Antwan Raymond

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Twopointtry

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Ferragamo15
Je ne sais quoi

When discussing KJ Duff, the Rutgers WR, I mentioned that the player who really stood out in their games wasn't Duff, it was their little RB. So, I decided to study him in more detail. The reason I'm interested in this player for the Rams is because he nearly identical to our current RBs. Raymond has only started for one season. He's from Montreal. Maybe not being a top recruit and not playing for a bigger name school has kept Raymond slightly under the radar.

When we drafted Kyren Williams, I didn't think he'd ever be more than a backup or 3rd down RB. He's too small. He doesn't run fast. Okay, he can pass block but he's small as a blocker. Can't you just draft a bigger RB and teach him to pass block instead of drafting a small RB who already knows how to block? Todd Gurley wasn't a good pass blocker early in his career, but he worked at it and improved over time. I thought that since Kyren didn't have starter upside, the Rams eventually would need to add a different RB to the roster to fill that need. Kyren has been way more productive than I ever imagined. I was way off about him.

Antwan Raymond is very similar to Kyren Williams. In fact, I have Raymond graded higher than Kyren Williams. In other words, there is a realistic scenario where Raymond could someday become the starting RB for the Rams.

Williams is under contract through the 2028 season. The way his deal is structured, however, he could become a salary cap casualty the final year of his contract, because there is no guaranteed money. Blake Corum's rookie contract runs out at the end of the 2027 season. If the Rams wanted to "go cheap" at the RB spot for cap reasons, it is conceivable that both of our top 2 backs won't be on the roster by 2028.

In Kyren's draft, the Rams were very interested in James Cook, who was drafted by the Bills. The Niners busted a 3rd rd pick on a RB that year. One of my favorite RBs that year had a very good rookie season but then he got hurt and hasn't done much of anything after that point. A bunch of other RBs taken ahead of Kyren who were far better regarded by experts (and obviously the NFL teams who drafted them) failed to pan out and only became depth pieces. A couple were either quickly waived or traded and didn't last long on their original teams. Snead and the Rams got abnormally high value out of Kyren's draft slot.

Antwan Raymond isn't a highly rated prospect. He's ranked in the middle to late rounds on draft boards. I could see what happened with Kyren Williams relative to the other RBs in his class repeating itself in 2027 with Raymond. He's one of my favorite Day 3 prospects in the entire class. He's a sneaky good fit for the Rams, because his traits fit very well with our scheme and how we use our current RBs.

Rams fans should know more about this player, which is why I wanted to start a thread about him.
 
Part 1: Background

Name, Age: Antwan Raymond, turns 22 in July of 2027, true junior, Rutgers.

Size, estimated speed: Listed 5'11'' tall, 205 pounds. Draftbuzz 4.50 second 40. Draftscout 5'9 3/4'' tall, 4.53 second 40.

3 and 4-star recruit from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Played HS ball in FL in 2023 where he had 233-1,884-22 that season. Backup to Kyle Monangai (7th round 2022, Chicago Bears) in 2024. In 2025, he was supposed to share playing time with CJ Campbell suffered what ultimately proved to be a season ending injury early in the 2nd game of the season, resulting in Raymond shouldering most of the workload.

2024 (10 games, 2 starts): 100-457-8 rushing, 4.6 ypc, 3-44 receiving, zero fumbles
2025 (12 games, 12 starts): 244-1,241-13 rushing, 5.1 ypc, 18-225-2 receiving, 2 fumbles, forced 76 missed tackles

Career fumble rate of one for every 182.5 touches, which is outstanding.

Drafttek 220
PFSN sim 144. (+) A mid-round prospect, forced 5th most missed tackles in FBS, 11.6 pass blocking reps per game with only a 2.9% pressure allowed rate, dense and compact, twitchy, sudden, elite instincts, processes quickly, excellent cutback skills, lane anticipation, peripheral vision, manipulates defenders, vision and patience are near top of class, pass blocking. (-) average size, lacks physicality and leg churn, receiving.
NFLMDD sim 113
PFF not ranked top 75
Teets not yet evaluated
Draftbuzz: 4th round, 103 overall, 8th RB. (+) Workhorse, 884 YAC, vision and tempo on inside zone, pass blocking unusually advanced, squares blitzers with firm base, flashed receiving ability vs Washington. (-) Receiving production, long speed, slender lower half.
Charlie Campbell, Walterfootball, not ranked among 17 RBs, which means either Campbell doesn't think Raymond will enter the draft (he'd be an early entrant) or he views Raymond as not being draft worthy.
 
