Brian Herrien will make some team very lucky in the 2020 NFL Draft

Georgia running back Brian Herrien isn’t projected to be taken until later in the 2020 NFL Draft, if at all, but some team will be lucky to get him.

If you’re Brian Herrien, you might be simply hoping someone … anyone … selects you in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Georgia senior has been a model player and teammate but simply hasn’t dazzled the scouts.

Dazzling scouts and NFL player personnel execs as a running back might be hard to do when you’ve spent your entire college career running behind Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Elijah Holyfield and D’Andre Swift.

Herrien, who has played for Georgia since 2016, is a senior now just hoping for his chance. Some NFL team will take a close look at his film and realize he’s a guy with a lot of gas left in the tank, and who probably could have been a starting tailback for most Division 1 schools.

To look at Brian Herrien’s stats you’d never know you were looking at a running back who played a crucial role in a lot of Georgia wins. He never rushed for more than 500 yards in a season, and six rushing touchdowns is his personal best for a season.

NFL analysts have given some mixed views on Herrien and what he can do.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein said of Herrien, “Hard-charging, backup-caliber running back with adequate size and plenty of toughness but missing feel and finesse.”

SI-Bulldogs Maven Jordan Jackson gave an analysis prior to the NFL Combine, “Honestly, it will be a tough path for Herrien, but if he can surprise teams by showing them he’s a better athlete than he’s given credit for, and convince NFL executives that he can be a core special teams player, Brian Herrien can beat the odds once again.”

However, there is another way of viewing Herriens’ four-year backup role with the Georgia Bulldogs. 

Herrien is a gifted and strong runner who has had the advantage of playing with, learning from and training with some of the best running backs to ever grace the Vince Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium, two of whom are now making big names for themselves in the NFL.

He’s also shown that when he needs to be counted on to shoulder the load, he can perform with exceptional results. He cemented himself as a player who could be depended on to do whatever it took to help the team win.

That type of attitude will win you a lot of points in the NFL.

So will plays like these.

There was another running back who was underestimated coming out of Georgia back in 1994 named Terrell Davis. He fell to the sixth round and was taken by the Broncos, becoming one of their all-time greatest players.

Herrien has that same build, that same makeup, and actually put together better NFL Combine numbers than Davis.

If you want a franchise-changing running back in the first or second round, go get yourself D’Andre Swift or J.K. Dobbins or Jonathan Taylor.

If you want a guy in the late rounds who could become a huge workhorse out of the backfield and on special teams, and who could possibly end up being the steal of the draft, then Brian Herrien is your guy.