The Arizona Cardinals drafted running back Keaontay Ingram in the sixth round of the NFL draft last month. He is a big back who played collegiately both at Texas and at USC.
Listed at 6-0 and 215 lbs, he has played much bigger.
Bigger backs are known for being punishing runners. Ingram believes he can be more.
“I’m not just a guy that can go in there and ram a defensive end or a linebacker, but also I’m a guy that can go out there and catch screens one-on-one with the linebackers,” he said as a guest on the Big Red Rage. “And I can play with the defense a little bit when I’m sitting in the gun five yards from the snap count and just go out my progressions. I feel like I’m a very versatile player and I showed that a little bit at SC.”
Ingram said that so far in rookie minicamp and OTAs, he has been used a little bit in the passing game.
He weighs about 216 right now and plans on playing at about 220. He got as big as 240 when he was at Texas because he was used more as a blocker.
He says he has good size and good feet.
Given the choice between running past or around a defensive back or running over him in the open field, what he would do is situational, although he did make it clear.
“I love laying the boom,” he said. “I love taking a person’s will over and over and over, over, over again.”
He knows he has to prove himself to the coaches and his teammates. But if he can earn playing time, a pairing of him with James Conner could be very hard for defenses to deal with over the course of an entire game.
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