How Trey Sermon Could Resolve the WFT's Need for Reinforcement at Running Back
Revamping the RB room will be crucial to a much-needed offensive breakthrough in 2021.
In an era of football where passing has become the gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness of an offense, one old school piece of logic has been tried and has remained true: successful NFL teams can run the ball at a high level.
Antonio Gibson, the Washington Football Team’s second round pick in the 2020 Draft out of Memphis, had a much better season than experts expected from him. Every week, coaches and fans alike could visibly see the young ball-carrier (who only recorded 33 carries at the collegiate level) improve in areas such as his vision and decision making, especially when running between the tackles.
Unfortunately, this steady increase in productivity came to a screeching halt during Washington’s week 13 win over Pittsburgh, when Gibson suffered a turf toe injury following his only carry of the game.
While Gibson’s rookie season breakthrough provides a glimpse of promise moving forward for the WFT’s Running Back corps, it’s the skill level of runners behind him on the depth chart that is a cause for concern.
While J.D. McKissic had a career season in receptions and receiving yards, his production as a rusher left much to be desired, and the same goes for third-string back Peyton Barber.
Ultimately, Gibson’s absence from weeks 14 and 15 served as a reminder that there are improvements to be made.
The Solution
Fortunately for Washington, this is a Running Back-rich draft class that will have solid options at the position from top to bottom. With so many names to keep track of, it’s easy to take a shot in the dark at selecting one.
Despite this, I’ve continually come back to the same player that, in my opinion, would be the perfect match for what Washington is looking for to address their need for depth in the Running Back room: Ohio State’s Trey Sermon.
Rated as the 7th best Running Back in the 2021 Draft class according to The Huddle Report’s Value Board, Sermon isn’t the most highly touted prospect, having transferred from a pass-heavy offense at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley to an offense that gives him those between-the-tackles carries at Ohio State for his senior year.
In his lone season in Columbus, Sermon rushed for 870 yards on 116 carries with 4 touchdowns, averaging a whopping 7.5 yards per carry. It was his most efficient season as a rusher in his collegiate career.
In his three years at Oklahoma, Sermon was the unquestioned starter each season. Having started 45 total football games at both Oklahoma and Ohio State, he has played a lot, and I mean A LOT, of football.
This is a huge factor when evaluating prospects, especially on the offensive side of the ball. In that span, he has proven to be an explosive runner that can score from just about anywhere on the field, and has the “X-factor” of not letting the first tackler bring him down due to his superb lower body strength.
Due to the sheer amount of ball-carriers in this class, Sermon is projected to be a fourth or fifth round selection (third round at the highest).
This gives Washington a chance to address other, more pressing holes at other positions, while still being able to reinforce the Running Back position on day three of the Draft.
When you look around the league, there are several high-caliber offenses that feature a one-two punch in the backfield: the Browns’ Nick Chubb/Kareem Hunt duo, Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard, the Chiefs’ Clyde-Edwards Helaire and Le’Veon Bell, and so on.
Once the WFT addresses the Quarterback situation and acquires more weapons at the Wide Receiver spot, it will be time for them to put the finishing touches on the offense, and that should start with Trey Sermon.
I talked more about RB and non-QB positional offseason goals on the TBER podcast.