School: Oklahoma State
Year: Jr
Position: RB

Physical Attributes

• Height: 6-2
• Weight: 225
• RAS: 8.16
• 40 Time: 4.61

Rankings

• Joe’s Ranking: 6.3
• Consensus Position Rank: 9
• My Position Ranking: 7
• Difference in Ranking: 2
• Tier: 4
• Projected Round: 3

Games Watched

• Arkansas ’24
• Iowa State ’23

Ryan’s Notes

Positives

• As a bigger back there are things you expect to see and you find those pretty early in Gordon’s tape. He provides power when his momentum has built up and he can fight his way through gaps in a solid manner if not explosive.
• What surprised me is just how light he is on his feet and how active his footwork is to constantly reset his base and be free to find the next avenue, it’s not panicky at all and this measured approach keeps his pad level even which results in him finding secondary creases.
• His patience is brilliant and you can see his eyes are tied to his feet to move himself into the best leverage possible to steer his way through the traffic.
• These make him a dangerous back to start to let go of from a game planning POV.
• He can really draw attention and hold it that way which is a valuable asset.
• I really enjoy how he slides off of tackles even if it’s not with brute strength which is often the more desirable trait, I think his body will hold up well to the punishment RBs get every week.
• His pass protection is probably the best in the class, he is sufficient at finding targets in the middle but his chips on the edge are genuinely deadly and I’d be comfortable with him taking on defensive lineman for a short stint.

Negatives

• I didn’t have more than a game of his 2024 season but his 2023 tape featured much higher explosive play and I think that the Cowboys’ drop in talent correlated directly to this drop off. That said it’s still a risk to buy into a dip like that.
• He took two knocks in October that may have slowed him down plus teams really stacked the box against him in his senior year.
• Gordon sometimes takes too long in the backfield and his quickness isn’t able to carry him away from backside pressure but I feel like this will be better protected in professional blocking schemes.

Ryan’s Summary

Gordon is a big boy back with enough juice to win in different means but his detailed vision and neat footwork in tight spaces is the driving force behind his consistent success despite playing behind a mediocre line at OSU. He may lack the explosiveness to make him a bonafide bellcow but I’d take him to be paired with a smaller back in a similar mold as Braelon Allen / Breece Hall are in NYJ.