It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up everybody? This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Locked On Podcast Network. And if you haven't heard yet, we started a club and we would love for you to join. It's called the Everyday Air Club. And one of the things that you get as a member is an ad-free version of the podcast that you're listening to right now. It works with whatever podcast app you already use, same episodes every day, just no ads. There's also a member's only group chat for fans of your team, plus a lot more. You can check it out by tapping the Everyday Air Club link in the show notes. Drafting Penn State running back Nick Singleton on day three is the perfect blend for the Packers of explosiveness and value. You are locked on Packers, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Peter Bacowsky and I cover the Packers for the Leap, a newsletter I would love for you to subscribe to. Thanks to everyone who makes Locked On Packers, they're first listen every day. We hope you like starting your day with us as much as we like starting our day with you here on the Locked On Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network. Agouti's guys today with Penn State running back Nick Singleton, which means we will be breaking down the player, we'll be breaking down his fit for Green Bay. And I think we have to talk about the value of the running back position at least a little bit. I have to tell you. I really like Nick Singleton's fit for the Packers, not just because of what he can do explosively, but because of where he's probably going to be drafted. Now, this is probably as we're recording this, the lowest player on the consensus board that we've done. And so he's not going to have the same sort of upside talent, all that stuff. Although I do think he's talented. We're talking about a player who just turned 22. He's six foot 219 and he rushed for a thousand yards as a freshman back in 2022. He rushed for a thousand yards in 2024 when Penn State was really, really good. And then last year he did not, he had to share the workload a little bit and he had a leg injury that he suffered early on this year. And so he does not have an athletic profile, but I'm telling you, if he had an athletic profile, it would be good. He is not an illusive running back. So he's not going to make you miss lower quartile, elusive rating for pro football focus, yards after contact, all that stuff, lower quartile. So we're talking about bottom 25%. He is a slasher running back who will create streaks. He will create explosive bursts, but he's a pretty linear guy. So it's really just straight line. I'm going to find the hole and I'm going to hit it. There's a little bit of lateral mobility, but he's not that quick shift in the hole and then create like March on Lloyd is theoretically or could theoretically be, but that's all March on Lloyd is, is theoretical at this point. Nick Singleton is a thickly built, uh, herky jerky style runner. Someone on Twitter pointed out he runs kind of like James Starks. And I think that's his, his comparison really, he's like James Starks with a little bit more juice. He set the program record for touchdowns. You guys say, Kwame Barkley went to that school now, four years versus three, but still we're talking about a very productive running back. He's got nice hands for a running back. They use him in the passing game regularly. He has the speed to get vertical in the passing game. They used him in 2024, a bunch on running back seams where they'd throw it to him down the middle of the field and he could do that. You see the burst to get downhill and eat up yards. Um, he flashes the ability to take on Blitzers and stand them up. He had a really great touchdown against Notre Dame in 2024. He stays patient to the front side, cuts it back, breaks a tackle, and then mash as a second level defender at the goal line to get into the end zone. The question on him is the vision. And I think the vision issue is overstated. I don't think it's that he lacks great vision. I think he lack, he's, he's a, he's a little stiff. And so it's just that he can't get to the backside in terms of the cutback because he's just a little stiff. And so he kind of, he'll run into his own blockers. He does lack that vision in a phone booth to kind of like matrix use the force to find your, your gap that hasn't yet been created, but it's going to be there in a half second. Some running backs have just innate feel to be like, okay, that, that is going to be a gap in a half a second. So let me go right over there. He doesn't, he doesn't have that great feel. He's, he's a linear explosive athlete. And boy, is he explosive. Like when he, when he gets to the edge, when he gets downhill into space, he can just be gone as a senior. They used him more last year as a design touch player. So it's jet sweeps, it's screens, it's swing routes. It's just, let's get him the ball and let him go work in space. And that is the way that I think you can see it right away. Being something the Packers can do. Matt LaFleur is excellent in the scheme touch game. Think of, if they could run that throwback screen to Emmanuel Wilson, think about it with an exponentially more explosive player or a jet sweep or an orbit motion, or