Cedric Benson is a multi-talented athlete who played two seasons of minor league baseball, as well as playing runningback for the Texas Longhorns. He has been compared to former Texas great and current NFL dropout Ricky Williams. He runs a lot like Ricky did. He’s a between the tackles runner, but he isn’t quite as powerful as Ricky was. He has good vision, hits the hole hard and has the ability to make people miss in the open field. He has the strength to move the pile and effectively break tackles. He has good quickness and the ability to break a long run. However, he does not have the pure speed to be considered a home run threat every time he touches the ball. He is an above average blocker and just an average receiver. He could still use some work in both of those areas. Many question his dedication and his desire to play the game. He has stated in the past that he would like to play baseball. He has also had a couple minor run-ins with the law—not something you really look for in your star tailback. The thing that probably bothers me the most about Benson is the wear and tear on his body during his time at Texas. He has carried the ball over 1,100 times, which is way too many carries for a college back in my opinion. In comparison, Ronnie Brown has about 600 less carries in his career. On average, that’s 2-3 extra NFL seasons for Brown. If the average career for an NFL runningback is 6 or 7 years, you would expect the average career of a runningback with twice as many carries to be in the 3-5 year range. Most have Benson as the number one back on the board right now. That may not be the case on draft day. I think he could easily fall to number two and there’s an outside chance he could be the third back taken. Whatever happens, he will be a first round pick in April.