The Devy Digest, Freshman Friday’s – featuring Oklahoma RB Taylor Tatum.
- Taylor Tatum
- Position: Running Back
- Oklahoma Sooners
- 5’10” 205 lbs
- Draft Eligible: 2027
- Devy Digest Freshman RB Rank: 3
Who is Taylor Tatum?
Taylor Tatum was a 4⭐️ in the composites who attended Longview High in Texas. He was a three sport athlete who played baseball and competed in Track and Field. Taylor held 35 offers and made multiple visits to USC, Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma. He eventually signed his letter of intent to the Sooners, after a late push by USC.
Tatum is a one-cut runner with good vision and the lateral movement to make defenders miss in close proximity. Taylor brings with him good contact balance. He has the affinity to take on tacklers with the speed to bounce plays outside to take it to the house.
As a receiver, Tatum has above average hands and is not a liability in the passing game. He lined up as a receiver in high school and is able to track the ball in the air. Tatum brings decent size, listed at 200 pounds. He has good enough speed to be a home run threat and quickly gets to the second level.
Pathway to Success
Don’t be disappointed if Taylor Tatum isn’t heavily involved in his Freshman season. Tatum has some upperclassmen that can elect to forego their remaining eligibility by the end of next season, while some will be out of eligibility.
Tatum was a sought after recruit who can easily enter the portal if he is in a log jam at the position. He was weighing his options between Oklahoma and USC towards the very end, and he’ll have outs if he wants to use them to get playing time. Tatum will benefit with the strength and conditioning program, where he can put on good weight with a true weight lifting program to reshape his body.
Areas for Improvements & Concerns
Taylor Tatum bulked up his Senior season of high school and his efficiency took a dip. One has to wonder if he would be better playing at sub-200 pounds until he can get a proper strength and conditioning program going in Norman.
Taylor is a more upright runner where he can bleed power, but perhaps it enhances his vision. Some backs prefer that style of play, to be fair. It’s not a negative trait, but something to take note.
Another concern is the usage at Oklahoma. Far too many times last year we saw a different running back take the lead role; from Gavin Sawchuck, Marcus Major, Jovantae Barnes. They also have Daylan Smothers, who the coaching staff had positive praise for in the fall camp. All of those return except for Major, but they brought in a portal transfer in Sam Franklin. There’s a lot of bodies in that room and most are projecting Tatum to be the 1B to Sawchuck’s 1A. There’s an outcome where in the SEC, Oklahoma turns to the veterans to handle the majority of the workload and sprinkle Tatum in.
Devy & C2C Value
In Devy drafts, I can’t justify taking or considering a RB until the third round.
For C2C supplemental drafts, Tatum should be in consideration from the second round through the end of the fourth round. The running back group as a whole lacks top end talent, but there is a good amount of players who can make an impact. The position does carry a little more volatility but we only need one good season to enhance the value for the asset. The running back landscape is in flux at all levels right now and I would easily recommend drafters go after WRs for the first three rounds and then play it by ear. This is a great group of talented wide receivers and if you miss out on Tatum, you can just keep plucking away at WR and address the running back position in another way.
I probably won’t have many, if any shares of Taylor Tatum due to prioritizing different positions. In startups, he’ll probably go around the 6th-10th round range as an early projection. With the composites having him as their RB1 (they haven’t put Quinton Martin in that bucket yet as he was classified as an ‘Athlete’) a manager could easily overdraft him to get him on their rosters. I would not consider him in the first round in a C2C supplemental draft, but I know the likelihood of him going that early is inevitable.
NFL Outlook
The latter half of Day 2 into Day 3 is well within Taylor Tatum’s range of outcomes for the NFL draft – with a peak of early Day 2. The position is being devalued, but Tatum does bring a nice skill set that can work at the NFL level. If Tatum can add clean weight and be productive at around 210 pounds and enhance his receiving profile, I can see a team falling in love with that profile and taking him in Round 2. He is a three sport athlete, therefore should test fairly well.
Andy Pham
Andy is the creator of the Devy Digest. His passion is devy and C2C. Andy's Devy Diguest articles provide insightful, yet thoughtful commentary to give you a leg up on the devy prospects so you know how to approach your devy and C2C drafts. With The Devy Digest podcast, Andy provides episodes of interesting and exciting topics and when he invites guests, you get to be a fly on the wall, listening in on two people having a conversation where they give you a different perspective. Come, join the journey that is Andy's Devy Digest.