Was Swift underrated?
It’s hard to say that a player that all the recruiting services considered to be a top 50 talent is underrated. That being said, he was comfortably rated behind 3 other players on all other services and was not expected to do much in his freshman year. Almost all of the services had him comfortably ranked behind Najee Harris, Cam Akers and Steven Carr.
His overall lack of height seemed to be something the rating services held against him. Swift is (maybe) 5ft9 and this made him a lot shorter than a lot of other prospects. Height should not be mistaken for size, however. Swift is built like a brick wall and actually weighed the same as Harris who was the top-ranked player and RB in last years class. The difference is that Harris is 6ft3.
Just to be clear, Swift was not exactly carrying any ‘unwanted weight’. He’s ripped, with hugely powerful legs much like Nick Chubb. What we have seen this season is that he was already physically prepared to play on Saturdays and not a lot of people were thinking that was the case.
What we have also seen is that he might just be the most explosive back of his class. His burst is unlike anything even Michel or Chubb possess right now and his catching out of the backfield has been very impressive. Put simply, Swift has already shown that at just 18, he deserves to take touches away from two future NFL backs. That is pretty remarkable.