Part 2: Strengths

Outstanding pass blocker. This sets him apart from most RB draft prospects. Many college RBs are poor pass blockers. NFL teams still draft those RBs in the early rounds knowing that the RB needs to improve. For example, Cam Akers was a poor blocker in college when the Rams drafted him in the 2nd round in 2020. My suspicion is that errors Akers made in pass protection were a contributing factor in why the Rams lost confidence in him. Some spread systems don't even require the RB to block very often. Raymond is a nominee to be the best pass blocking RB in the entire class. I'd have to study every single prospect to see but I've watched many RB prospects over the years so have a gut sense of the normal bell curve distribution. If we put together 5 draft classes, I'd bet he'd still be inside the top 10%. His pass blocking tape is possibly even more impressive than his running play tape.

Sets up to block quickly. Low pad level. Good help blocker. Sees blitzes coming. Repeatedly saw CB blitzes coming off the edge, then met them with textbook technique. Reliable executing his assignment. Steps up to meet blitzers with a strong base and no fear. Human doorstop. Strong anchor and can stuff blitzers.

Much more effective as a blocker than you'd think given his small stature and lack of length, very surprising. His pass blocking could pave a path to immediate playing time in the NFL as a rookie and at a minimum gives him a chance to compete for a 3rd down RB role on a roster. Do you remember Malcolm Brown? One reason he was on the team was he was a good blocker. A backup RB in the NFL sometimes spends at least as many snaps pass blocking as they do carrying the ball. For any team considering adding Raymond with a late round pick or signing him as an UDFA to be a RB3 or RB4, his pass blocking ability by itself could be the deciding factor in getting his foot in the door, even before we start talking about his rushing ability.

Has some receiving value. He wasn't targeted frequently on passes, but this is mostly due to his team's offensive scheme. He has soft hands, he's reliable catching the ball. Strong hands catching above his head. I didn't see him drop a single pass in the games I watched. He releases quickly out of the backfield to get upfield and make himself available to the QB. He's elusive and decisive in space after the catch. He's not elite and I wouldn't even call him very good as a receiver, but he can do enough to add value in the passing game. Rutgers isn't a RB screen type of team, so if you put Raymond on a team with a different playbook, his receiving stats would be much better. He's a more balanced RB than you might assume if you just looked at the season stats.

Elite ball security. Almost never fumbles. Carries the ball high and tight to his chest, covers up the point of the ball with both hands in heavy traffic. Protects the ball like it is his first born child. Very low fumble rate. The only 2 fumbles on his stats were kind of fluky plays. One, it looked like the defender's helmet hit the ball and the second one a defender appeared to knock it out of his hand almost simultaneous with RB's knee hitting the ground. Never is loose with his technique or exposes the ball. Raymond is tiny fractions of a second from having zero career fumbles on his stat sheet. Regularly finishes runs falling forward, which further reduces fumble risk. You need a crowbar to get the ball from him; he doesn't offer to just give it to the defense. Valuable for 4-minute offense to try to run clock out to protect lead late in the game when you need a RB who doesn't fumble.

Fantastic vision and instincts for finding developing holes. Don't believe draft profiles that say a RB has good vision. Experts throw the word around even on RBs that I've felt had poor vision. In this specific instance, however, what PFSN said in their profile about Raymond is 100% spot on. He is phenomenal in his ability to see and process the entire front plus the 2nd level defenders and make accurate decisions about where to run and how to hit the hole. One of his best reads was an outside zone run where he seamlessly made correct read all the way back behind the RT with great footwork and timing. He doesn't have a narrow cone of vision, has wide eyes. Exactly like we talked about with his pass blocking, he is easily in the 90% percentile for RB draft prospects and might be in the running for having the best vision of any RB in the draft class.

Anticipates hole development and hits them with impeccable timing. Instincts for squeezing through small gaps in the line. Sets up defenders to bait LBs into a gap then cuts into a different gap. Capable of making the deep S look completely silly as they whiff at 2nd level. Stacks multiple cuts in quick succession before he gets through the line, a master at acute angle changes.

Championship surfer. Great at weaving past opponents with slight angle adjustments at top speed to make defenders miss in tight quarters and gash the defense right up the middle of the field.

Always under control, runs with proper tempo at every stage of the run, whether he's pressing the hole behind the LOS or at 2nd level, great feel for when to accelerate and when to slow down.

