Scouting Profile: Dylan Sampson - RB - Tennessee
Sales Pitch: Dynamic ball carrier w/ elite production at only 20 years old. A first year starter who still needs to refine his game, but has game-changing speed w/ three-down upside.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA Top-25 for 2024*
*Red Numbers Indicate NCAA Bottom-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Dylan Sampson is a former 4-Star recruit from Louisiana, where he was a football and 100-meter standout in high school. He was primarily a rotation player for the Volunteers his first two years, before being handed in the reigns in 2024. Sampson, in his age 20 season, logged almost 1,500 yards and over 20 touchdowns on his way to SEC Offensive Player of the Year and All-American honors.
Sampson is a dynamic athlete with a compact frame. He has top notch short area burst to go with the expected long speed of a track champion. Despite a smaller frame, he is a hard-nosed runner who isn’t afraid to run between the tackles. Sampson is at his best on inside zone and duo runs, due to his strong instincts in traffic. He is able to get skinny and slip through holes as a downhill runner, with the agility to explode to the edge when the hole is filled up. Sampson has very good burst through the hole with the speed to separate at the 2nd and 3rd levels, and create chunk plays. He shows the change of direction skills and balance to make defenders miss in space, with a dazzling spin move to top it all off. At his size, Sampson will never be a power back, but his natural forward lean and leg drive made him an effective short yardage runner. His ability to slip through narrow gaps and keep his balance was a huge reason he was so effective in the red zone in 2204. Tennessee didn’t ask Sampson to do a lot in the pass game, but when they did he showed natural hands and the athletic ability to create after the catch.
Sampson is smaller back at just over 200 pounds, and will probably never be a true workhorse. His lack of size and play strength limits his ability to break tackles in the hole, especially when squared up. If defenders are able to get contact to his lower half before he gets his speed up, he goes down fairly easily. With only one year as a fulltime starter under his belt, sometimes the game moves a little fast for Sampson. Run types that take a longer to develop like counter or outsize zone, exposed some issues with patience. He is quick to get downhill and hug tightly off his blockers, but that can create some sharper cutback angles, cutbacks he sometimes missed all together. This was particularly an issue at the 2nd and 3rd level, where Sampson would misread his secondary blocks. Despite his speed he didn’t have the highest breakaway percentage, at just over 30%, due to some poor choices in space. Sampson’s inconsistencies reading the game showed up most glaringly as a pass protector. He is a willing blocker but struggles to sift through traffic and pick up blitzers. For a smaller player who needs to be aggressive to set a good pocket, this was a major issue. Bigger linebackers were able to get first contact and drive his undersized frame into the lap of his signal caller.
Sampson profiles best in a zone run scheme, while he does have experience operating gap runs, his one cut burst ability fits best as a zone runner. He still needs some seasoning - especially as a pass blocker - to realize his upside, but his juice and production at only 20 years old is intriguing. Sampson projects as a Day-2 pick for a team looking to add explosive playmaking to its rotation.