Nolan Saraceni Scouting Report

After taking a look at Saraceni’s highlights from his 2016 All American Senior season at Montana Tech, there was a lot to be impressed with and a few things to work on as a whole as well. Saraceni currently plays with the Sioux Falls Storm and has been with them since 2019. Saraceni has shown in multiple games throughout his time at Montana Tech why he had the ability to become a 2x All American Running Back in the Frontier Conference. In his 2016-17 season, Saraceni had the most rushing yards, rushing yards per attempt and per game, and most touchdowns of all running backs in the conference, while helping lead Montana Tech to a conference-best 9-1 record. Some of his strengths from this season would be his size as a running back, vision, quickness, and acceleration. He has good size as a running back standing at 5 foot 9 inches while weighing close to 200 to 205 pounds. This is a size similar to future Hall of Fame running back, Frank Gore, who Saraceni shares similar traits with. When it comes to his vision, Saraceni does a good job of identifying the hole throughout the play as it breaks down. If it is an inside run, Saraceni will be able to find the hole rather quickly if it opens up and get on his horse. Saraceni finds most of his success with inside runs rather than outside as well, but if he needs to bounce outside, Saraceni utilizes his acceleration to help him escape pressing defenders. What impresses me the most about Saraceni is his acceleration. On the tape, Saraceni doesn’t appear to be the fastest guy, but when he finds a hole, he uses that great acceleration and gets into the open field. Saraceni is a tough runner who had been able to break a number of tackles, with stiff arms, quick jukes, and shedding tackles. Saraceni is a great runner and a dangerous threat when approached in the open field. With some strengths come some things to improve upon as well. To start, even though Saraceni possesses good speed, he isn’t a burner, as his style of play involves being able to be physical. His acceleration allows him to get to his top speed quickly, but he doesn’t possess that second gear that you’d like to see. On top of that, although I am currently unaware of his statistics on fumbles (if or how many times he fumbled), some things to take away from his ball security is when he continues to keep the ball on the inside arm of the field and not putting two arms on the ball when engaged with a defender. There were times when Saraceni could have lost the ball from these two minor details throughout his highlights, so it is important to improve on these things. Also, although again he has great vision, there are times where he dances a bit too much in the backfield, and this could cost him in the future as a running back if too much time is wasted back there. This is not too much of an issue, but there can be times where it is more important to get the first down and keep the drive going, rather than going for a touchdown on every play. Just something to work on. I would have liked to see some of his highlights from more on the receiving end, to see if he is capable of being a dual-threat on the rushing and receiving end out of the backfield. Saraceni only caught 10 passes for 64 yards and zero touchdowns. After taking a look at his highlights from the Sioux Falls Storm, it is shown that he has shown he is capable of protecting and helping out the quarterback when in pass pro. I would like to see more of that as he continues moving forward.