Oakland Raiders: Some RB prospects to think about for the 2019 season

Bryce Love – Stanford Cardinal

In next year’s crop of running backs, it pretty much seems like Bryce Love – and everybody else.

At Stanford, Love has been an absolute game changer and the engine that makes Stanford’s offense go.

Though he ran in the shadow of now-Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey in his freshman and sophomore years, he still performed incredibly well, never averaging below 7.1 yards per carry.

As a junior though, Love got the chance to show what he’s really all about. And he delivered in a very big way.

In 2017, Love powered the Cardinal offense, rushing for 2,118 yards on an insane average of 8.1 yards per carry. He also added 19 touchdowns in his 13 games on the field.

He very likely would have been a first-round pick if he’d come out last season, but he made the decision to return to Stanford for his senior year – likely guaranteeing that he’ll be the first running back off the board in next year’s draft, with Saquon Barkley now in New York.

At five-foot-ten, 196 pounds, he’s a little smaller than Gruden’s prototypical lead back. Think Tyrone Wheatley. But, as the “lightning” component of Gruden’s usual “thunder and lightning” approach to the ground game, he could be incredibly valuable – though, it will still leave the team needing the “thunder” part of that equation.

But, in Love, they would get a fast, tough, incredibly elusive runner. A back who runs bigger and harder than his 196 pounds. He’s also a very smart runner who is incredibly tough not just to catch, but to bring down.

There’s no doubt that Love is going to be in demand in next year’s draft and to have a shot at him, the Raiders will likely have to be very, very bad this season – something, some people are already predicting.

If they have a shot at him though, Gruden shouldn’t let it go by the boards. He can be a game changer for the Raiders too.