2022 Rookie Spotlight: Dameon Pierce, RB Florida

Height: 5-10
Weight: 224
Hands: 9 3/8″
Arm: 30 3/4″
40 yard dash: 4.59
NFL Comparison: Derrius Guice

College Production (Final Season)
20% team rushes
7% team receptions
13% total team yards
30% total team TDs

Pros
– violent runner with elite vision and feel
– elite contact balance
– natural ability to pop through the line of scrimmage to the second level
– keeps legs pumping, always falls forward
– able to produce and create despite questionable OL blocking
– excellent week of Senior Bowl practices
– underrated hands and pass-catching ability – some eye-popping catches in Mobile
– nose for the end-zone, a run-finisher in the green area
– high football IQ and desirable locker room personality
– still lots of tread on the tires
– 86th percentile 10-yard split on 40 time quantifies observed acceleration through LOS

Cons
– never close to being a college workhorse, why wasn’t he used more?
– did not have the receiving production you would have expected in college
– mediocre tester in most drills

Scouting Notes: Dameon Pierce was one of the highlights of the 2022 Senior Bowl, showing out during the week of practices in a way that stood out above even quality prospects like Rachaad White, Jerome Ford and Brian Robinson. Pierce, who PFF graded as the third-best runner in FBS in forced missed tackles/attempt (.39), finds a way to make his stout and compact body as small as possible through the hole on his way to daylight. He’s an absolute hammer in the run game who was not able to show off in college a truly special-appearing ability to catch the football, both out of the backfield on dumps and screens as well as on downfield targets like slow-developing wheel routes. The glaring hole in Pierce’s profile was his college productivity. While he was a prolific TD-scorer, he only had more than 10 rushing attempts in a game TWICE in his senior season at Florida.

Fantasy Outlook: Based on his Senior Bowl performance and the obvious traits seen on tape, and coupled with the buzz from traditional “big media” NFL pundits like Jim Nagy and Daniel Jeremiah regarding Pierce, he should be considered a value at his current ADP slotting in dynasty rookie drafts. Consistently falling to the late-second round and third rounds outside of the very sharpest draft rooms, we’re bullish on Pierce’s value in that area of dynasty rookie drafts of all formats, and will have him ranked higher — even in a vacuum — than a good few of the running backs going ahead of him.