Part 4, RB: Like father, like son?
One scout sure sees a lot of Frank Gore Sr. in Frank Gore Jr. Bob McGinn's draft series continues with the backs. Could Jonathon Brooks or Trey Benson power a playoff team? Full scout analysis inside.
This is the 40th year that Bob McGinn has written his NFL draft series. Previously, it appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (1985-’91), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1992-’17), BobMcGinn Football (2018-’19), The Athletic (2020-’21) and GoLongTD.com (2022-’24). Until 2014, many personnel people were quoted by name. The series reluctantly adopted an all-anonymous format in 2015 at the request of most scouts.
By BOB McGINN
Nineteen years ago, Frank Gore of Miami was my No. 6 running back behind Ronnie Brown and Carnell “Cadillac” Williams of Auburn, Cedric Benson of Texas, Cal’s J.J. Arrington and Ryan Moats of Louisiana Tech.
“If there was ever a guy that you would draft just on pure passion for the game, you’d have to take that guy right off the board,” Jerry Hardaway, a personnel man for the Arizona Cardinals, said of Gore before the 2005 NFL draft. “Whether the knees will hold up, we don’t know. But he’s a player. Outstanding sixth sense of when to get skinny in the hole. Great balance. Can run inside.”
Sixteen thousand rushing yards later and with a bust in Canton awaiting, we know now what Hardaway saw then.
Now comes Gore’s son, Frank Jr., a running back from Southern Mississippi with unscarred knees but even more questions about his cred than his father once encountered.
Dad went atop the third round to the San Francisco 49ers, an appropriate spot for someone with an ACL surgery on each knee. Son might be looking at the fringes of the draft or, more likely, a free-agent deal after all the picks have been made.
“I like his dad,” said one personnel man. “I’d draft him just on his genetics.”
In the last month I asked 13 personnel people what they thought of Gore Jr. One scout loved him, two liked him, three were OK with him, five rated him a free agent and two had ignored him.
“It’s a media thing,” one executive said. “Maybe he’s a courtesy seventh (round pick).”
Let’s cut to the positive, an evaluation so rosy from one smitten scout that it led him to vote Gore as the No. 3 back in the draft.
“He runs just like his dad,” said this personnel man who also scouted Gore Sr. “It’s crazy. He’s best between the tackles, like his dad was. The guy’s got vision, balance, toughness, innate feel. He’s slippery. He’s rugged. Third round.”
That conversation occurred in late February shortly before the combine. Other than doing position work and the bench press in Indianapolis, Gore delayed testing until his pro day March 25 in Hattiesburg. There he ran the 40 twice, each in 4.69 seconds. His vertical jump (29 inches) was awful, his broad jump (9-3) not much better. When asked by the event coordinator from Jacksonville to do the shuttles, Gore begged off because “he did not train for them,” the Jaguars scout noted.
Did the Gore guy wish to temper his enthusiasm?
“I thought he’d be low 4.6s,” he said in mid-March. “His dad didn’t run good, either. It’ll hurt him, of course, but you’ve got to look at all the good stuff he does. You see that on tape: he’s not fast. He’s quick as hell. I like him despite the measurables.”
What the scout said next was exactly the same thing that he said pre-combine. Hope you’re sitting down.
Paid subscribers can access Bob McGinn’s nine-part draft series in full, in addition to all player profiles, all team deep dives, everything at Go Long. Scouts across the NFL supply their unfiltered analysis on this year’s group of running backs in Part 4.
Part 1, WR/TE: Hall of Fame talent at the top, then (many) questions
Part 2, OL: Can this 'long-armed Tyrannosaurus Rex' brawl?
Part 3, QB: Gap between Caleb Williams & Jayden Daniels? Closer than you think...