Texas A&M Football: Why Isaiah Spiller should be RB1 in the 2022 NFL Draft

The Texas A&M football team will be losing 12 significant contributors as the 2022 season approaches — a majority of them will be selected in the 2022 NFL Draft. Among the top prospects, you’ll find a handful of offensive players.

Perhaps the highest-profile player offensively is Isaiah Spiller, Texas A&M’s primary ball carrier from the past three seasons.

The former Aggie runningback accumulated a strong resume throughout his three-season career, rushing for 2,993 yards while showing tremendous consistency. In those three years, Spiller never had a season with fewer than 946 yards.

Texas A&M football’s Isaiah Spiller thinks he should be the first runningback taken in the 2022 NFL Draft — here’s why

KPRC’s Ari Alexander took the time to speak to Isaiah Spiller and his trainer, Rischad Whitfield. Whitfield, known as the “Footwork King,” has been Isaiah Spiller’s trainer for over a decade and had no trouble coming up with reasons why the former Aggie back should be the first ball carrier on the board in the 2022 NFL Draft. Here’s what he said when asked why Spiller should be taken first.

"“Cutting ability, the feel, the vision, the footwork, the pass pro, elusiveness, he’s a power runner, a blocker.”"

He’s not speaking hyperbolically, either — Jimbo Fisher’s former runningback can truly do it all on the football field. Some runningbacks have one overwhelmingly strong quality, such as Devon Achane’s blistering speed. Spiller does not. Rather, Spiller is good at virtually everything — if you had to pin a specific strength on him, his ability to make the first tackler miss would be the big one.

This is something that Whitford noted later in the interview when asked about Spiller’s subpar testing numbers.

"“A lot of the guys who went in the second round or third round weren’t 4.3 dudes. This ain’t track. Once they give Isaiah the ball, his primary job is ‘don’t get tackled.’ That’s what he did and that’s why he’s RB1.”"

For lack of a better term, the Footwork King is spittin’.

Is anybody surprised that Spiller tested poorly in the NFL Combine and during the Aggies’ Pro Day? He has never been a guy with jaw-dropping speed — he’s not slow by any stretch of the imagination but his strengths lie in his vision and instincts, two things that can’t be measured in a combine setting. The results are there for Spiller, as he’d reference in the same interview.

"“I could do it all and I’ve done it in the SEC consistently for three years. I can run, my vision is great, catch the ball in the backfield as well; protecting the quarterback is really important for the next level.”"

And that’s the gist of Spiller’s NFL pitch. Scouts should not be overthinking this pick — who has had the most success of any runningback in this draft?

The answer is Isaiah Spiller.