North Carolina Tar Heels: Elijah Hood’s Best Fit
North Carolina Tar Heels running back Elijah Hood is among those players hoping to hear his name called this weekend.
The North Carolina Tar Heels sent a number of players into this year’s NFL Draft. Some of them were simply out of time like Mack Hollins, Bug Howard, Des Lawrence, Lukas Crowley, T.J. Logan or Ryan Switzer. However there were a couple of guys that declared with a year to go. Those guys were Mitch Trubisky, Nazair Jones, and Elijah Hood.
I have written several things about Trubisky in the draft and a piece on Jones’s road to the draft, but I have not touched on Hood. The problem in evaluating Hood was his last season at Chapel Hill. He spent much of it injured and did not get to approach the season that he had in 2015. Those injuries had a funny effect on Hood and ultimately led him to declare for the draft.
Hood was a workhorse in 2015, and many believed that he would be the instrument of balance for an offense largely to be driven by first year starter Mitch Trubisky. With the lost year that 2016 became, Hood had a decision to make. He could return in 2017 and be the main focus of the offense or he could leave for the pros with an uncertain draft future.
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Becoming the main focus of the 2017 Tar Heel offense is not the cakewalk it might sound like. Defenses would target stopping him as their priority even before it became known that LSU transfer Brandon Harris would be on campus. Hood would be trying to replicate his 2015 year in an uphill struggle. To make matters worse, his offensive line mostly graduated away from him as well. There was no guarantee that he could pull off another monster year in that environment.
The injury question also came into play. How likely is it that Hood would get injured in this iron man 2017 environment? Would it be worse to his draft hopes than the current issue? Hood decided to take the chance on being hurt with a paycheck than being hurt without one. This did mean missing the NFL Combine, but Hood did perform at UNC’s Pro Day and scored a 4.5 forty time.
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Now the issue becomes ‘where does he go?’ and when? The various scouting services are divided on their
opinions. Some say ‘4-6’ round, which should mean drafted but does not always. I have also seen a site or two where he is not drafted at all. That would be a mistake to me, but it happens.
Instead, let me make the case for best fit. There is one team out there that Hood would fit perfectly with, and that is the soon to be Las Vegas Raiders. Oakland is building an old-school Raider club based on an old-school coach (Jack Del Rio), a quarterback who throw the bomb (Derek Carr), and seem to be about to acquire a power running back (Marshawn Lynch) after their previous power back (Latavius Murray) left for Minnesota.
Lynch is coming back from retirement. He is not the long term answer for the Raiders. They need someone behind him who can some the same things he does. Hood can do that. He can also pass block for Carr and catch the ball out of the backfield.
While running Hood through the tackles has been the modus operandi, the trick is to get him to the second level where the tacklers are not prepared to deal with his strength. Speed is always good, but the Raiders look to the passing game to gash defenses. They need running backs that can set that up.