Dynasty Scouts Player Spotlight: Melvin Gordon

Editor’s Note: This article is a Dynasty Scouts exclusive. Remember, our new Dynasty Scouts section focuses on the stars of tomorrow, with a laser focus on High School recruits and College players who look to have the talent to be future assets in dynasty leagues and have value today in devy leagues.

Want to know how the love affair started? Here you go…

A Rivals.com page and a high school highlight video of running back Melvin Gordon, that’s how. To be completely honest, that’s how a lot of my developmental crushes started – it’s part of the process.

While we’re in the age of instant and extravagant info, there’s still a land where mythical creatures live – that land is developmental dynasty leagues. You can watch as many cut-ups as you want of high school players, it’s always a roll of the dice. Anyhow, back to Gordon. Here’s your first bit of homework, watch this Youtube video and tell me what you see:

Hopefully you’ve watched that video. I’ll tell you what I saw – a stud.   There are certain characteristics you look for in running backs and if you find them, you hold on tight. Gordon has quite a few:

• Power
• Long strides
• Elusiveness in the first 5 yards
• Vision to cut back between tackles

When I first saw it, I shouted, “Holy cow, a bigger Jamaal Charles!” At the time it was a pretty silly comparison and I laughed at myself as I said it, but it still felt right. At that time, Charles was busy posting 1,467 rushing yards at 6.4 yards per carry, a historic rate. I couldn’t wait to see Gordon in real time.

2011 didn’t bring much action as he posted 20 total carries and one touchdown – nothing special. But, the BUZZ (important word to follow) was growing and everyone who loves Wisconsin knew his name by the end of that season.

Entering 2012, all the ‘talk’ was about Montee Ball, but at the end of the day, you knew Gordon was coming. You could hear the talk from spring practice; something special was on the horizon. It wasn’t just flashes, it was VROOOM.

I won’t say it was obvious (check out 11:15 on in that video link), but I can’t think of another player who averaged ten yards per carry. Sure, it was only 62 carries, but if you watched closely, it wasn’t just one or two runs. There were multiple 20+ yard runs.

Then there was the Nebraska game (13:00-14:20 in the video linked above.) Nine carries, 216 yards.

You weren’t quite sure what to expect at the start of 2013, but any questions were quickly answered.

I’m going to break down what I see as ‘special’ in that video:

1:12 mark

Gordon takes the carry and runs right through the first linebacker’s (#45) angle to the point that he doesn’t even touch him. At around the 20-yard line, Gordon sees a safety (#4) trying to take an angle on him, so he cuts outside with the plan of cutting back inside once he knows he beat him…BOOM! He then has enough closing speed to finish off the run as the chasing safety (#26) tackles him into the end zone. It may not seem like much because the opponent was Purdue, but the way he manipulated and beat defenders so easily is not normal.

1:50 mark

Quite frankly, I’m not sure any other running back in the country can make the cut Gordon makes here. He appears, at first, to be caught up at the line, only to break out with a nice cut to the left. He’s then posed with a one-on-one situation with a cornerback, where he absolutely embarrasses him as he cuts back to the right. These are “Arian Foster in the Houston Texans zone block scheme” type cuts people.

2:58 mark

While he may possess elite physical ability, I believe Gordon’s best trait is his ability to see blocks and always make the right read – that’s a pretty deadly skill if you have low 4.4 speed. As you see in this play, Gordon takes the jet sweep and cuts at the perfect time between two blocked defenders. He then notices instantly that his wide receiver Jared Abbrederis has his defender sealed to the inside, and makes the perfect cut to the outside. Eighty yards later, touchdown, hardly an accident.

3:21 mark

The best run of the bunch. Gordon takes the handoff to the right side of the line. He instantly sees the linebackers fully committed to the side he was running, so he cuts back. While basically hugging his lineman on the cutback, Gordon keeps his eyes up field, spotting only one safety who has the angle to catch him. I won’t say what Gordon does to #27 is a cruel act, but I’m guessing it’s illegal in a few states.

It’s mind blowing to me Gordon didn’t come out in 2014. He would’ve been the #1 running back drafted and wouldn’t have any competition. 2015 brings a bunch of obstacles I’m worried might hold him down.

#1 Pressure- As we’ve seen in past years with many prospects, expectations affect play, and never in a good way. Not only do they affect the player and opposing coaches’ game plan against said star, but it also affects the media. While the media’s voice may not impact the NFL war rooms, I promise it will influence your league mates.

#2 Competition- Sorry Melvin, I love you and you know that, but Todd Gurley is unquestionably a better prospect than you. Gurley aside, there’s still quite a few running backs who will be nipping at Gordon’s heals. Mike Davis from South Carolina, Karlos Williams from Florida State, Duke Johnson from Miami, Jay Ajayi from Boise State and TJ Yeldon from Alabama to name a few.

#3 Getting picked apart- Goes with #1. Basically, you never want to stay too long as we’ve seen recently with wide receivers like Alshon Jeffery, Keenan Allen and Marqise Lee. While they didn’t have a choice to stay, they clearly wore out their welcome. Being in the spotlight is great when you’re doing great, but odds are that there’s some form of regression. When that hits, the media (and sometimes scouts) start to question everything.

While I try to stay balanced, I can’t help but feel Gordon gets picked apart next year. He plays in a terrible conference and there’s about a 0% chance he reproduces his 2013 stats.

Don’t sleep on Melvin Gordon in 2015, even if everything regresses.