Is the 2017 running back class the strongest in recent memory? Scouts seem to think so, projecting multiple first-round picks and plenty of depth on the back end. Only three backs (Todd Gurley, Melvin Gordon, and Ezekiel Elliott) have been taken in the first round since 2012, but 2017 has a chance to match that number.
Devoid of context, the top running backs in the 2017 draft had roughly equivalent days at the NFL Combine. LSU's Leonard Fournette, Florida State's Dalvin Cook, and Stanford's Christian McCaffrey ran within four-hundredths of a second of one another in the 40-yard dash.