Oakland Raiders’ 2012 Draft Wish List: RB Terrance Ganaway
With Michael Bush signing with the Chicago Bears, the Raiders have a big hole at running back.
They are lacking a running back that can power through defenders with force. Darren McFadden is certainly capable of doing so, just ask Eric Weddle.
But it’s not something he looks to do on a regular basis.
This free agency period has featured many running backs that can be classified as power backs, but none were worth the money.
BenJarvis Green-Ellis and Michael Bush were looking for more money.
Marion Barber and Brandon Jacobs were running on empty last season—Jacobs recently signed a cheap deal with the 49ers and Barber has retired.
The draft featured a few choices at power back.
There are players that have the power back-builds, such as Daniel Herron of Ohio State, Trent Richardson of Alabama, Doug Martin of Boise State and Robert Turbin.of Utah State.
Each of these players have a reason why they are not the one featured in this article.
Richardson and Martin are players that are not going to be available by the time the Raiders first pick comes around, and while Herron has a good build, he isn’t physically talented enough to be featured as a power back.
Robert Turbin is certainly an exciting player and could be of great value.
He had a tremendous season at Utah State, but that’s also the problem: Utah State doesn’t exactly play against the best teams and it’s possible that his stats would not be as good as they were if he played in a bigger conference.
Terrance Ganaway, on the other hand, has it all.
Ganaway played in the Big 12 Conference—one of the better conferences.
At 6’0″ and 241 lbs, Ganaway is a tank. Not only is he abnormally large, he is fast for his size. At the combine, Ganaway ran a 4.63 and improved at his Pro Day by running a 4.57.
As a junior, Ganaway did not have many opportunities, but he still showed his explosiveness by averaging 6.4 yards a carry.
And as a senior, Ganaway looked like a cannon with his mixture of speed and size.
On 250 carries, he ran for 1547 yards, 21 touchdowns and had a 6.2 per attempt average.
Playing on a team with Robert Griffin III and Kendall Wright definitely helped stop defenses from zeroing down on Ganaway, but he delivered with it mattered.
I broke down the games where Ganaway played against a team who finished with a top 50 run defense.
He struggled big time against the top teams, as he was held by the 13th best Texas A&M, 37th best Kansas State and 43rd best Oklahoma to only 34, 38 and 60 rushing yards, respectively.
Against the sixth best Texas, 25th TCU and 29th best Missouri, however, Ganaway exploded for 152, 120 and186 rushing yards, respectively.
Clearly, Ganaway is an on-and-off player.
There are times where you wished he ran with more force, but at his size, he can learn to trust his strength and plow through defenders.
He is a smart runner who is patient, which is needed in a zone blocking scheme, and he can bounce it outside at times. Also, he has good speed to get good yardage.
Ganaway would be a great pick up if the Raiders take him in the later rounds.
He is projected to go around the fifth round and, with the compensatory picks the Raiders got, it would not be completely far-fetched if Reggie selects him around then.
He can do what Michael Bush did, but at a cheaper cost.
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