Rookie Doug Martin, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
As a rookie, Doug Martin finished with 1450 yards rushing, 472 receiving yards, and 12 total touchdowns (according to ESPN stats and info). He accelerated fast through the line of scrimmage and defenders either bounced off of him or had sore ankles the next day. He also had tree trunk legs and superb balance. He runs a similar style to Hunt, and Hunt can be just as good as Martin in the pros (let's just hope he is more consistent).

3 teams that could use him: The Colts and the Eagles have bigger needs than running backs to address in the first round, so picking up Hunt in the later rounds is a better idea. They both could use a three down back to help their young quarterbacks. Raiders may have to let Latavius Murray walk this free agency, but picking up Hunt is a great consolation prize.

Conclusion: Kareem Hunt is a three-down back with excellent agility, speed, and balance. He should come off the board in rounds 2-3.

All stats from www.sports-reference.com