Clemson football fans will have their eyes on the later portion of the first-round and potentially through the second-round as they wait to see where RB Travis Etienne ultimately is selected in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Etienne, who elected to come back to Clemson for one more season when he could’ve been drafted last spring, is considered one of the top running backs in this class but there is still an amount of uncertainty about his actual draft position.
Pro Football Focus published their final NFL Draft running back rankings and, interestingly enough, after having Etienne No. 1 for quite a while, the publication now has the Tiger running back ranked No. 3 behind both UNC’s Javonte Williams and Alabama’s Najee Harris.
PFF's FINAL NFL Draft RB rankings‼️
— PFF (@PFF) April 20, 2021
How would you rank them? 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/HpbSveY0d1
There are several others who have shared a somewhat similar sentiment and we just don’t get it.
Travis Etienne has been nothing short of legendary during his Clemson football career
Despite PFF’s rankings of how they would draft running backs, they also published their highest-career rushing grades in College Football history.
Do you know who was atop the list? Travis Etienne.
Highest career rushing grades (CFB):
— PFF (@PFF) April 19, 2021
1. Travis Etienne - 96.7
2. Javonte Williams - 96.3
3. Najee Harris - 96.2
4. Jonathan Taylor - 95.3
5. Kareem Hunt - 95.0 pic.twitter.com/k6uTwBVuHE
We should point out that he posted this feat in four years with Clemson and with almost 50 career starts. Over the course of his career, Etienne rushed a total of 686 times for 4,952 yards (7.2 YPC) and scored 70 rushing touchdowns.
Neither Najee Harris nor Javonte Williams are anything close to that.
We understand that it’s not all about stats, but what has Etienne done in his career other than dominate when running the football?
Everyone looks at those 2020 numbers and act as if it was a ‘step back.’ Well, you could say that, or if you watched the film you could see the truth. Etienne was running behind one of the worst offensive lines- if not the worst- in Dabo Swinney’s tenure. That group was subpar even in ACC rankings and yet he still averaged 5.4 yards per carry and had 1,502 all-purpose yards.
We’re not here to say that Williams or Harris aren’t good running backs, but you’re talking about a RB in Etienne who just made ACC history with broken record after broken record during his career at Clemson and, for some reason, none of that matters.
It’s perplexing.