2021 NFL Draft: Rutgers RB Isaih Pacheco deserves your attention
By Cory Kinnan
Where Pacheco shows room for improvement
While Pacheco has a ton of valuable and appealing tools to build off of, he also shows to have holes in his game and room for improvement. The first glaring hole in Pacheco’s game is his ability as a receiver out of the backfield for the Scarlet Knights.
He has only caught 15 passes in two years at Rutgers, and even on tape (this writer watched his games against both Ohio State and Penn State in 2019), Pacheco’s hands showed to be inconsistent and unreliable as he dropped passes or bobbled them before working upfield. As Schiano comes to town to take over for former head coach Chris Ash, this should be an area of emphasis for Pacheco.
For as hard as Pacheco runs as well, his contact balance, the ability to keep the steam moving forward without much loss to acceleration, shows some room for improvement. Sure, he keeps his legs churning and tends to fall forward, but does not possess the trait to bounce off those tackles and continue to work in space.
Keep an eye on Pacheco’s contact balance and hands this season as an early entry into the 2021 NFL Draft could be in the future for the Rutgers’ running back.