Fantasy Impact: Seattle Seahawks select Christine Michael

The Seattle Seahawks selected Christine Michael with the final pick in the second round.

Christine Michael has all the physical talent you look for in a successful NFL running back.  He has a size and speed combination that scouts drool over.  At 5’10” and a rocked up 220, he ran a 4.54 forty yard dash and led all running backs at the combine in my personal favorite: the 3-cone drill.  A lot of talent evaluators and I love that drill as a barometer of lateral agility, a trait which is all important when attempting to navigate around tacklers in the NFL.  While he doesn't have elite open field moves once he is in space, the Texas A&M product can run both inside and outside the tackles very effectively.  He had a solid 5.3 yards per carry average over 4 year stay at A&M.  Despite low reception totals during his college career, he has solid hands out of the backfield and according to numerous scouts he excels in pass protection, making him a potential 3-down back at the next level.

After so much heaping praise, you are probably wondering where the “but” is, and believe me there are several.  He has character issues that were brought to light following missed interviews at the NFL scouting combine when he overslept.  He had documented issues with some of his Aggie teammates.  He also has some pretty serious injury concerns, as he has sustained a torn ACL and broken leg in back to back seasons to end his college career.  He has never eclipsed 900 yards in a single season, including a senior season where his ailments limited him to 88 carries for 417 yards. Despite this extensive injury history and the immediate red flag of oversleeping for the biggest job interview of his life, the Seahawks still felt highly enough of his physical skills to take him in Round 2.

College Stats

College statistics courtesy of Sports Reference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCVqxFeWFoU

Fantasy Impact with the Seattle Seahawks

Michael is in a tough position on the Seahawks' stacked running back depth chart, which obviously limits hit short term value.  I wouldn't touch him in redraft leagues unless it is an extremely deep league or one of Marshawn Lynch or Robert Turbin goes down.  Lynch is a bellcow in the prime of his career and Turbin was drafted just last year and impressed in limited action as a rookie.  I want to get excited about Michael's Dynasty prospects because I like him so much physically, but his path to playing time is blocked for the foreseeable future.  I can't recommend in good faith spending more than a third-round rookie pick on him unless you can afford to stash him for a significant period of time.