2022 NFL Draft Prospect Profile: Isaiah Spiller, RB, Texas A&M
A top-200 overall recruit in 2019, Isaiah Spiller quickly turned into a workhorse for the Aggies’ dominant rushing offense. He went for 1149 scrimmage yards and ten touchdowns on 203 touches as a freshman and then putting up even better numbers the following season, with 1229 scrimmage yards on 207 touches and eight TDs, cracking the 100-yard mark on the ground in six games.
In 2021 he put up nearly identical numbers in two more games, even though the Aggies only went 8-4, and he went from first- to second-team All-SEC.
Isaiah Spiller's strengths
Spiller presents a thick lower body. He runs with a lot of power and consistently falls forward for an extra yard or two, extending himself as he’s already going down. You also see several defenders slip off his legs. However, for a 225-pound running back he has swift feet and can get around defenders at a high rate.
His ability to lead opponents one way and force them to overrun plays as he sticks that foot in the ground and slips underneath them is highly impressive. He routinely uses the jump-cut/-stop to shift into the right lane as he takes the handoff and gets downhill and in the open field, you see some violent plants cut across the grain, along with tilting away from defenders trying to get a hand on him.
This young man is quick to translate information from his head to his feet and can adjust his running path rapidly while on the fly. He uses stutter steps as he approaches the line of scrimmage and wants to time things up appropriately. I love the way he runs power concepts, showing urgency initially to get his landmarks but then navigating around blockers by changing up his stride length and sliding past close to his teammates so that he can maximize the space available.
Spiller can make an unblocked linebacker miss in the backfield better than a lot of sub-200 pound backs, and he does an outstanding job of reducing his surface area and contorting his body to squeeze through creases, where at times his upper body is leaning a different way than his legs are already taking him.
Spiller can stone-wall blitzers, who try to run right through his chest, and he doesn’t shy away from putting hands-on defensive tackles even as a pass-protector. He can redirect and push blitzers off track just enough as he sees the man get through. His loose hips are on display when he steps up one way and has to quickly transition to a different rusher as the defense runs some twist with the linebackers.
He sells out on play-fakes, to where you see him drop the shoulder on guys who try to wrap him up. He also takes his job as a lead-blocker seriously and does a great job breaking down against safeties working upfield. While his usage as a receiver was somewhat limited at A&M, there’s no indication that anything is wrong with Spiller’s hands, and he becomes a pretty tough tackle if you flip it out to him, with everything that I already described, showing a plan on what to do with it.
To avoid the upset, Spiller came up with two enormous catches on third-and-long in the 2021 Colorado game, including the game-winning and only A&M touchdown on the day with three minutes left. And that was one of quite a few grabs where he showed great focus on slightly underthrown wheel routes.
Isaiah Spiller's weaknesses
With that being said, Spiller tends to trust his speed a little too much and tries to bounce out to the edges more often than he should. He can get a little too eager and gives away cutbacks pretty early, where his body is already tilted that way as he takes the handoff.
He doesn’t yet have the between-the-tackle vision you’d like to see from, having run as much zone as he has. Spiller gets a little too cute at times, where I’d want him to use his size and go through people, especially when there’s traffic in the backfield. And as much as you like the creativeness in space, Spiller lacks the top-end speed to rip off explosive runs routinely.
I feel like 90 percent of the routes he ran at Texas A&M were swings or chip-and-hooks over the middle. So we don’t know much about his ability to aim at linebackers and set them up in that area.
Isaiah Spiller Draft Projection
I don’t know what it is, but Spiller somehow went from one of the top two backs in the draft entering the 2021 season to a bit of an afterthought in that conversation, as people fell in love with other names. The only concern I have with him is that he’s a bit too much of a dancer and that he doesn’t have breakaway speed. Everything else is excellent. While he needs to learn how to read gap schemes more cleanly and decisively, he has the ability to play in any system, with the footwork to navigate bodies in tight areas. He was probably underutilized as a receiver, he’s a super-creative open-field runner and has the size to go through defenders when needed.
Final grade: Late 1st / Early 2nd round
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