Former Georgia Southern running back Jerick McKinnon, who played at Sprayberry high, is part of the running back committee that is trying to replace Adrian Peterson for the Minnesota Vikings.
“Jerick was a guy who played multiple positions in college,” Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer said. “He’s a very, very good athlete. He’s strong and physical kid for his stature.
“He has excellent hands. Great quickness. He’s a young guy developing into what we hope to be a very good running back.”
McKinnon, who once rushed for 316 yards in college and led the Eagles to a victory over Florida, was taken in the third-round (96th overall) by the Vikings.
“I think it’s obvious that they like him,” Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan said. “They do a good job of getting him isolated on linebackers. They’ll motion him out of the backfield. They do a wide variety of things with him.”
He has five rushes for 7 yards and has caught four passes for 14 yards.
“I think he’s going to be a (Darren) Sproles kind of guy,” Nolan said. “As we know, we had difficulty with the Cincinnati Bengals guy (Giovani Bernard) who is a Sproles kind of a guy. So, we’ve got to really take that into account because he’s a talented guy.
“He can throw the ball too because he was a quarterback. There are lot of things that he can do.”
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