Jonathan Dwyer Scouting Report

Jonathan Dwyer has taken advantage of the new system brought in by Coach Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech. Yet, his collegiate career started in 2007 under a more traditional offense. As a backup to Tashard Choice as a true freshman, Dwyer carried the ball 82 times for 436 yards and nine touchdowns. Obviously those numbers went way up when Coach Johnson showed up at Georgia Tech and Choice went off to the NFL. As a sophomore Dwyer turned into one of the most productive backs in the nation, rushing 200 times for 1,395 yards and 12 scores. Dwyer's yards per carry average has gone down a little bit during the 2009 season, mostly due to ACC opposition getting used to the spread option offense the Yellow Jackets employ, but he is still averaging over 100 rushing yards per game through nine contests in the 2009 campaign. At 6-0 and 235 pounds, Dwyer is the bruising back on the team and NFL scouts have taken notice. Dwyer is one of the best draft eligible running backs out there and he should be a first round draft pick if he opts to go pro early; at this point that seems like a logical choice. 1/17 Update: Dwyer finished up his junior year rushing for 1,395 yards on 235 carries and 14 touchdowns. The Yellow Jackets' ground attack flourished as expected and Dwyer was the main back on the team. He has opted to forgo his senior season at Georgia Tech and enter the NFL and he should at least be a second round selection barring a surprisingly bad showing at the workouts. 3/1 Update: Dwyer did not run as fast as many hoped at the NFL Combine. Nor did he prove to have a lot of strength. While the numbers should not hurt his stock too much, Dwyer is probably a second rounder right now (unless he can prove at Georgia Tech's pro day that he is better than that). Yet, the running back situation in this draft is a little odd and everybody could slip a little bit since nobody is the obvious best running back in the class. That means Dwyer should be right in the mix of a half a dozen or so running backs that will fly off the board in the late first round and the early second round.