La’Mical Perine could become the New York Jets’ next Bilal Powell

La'Mical Perine has the perfect set of tools to provide Bilal Powell-esque long-term impact for the New York Jets. Joe Douglas' selection of Florida running back La'Mical Perine with the 120th overall pick in the fourth round has had some Jets fans a bit puzzled. Those doubts have not been regarding why the team would take a running back that highly, but rather, why they would take one who is widely considered to be a low-ceiling prospect. Perine does not seem to offer tantalizing traits such as top-end speed, elusiveness, and route-running ability that other backs on the board at No. 120 may have brought to the table. Those criticisms will likely turn out to be true regarding Perine. He certainly is not the high-upside home run hitter that fans were hoping to see the Jets snag on Day 3. With that being said, Perine does offer something that most fourth-round players do not - a well-rounded and NFL-ready skill-set. His balanced toolbox presents him as having a higher likelihood of succeeding than the average fourth-round running back. All of these pluses and minuses are highly reminiscent of the last running back taken by the Jets in the fourth round - Bilal Powell. Powell was never quite able to become the Jets' lead back (mostly due to inconsistent durability), but for the majority of his nine-year tenure with the Jets, he was a reliable presence in the backfield, steadily amassing plus-value over the years in his change-of-pace role. Perine has the tools to put together a very similar type of career. Soft hands One simple way that a running back can add value is by minimizing drops. Every reception offers the possibility of something positive happening for the offense. Thus, each and every drop - even ones on throws that would seemingly not result in much yardage - leaves potential positive value on the field. There is no telling what can become of any given reception. One broken tackle can lead to a big gain or a touchdown. Even if the receiver is about to be destroyed in the backfield, the defender may commit an unsportsmanlike penalty in the process of making the tackle to create a positive result for the offense. The possibility of that happening is eliminated if the pass is dropped. Long story short, dropping passes is bad (I'm sure you knew that). Over an extended volume of receptions, players can save quite a few plays by keeping their drop rates lower than average. Early in his career, Powell struggled with drops. From 2011-14, Powell dropped nine passes and made 65 receptions, recording a poor drop rate of 12.2% (2019 running back average: 6.7%). He improved in the latter portion of his career. From 2015-18, Powell caught 139 passes and dropped only eight, registering a solid drop rate of 5.4% (although he had two drops against seven receptions in 2019). Perine's body of work at Florida suggests that he could become a reliable target in the NFL. He dropped only two passes in his career while pulling in 72 receptions, posting a tremendous drop rate of 2.7%. Ball security Similar to drops, running backs can add value by racking up touches without giving the football away. Over 1,047 touches with the Jets from 2012-19 (Powell fumbled once in a tiny sample as a rookie), Powell fumbled the ball only seven times. That's a rate of 0.67%, sixth-best out of the 24 running backs with at least 1,000 touches over that span. Perine steadily improved his ball security at Florida. After fumbling twice over 146 touches in 2017 (1.36%), Perine lost the football only one time over 319 touches from 2018-19 (0.31%). He never fumbled the ball across a career-high 172 touches in his 2019 senior season. Pass protection Not enough attention is paid to the role that skill position players have in an offense's overall quality of blocking. Pass protection is where running backs get involved. Powell has done a great job protecting the numerous quarterbacks he has taken handoffs from. He has allowed 32 pressures in his career over 416 pass blocking snaps, a rate of 7.7% that beats the 2019 positional average of 9.2%. From 2015-17, Powell allowed four pressures on 114 protection snaps (3.5%). Unfortunately, there are no numbers available regarding Perine's track record as a protector, but most analyses see that facet of his game as a strength. This rep from Perine is not the conventional protection snap, but it showcases his sheer willingness to contribute as a blocker. Perine picks up the edge rusher and comes into the block ferociously, driving him downfield. The defender then reads the quarterback and tries to peel off of Perine to impede the drag route, but Perine stays with the block and grounds the defender to keep his teammate clean. Perine puts a cherry on top by chucking a pursuing linebacker into the air. Downhill running Elusiveness is not a strength of Perine's. In his senior season with the Gators, he forced 24 missed tackles on 132 carries, an average of 0.182 per carry that ranked at the 31st percentile among qualified running backs (average is about 0.218). What Perine does give you is the ability to hit the hole belligerently and churn out however many extra yards his momentum will give him. Perine averaged 3.73 yards after contact per carry in 2019, which ranked at the 79th percentile among running backs. Watch here as he drags Jamal Adams down the field on this run back in 2016. Numbers aside, Jets fans know how Powell runs the football. One-cut, aggressively through the hole. Whatever is there to be had, he will go and get. Much like Perine. And Powell has been successful with that approach. Of the 55 running backs with at least 500 carries since 2012, Powell ranks 17th with an average of 4.37 yards per attempt, getting that done behind mostly poor offensive lines. Powell's career total of 3,675 rushing yards is the 13th-most in NFL history by a fourth-round pick. Of the 43 running backs taken in the fourth round since 2010, Powell's career average of 33.7 rushing yards per game stands as the fifth-highest. Perine may not be a home run hitter, but if he manages to do for the Jets what Powell has, Douglas and company will have knocked this pick out of the park.