NFL Draft: Broncos, Yale RB Tyler Varga a Good Fit
It’s officially NFL Draft season with the Senior Bowl having wrapped up this weekend, and the NFL world will now be looking forward to the Scouting Combine in February once the Super Bowl is over.
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The Denver Broncos and John Elway were present at the Senior Bowl, so they got an up-close-and-personal look at some of the top seniors in the country, and some players that could be part of what they hope is a Super Bowl run in 2015.
We’ll highlight plenty of prospects as the weeks progress, but one prospect from the Senior Bowl week that made an impression on many was Yale running back Tyler Varga, who forced everyone to go back and look at the tape when he showed up at the weigh-in looking absolutely rocked at 5-10, 227 pounds.
What Varga proved to everyone in that room is that he is clearly a hard worker off the field, and you know having graduated from Yale that he’s a pretty smart kid as well. What everyone wanted to see at that point was whether or not he could ball. He answered the bell.
Varga rushed for two touchdowns in the Senior Bowl game itself, but throughout the week he displayed excellent all-around ability at the running back position, good quickness and agility, and the ability to catch passes out of the backfield. Scouts and NFL personnel also wanted to see how Varga did as a lead blocker and in pass protection, and while he’s not been a fullback before, he certainly didn’t look out of place as the week progressed.
Displaying soft hands and the ability to develop into a lead blocker, Varga appears to be a perfect fit for the fullback role in Gary Kubiak’s offense. I’ve already received questions by some fellow Broncos fans about whether or not the Broncos could simply move Juwan Thompson into such a role, and that’s certainly possible, but we haven’t seen Thompson really do any lead blocking and I think he’s suited more to the traditional running back role anyway.
Varga has serious H-Back potential and I think with Kubiak installing his offense in Denver, a lead fullback could become a requirement. In today’s NFL, however, it pays to be versatile and Varga may have not only separated himself from the rest of the pack of running backs in Mobile, but he might have made himself quite a bit of cash.
This year’s draft class is chock full of running back prospects, so Varga showing that he can also play fullback and catch passes out of the backfield is a huge plus, not to mention the fact that he can pass protect.
In Varga, you have an all-around back who isn’t spectacular athletically compared to guys like Melvin Gordon in this draft but he’s a fantastic athlete in his own right and brings a ton to the table in terms of versatility. The Broncos are pretty loaded at running back, but who’s to say they can’t move someone or create some more competition?
I think Varga would be an excellent pickup for a Broncos team that is making some moves on the offense and could be utilizing this type of running back a lot more often with Kubiak on board.