Expert Analysis
3/27/24
4 min read
Tyrone Tracy Jr. 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report For Purdue 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 Tyrone Tracy Jr.
Tyrone Tracy's 2024 NFL Combine Results
- Height: 5'11 ⅛"
- Weight: 209 pounds
- 40-yard dash: 4.48 seconds
- 10-yard split: 1.53 seconds
- Vertical jump: 40"
- Broad jump: 10'4"
- 20-yard shuttle: 4.06 seconds
Tyrone Tracy 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report
Strengths
- Good-sized back with natural quickness and loose hips who shows excellent short-area burst and elusiveness.
- Shows excellent patience and vision in gap-scheme run game tempo-ing his path to read offensive line pull and defenses.
- Explosive short-area burst through the first level of defense with balance and body control to re-accelerate.
- Can stop and start and re-accelerate both inside and on the edge. Doesn't slow down or lose stride on his cuts.
- Effective in both zone and gap scheme run games showing one-cut downhill burst, patience and tempo.
- Accelerating burst and speed to get to the edge and outflank the defense. Can outrun inside-out pursuit.
- Outstanding shiftiness and elusiveness in confined space to make defenders miss and create extra yardage.
- High-level one-cut downhill ability with sudden change of direction. Works through small creases at first level.
- Makes defenders miss in different ways with multiple moves: lateral quickness, spins, physicality and speed.
- Brings pass-receiving dimension out of the backfield with the ability to run intermediate and vertical routes.
- Shows willingness and tenacity to step up and pass protect vs. blitzing second- and third-level defenders.
Weaknesses
- Still learning the running back position given his college background as a receiver. Lacks needed experience.
- At times, will look for the bigger play when he needs to attack the line of scrimmage and get the hard yards. Is that lack of experience?
- Will need more work in the zone-run game where he has to read blocks, gap fluidity and defensive flow.
- Doesn't possess home-run speed — won't run away from the defense when he gets past the third level.
NFL Transition
Tracy was a full-time running back for only one season after spending his first five college seasons primarily as a wide receiver, the position at which he was initially recruited to play at Iowa.
While still learning the running back position, he'd likely make the transition to the next level in much the same way that Alvin Kamara and Jahmyr Gibbs are deployed by their respective teams. While Tracy isn't at the level of either back (Kamara in his prime, Gibbs right now going into his second season with the Detroit Lions), he would profile in an offense as a complementary primary back and multidimensional receiving weapon who can line up in multiple locations within the formation and could be especially effective as a detached receiver given his background.
Given the kind of running back that Tracy is and how he will best make the transition to the next level — assuming he will be deployed that way, which I believe is the most effective means for him to play in the league — there aren't a lot of weaknesses in his game. I could see him fitting well into an NFL offense that features the back in the passing game, especially with formation versatility.
Tracy will only get better as a runner with more experience, but he showed strong traits with his natural quickness and burst and his elusiveness making defenders miss in multiple ways. Perhaps most impressively, he showed more than functional physicality and competitive toughness to finish runs. Overall, Tracy is one of my favorite backs to watch, and I believe he is an ascending talent. I'm looking forward to seeing who drafts him and how he's deployed.
Other Notes
Tracy was initially recruited by Iowa as a receiver and played his first four years there before transferring to Purdue for his final two seasons. In 2019 with the Hawkeyes, he had a 36-589-16.4-3 TD stat line; He made the full-time position switch to running back in 2023 and carried the ball 113 times after having only 33 rushes in his first five college seasons.
He was featured at times on jet sweeps in the Purdue offense, and there's no question Tracy can be deployed in multiple ways in the context of an NFL offense — both in terms of alignment, location and concepts. His 20-yard touchdown vs. Northwestern was a strong snapshot of him as a runner: gap scheme with lateral quickness and contact balance with a darting, slashing feel at the second and third levels of the defense. His 28-yard run vs. Indiana was another strong snapshot: inside lead play with Tracy again showing lateral agility to slide from gap to gap and the contact balance to work through tacklers at the second level.
