The Las Vegas Raiders recently released veteran running back Kenyan Drake. This is after he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in December of the 2021 season and only playing in 12 games. The Raiders went ahead and drafted Zamir White, Brittian Brown and also signed veterans Ameer Abdullah and Brandon Bolden, who will all compete for reps behind Josh Jacobs.
Over six seasons in the NFL, Drake has 3,384 total yards from scrimmage while averaging 4.4 yards per attempt with 37 touchdowns. Over the last two seasons Drake started in 15 games and rushed for 1,246 yards with 12 touchdowns. So far this year, in the three preseason games, Drake had ten carries for 36 yards and five receptions for 27 yards.
Let’s go to the film and break down his play to see where he could be most effective this upcoming season!
A key cog in an RPO-heavy offense
According to SIS, in 2020, Drake had the fifth most rushing yards (304) and was at the top of the NFL in first downs (19) when running within an RPO offense.
This allowed Drake to get inside easily without the ends crashing down. Drake thrives on a misdirection offense; this is why he was so effective with the Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals.
In the clip below, the Cardinals were running with two tight ends on the line of scrimmage and two receivers out wide. This gave Murray an option to throw the ball to the sideline on a bubble screen, hand it off to Drake to run behind his blockers, or to keep the ball and run up the hash.
In this case, the linebacker on the outside stays home, outside the hash, which gives an even number of blockers and defenders to the left side of the field.
These numbers give a better chance for Drake to slip through the gaps between the blockers, which seems to be his best skillset.
Here are a few clips from the 2020 season where he does a great job at this. He reads his blockers well who are running an inside zone blocking scheme.
Drake is slippery between the tackles and gets explosive when hitting his holes. When getting to the edge, he does a great job changing speeds which puts defenders off balance as he runs right by them up the sideline.
As a receiver out of the backfield
Over the last six years, one of the ways that Drake became a three-down back is his blocking and catching ability out of the backfield; especially on third-and-long and in the red zone.
Drake isn’t known for being the strongest back in the room, but he can certainly add value from the backfield when going out for a pass. He can take a hit and also lay a hit on defensive players.
So far this preseason, Drake has had 10 carries out of the backfield and five receptions. In the clip below, two out of the three receptions, he utilized a chip block on the edge, almost pancaking on his first attempt.
Drake uses his leverage well when going out for passes and does a great job when he has to adjust for the catch, which makes it seem like he is always getting yards after the catch.
Over his career, he’s gained over a thousand all-purpose yards three out of six years in the NFL. He’s averaged a 17.2 yards per game in receiving with a 73% catching percentage.
Conclusion
Drake has gained over 1,000 all-purpose yards over the last two years. Any team looking to exploit his skillsets wouldn’t need to rely on him to carry majority of the load, but to come in and punch the ball in the endzone and also receive out of the backfield.
There are a few teams that are currently looking for depth in the backfield and also running a complementary offense for his skillset. Some of those teams include the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles and he would fit right in if he went back to the Arizona Cardinals.
Keep a few of those teams in mind when waiting for his ultimate landing spot.
