Big Board ranking: #73

Positional ranking: #7

 

Overview

Position: RB

College: Florida State

Class: Senior

Age: 21

 

Measurables

Height: 6’0 1/4″

Weight: 216 lbs.

Arm length: 31 1/2″

Hand size: 9 1/4″

 

Athletic testing

40-yard dash: 4.39 sec.

10-yard split: 1.52 sec.

Vertical jump: 33.5”

Broad jump: 122.0”

Bench press: N/A

3-cone drill: N/A

Short shuttle: N/A

 

Strengths

Ideal overall size. Great speed. Very dangerous in the open field and tough to get an angle on. Outstanding ability to accelerate on the second level and break arm tackles. Picks up speed while working through blocks with clean looks early in the rush. Able to throttle down and burst to cut back. Excellent patience behind pullers. Exceptional vision on outside runs when the blocking sets things up. Gets his feet up to avoid low tackle attempts. Excellent stiff arm. Will get square and lower the shoulder to power forward around the end zone. Has shown he will cover up and finish runs strong. Impressive strength and balance combination to fight for extra yardage. Gets downhill and tries to push the pile with nowhere to go. Soft hands. Very smooth catching the ball and turning into a runner on screen passes. Tracks the ball well when he needs to extend. Able to run past linebackers on wheel routes. Has shown he can adjust for back-shoulder passes. Reliable target in the flat. Saw snaps in the slot and outside the numbers. Experience as a wildcat quarterback.

 

Weaknesses

Would like to see more power early in runs. Overall vision/patience combination can be spotty. Sometimes misses an opportunity to explode off the back of a blocker. Not great at anticipating and making defenders miss with immediate penetration. Could take outside runs all the way to the perimeter rather than seeking a cutback. Limited twitch before he reaches the second level. Seems to have a bit of general stiffness in movements. Ran basic routes and wasn’t very crisp or clean. Just OK in pass protection and mostly just used as an outlet receiver. Reaches rather than standing strong to stone.

 

NFL comparison

Breece Hall

 

Conclusion

Overall, Benson is a weaving big-play threat at running back with tremendous speed and smoothness as a pass-catcher. If he ends up behind a great offensive line and learns to run with power more consistently, Benson has plenty of upside.