they're going to run that single, you know, that shotgun single wing, old school spinner stuff. And now you've got Nick Singleton in there coming to do stuff. That's, that's where I think you can see what would be fun about him. He had a near touchdown against Indiana last year, where he patiently waited for the seam, then burst downhill and rips off like a 50 yard run. The only thing that D'Angelo Pons, who by the way runs like four, three flat, barely tracked him down from behind. I think he has low four, four speed. If I had to guess, um, but you never know, maybe high, maybe high four threes. He doesn't quite look like a four, three guy to me on tape, but he's got serious juice. Here's where I landed on Nick Singleton. I like Singleton. He's a one cut runner with downhill burst and the explosiveness to rip off chunk runs. He's not elusive in space, but has the power. He's a known weight room monster. He is one of those athletic guys that is just in the weight room constantly getting stronger, getting bigger, all that stuff to shake off tackles and the balance to run off contact. He does go down a little too easy at times and lacks that elite spatial awareness to always find the daylight. But for a creative offense, there are myriad ways to get the ball in his hands. Penn State used him on kick returns. Hello in the wildcat as a jet guy in the screen game and has plenty of ways to design touches for him in 2024. They used him a bunch on a half back seams and you see the speed running away from linebackers, even the premier athletes in the big 10. He's a bit of a one trick pony with his linear running style and stiffness, but that one trick is pretty damn good. There's some Kareem Hunt in there, some Jamal Williams as well. Unclear how much the injury will set him back and he's got a lot of tread on his tires from four years in college, but a guy came into a blue blood program as a freshman and ran for a thousand yards. That speaks to the talent. The question is why he never seemed to get much better. Now, James Franklin got fired. So maybe that's part of the reason I gave him a fourth round grade. Now, how does he fit into what the Packers want to be and the backfield that they currently have? We'll talk about that next. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is well, a lot. Trying to book an appointment. That's not the most convenient. Sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade into a TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face to face with a real tax expert and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot. And just like that, you're done. Your TurboTax expert works to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. It's the relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out, knowing your taxes are being handled right. Head to TurboTax.com slash local to find a store near you and book an appointment. 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Head to Fandal.com to get started. Fandal, play your game. The Packers need a running back. They have Chris Brooks. They have Josh Jacobs. Josh Jacobs might not be on this team in 2027. So I think when you look at the combination, like, let's say March on Lloyd is something great, great. But let's say he's not, right? Can you, could you get by with Nick Singleton being your one running back that you can rely on as a runner? I think so. I think so. In this offense, I think you could with Chris Brooks, with the design touch game, this is going to, a lot is going to depend on what they want to do with guys like Jaden Reed and Savion Williams. I love our pal Jason Hirshorn's idea of using Savion Williams more as a running back. If you're going to extend Jaden Reed, you've got the scheme touch game. So maybe the value of someone like Nick Singleton is not there in the same way. I think the Packers, they know what they want to do with Jaden Reed. They know how they want to use Savion Williams. And so those guys in the types of running backs that they're going to look at in this draft, and this is a very, very, very, very bad, no good, very bad running back class. It's just not a good running back class. But on day three, if you could get Nick Singleton in the fourth round, in the fifth round, suddenly you're talking about a situation where you are getting great value, like this could be Jamal Williams all over again. And if you get Jamal Williams in this backfield, ideally you get something from Marshawn Lloyd and he's a great compliment to Marshawn Lloyd, but he's also a great compliment to Josh Jacobs because of the explosiveness that he brings. If the Packers are going to add a running back in this draft, and I believe the Packers are going to add a running back in this draft, he has to have the juice, he has to have that explosiveness, a plotter, a power back. It's just not going to work because you already have Josh Jacobs. You already have Chris Brooks. You need some explosiveness in this offense. And Nick Singleton can bring that. Now, is it always the prettiest? No, but that's what you have coaches for. And you would be surprised how little collegiate players are coached at the finer points of their game. I go back to the idea and I'm huge on this with skill players, especially, but really any position. If you