NFL Draft Prospect - Ray Rice, RB, Rutgers

Jared Donnelly, 1/22/08
The more I think about Rice, the more I like him. He lacks breakaway speed (as is evident by him barely squeaking by the Ball St. D for that TD in his bowl game) but he is fast enough to change some things on the field. I recently did an interview with Bobby Deren of Rivals.com where I liken Rice to Maurice Jones-Drew of Jacksonville. I think that is a good comparison for more reasons than just his size. He catches the ball well (39 grabs in 07) and always seems like he knows exactly where to be all the time. Don’t let his size fool you though, he runs bigger than his body and his low center of gravity allows him to be compact and shifty as he breaks though the line of scrimmage. Good vision and decent pass-blocking ability should sneak him into the bottom of round two or the first few picks in round three. A team like Cleveland makes a lot of sense and so does Washington since I think there is some trepidation about their ability to keep both Betts and Portis and the fact that Portis is not getting any younger and has had trouble staying healthy over 16 games for much of his career.

by Imran Tahir, 1/11/08
Ray Rice will enter the 2008 Draft. Rice has been arguably the most productive RB in the nation over the last two seasons, and he leaves the Scarlet Knight football program having just concluded an incredible 2007 campaign in which he joined a very select club of collegiate RB’s to record over 2,000 rushing yards in a single season. The 5’9” Rice possesses great breakaway speed, and combines good field vision with a low running posture that makes him difficult to bring down between the tackles. Rice has recorded many 30-40 yard runs over the last two seasons, and though some will assert that his production came against below-average Big East defenses, Rice’s consistency game-to-game coupled with his knack for finding the end zone are hard to overlook. Rice should perform well in pre-Draft workouts, and is a virtual lock to be selected by the end of Round 2.