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alyoshamucci
He does not have 300 touches on his body.
He does not have goal line leg drive or length.
It's why I'm looking at RB early.
If you're not a threat to run the ball in on goal to go from the 3, then your playbook shrinks and so do the lanes.
But I think a RB will be available to be a 1A to Henderson's 1B.
.... "touched on his body." And that's dependent on what others have mentioned above - his ability to regularly avoid full-on hits. Sanders, Faulk ... of course. But early-Gurley was good at that too. Just haven't seen enough of Henderson to know one way or the other.
What I have seen watching Henderson, no, he does not have the kind of elusiveness in tight space you are talking about. He certainly has some but it's not his optimal thing.
The optimal thing with Henderson IMO is very high level contact balance. You hit him and as often as not it does not turn out to be a "full" hit--it becomes a glance, and he maintains balance while moving.
Is that enough to make him a top back? Actually yes I think it is.
But we don't know yet about other things with him. Stamina, raw competitiveness, toughness, field smarts, instincts, how good is his vision (we know it's good, how good). Can he be a consistent pass blocker.
I am sure he has those things to one degree or another I just don't know yet how much.
But back to the main point--no he is not elusive in the super-elusive way of those kinds of backs, but he does have freaky contact balance, which is a top notch thing in its own right. Yes he's fast, has good acceleration, is strong for his size (with a nice compact build) but IMO what sets him apart is maintaining balance and momentum when hit. He's fairly elusive, but not super elusive, so the contact balance helps him deal with traffic.
One example (vid from twitter)
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