walk in, this is why I'm willing to be, you know, higher on Dale and Everett than the consensus. He walks into Georgia as a freshman and plays. Nick Singleton walks into Penn State as a freshman and not only plays, produces a thousand yard season as a teenager. They're just aren't that many guys. Like the world theory is usually used for defensive tackles and offensive linemen. They're just aren't that many guys who can do that. And at that size can move the way that those guys move. I think it can be used for any player. They're just aren't that many guys on earth who come in to a blue blood program as freshmen and put together a thousand yard seasons. And so I'm willing to bet on the talent here. Is he everything you want from a featured back? No, could he have been like, were we talking after 2022 that this was a potential future first round player? Yeah. Or at least a future, you know, top 60 kind of player. He just never got better at some of the things about the game, the position that you would expect to get better, the feel in, in understanding lanes and cutbacks and vision, all that stuff. It never really got better. And again, I think I attribute some of that to just tightness. Like I just think his body is not able to move that way. Some of that could be like, we see this with AJ Dillon a little too strong. I know that seems like a weird thing to say, but in terms of you need some, you need some oily hips as a running back. You look at say, Kwame Barkley. Yeah, he's yoked up. He can squat a million pounds, but he's also got oily hips. He can shake, he can wiggle, he can move in the open field. Those guys are so extremely rare. Think about Derek Henry. Derek Henry does not have wiggle in the open field, but he's got power, man. He's got power. He can run through guys. Nick Singleton, I wanted, I want to see him run with more power. I want to see him lower his pads and run guys over. Now he's so thick in his lower body, so powerful in a straight line, the guys are going low on him. So you see him trying, you know, he's not going to be the Jeremiah love. I'm going to try and leap over everyone I see, but that's okay. He's a running back to. Maybe even a running back three scheme touch kind of guy, kickoff guy, but he gives you so much in that area in terms of his ability to create chunk plays. This offense desperately, desperately needs the chunk play portion of this. And so that's why we did a goodies guys on Mike Washington, because I can see in the third round, the Packers going for three from a guy who's 225 sign us up, sign us up. And that's what this is. This is low four fours at 220 pounds with, with just explosive potential. And you live with the flaws. You live with the warped on day three, you're not going to get the perfect running back, but guess what? You can find Aaron Jones, you can find Jamal Williams. And to me, this is where I would, I would constantly be looking linebackers, tight ends, running backs. I would almost exclusively be drafting them on day three, and I would draft them every year on day three. My day three every year would be those players. And in the first three rounds, I'm looking at quarterbacks. I'm looking at receivers, corners, pass rushers, offensive linemen. And then you have to take your, your shots on offensive linemen on day three as well. So the value is there for the Packers on day three. And the skillset is there for the Packers. This is, this is the ideal kind of player you're going to get. This is the best you're going to do on day three in this draft class, especially because there's some guys who don't have quite have the juice, the Jonah Coleman's, the Emmett Johnson's, they don't have the juice that Nick Singleton has. And those guys, you probably are going to have to use top hundred picks on. And so I would rather wait and get a player like this for the Packers to create some explosiveness in this offense. And then you're also doing the thing where you're, you're getting the best value for running backs, which is on day three, positional value, all that stuff. And now you could, you could have a guy who spots starts for you. We saw last year, manual Wilson. I don't know that there's a huge difference in terms of quality between what Nick Singleton could give you right away, by the way, four year player, multiple thousand yard rushing seasons for Penn State and what a manual Wilson was going to give you. So you get a more explosive player with some similar flaws. And you can just plug him right in and go. I think he's, he'd be ready to go right now in this offense. And that would be part of the appeal here for the Green Bay Packers. All right, back on Monday with you, more locked on Packers as we are now less than two weeks away from the NFL draft. Follow the podcast, wherever you get podcasts, subscribe on YouTube, on Spotify, on Apple, wherever subscribe to me on the social media is wherever you get social media is wherever you happen to be on social media. I will be there as well with you. And we want you to be in the everyday air club. If you're listening to this episode, especially you are the perfect person to be in the everyday air club. Okay. Locked on Packers.Supercast.com is the place or click the link in the show notes for more and always stay locked on Packers.
