Rookie Spotlight: Tank Bigsby, RB Auburn

Height: 5-11 1/2″
Weight: 210
Hands: 9 1/4″
Arm: 32″
40 yard dash: 4.50 (adjusted from 4.45 at pro day, ran 4.56 at the combine)
2023 Age: 22
NFL Comparison: Isaiah Spiller, Wayne Gallman, Keshawn Vaughn

Offensive Market Share Metrics (Final Season)

Rushing Attempts: 37%
Receptions: 19%
Scrimmage Yards: 25%
Scrimmage TDs: 29%
Total Production Percentage: 28%

As a high school prospect: Class of 2020; 4-star

Pros
– Feature back size and speed
– Just fast enough to be an occasional home-run hitter
– Major asset in the receiving game
– Broke out as a true freshman, productive through entire college career
– SEC Academic Honor Roll final two season in college
– Excellent lateral agility (although no testing to prove it)
– Elusive despite questionable offensive line play
– Has stayed remarkably healthy as a three-year, lead-back workhorse in the SEC

Cons
– High pad level
– Not much improvement from freshman to junior year
– Might not be the best option at the goal line, needs to get his pads down
– Issues with fumbles

Scouting Notes: Tank Bigsby is an all-around very good running back who came to Auburn as one of the top high school RBs in the country, burst onto the scene as a freshman, and then coasted through three years playing at about that same level. The one area in which he really improved was as a pass-catcher out of the backfield, notching 30 catches in his senior year, good for a second-best team market-share of receptions (19%) of all running backs at the combine. Bigsby plays with an upright running style that is eerily similar to Wayne Gallman at Clemson that many will claim gives defenders more body surface to attack, and that is a fair critique. Two items that push against that narrative, though: First, in 2022, per PFF, Bigsby ranked second in the SEC in yards after contact (740), fourth in forced missed tackles (61) and third in missed tackles forced per attempt (0.34). Second, Bigsby has been a lynchpin and volume-type back for Auburn for three seasons (running, at times behind what appears to be pretty miserable OL play) and he was never injury prone in college. Bigsby is not a track star, but he has just enough speed to provide the occasional home-run flash play when things fall right. Otherwise, he’s elusive with excellent lateral agility to set up zone run lanes and sweeps to the boundary where he can then use above-average acceleration to really peck away at opposing defenses through the course of a game and/or drive.

Fantasy Outlook: Depending on your dynasty rookie draft room, Tank Bigsby could likely go anywhere from the early second to late-second round of 12-team, pre-NFL draft, 1QB dynasty rookie league setups. People will have their opinions on the exact order of players off the board in this range at the RB position between players like Roschon Johnson, Izzy Abanikanda, Tyjae Spears and others like Kendre Miller and Sean Tucker, but expect Bigsby to fall into this range until we have NFL landing spots and draft capital to help in differentiating how these players are valued. Bigsby has every shot in the world to at least be a competent and valuable member of a running back committee at the NFL level, and brings every down upside down the line as a very young prospect who’s shown a tremendous receiving profile at the college level while maintaining feature-back size and proving he can stay healthy as a load-bearer.