For a normal RB, even those with great vision, you can dig through their tape and identify many plays where they choose wrong or are late or waste steps and movement. This is almost impossible to do with Raymond, he almost always reads the play exactly correct. I even tried to watch some of his runs frame by frame to try to nitpick and critique him for mistakes but on those plays where I initially thought that maybe he messed up, when I studied the play closer and in more detail I changed my mind and decided he did the right thing. Not many RBs I'd put in that category. Brian Robinson Jr. when he came out of Alabama also was super accurate with his lane choices, but not many other names come to mind. Even more, his team had a diverse playbook, so he ran a variety of run concepts. Outside zone, inside zone, gap, duo, Raymond can do it all and reads all of them reliably.

Naturally low COG. Excellent pad level both at the LOS and at 2nd level finishing runs. Gets maximum forward momentum from his small frame. Has solid value in GL and short yardage situations despite being small, finding soft part of the line and hitting the LOS with speed. Squatty build with contact balance to break tackles if the defender grabs him too high around the shoulder pads. Defenders sometimes bounce off him, has some CJ Anderson qualities.

Excellent footwork and reactive twitch to get around or over trash at his feet in the hole without losing speed. He can step around it and one play he made a small hop over the feet of other players like he was jumping rope, just enough to clear the obstruction but not so high that he slowed down, like a track athlete jumping over a tiny hurdle.

Very patient. Probes the line then can pause or step back to attack a different gap like a poor man's Barry Sanders.

Consistent threat to make the first defender miss, shifty and small target for defenders to hit squarely, a tough customer in 1 vs 1 situations in the hole or in space.

Doesn't go down easy, fights hard through multiple defenders, not soft or timid.

Makes quick reactions to dodge tackles. If he has a split second to prepare, can defeat weaker tackle attempts with shoulder charges, spins, hops and small angle changes.

Maintains high energy every snap he plays, impressive stamina. Had a large workload in 2025. Constantly applying pressure to the defense, not letting them breathe or relax.

I was unable to find any info about a major injury on this player.

He's Canadian. You don't like Canadians? If the NFL doesn't want him, I guess he could go play in the CFL.
 
Part 3: Weaknesses

Eats, doesn't cook. Heavily reliant on a good OL making holes for him. Raymond doesn't create much on his own. He doesn't have the talent to erase OL mistakes or generate good runs if the LOS gets plugged up. In most of their games, Rutgers did a good job blocking up front. Against Illinois and Ohio State, their OL struggled. Predictably, Raymond was completely stuffed and neutralized, he couldn't do anything. He had 15-52 (3.5 ave) vs OSU and 10-29 (2.9 ave) against Illinois. This is exactly what would happen at the NFL level if you put him on a team with a bad OL. His stats would be terrible.

The value of having a RB like Raymond is that if you "set the table for him" with good blocking, he won't waste it. He'll eat and not leave any crumbs on the table. Other RBs waste blocking by not running into the proper gap or by not beating the 1st defender. They are late or don't hit the hole with the necessary speed. Raymond doesn't make those types of mistakes, he'll take advantage of the good blocking.

The problem is Raymond is a downhill runner. He is only dangerous running between the tackles and more or less in a forward direction. He isn't fast, he isn't very elusive, he isn't a big and strong powerful runner. He is below average at creating yardage on his own.

In an identical situation where Todd Gurley might find the hole blocked, then use his speed to bounce it outside and turn the corner, Raymond normally will waive the white flag, curl up into a ball and go down. What else can he do? He doesn't have a good stiff arm, he doesn't have enough speed burst, there's no way he can escape the early penetration into the backfield and make something out of nothing.

Late in the 4th quarter, Rutgers is down by 3 points, on the edge of FG range, facing a 3rd and 4. Run up the middle but no hole. The LT is beaten badly, losing almost immediately, allowing the DE to crash down the LOS. RB sees the middle is plugged and tries to bounce it outside to his right. There's open space and if RB can beat the one DB protecting the edge, he should be able to get the 1st down. Before RB can get to the outside, the DE from the backside grabs him by the ankle, limiting it to a 2-yard gain. It was there, the play could have worked, very critical play. Only 2 yards of difference, but those were very important 2 yards. Raymond not having enough sudden speed burst to get away from the pursuing DE made a big difference.

Raymond is very similar to the Rutgers RB who started ahead of him in 2024, Kyle Monangai, a 7th round pick by the Chicago Bears in 2025. LZ had an UDFA grade on Monangai, who was about 5'8'' tall, 211 pounds and ran 4.6 seconds in the 40. If Monangai is a 7th to UDFA type of prospect, there is a valid argument that Raymond belongs in the same area of the draft.

