Dewayne
Mcbride.
Dewayne
Mcbride.
Ala-Birmingham
"The most efficient runner nobody invited to Indianapolis — a 7.3-yards-per-carry hammer whose one-dimensional, no-catches college profile kept him waiting until pick 222."Pre-draft read
McBride is a compact, low-to-the-ground power back who made his living between the tackles in UAB's downhill run game. He runs with rare pad level and a wide, balanced base, letting him absorb first contact and churn through arm tackles. His best trait is patience: he presses the line, lets his pullers and doubles develop, then commits with a decisive one-cut burst.
The second layer is contact balance. He rarely goes down on first hit and finishes falling forward — that is why so much of his production came after defenders touched him. The limits are real: he sees cutback lanes a beat late, he was barely used as a receiver (five career catches), and his long speed is good-not-special, so he wins with vision and power, not home-run juice.
Gap/power rushing scheme with a fullback or heavy personnel, where his patience and contact balance behind pullers and double teams matter more than speed
Year 1: practice-squad power back who learns protection; ceiling: two-down rotational hammer in a run-first offense
Spread-to-pass offenses that demand route-running, third-down protection and space creativity from the backfield
His five career college receptions made any pass-game projection pure guesswork.
DeWayne McBride 2022 Midseason Highlights
Official midseason reel from his 1,713-yard, 19-touchdown 2022 campaign.
DeWayne McBride (UAB RB #22) vs. BYU 2021
Full game cut-up of his work against an independent FBS defense in 2021.
DeWayne McBride vs Western Kentucky (2022)
Every-carry cut-up from his 2022 meeting with WKU's front.
McBride built one of the most productive rushing profiles in the 2023 class on volume efficiency at UAB. After a 439-yard freshman taste in 2020, he erupted for 1,371 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2021, then led the nation at 155.7 rushing yards per game in 2022 with 1,713 yards and 19 scores, earning second-team All-America honors from Walter Camp and the Sporting News. His 7.3 career yards per carry on 484 attempts is the loudest number on his file.
The flags sit in the same place as the production. He almost never caught the ball, he was not asked to pass protect with any sophistication, and the jump from Conference USA to the NFL is exactly the kind his late recognition on cutbacks struggles with. His 10 career fumbles against 36 touchdowns showed up on every scouting report, and evaluators wondered how much of the yardage was scheme and soft fronts.
The industry saw the tension. McBride ranked 139th on the consensus board and was the 12th back in the class, a day-three player whose efficiency demanded respect but whose one-dimensional profile capped his ceiling. Not invited to the Combine, he ran in the mid-4.5s at his pro day, not a number that moves teams off a board. Minnesota spent the 222nd pick betting his power and vision would translate as a rotational hammer.
- 01
Contact balance
Absorbs first contact with a wide base and low pads, consistently finishing runs falling forward for hidden yardage.
- 02
Patience and press
Waits for pullers and doubles to develop, presses the line to move linebackers, then commits with a decisive one-cut burst.
- 03
Volume efficiency
Produced 7.3 yards per carry across 484 career attempts at UAB, including a nation-leading 155.7 rushing yards per game in 2022.
- 04
Short-area power
Runs through arm tackles in the hole with a strong lower half, turning two-yard creases into five-yard gains between the tackles.
- 05
Ball-carrier toughness
Answered a 233-carry workload in 2022 without wearing down, getting stronger as games moved into the fourth quarter.
- 01
Late cutback recognition
Sees backside lanes a beat slow, which Group of Five speed forgave but NFL linebackers will punish immediately.
- 02
Minimal receiving value
Caught just five passes in three college seasons with no route tree, making him a two-down player on a roster that needs versatility.
- 03
Ball security
Put the ball on the ground ten times against 36 college touchdowns, a fumble rate that cannot survive an NFL training camp.
- 04
Pass protection
Rarely asked to protect at UAB and showed marginal technique and awareness when he was, limiting third-down usefulness.
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | UAB | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | UAB | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 19 |
| 2022 | UAB | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 |
| Career | — | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 29 |
Season lines verified against cfbstats; the sums match his 484-3,523-36 career rushing line exactly.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Productive college grinder whose limited receiving and athletic ceiling kept him as a deep reserve.
Compact power back who turned elite college efficiency into a two-down hammer role in a gap scheme.
Small-school efficiency darling whose one-dimensional game never found an NFL foothold.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
McBride's NFL story never left the practice field. He spent his entire 2023 rookie season on the Vikings' practice squad behind Alexander Mattison, Ty Chandler and eventually a rebuilt room, never earning a regular-season elevation. Minnesota brought him back on a futures deal in January 2024, but he was waived before the 2024 season as the room turned over again, and he never recorded an NFL regular-season carry.
From there the trail moved north and sideways: a stint with the UFL's Memphis Showboats in early 2025, a brief CFL stop with Edmonton that ended with a June 2025 release, and indoor football with the Orlando Pirates. The honest retrospective is that the college profile's flaws were fatal at the next level. A one-dimensional power back who cannot catch, cannot protect and fumbles has almost no roster path in the modern NFL, no matter how pretty the yards-per-carry was against Conference USA fronts. The 222nd pick was a reasonable lottery ticket; it simply never cashed.