After the Steelers drafting Anthony McFarland, the rookie could be in for a bigger role than expected due to his similarity to Alvin Kamara
The Steelers went out and added speedster RB Anthony McFarland in the fourth round of the NFL Draft this year, and while he won’t be a starter in his first year, he has the chance to contribute. How much? Looking at the circumstances, McFarland looks like he could serve an Alvin Kamara role in his rookie year, and based on McFarland’s ability as a runner, he could even put up similar stats. High praise for a player who has yet to take a snap in the NFL, but it isn’t a stretch to imagine McFarland carving out a serious role this season.
Starting with physical comparisons, McFarland and Kamara are RBs cut from the same cloth. They are shorter RBs, but both have great builds. While Kamara came in a little heavier at 214 lbs to McFarland’s 198 lbs, their height to weight ratios are close, with Kamara coming in at 32.6 to McFarland’s 34.8. Not identical, but very similar.
McFarland is faster on paper
Testing wise, McFarland only ran the 40-yard dash at the combine, but his 4.44 time soundly beat Kamara’s 4.56. Considering McFarland is a little smaller, this obviously works in his favor. It isn’t just their build and testing though that match, as their college production looks eerily similar. Both RBs were apart of a committee, and both had similar rushing stats in their final year. McFarland had 614 rushing yards and a 5.4 average while Kamara put up 596 and a 5.8 average in his final year.
Where the two differ were their receiving stats, as McFarland only caught 24 passes during his two-year college career. Kamara had 74 total receptions, and on paper is the superior pass-catching threat out of the two. Digging deeper, Kamara had the benefit of catching passes from Joshua Dobbs, who could seriously move the ball down the field. McFarland caught passes mainly from Josh Jackson, who had roughly 40 percent of the passing stats that Dobbs had. While Kamara is still the better receiving option, McFarland should surpass his college receiving stats now that he has an actual QB to throw the ball to him.
With the ball in their hands, both options rely on speed and burst to make plays. Anytime they touch the ball, they are threats to take it to the house. However, both have the size to be able to break tackles. While they won’t be able to truck defenders over like a James Conner, they both are physical enough to break tackles and keep churning forward. The Steelers experimented with speed backs with Dri Archer and Chris Rainey a few years ago, but neither of them had the build that McFarland has. They were speed options only and served more of a gadget role instead of being a full-time RB.
McFarland is starting the season Kamara did
While they are similar players on paper, can McFarland have a similar rookie season? Kamara had over 1500 scrimmage yards and won offensive rookie of the year. He wasn’t primed to have that sort of a season early on, as he was behind Adrian Peterson and Mark Ingram on the depth chart. Peterson was quickly phased out which allowed Kamara to supplement Ingram. That was the role he served for the rest of the season, he never had more than 12 rushing attempts in a game but served primarily as a pass catcher while on the field.
Looking at the 2020 Steelers, they have the established starter in Conner and the set backup in Benny Snell. While it is unlikely that Snell gets shown the door as Peterson did, there is a very good chance Conner misses time due to injury. If that happens, Snell would be the primary runner and McFarland would shift more into that Kamara role. If that happens early in the season and McFarland has a similar impact, he could maintain that role even if Conner returns healthy.
Will McFarland find himself winning the offensive rookie of the year award? Probably not, but if he sees the field early and flashes on the field as Kamara did, he could see an expanded role earlier in his career than expected. Looking tong term, McFarland could serve that Kamara type role long term for the Steelers. There were questions about McFarland when the Steelers drafted him, but don’t be surprised if the Steelers end up utilizing him like the Saints used Kamara early on.