I have seen a ton of lists with Bijan very high on the board, and I personally don't have any problem with that as I value the classical backs who can eat carries and function in that bellcow role.
But...
I also have a feeling that Bijan's pass game contributions will cause him to slide a bit from the high end expectations people have for him. He's not flawed in that phase or anything, but he is also not special there. And I think Gibbs will go much higher than he has been listed for the same reason.
My rationale on all this is the proliferation of WCO systems throughout the league, which favor the passcatchy threat and ability to flip the field. This is not to think that Bijan won't get long runs in the NFL, as he certainly will. But I don't think he's going to flip the field on a routine basis. Gibbs, however, probably has a better chance to do that.
Every team out there is looking for a Kamara type, or a Faulk type, whatever you want to call it. This includes McVay, Shanny, and anyone else who runs a similar style of offense. So my theory on this is that many teams value that more than the bellcow elements of yesteryear and I expect we may even see Gibbs go off the board before Bijan.
I know. I'm nuts. But it seems to me when I watch the film that Gibbs has a collection of abilities that are harder to find. And when it comes to RBs supply is heavy, there simply are a lot of backs every given year that can tote the rock for you safely. They're not in Bijan's class of course, but some can functionally approach that with the right pieces and scheme around them. The passcatchy types, on the other hand, particularly the ones who can threaten in the pass game but also eat some carries for you when they need to, they seem to me to be a bit more rare.
So this draft is going to be interesting, to see if the league has trended as far as I expect or whether I'm gonna be like Bobby Bouche's mother on this one and end up wrong again. But one of my draft surprise expectations is that Bijan slides and Gibbs goes off the board before him. And I'd love to be wrong too because I think Gibbs might be special in the NFL, he's got a chance because his agility and pass game projections I feel are very high.
