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Yearby vs Cook?

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I brought it up. Portis discussed it two months ago on 560 wqam after watching the Central state game. He raved about Yearby but also mentioned Cook and said something to the effect that UM should take both. He also added that when he played for UM, he didn't worry about what other RB's were on the team. Great players don't fear competition but rather embrace it.


jerzeycane said:
Canemang said:
IMO: Cook > Yearby. Watched them play Naples this past season, and Cook is just on another level.

But I ain't even mad with this commitment.
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And somebody here said Portis thinks Yearby is better.

Translation: Both of them are **** good running backs. With their own strengths and weaknesses. If Yearby turns out to be Gio Bernard, would folks really complain? Dude can run and has a great feel for the position.
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Here's my own personal analysis:

Let me preface this by saying I think they are both amazing running backs, however everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

Yearby has amazing vision, and that one skill which is so elusive (that Devin Hester perfected): reading the line a defensive player takes, faking to draw him off the line that Yearby will actually take, and then blowing by him. This skill by itself is not unheard of, plenty of players juke and fake till their legs run out. However Yearby does something I have seen very few players do, which is to do a juke or fake without barely altering his direction or speed. He causes defenders to whiff without compromising himself to being caught from behind. Once again the player who perfected that was Devin Hester. His tape shows he's not scared of contact (good news) but its not necessarily his strong point. Lets rate that as a par. His greatest weakness when compared to Cook in my opinion is his top end speed (he accelerates faster than cook, but stalls around 20-30 yards down). However he makes up for this by never having to decrease his speed due to his vision.

Cook's greatest attributes are his top end speed, and his ability to finagle himself out of tackles. He has alright vision, not a weakness but not amazing either, and as I stated previously has a slower first step than Yearby. The development of his vision, however, seems to have been hampered by his high top level speed which he relies on too often to simply run past defenders in a compromised situation. Furthermore, while he is able to get out of tackles so well it still remains to be seen whether this will carry over to the next level. He doesn't seem to knock the defenders around, and simply bounce off, but rather pull off a Houdini-like escape. This has me worried that it is more a result of bad tackling, which if true could cause a significant drop off at the next level.

My preference: Yearby
His vision and ability to draw defenders off without slowing down can't be taught, in my opinion while Cook is an amazing running back at the high school level, Yearby has the highest ceiling due to his vision, and also has the most transitional-able skill set for the college game.
 
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Cook is faster and more of a playmaker.
Yearby is your better more traditional runner.
 
Yearby is more natural in between the tackles, Cook is bigger and faster though. Yearby runs tough as **** for a smaller guy, solidly built.

Cook's upside is insane and much higher than Yearby's but getting tough yards is much more important at the college level than high school and right now I think Yearby does that better because he has better vision.

I like Sony a bit better than Cook, but Cook is as good a prospect as you will find.
 
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Chrisarg72 said:
Here's my own personal analysis:

Let me preface this by saying I think they are both amazing running backs, however everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

Yearby has amazing vision, and that one skill which is so elusive (that Devin Hester perfected): reading the line a defensive player takes, faking to draw him off the line that Yearby will actually take, and then blowing by him. This skill by itself is not unheard of, plenty of players juke and fake till their legs run out. However Yearby does something I have seen very few players do, which is to do a juke or fake without barely altering his direction or speed. He causes defenders to whiff without compromising himself to being caught from behind. Once again the player who perfected that was Devin Hester. His tape shows he's not scared of contact (good news) but its not necessarily his strong point. Lets rate that as a par. His greatest weakness when compared to Cook in my opinion is his top end speed (he accelerates faster than cook, but stalls around 20-30 yards down). However he makes up for this by never having to decrease his speed due to his vision.

Cook's greatest attributes are his top end speed, and his ability to finagle himself out of tackles. He has alright vision, not a weakness but not amazing either, and as I stated previously has a slower first step than Yearby. The development of his vision, however, seems to have been hampered by his high top level speed which he relies on too often to simply run past defenders in a compromised situation. Furthermore, while he is able to get out of tackles so well it still remains to be seen whether this will carry over to the next level. He doesn't seem to knock the defenders around, and simply bounce off, but rather pull off a Houdini-like escape. This has me worried that it is more a result of bad tackling, which if true could cause a significant drop off at the next level.

