Chicago Bears Draft Scout: Akrum Wadley

Strengths

Some of the upside that Wadley has includes his ability to stop on a dime and then gain acceleration to get moving again. We saw him do this in several games this year including the Pinstripe Bowl. Wadley is a little bit bigger than he was previously and he hasn’t sacrificed speed by adding the weight. If anything, it may have made him much more durable. He sees the field well and blasts through holes with power and aggressiveness. He has a knack for gaining additional yards after contact and can power through would-be tacklers.

Chicago Bears

Wadley doesn’t have a lot of wasted movement when he runs and can even make people miss. Teams will love the fact that he can catch the football as he did so very effectively at Iowa. His ability to run with the ball after making the catch was put on display a few times this season. An NFL team will love that versatility. Add in some nice moves running the football and Wadley has the skill that will appeal to an NFL team.

Weakness

Some of the downsides of Wadley is that he doesn’t have blazing speed for a running back. He’s fast but he’s not going to be a burner outrunning a lot of faster cornerbacks and safeties. However, he does sometimes have an extra gear that he can turn on to get going quicker. Blocking may be an issue for Wadley as well as he wasn’t called upon to do that too much at Iowa.

A few people tend to think that Wadley has lost a step or two between his junior and senior seasons but this was not that evident in 2017. Some also differ on whether or not he should add some more weight to be more durable. But if he adds more weight he might lose some speed. He cannot afford to sacrifice that much of his speed because he isn’t the fastest guy out there.