TREY SERMON | THE OHIO STATE 6’0” 215 lbs. 1/30/1999 (Age 22)
Trey Sermon was drafted Round 3 Pick 25 overall by the San Francisco 49ers, becoming the 4th running back and 88th overall player in the 2021 NFL Draft.
COLLEGE TAPE
Running: Sermon doesn’t want to run around defenders. He wants to run through them. It must be something in the water at Ohio State because both Sermon and JK Dobbins are very good at launching their bodies through defenders as if they were shot out of a cannon. Sermon does a lot of things well as a runner on top of being a cannonball. He is a long-stride runner which helps him maintain momentum downfield, and even though that hurts his lateral ability, he does a nice job making subtle cuts to change the angle of attack for the defenders, and that allows him to run through them. He likes to get up the field in a hurry, which can cause him to be less patient at the line. Yes, he has good leg drive and can power forward, but he will have to work on timing and patience at the line in order to become consistently successful in the NFL.
Receiving: Sermon wasn’t used in the receiving game very often at Ohio State, but from what I saw, he makes an effort to catch with his hands and shows that he is going to do things the right way even if it’s easier to catch with his body.
Pass Blocking: He’s an aggressive running back and he shows it in pass protection. He is probably my favorite pass-blocking running backs in the draft. He’s not afraid to take on anyone.
Overall: The 2017 Big 12 Offensive Freshmen of the Year has had an interesting college career. It started with a bang at Oklahoma, but after an injury, he transferred to Ohio State during the COVID offseason hoping to find more playing time to show the NFL what he was made of. Unfortunately, with COVID that took him a little bit longer than expected. Between the Big Ten Championship Game and the College Football SemiFinal, Sermon rushed at an 8.7 ypc clip for a total of 524 yards. He’s is an aggressive runner that will be able to help immediately in pass protection. He needs to work on catching the ball, but he should be able to do enough to not make him a liability. Sermon is a notch below the big three, but he’s probably the next best running back in this class.
DRAFT ANALYSIS
Rapid Reaction to Draft Capital: Average
Rapid Reaction to Landing Spot: Above-average
FANTASY INSIGHTS
Trey Sermon barely makes the cutoff for statistically projected relevancy in fantasy be being drafted at the backend of round three by the 49ers. This isn’t a smash spot for Sermon to land by any means due to the carousel of running backs that we’ve seen Shanahan use the past few years. However, if he can stay healthy, he will have the opportunity for big workloads as the only other running backs on the roster are the oft-injured Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson, JaMychal Hasty, and newly signed Wayne Gallman. How many of those players have contracts locked up past 2021 right now? None of them. How many of those players are making over one million dollars this year? Only Mostert. Mostert will be the main back until he gets hurt, unfortunately. Sermon has a “get up the field quickly” mentality and is very athletic. He’ll work his way up the depth chart quickly. He’s not the safest pick, but a running back with a path to legit carries in a good offense that wants to run the ball is very enticing. He’s the RB4 in this class unless something craZy happens as we end the third round. I’ll be aiming for Sermon in the middle of round two, but his hype might push him even higher. If he gets to the early second, it’ll be too rich for me.
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