The counterargument is that as a rookie Monangai was pretty good. In the regular season he had 169-783-5 (4.6 ave) rushing, plus 18-164 receiving. That's 947 yards from scrimmage. Blake Corum in 2025 had 782 yards from scrimmage. Per SISDatahub stats, Kyren Williams was 12th in the NFL in yards after contact (3.1 ave) for RBs with at least 500 YAC. Monnangai was virtually tied with him, in 14th place at 3.0 yards. Blake Corum was at 2.6.

Still, I'm listing his similarity to Monangai as a weakness. NFL teams might see Raymond as simply too slow and too small. He might not even be a lock to get drafted. Scheme also plays into this. Some teams are outside zone-based offenses. Raymond is a poor fit for that scheme. For those teams, Raymond's name might get taken completely off the board, they could have almost zero interest in acquiring him unless he's an UDFA.

Average speed to the corner. At the NFL level, he will lose those races against fast defender. Has very limited value running outside the OTs. Not good trying to bounce runs wide, not good on outside zone if the edge is open. He simply isn't very fast. If he tries to bounce runs outside in the NFL, I predict that the pursuit will swallow him up before he can get to the sideline.

Once you wrap him up or grab him firmly, he's done. Insufficient leg drive or run strength to break tackles, even just pulling out of solid ankle tackles. Not enough size and power to drag defenders forward. If he needs one more yard, say to get the 1st down or a TD, he sometimes can't get there as he falls forward, because he's a short player, limiting how far he can extend the ball.

His hips are tight for a small RB. Very limited lateral jump cut range. He can't make 90-degree type cuts at the 2nd level to get around DBs attacking downhill.

A one burst runner. After that initial acceleration, doesn't have any afterburners once he breaks into the open field. NFL defenders can run him down to prevent house calls.

Tight hips hamper his route running potential. Doesn't make violent or sharp breaks on routes. He's a safety outlet, screen pass or catch flares in the flat type of receiver. He caught a long TD pass on a wheel route, so maybe you could do that. He's not a dangerous Texas route RB. You're not going to shift him out to the slot and ask him to be Marshall Faulk. He has a limited route tree that he can run effectively.

On zone runs, he doesn't put his foot in the ground and explode upfield. He normally takes pitter patter steps, slowing his tempo by a fraction of a second, instead of making a dramatic cut.

If the run goes to the left, he always carries the ball in his left hand. If the run goes to the right or any other situation, he always carries the ball in his right hand. Once the ball goes into that hand, he never switches it, even if he veers off into the opposite direction during the middle of the play. This results in the ball being in the "wrong hand" sometimes and he can't use his inside hand to stiff arm the defender. In the NFL, defenders will see the ball in the wrong hand and try to punch or rip it out. Has relatively slender arms and small hands. Likely will have a few fumbles in the pros, even if they are rare, just because he doesn't have vice grip hands.

While he has very good pass blocking technique, he's small, has a narrow frame and short arms. Athletic, bigger and longer NFL defenders will defeat his block at least some of the time. They will have much better pass rush moves than his college opponents. He got jacked back a step or two by power bull rushes. There was one play where the defense used an NFL style blitz with a muddled front, then late brought the CB after he initially acted like he was going to cover the WR. This was very deceptive and the RB's vision was screened by the WR. I'm not overly concerned, because it was so tricky and RB had to help one of the OL but technically RB didn't pick up the blitz and CB was free to the QB. NFL defenses will do creative and crazy things like that, bring more complex blitzes and sometimes it might fool him.

Limited ceiling. Size and athletic profile of a backup RB who could be part of a committee. Back when Tom Brady was with the Patriots, they had a number of RBs in this mold. There is a place in the NFL for RBs like Raymond, but typically would be as a RB3.

Limited special teams value. He's small and doesn't run fast. Limited value as a returner, wouldn't be good trying to tackle if you tried him as a personal protector on punts. Don't know how he could contribute.
 
Draft Grade and Pro Comp

4th round grade. Kyren Williams (5th round 2022, Rams, Notre Dame)

If Kyren Williams coming out of ND and Raymond were in the same draft class, I'd take Raymond. This is my tale of the tape comparing the 2 RBs:

Size. I'm calling it a tie. If we go with the Draftscout numbers (i.e. he's smaller than he's listed) for Raymond, he's only a fraction of an inch taller than Kyren. Maybe he's 10 pounds heavier than Kyren but sometimes prospects intentionally drop weight for the Combine so not sure that number matters.

