What sets Eddie Lacy apart from the other running backs in the 2013 NFL Draft?

“I’m a bigger back but I can be agile,” Lacy says. “I can break long runs just like the smaller backs can, and I can get the tough yards on third-and-one, fourth-and-one, just like the bigger backs.”

One word describes Lacy’s running style: powerful.

The power game has been a hallmark of Alabama running backs going back to Heisman winner Mark Ingram. Like Ingram, Lacy is light on his feet and has exceptional balance— despite being two inches taller and 16 pounds heavier than Ingram.

At 5’11” and 231 pounds (at the NFL Combine), Lacy is not as compact as Trent Richardson, who stands 5’9” and weighs 228. But like Richardson, Lacy packs a powerful pop and almost always falls forward after contact.

Aside from the height discrepancy, it’s as if Lacy is a hybrid of Ingram and Richardson.

Lacy says, “When you’re behind two great athletes like Trent and Mark, you can’t help but learn from them.”

Lacy played behind Ingram and Richardson at ‘Bama and will now follow their footsteps into the NFL. Ingram was a first-round selection (28th overall) by the New Orleans Saints in 2010, and Richardson was chosen third overall by the Cleveland Browns in last year’s draft.

Since the NFL reduced the number of draft rounds in 1993, no school has had its running backs chosen in the first round of three consecutive drafts.

Where will Lacy, the consensus top-ranked RB in this year’s class, land in the draft? Probably in the first round, somewhere between Richardson and Ingram.