My preference: Yearby
His vision and ability to draw defenders off without slowing down can't be taught, in my opinion while Cook is an amazing running back at the high school level, Yearby has the highest ceiling due to his vision, and also has the most transitional-able skill set for the college game.
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Dude, you are one of the guys I have a great respect for when it comes to football accumen. Awesome post.
 
yesterday on here it would have been COOK the better back one lil switch and yearby is the guy....oh btw...yearby is the better back
 
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Chrisarg72 said:
Here's my own personal analysis:

Let me preface this by saying I think they are both amazing running backs, however everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

Yearby has amazing vision, and that one skill which is so elusive (that Devin Hester perfected): reading the line a defensive player takes, faking to draw him off the line that Yearby will actually take, and then blowing by him. This skill by itself is not unheard of, plenty of players juke and fake till their legs run out. However Yearby does something I have seen very few players do, which is to do a juke or fake without barely altering his direction or speed. He causes defenders to whiff without compromising himself to being caught from behind. Once again the player who perfected that was Devin Hester. His tape shows he's not scared of contact (good news) but its not necessarily his strong point. Lets rate that as a par. His greatest weakness when compared to Cook in my opinion is his top end speed (he accelerates faster than cook, but stalls around 20-30 yards down). However he makes up for this by never having to decrease his speed due to his vision.

Cook's greatest attributes are his top end speed, and his ability to finagle himself out of tackles. He has alright vision, not a weakness but not amazing either, and as I stated previously has a slower first step than Yearby. The development of his vision, however, seems to have been hampered by his high top level speed which he relies on too often to simply run past defenders in a compromised situation. Furthermore, while he is able to get out of tackles so well it still remains to be seen whether this will carry over to the next level. He doesn't seem to knock the defenders around, and simply bounce off, but rather pull off a Houdini-like escape. This has me worried that it is more a result of bad tackling, which if true could cause a significant drop off at the next level.

My preference: Yearby
His vision and ability to draw defenders off without slowing down can't be taught, in my opinion while Cook is an amazing running back at the high school level, Yearby has the highest ceiling due to his vision, and also has the most transitional-able skill set for the college game.
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Don't quite agree with your preference, but that was a really spot-on analysis of both of them (based off what I've seen, anyway). Great post. +rep
 
They both look really good. I still saw something very special when looking at Cook's highlight tape. Yearby definitely looks like a future starter though.
 
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TheSwagger1 said:
Chrisarg72 said:
Here's my own personal analysis:

Let me preface this by saying I think they are both amazing running backs, however everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

Yearby has amazing vision, and that one skill which is so elusive (that Devin Hester perfected): reading the line a defensive player takes, faking to draw him off the line that Yearby will actually take, and then blowing by him. This skill by itself is not unheard of, plenty of players juke and fake till their legs run out. However Yearby does something I have seen very few players do, which is to do a juke or fake without barely altering his direction or speed. He causes defenders to whiff without compromising himself to being caught from behind. Once again the player who perfected that was Devin Hester. His tape shows he's not scared of contact (good news) but its not necessarily his strong point. Lets rate that as a par. His greatest weakness when compared to Cook in my opinion is his top end speed (he accelerates faster than cook, but stalls around 20-30 yards down). However he makes up for this by never having to decrease his speed due to his vision.

Cook's greatest attributes are his top end speed, and his ability to finagle himself out of tackles. He has alright vision, not a weakness but not amazing either, and as I stated previously has a slower first step than Yearby. The development of his vision, however, seems to have been hampered by his high top level speed which he relies on too often to simply run past defenders in a compromised situation. Furthermore, while he is able to get out of tackles so well it still remains to be seen whether this will carry over to the next level. He doesn't seem to knock the defenders around, and simply bounce off, but rather pull off a Houdini-like escape. This has me worried that it is more a result of bad tackling, which if true could cause a significant drop off at the next level.

My preference: Yearby
His vision and ability to draw defenders off without slowing down can't be taught, in my opinion while Cook is an amazing running back at the high school level, Yearby has the highest ceiling due to his vision, and also has the most transitional-able skill set for the college game.
Click to expand...

Don't quite agree with your preference, but that was a really spot-on analysis of both of them (based off what I've seen, anyway). Great post. +rep
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Thanks to you and JerzeyCane.

As for my preference, I'm not a talent evaluator so I can't be trusted when it comes to predicting these things. However I'm just too enamored with the vision Yearby has. Cook is by far the best from a physical standpoint, however fast/strong kids seem to be much more common than the smart, instinctive back who always positions himself perfectly. I feel that strength can be taught (give him a utough and **** be much more powerful), and while Yearby has a lower top level speed which can stop the huge 70+ yard runs from occurring, he has the explosive first step that will guarantee getting 5 yards with a decent hole, so speed is not a problem if you will. Can Cook become just as smart as Yearby? Maybe, but I'll take the polished mental player over the project from that standpoint, as its much harder to teach instinct
 
Good post, ChrisArg. As you touched on, Yearby is an extremely efficient runner who doesn't need to gear down or use a ton of space to cut.

My biggest issue with him is size. From when I've watched him live or on TV, he's never looked particular stocky or strong. The good runners of Yearby's "type" are often built like tree trunks. If he can bulk up to the size of a Mark Ingram, then he can be that type of runner. But that remains to be seen. If he doesn't put on that much more weight, his lack of speed becomes a greater concern.
 
Yearby's size and speed are similar to Duke. Cook is almost identical to Miller. You can't really go wrong with either.
 
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