MLB Best Bets – Free (Wednesday 5/15)
Josh Gross
Last Updated: 10/4/2023
Carson Steele was hyperproductive at Ball State, producing over 2,700 yards and 22 touchdowns from scrimmage. He led the MAC in rushing yards (1,556), scrimmage yards (1,722) and touchdowns from scrimmage (15) last year. There are still questions whether he can make the jump from the MAC to the PAC-12.
Steele is a physical freak, standing 6-foot-1 and 215 chiseled pounds and is a workout fiend who can bench 450 pounds and squat 675 pounds. He uses every inch of this frame as a runner often leaning into contact and imposing his will on defenders. We see him constantly pushing piles and trucking over defenders in the open field oposeed to making them miss. Now, with this strength comes some limitations, he is very stiff as a runner lacking much bend in his hips within breaks and in his transitions. Despite this he shows good contact balance to stay upright after initial contact even if his upper body gets in front of his feet.
Even though he is stiffer than most he shows an ability to move laterally quickly especially when deploying his jump cuts. He also shows off great athleticism, often attempting to hurdle defenders. When it comes to speed, he leaves us wanting more, lacking quick acceleration. Within this is also a very upright running style making him more a strider which affects his acceleration. He has enough speed to be effective, but hardly breaks free for significant gains.
As a pass catcher Steele isn’t much, often struggling to make clean catches. We also see him struggle to catch poorly placed passes especially when they are outside his frame. He has limited route exposure which can be seen within his execution of routes when asked to run them. In the blocking game he struggles at times as well, but he is very willing to get physical with any rusher.
- Physical
- Powerful/strong runner
- Strong north and south runner
- Elusiveness
- Flexibilty and bend
- Stiff runner
- John Hodge Award (team’s most outstanding freshman on offense, 2021)
40-yard dash: TBD
- Vertical: TBD
- Broad Jump: TBD
- Three-cone: TBD
- Shuttle: TBD
- Bench: TBD
- Carson Steele projects to be an early down grinder at the NFL level, and I do not see him becoming much more than that without huge strides in his game.
- Gap
Carson Steele likely will only find significant fantasy value if he becomes a red zone threat. He has some nice traits but lacks a lot of the short area skills that help produce significant fantasy value. I think he will likely be in a rotation and need an injury to become relevant.
In C2C leagues Steele has decent value as he is linked to a productive UCLA offense and has a clear hold on the majority share of touches for the Burins.
