Tyjae Spears 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Tulane RB
Tyjae Spears: 5’10”, 190 pounds.
A three-star recruit in 2019, Tyjae Spears saw very limited action in four games as a true freshman and then ended his upcoming season with an injury three games in.
In his first full year (12 games), he cracked 1,000 scrimmage yards along with nine touchdowns. Then in Tulane’s Cinderella 12-2 season in 2022, he exploded for over 1,800 total yards and 21 TDs, earning himself the title of AAC Offensive Player of the Year. He carried them to a huge moment in the program’s history, in their Cotton Bowl win over USC.
Tyjae Spears scout report: Strengths
+ Was the driving force of Tulane’s miracle 2022 season, when he had nearly as many scrimmage yards as the next three players on the team had combined.
+ Has that instant acceleration to shoot through holes and beat defenses around the corner for big plays routinely.
+ Effectively curves off either foot accelerate through curvilinear movement, At times you’ll see him aim to the outside, bend underneath a block on the edge without turning his body and after a couple of steps go wide again.
+ Despite being labeled as undersized, Spears' incredible balance allows him to wiggle out of tackles and stumble back onto his feet.
+ You see him just give that little shimmy and have linebackers reaching for air as he works around them near the line of scrimmage and not lose any speed.
+ Packs this gliding jump-cut almost, where he aims downhill and doesn’t actually pause, but seemingly just turns his body to get out to the edge. Yet, he can also stick the inside foot in the ground and open the other toe 90 degrees to bounce out there.
+ Has game-breaking acceleration to get around the corner and then the break-away speed to finish off LONG runs.
+ Almost floats sideways as he’s navigating around defenders in open space without losing much speed.
+ Yet he can also pull his shoulder away and cut off one foot outside his frame to make those more dramatic moves to win in one-on-one situations.
+ His dead-leg move is as good as you’re ever going to see from a college back. He doesn’t need to have his feet aligned perfectly to make different cuts and pulls his feet out of the trash constantly, as defenders try to trip him up
+ Regularly launches or pulls himself forward and reaches the ball out to maximize yardage gained.
+ And he breaks way more tackles than you’d think, as guys slip off him and he keeps himself alive constantly, leading to an insane average of 4.55 yards after contact (1,052 total).
+ Had one of the most insane touchdown runs you will find from last season against UCF. He split a couple of tacklers at the line and then put moves on guys in the open field before turning on the burners.
+ Put on a show against USC in the Cotton Bowl, rushing for 205 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries, en route to a huge win for that program in a phenomenal season for them.
+ At Tulane, it was a lot of swings and streak routes. But watching Spears at the Senior Bowl, you saw that quick-twitch and ankle flexibility translate to crossing up linebackers one-on-one on angle and option routes.
+ You saw the Green Wave line up Spears out wide and in diamond sets, so they could put the ball in his hands on slip screens, or hit him on swing screens off motion, to take advantage of his dynamic ability in space.
+ Does well to identify the biggest threat as a personal protector on pass plays.
+ Despite giving up 30-40 pounds on most linebackers, Spears doesn’t mind launching his body into those guys when used as a lead-blocker for his quarterback (or even kicking out edge defenders in split-back sets).
Tyjae Spears scout report: Weaknesses
– Tends to overrun pullers at times, when he should “hide” behind their inside shoulder, to create an angle to ultimately slice underneath the block.
– Does rely heavily on his speed to bounce runs designed to hit inside or try to beat back-seven defenders towards the sideline, who aren’t properly leveraged outside (which he was able to in college).
– Tyjae Spears isn’t really going to churn out those tough yards in traffic and push the pile forward.
– You’ll see him bang into bigger bodies in pass-pro, but Spears doesn’t have the strength to actually sustain those blocks. That’s why he was largely subbed off in obvious passing situations.
– Wasn’t ask to run any type of intricate route tree at Tulane.
– Suffered two torn ACLs already heading into the NFL.
Tyjae Spears scout report: Grade
When you talk about highlight reels, it feels like you come back to Bijan Robinson at the top all the time, but you can argue that Tyjae Spears is the most fun back to watch in this entire class.
He has cat-like quickness, sick open-field moves and legit home-run speed, but he runs hard and breaks way more tackle than you’d anticipate from a guy who probably played around the 190-pound range at Tulane.
He’ll need to become a more disciplined runner between the tackles and continue to prove he can be a real matchup piece in the passing game as he did at the Senior Bowl to some degree. But it was encouraging to see him have the same kind of juice and make some of the better players in the country look foolish after weighing in just above 200s.
Grade: Early third round
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