Friday was a sad day for Derrius Guice owners, and a sadder day for Guice, but Antonio Gibson acolytes continue to reap the benefits of being all-in on a back rocketing toward the Clyde Edwards-Helaire/Jonathan Taylor tier. Our devy guru, Travis May, was on Gibson even before the combine, ranking him as must-buy for early startups. Jack Miller recently covered Gibson as one of two Swiss-army knife backs who could be the next David Johnson. In his Pros v Joes last week, Curtis Patrick made him a core piece of the Single-Elite RB squad.
But this is not an article about Gibson, because Gibson did not almost win the Heisman in 2017. He did not run for 2,000 yards in a power conference. In fact, he didn’t run for 500 yards . . . in any conference. This does not mean that Gibson will not be a star NFL player. He’s 228 pounds of freakish athleticism, and the NFL is a league where borderline superhumans tend to hold an edge on their slightly more normal peers.
But Gibson is not going to be the next Jamaal Charles — in part because no one is, and in part because if he does those types of things he’ll be the next Todd Gurley instead.
This is an article about Bryce Love, who is also not going to be the next Jamaal Charles, but might be the next Chris Johnson. I mean, he’s not going to be, but why not squint your eyes, open your heart, and dream. This is also an article about Love because he’s going to go from free to almost free, while Gibson is going to become very, very expensive. Price always matters, but there are few places it matters more than running back in 2020.
