2021 NFL Draft: Khalil Herbert landing spots

Khalil Herbert might be one of the most non-talked-about running backs in this class. He did very well at Virginia Tech last year. The issue with his current draft stock has less to do with his ability, and more to do with the depth of the class. Najee Harris and Travis Etienne seem to have the one-two locked up. After that, the next eight to ten running backs are a grab bag of talent.

Herbert usually seems to find himself on the lower end of the running back rankings currently.

The NFL is slowly devaluing running backs year by year, which doesn’t help him much either. However, there is no shortage of teams who need running backs. Running back by committee is now the way of the NFL. This works out for Herbert and he currently projects to be a great third-down option and split back. It will take him a couple of seasons before I think he is ready to be able to take over the workload.

I do think Herbert can carve out a role as a true three-down running back at the next level, it just won’t be in his first season.

Herbert has multi-use ability he had 1,362 total yards and nine touchdowns last year. On 10 catches he had 179 yards and a touchdown, which is a massive 17.9 yards per catch average. This is not your average one-cut-and-go runner. If Hebert had more time at Virginia Tech and not just the one season after transferring from Kansas, we could easily be talking about him being one of the first five off the board, and maybe even some second-round talk. He was underwhelming during his time as a Jayhawk which should not be surprising due to the program’s history. But, he lit it up in his only year at Virginia Tech in 2020, even with just an eleven-game slate.

Let’s take a look at where he could land in this year’s draft.