Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts break down the game of North Carolina running back Omarion Hamtpon, a player that they love, with a very specific player comparison.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Could Omerion Hampton challenge Ashton Gente as the best running back in this draft?
00:04Here's where he actually deserves to go.
00:11Omerion Hampton is an incredibly powerful running back prospect.
00:15Ryan, where does he fit in this running back class for you?
00:19I mean, for me personally, he is somewhere in the later top five running backs in this class,
00:24but if I'm being predictive, I do think he is the favorite to be the second running back
00:29off the board behind Ashton Gente because of the physicality, the production, and then just
00:35age as well. He's only 21 years old, so I think the NFL is going to love a player like Omerion
00:40Hampton for a downhill running system. The thing that I love about Omerion Hampton,
00:44I think in an offense in the NFL that likes to establish the run with a physical presence,
00:50he's that perfect guy. He runs in the 4-4s at 220 pounds. He's got that pickup that we need
00:56in short areas. Not going to really run past dudes with these huge home run long rushing
01:02attempts where he's blowing past players, but Ryan, what gets me so excited is just to see the
01:07power, the power that he's able to have when he delivers blows to defenders who are unsuccessfully
01:15trying to tackle him. That's why I'm all in on this guy being my second running back in the class.
01:20I always talk about nuance from a running perspective, but there's nothing really
01:24nuanced about Omerion Hampton. He's rugged. He's a guy that is going to get downhill. He's going
01:28to be physical. He's going to work for second effort runs. He is a guy that in those tough,
01:34gritty situations, he's going to try to find extra effort runs. I imagine if he hits in the NFL,
01:41he's going to be one of these guys that we're always talking about from a break tackle perspective,
01:44from a second effort yards after contact perspective. That's what you're getting
01:48in Omerion Hampton. You're getting effort, physicality, and second effort runs a whole lot.
01:53That's why I think he's going to be really highly coveted in this draft because
01:57there's not a lot of power backs that have the athleticism that he does. I think that a lot of
02:03NFL teams will take shots on physical runners that are much slower later on in the draft and
02:08see what they can get out of him. The fact that he's going to be able to be successful in the
02:13NFL in short yardage situations, that's why I think NFL teams are going to want to have that
02:18first down guy that's going to set the tone, pick up three, four yards, and then the offense can
02:23get rolling and can get into a rhythm. If we're going to discuss some of the
02:26weaknesses though, you're not as high, if people can't tell, you're not as high on him as I am.
02:31What are the weaknesses that you identify for Hampton?
02:35I just personally value in the running back position, making guys miss in tight quarters,
02:40and avoiding contact in a decent amount, especially early on in reps. If I want excitement,
02:46I'm going to pop on to Marion Hampton because, again, he's going to break a ton of tackles,
02:49he's going to create second effort runs. But I do think in a running back position
02:54that is such a short shelf life of taking so many hits and having a shorter career,
02:59this type of running style is not conducive to hopefully long-term success. I do think that
03:05nuance is an important thing of running back. I want to see guys that can make guys miss in
03:08tight quarters. I want to see guys that can avoid contact a lot of the times. I do worry about this
03:13tough, rugged running style, being able to sustain contact, sustain durability. That's my
03:19biggest questions of Marion Hampton. He's a good runner, he's a talented runner, he's a super
03:22physical runner, but does he have the nuance to be able to make players miss in tighter spaces?
03:27That's why I'm a little bit lower than Owen Hampton, comparative to maybe you.
03:31He's definitely a guy that's a kick ass and ask questions later type of approach, which I see
03:37where you're coming from. I don't completely agree that I think that that's something I'm worried
03:41about because running backs, I don't need them to have long 12-year careers. If I draft him and
03:48he's great for the five years that I have them on my team, I think that that is a successful
03:52career out of O'Marion Hampton. Now, Hampton's probably not thinking the same thing because
03:56he probably wants to play in the NFL for a very long time. My only other weakness, and I know he
04:01ran 4.46 on film, he doesn't have that breakaway speed. It's not a weakness that I'm super
04:07concerned about because I think that he's still going to perform well in the role that the NFL is
04:12going to deploy him as an early down running back. To talk about his... Oh, go ahead.
04:17I'm just so mad at you, dude. We just spent 15 minutes before this and you were selling me on
04:22how much long speed he has. You were just selling me on it.
04:25No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The argument that we were having is we were trying to come up
04:28with a pro comp and I was trying to argue that the acceleration that he has is important when
04:32we were coming up with the pro comp. I don't think that he's a long speed guy. I don't think
04:36he's going to run from the 10 yard line to the end zone faster than anybody else. I just think
04:44that his acceleration is tremendous, which is why we needed to hit the home run on the pro
04:48comp, which we'll get to later. Background though, this is a guy who was a former four-star recruit
04:54in the 2022 class, committed to North Carolina, played for Mack Brown, and was the 11th ranked
05:00running back in that 2022 group. He was tremendous. Obviously,
05:04chose to stay in the state of North Carolina. Went to, I thought this was interesting, Cleveland
05:09High School. I didn't know there was a Cleveland High School in the state of North Carolina,
05:12which is kind of funny. But he chose North Carolina to stay in the home state over Penn
05:16State, over Auburn, over Florida. He had a long list. I think he had 20 something offers coming
05:21out of the state of North Carolina. Like you said, he was a four-star borderline top 150 overall
05:26recruit on various platforms coming out of Cleveland High School. So highly recruited kid,
05:32Mack Brown, the North Carolina Tar Heel program got him to stay in the state, which is obviously
05:36a massive victory for North Carolina. And three years later, now he's a potential top 50 overall
05:40selection. Pro comp time. This is where you and I were just arguing for the last 10 minutes as we
05:46were preparing to go here. 25 minutes. 25 minutes. No, we weren't. No, we weren't. It was for 10
05:51minutes. I am all in on him being Marshawn Lynch. I think that he 100% could be Marshawn Lynch.
05:58Around six feet tall. Marshawn Lynch, I think it was like 5'11-ish. Ran a 4-4-8 at his NFL combine,
06:05had 20 bench reps, 35 and a half inch vertical, 125 inches on the broad. This was an explosive
06:13dude who wanted to inflict pain on whoever was trying to tackle him. And he had a long successful
06:19career. I see that with Omerion Hampton. I see the, hey, I'm going to run through this dude's
06:24chest. I'm going to run through this MF's face and I'm going to pick up the yards that I want.
06:28If Omerion Hampton hits in the NFL, I think he can have the same level of impact as Marshawn Lynch.
06:34Man, that's a big comp. It is a big comp. I will say though, I do like it from a play style
06:38perspective. I do think Hampton runs violently. I think he seeks contact and I don't think that
06:43he shies away from any sort of tackler or contact. So I like the play style comp
06:49compared to someone like Marshawn Lynch, who was one of the better running backs in the NFL for a
06:53decent amount of time, I think is a little bit, you know, it's a confident comp, but I respect
06:59the play style aspect of how we kind of coin him to a guy like a Marshawn Lynch. It does make sense
07:04beast mode in a vacuum. Folks, let us know in the comments below, what team do you want to see
07:09Omerion Hampton play for? Hit that like button and subscribe. We'll talk to you later.