Noel Devine is 5'8 179 pounds (thats just too small, he weighs less than Sproles, his playing weight was 160), his 40 yard time was elite but we don't know how much elusiveness he lost by bulking up almost 20 pounds. He had a toe injury last year that might be affecting his draft status, toe injuries can linger, plus character concerns.
As far as Roy Helu, his combine doesn't match his film, he is not very great at running in between the tackles, not very elusive and doesn't show the type of power you would expect from a back that is 220 pounds. He kind of reminds me of Brian Leonard in running style, except he is poor in the passing game and Leonard had more power. The only time I really saw him take it to the house last year were on zone read option plays out of the pistol when teams were so focused on stopping Martinez. There is a reason why his stats dropped off once Martinez wasn't the running threat he was in the first half of the season, the first part of the season he was used more in the option designed to get him to the outside while Burkhead was the dive back that went up the middle. It was harder to design plays for him to the outside without the option, they had Burkhead in the wildcat but it was different playcalling than when Martinez was in there. He was very productive but reminds me of someone like Ben Tate, whose style I don't think will translate well to the pro game.
as far as competition, I wouldn't focus too much on where he played and the Big Sky, just because its FCS doesn't mean its poor, they are one of the best divisions in the FCS, they have produced guys like Jared Allen, Jeff Charleston, Kroy Bierrman, Shann Schillinger, Lex Hilliard, Marc Mariani. Mariani didn't look like a beast against the same competition, he was above average but not eye popping and did great in the NFL last year. As far as competition, call me crazy but I think they would match up well with some of the fbs conferences. The only problem is some of the offensive linemen would be a little bit smaller. Its a tough conference and as far as Reynold's running style he would average 5 ypc no matter what conference hes in, he doesn't have that backyard football run to the outside style that Taiwan Jones has, which works well in college but not in the pros. Reggie had the same style as Jones and I wouldn't call the Pac 10 weak so I wouldn't rate Jones higher because he avged more ypc.
Marc Mariani return stats at Montana
32 punt returns his senior season, 507 yards 15.8 per return, 1 td
NFL
27 punt returns 329 yards 12.2 per return, 1 td
Kick returns at Montana (only 5 his senior yr so ill list career)
42 returns 1158 yards 27.6 yards per return 1 td
NFL
60 returns 1530 yards 25.5 per return, 1 td.
Thats not that big of a drop off in production for a return man considering its college vs pros. Talent is talent and the Big Sky is better than some conferences in d1 fbs, id love to see them play the sun belt or mac or even some of lower wac and big east schools. Roy Helu Jr only averaged 3.1 ypc against SDSU last year on 19 attempts with a 6.6 ypc season avg, Burkhead had 4.7 ypc with 5.5 season avg. Georgia backs Ealey and Kingaveraged 4.6 andonly 69 yardsagainst Idaho St, they ran for 1200 yards in the SEC with a 5.3 ypc. Nevada's Vai Taua averaged4.3 ypc against Eastern Washington, had a 5.7 ypc for the season. None of these guys were really able to break off a big run. Its not a cakewalk trying to run against guys in this conference, and these are backs that should be surrounded by better talent at every position, their offensivelines have a size advantage and should have been creating huge holes, yet none of them were able to average 5+ ypc against thisconference.
like you mentioned Helu is projected in the 4th, and Taua is ranked above Chase, although not by much now that he ran a 4.7 at the combine and then a 4.65 at his pro day. Ealey is ranked the 10th best back of his upcoming draft class (although I doubt that happens now that he is suspended) and we all know how good Burkhead is. If the talent level was that much of a drop off these guys all should have had field days with 7 to 8 ypc-well above their season averageagainst these guys but that wasn't the case.
edit: the onlytime I couldfind a back from a big program having a field day running against a big sky team was ASU backs against PortlandSt, whoonlywon 2 games last season,one had over a 100 yards on asmall number ofcarries, and another 100 receiving on a few receptions, however these same two backs only had33 yards on 14 carries against another big sky team the week after, Northen Arizona, both of these guys combined forwell over 1,000for the season with a5.5 ypc,with one averaging .01 under 6 ypc for the season.
If he were black, we wouldn't be having this conversation because he would be in an fbs conference, and probably averaging the same amount.
Edited by: snow
