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• Position: Running Back
• College: Troy
• Class: Senior
• Number: 28
• Drafted at: Round 6 Pick 5 (181st overall)
• Age when drafted: 22.66

Measurable	Measurement	Percentile
Height	5′ 7⅞”	5th
Weight	213 lbs	49th
Wingspan	73¼”	34th
Arm Length	30⅜”	33rd
Hand Size	9⅜”	59th
10 Yard Split	1.53s	77th
40 Yard Dash	4.46s	82nd
Vertical Jump	37½”	83rd
Broad Jump	120″	60th
3-Cone Drill	7.01s	59th
Bench Press	18 reps	38th

YEAR	GP/GS	CARRIES	RUSH YARDS	AVG	RUSH TDs	REC	REC YARDS	AVG	REC TDs	ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
2020	9/2	101	516	5.1	4	26	225	8.7	0	Honorable mention All-SBC; Pandemic-shortened season
2021	11/11	152	701	4.6	5	22	134	6.1	0	Honorable mention All-SBC;
2022	14/13	231	1132	4.9	10	26	140	5.4	0	Second team All-SBC;
2023	14/14	297	1661	5.6	14	18	201	11.2	1	Third team All-American; SBC Offensive POY; First team All-SBC; Led SBC in rushing
TOTAL	48/40	781	4010	5.1	33	92	700	7.6	1

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Games Watched:

• Kansas State – 09.09.2023
• South Alabama – 11.02.2023

Positives:

Showed nice vision on the bounce out with smooth COD mechanics as he gets laterally quickly with his feet already under him to burst upfield. Pass pro looks good so far, good vision and hits square and on time. Like his ability to make tacklers hit him skinny as he slides away from giving them a solid area to hit leading to extra yards. Can win on short downs with a gap hop with his smooth easy footwork that seems tied to his eyes in the way an experienced back develops. Outstanding contact balance to break through arm tackles and recover from a tackle attempt from a safety who held on to spring up for another five yards that didn’t exist; impressive play. Nice vision to ignore his lead H block on the pin and pull concept as he wasn’t going to get to the LB in time and cuts behind his team mate and gets upfield showing decent leg strength and drive to take two men with him to the 1 yard line. I like his ability to press the stem and then burst out of it within structure, he’s not exactly dynamic here but his efficient movements get him into creases quickly and defenders struggle to break down in time to stop him. Turns a broken blocking plan with a puller moving too slowly, into a nice gain after giving his OL time with a late jump cut to avoid the penetrating blitzer then sinking his hips and getting back to his original gap; this is mature back play that raw athleticism can’t get you to, he did really well at each phase of this and processed this all in a flash. Switches hands and stiff arms and defender who has him beat to the edge on a bounce out, not sure at his height/weight he’ll be able to do this in the pros but it’s a good skill to have. His best work comes when moving laterally and then cutting back, getting skinny and slipping through lanes, his vision, contact balance and efficient footwork are his best tools and he uses them well in these concepts. I want to see him use this more behind a line that can give him the time. Wow he uses his jump cut well to get away from backfield penetration on the goalline, would love to see him finish this but to even get a yard was amazing.

Negatives:

Has the long speed to punish teams when wide open gaps are left for him to expose but I am not sure about his short area quickness.He does not have the power to overwhelm tacklers dead on, in fact he often loses contact battles when facing a downhill defender. Don’t like that in head on situations he almost gives up and accepts the contact never fighting through it. Vidal shows patience and an ability to vary tempo but it’s not consistent and only happens in short bursts. I like his leg drive when he’s holding up the pile and moving it forward for extra yards, again though he doesn’t seem to have the mentality to do this more often and there are no excuses for why as he was the heart of this offense. 

Overall Grade: 

RB10 / Tier 4 / Round 5

Summary:

Vidal has the tools you want to see built into a running back; he has the vision, footwork, discipline and balance to become an effective early downs back that can be effective over the span of four quarters but it is important to note that whilst he tested well, he didn’t show any explosiveness traits on film. Unless you went into more detail you may miss what he can bring to a team because of it but as always it is good to know his body is capable of better things. His RAS Score is particularly impressive given his shorter frame. He plays like a bigger back than he is and I think he can stand to lose a few pounds in order to unlock some more short area quickness and burst because his play style does not suit being any heavier due to his lack of interest in going through players. Overall Vidal has good upside as a volume back to move the chains and keep an offense on rhythm but his lack of explosive power or speed may mean he gets overlooked for better athletes.

System Fit:

Greg Roman’s gap scheme rushing offense will be something Vidal’s running back colleagues will be very used to having spent most of their career immersed in this exact system under Roman but for vidal it will be a slight adjustment but one I think is a perfect match to his skillset. I’m not one to use PFF grades as gospel but his 91.8 grade on gap schemes reflected the very little tape I have on Vidal. You will see from my notes so far that he has good patience, an excellent understanding of tempo control as well as the vision to make the most of the play design. These traits mesh perfectly with Roman’s scheme as he wants his backs to play slowly coming into the mesh to allow the pullers the time to get to their gaps but then have the speed and decisiveness to hammer through the extra gaps created by the overload. This is where Vidal can really make a claim for his spot on the gameday roster as this skillset matches JK Dobbins’ but his injury history means that if he is not 100% then Vidal has to be the guy to act in the same capacity as Gus Edwards is a very different type of back.

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System Player Comp:

Looking at the recent history of Greg Roman’s backfields and once you rule out the two guys who are already on the Chargers’ roster, you see a lot of one year additions who failed to execute the timing of his system with any sustained level of success. Roman clearly believes in the shorter stout running backs as he had Devonta Freeman and Mike Davis during his last years in Maryland. However, one player stood out as a decent comparison to Kimani Vidal from a few years earlier; Mark Ingram. The former Alabama back found great success in his first season under Roman finishing with over 1000 rushing yards. Stylistically Ingram was more of a true power back compared to the elusive style of Vidal but their ability to control tempo and use their vision to read paths through the second level is very similar. I see them as similar backs because they also find extra yards at the end of runs even if they do this as different ways, Ingram would go through and over defenders whereas Vidal likes to slip and shift at the contact point using his smaller stature to maximize his yardage after contact. Vidal is a far superior athlete compared to Mark Ingram who only posted a 2.96 RAS score but the man had raw power that Vidal could develop with time. Overall I don’t see Vidal being a bellcow in his first year but I think there is certainly a path to him being the guy once the veteran contracts have expired which would leave him with two years left on his rookie deal to earn his next contract.

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Pick Assessment:

Sixth round picks are usually special team contributors and depth pieces but Joe Hortiz may have genuinely found a volume early down back that has an opportunity to grow into a system that fits his skill set perfectly. If Vidal can find a way to translate his athleticism to the field more often and learn from Gus Edwards how to avoid his hesitation at the contact point then he can shed his Day 3 pick tag very early on. Vidal has already become a dynasty draft darling thanks to the cheap short term contracts in front of him and I’m with them in this line of thinking as he has very little resistance to becoming the lead back in a run heavy system. To get that in the sixth round is outstanding value, we’ll see if this projection comes true but for now I’ll applaud the approach.

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