Expert Analysis
4/26/24
4 min read
Trey Benson 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report For Arizona Cardinals RB
The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Trey Benson.
Trey Benson's 2024 NFL Combine Results
- Height: 6'0¼"
- Weight: 216 pounds
- 40-yard dash: 4.39 seconds
- 10-yard split: 1.52 seconds
- Vertical jump: 33.5"
- Broad jump: 10'2"
Trey Benson 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report
Strengths
- Compact frame with short-area burst through the hole and deceptive second gear at the second and third levels.
- Short-area burst and quick acceleration are his foundations of running. Has speed through the hole with accelerating burst.
- Has balance and body control to get skinny through small creases at point of attack without losing quickness and burst.
- Quick feet in confined space with excellent lateral quickness and contact balance and strength to break tackles.
- Hard tough runner with physicality and power. Urgent and competitive with the traits of a sustaining back.
- Strong lower half with ability to run through tackles and maintain balance. Naturally powerful runner.
- Desirable combination of patient and decisive, especially in gap scheme run game. Excellent vision and cut back.
- Effective in both gap scheme and zone run games. Ran more zone concepts as the 2022 season progressed.
- In 2023, more subtle in his ability to make defenders miss in open field. Has just enough lateral quickness to evade.
- On gap scheme runs, he showed excellent patience and vision, allowing puller and wrapper to define their blocks.
- Showed some quick flashes of stop-and-start change of direction — can that become more a part of his game?
- Has that extra gear to take it the distance. Outstanding open-field burst and explosive acceleration for a big back.
- Runs with strong contact balance working through tackles in confined space and finishing runs with power.
- Good hands as a receiver. Makes tough catches away from frame. Makes transition easily from receiver to runner.
Weaknesses
- Quick feet but a little stiff in his core. Not loose-hipped with a smooth, fluid feel — more of a darter and slasher.
- Not overly shifty and elusive at the second and third levels of the defense. Little tight in his core and lower half.
- Lacks needed balance and body control to make sharp cuts. Needs to gather using off-arm to maintain balance.
- Can be a little too upright, which limits his ability to make sharp decisive cuts and opens him up to hits.
- Not at his best in outside zone concepts. Not a true one-cut downhill runner who can stick his foot and burst.
NFL Transition
Benson is an intriguing prospect as you project him and his NFL transition to the next level given that his size, frame and running style suggest he's a feature back, but he had only one game of 20 or more carries in his two seasons at Florida State.
It was evident from both his 2022 and 2023 tape that Benson was at his best as a gap scheme runner where his path was more defined and he could work off the blocks of the puller and/or wrapper. His strengths as a runner are his downhill burst and accelerating speed once he gets to the second and third levels of the defense. And he has natural power with a strong lower half to run through tackles and finish runs.
Benson isn't a loose-hipped, shifty and elusive runner, and he definitely has some core and hip tightness with a lack of overall flexibility. But he has a desired combination of sustained running traits with his strong frame and an aggressive, relentless mindset — with contact balance and natural power and with the difference-making burst and top-end accelerating speed to hit the home run.
Overall, Benson is a strong running back prospect, and my sense is some teams will have him as the No. 1 back on their board. He has the traits profile of a feature back who can carry the ball 15-22 times a game and be a team's foundation back — with the caveat being he rarely did that in college (he had only one game of 20 carries — in 2022 vs. Florida). What separates Benson from almost all big aggressive physical runners is his home run speed, which will be a big factor in his evaluation and projection to the NFL.
Other Notes
Benson came out of Mississippi as a 3-star recruit and began his college career at Oregon. After two seasons, he transferred to Florida State, where he led the team in rushing in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons — Benson had only one game of 20-plus carries in time with the Seminoles.
In 2022, Benson ran predominantly out of the shotgun and the pistol — 65 carries out of the pistol for 442 yards and 6.8 yards per carry; 146 of his 154 carries came out of shotgun and pistol. In the last half of the 2022 season, he was very effective in the gap scheme run game with the runs almost always to the left side of the offense. What consistently stood out for him in 2022 is that he stayed on the field after long runs and often carried the ball on the next play.
In 2023, Benson ran almost exclusively out of the shotgun (96 carries) and the pistol (55 carries) formations. He has almost no college experience as an I back — a 38-yard touchdown vs. Miami is a great snapshot of him as a runner: a gap scheme concept with Benson showing the explosive accelerating speed at the second and third levels of the defense.
