Too Deep 96 #52-#60: A Run on Running Backs
Come for RBs Bhayshul Tuten, Dylan Sampson and Cam Skattebo. Stay for the bear crawls and nord punches.
Next up in the Too Deep 96: three fun-to-watch running backs, a developmental offensive linemen and some semi-controversial defenders.
#52 Cam Skattebo, Running Back, Arizona State
Skiddely-doo-bop! Skiddely-doo-bop! I’m scat singing! I’m also a ghost. Boo!
Sorry about the Svengoolie (Skattebooie?) humor, though not the classic Cab Calloway number. The announcers did far worse on Arizona State broadcasts. “Peekaboo Skatteboo” was the worst, by far.
Skattebo is a cross between J.K. Dobbins and an MMA fighter. He eventually goes down, but he does everything possible to take others down with him. Only Ashton Jeanty (84) broke more tackles than Skattebo (49), who doesn’t so much have a truck stick as some Mortal Kombat finishing moves. When Skattebo stiff-arms a defender to the ground, he keeps stiff-arming him to make sure he doesn’t get up.
Skattebo rushed for 143 yards, caught 8 passes for 99 yards and threw a 42-yard touchdown against Texas in the 2024 playoffs. On one goal-line carry, he slammed directly into 330-pound defender Bill Norton. The defender had Skattebo in a bear hug at about the three-yard line. Skattebo twisted out of Norton’s embrace and into the arms of a Sun Devils teammate; the two of them tumbled backward into the end zone. Skattebo’s film is full of moments like that, especially in short-yardage situations, where he often took direct snaps.
Skattebo spent three seasons at Sacramento State before transferring to Tempe; he’s a slightly older prospect who turned 23 in February. He’s a fine screen-and-YAC target, but he lacks high-end speed and acceleration. The biggest knock on Skattebo, however, is his Hulk Smash rushing style: he absorbs as much punishment as he dishes out.
Skattebo’s rushing style is similar to that of Tennessee prospect Dylan Sampson. Skattebo is bigger and better-suited to take a pounding than Sampson, however, and it’s a little harder for defenders to stand him up and pry the ball free. The Dobbins comparison, however, is a reminder of what the NFL careers of tackle-breaking bruisers often look like. If Skattebo learns to avoid more direct collisions than he causes, he could become a regular 1,000-yard rusher.
#53 Bhayshul Tuten, Running Back, Virginia Tech
South Jersey’s Tuten (he attended Paulsboro High School) led all Combine running backs with a 4.32-second forty. He did so at a compact 206 pounds, so he’s also the 2025 Speed Score champion. Oh, and he broke 35 tackles while forcing 28 more missed tackles in 2024. His broken/missed tackle per attempt rate of 34.4% was fourth in the nation among players with 100-plus rushes, just above Ashton Jeanty.
Watch Tuten truck a defender in the gap and outrun the whole Miami defense for a touchdown on the second play of this cutup and you may want your team to trade its whole draft class for him:
There are dandy plays like that all over Tuten’s filmography: he’s a smooth cutter in traffic who is hard to bring down and turns on the 4.32-second turbochargers when he sees daylight. But Tuten fumbled four times each in 2023 and 2024. He takes a lot of square hits for a rusher his size. He’s strictly an outlet receiver who isn’t all that elusive when he gets the ball in the flat.
Tuten reminds me a little of Tyjae Spears, who is now a useful RB2 for the Titans. Spears wasn’t as big or fast as Tuten, but their styles were similar, and (critically) Spears did not have fumble issues. Tuten has boom-or-bust potential: he could rush for 1,000 yards as a rookie, or he could fumble twice in training camp and never be heard from again.
#54 Dylan Sampson, Running Back, Tennessee
Sampson runs like he wants to hurt someone. Possibly himself. He takes on tacklers like an eight-pound bowling bowl trying to smash through a brick wall. The Volunteers liked to stack him behind an H-back – or two of them in a quirky shotgun full-house backfield – and let him hammer away with a mix of dives and counters. It was like watching the 1980s classic Honey, I Shrunk John Riggins.