Speed. I'll say tie. The draft boards think Raymond is faster than the 40 Kyren ran at the Combine, possibly by 0.15 seconds but I'm skeptical whether that will indeed be the case. Let's give Kyren the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming anything we haven't seen with our own eyes.

Pass Blocking. Edge to Raymond. Kyren had an excellent reputation as a pass blocker at Notre Dame. I think that Raymond is slightly better. If you want to call it a tie, I won't argue vehemently, but I would disagree with putting Raymond behind.

Ball security. Edge Raymond. This one is clearer. Kyren did have some fumbles at ND, resulting in an average fumble rate. He wasn't bad at ball security, but he wasn't elite. Raymond wins this round by a clear margin.

Rushing production. Tie. The first year that Kyren Williams started at ND, they had a fantastic offensive line, stuffed with future NFL draft picks, powerful run blocking. Kyren's YPC average as a starter for ND is nearly identical to Raymond's YPC in 2025. Raymond had more rushing yards per game than Kyren did in any of his seasons starting for ND. The way I see it, Raymond's production is more impressive since he didn't have as talented an OL but I think it is close enough that I'll call it a tie.

Receiving production. Edge Kyren. He had over twice as many catches per year than Raymond. As i said earlier, I don't think this gap is necessarily a true reflection of their respective potential, because it is somewhat driven by their scheme usage, not their raw receiving ability.

Lance Zierlein gave Kyren Williams a 6th to 7th round grade and said he was a backup, comparing him to Dion Lewis. That's a fair take. Lewis was one of those Patriot backups I mentioned earlier. Lewis is very similar to Kyle Monangai and Raymond. Lewis was a very talented runner in college at Pitt and was drafted in the 5th round. I don't fundamentally have a problem with anything LZ said about Williams in his draft profile.

If past history predicts the future, the draft positions of Lewis, Williams and Monangai should set the comps for estimating where Raymond will get drafted. He's a 5th to 7th round projection.

The careers of Lewis, Williams and Monangai, however, suggest that maybe the NFL is misevaluating these types of RBs. Maybe GMs are too fixated on the visual size of the RB and the Combine 40 times and not placing enough weight on other factors like college production. The tape don't lie. Antwan Raymond is a very good football player. No doubt, he's no Marshall Faulk, Eric Dickerson or Todd Gurley. In today's NFL, in McVay's scheme, we don't need a HOF level RB to win a Super Bowl. We can do it with a RB like Kyren Williams. Maybe we can prove it in 2026. If Raymond is still available in the middle of Day 3, I think he could be a great return-on-investment selection for the Rams.
 
Twopointtry said:
My draft grade for Kyren Williams was obviously when he came out of ND.
Click to expand...
Right, because everyone's draft grade on Kyren was wrong.
Raymond is a nice back, no Kyle Monagai at this stage, but we'll see. Gonna be an interesting year for the Knights, glaring hole at QB, and losing WR Ian Strong to the portal. If the D blows chunks again like last year and Schiano tries to win with the 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense, Raymond my not get a chance to shine
 
NFLDraftBigBoards does video breakdowns of draft prospects, apparently with an emphasis on helping fans win fantasy football leagues. They enthusiastically endorsed Raymond as a draft sleeper, saying they loved his film. In particular, they thought he had elite lateral agility and good vision. They ranked him as the 4th best RB in the draft, just behind Ahmad Hardy and ahead of Kewan Lacy. They said he was a lock to be a Day 2 draft pick.
 
I'm working on a defensive player and discovered that PFSN has some cool advanced metrics for various position groups.

For the RBs, this is their Impact score rankings for the 2025 season:
1. Emmett Johnson (5th round 2026 to Kansas City Chiefs)
2. LJ Martin
3. Jaden Baugh
4. Jeremiyah Love
5. Antwan Raymond
6. Ahmad Hardy
7. Kewan Lacy

So, when I say that Raymond has good tape, this helps to illustrate how high. Hardy, Baugh and Lacy are regarded as being among the best RB prospects for 2027. Love was the 3rd overall selection in 2026. Raymond is much slower and doesn't have the home run burst of Love, yet he comes in as the next RB right after Love in overall Impact score.
 
Oh, and just to follow up, the defensive player I'm working on had a crazy high PFSN Impact score in 2025. He is an EDGE rusher who had a better score than David Bailey, who was the 2nd overall selection in 2026. Without looking it up, do you have any guess as to his name?
 
While researching a different player, I noticed that Raymond is ranked very differently on the PFSN big board than he is on their draft simulator. On the big board, he is the 64th overall prospect. Obviously, if the Rams win the SB, their 2nd round pick would be slot 64.
 
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