Oakland Raiders: A few free agent running backs who might be able to help
By Kevin Saito
The fifty-fourth overall pick out of Washington in the 2014 Draft, Sankey’s career has never really gotten on track.
Sankey started nine games for Tennessee in his rookie year (appearing in all 16), and rushed for 569 yards on 152 carries. He followed that up with just 193 yards on 47 carries in 2015.
2016 saw the Titans draft Derrick Henry and acquire DeMarco Murray, which hastened the underachieving Sankey’s exit from Music City.
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Since then, he’s bounced from practice squad to practice squad, and in 2017 in his first preseason game with Minnesota, Sankey tore his ACL and was subsequently released. Now, the five-foot-ten, 210 pound back is a free agent, looking for a home.
If there’s one thing to be said about Sankey, it’s that he’s still young and he still has plenty of tread left on his tires, given his light workload the last few seasons.
Sankey rushed for just under 3,500 yards and 37 touchdowns in his three season career with the Huskies. His junior year was his high point as he rushed for 1,870 yards and 20 touchdowns, and he had a career average of 5.4 yards per carry.
Sankey has 4.49 speed, decent size, and potential. A lot of raw, untapped potential. Perhaps, he just hasn’t found a good fit, or he hasn’t been given much of a chance to produce. Who’s to say?
Maybe not having to be the focal point of a team’s rushing attack would help him. Perhaps, being in a more complementary role, where there’s less pressure to the “the guy,” would help him tap into that potential.
Or, maybe not.
At the very least, if Martin doesn’t end up panning out, it couldn’t hurt to kick the tires on the guy.