Toledo came out of nowhere in 2015, even going as far as a team that could make the college football playoffs. A large reason because of that was the play of Kareem Hunt. A junior from Willoughby, Ohio, Hunt is a player that shows patience and grittiness in his runs.
At 6-foot, 225 pounds, Hunt has the size to bang around with linebackers in the NFL. When you pair that size with his experience at the collegiate level, it won’t be hard for an NFL team to have a liken in Hunt. He provides maturity and he’s capable of taking a big workload to start off his NFL career. Let’s take a look at the film and see how Hunt projects to the NFL.
Going back to earlier, Hunt is extremely intelligent. He rarely makes mistakes and he’s a professional runner. What I mean by this is that he displays patience in his runs, waiting for his blockers to create a lane for him to run through.
As you would guess from his size, Hunt is extremely tough to bring down. His size combined with his power makes it tough for smaller cornerbacks to come up and tackle him or for linebackers to get low and bring him down.
On top of being tough to bring down, Hunt is always capable of breaking long runs because of his field vision as well as his awareness.
And as soon as Hunt gets through that second level of the defense, he shows the necessary breakaway speed to put six points on the board.
The ability to get ‘skinny’ through a hole is something many NFL teams look for and Hunt shows the skills to do that, as is the case by this clip here.
Here’s another impressive run from Hunt. He makes sure to stay behind his blockers, allowing him to gain more yards than he would’ve if he decided to run in front of his blocker.
Hunt is an interesting player. You may not find a back in this draft that has more experience and that is more mature than Hunt. Obviously, some people will detract Hunt because of the heavy workload he took on in college, but the fact of the matter is that he’s an NFL-ready player that can step in and immediately play a role in an NFL offense.
How would Hunt fit in Dallas? I think Hunt would bode well in Dallas. The Cowboys need a mature back to successfully perform in their offensive system and with his arsenal of vision, power, and balance, Hunt is a player that can fit really well in their zone-blocking scheme.
Games watched: Kent State and Arkansas State (2014).
Next up on the docket: Dwayne Washington
UPDATE: Kareem Hunt is returning for his senior season.
