By Matt Bressington
Germany has produced so many young Running back talents over the last few years that sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the next man up. Gerald Ameln was successful in 2021 picking up the ELF Offensive Rookie of the Year and has since signed with the Cologne Centurions after time with the Hamburg and Frankfurt ELF franchises. Maurice Baker has completed his time in the NFL academy and now will test his abilities in Leipzig, and Ali Khalife is making the jump from the Berlin Adler to his debut season with the Milan Seamen, also of the ELF. The point is, Germany produces talents, and Running back is a speciality. In this instalment of the “Future Star Series,” I want to highlight, whom I believe, to be the next great Germany Running back.
Running back – Germany – Lucas Harting-Candido – Hamburg Sea Devils
A product of the Hamburg youth system through the Huskies, Harting-Candido is surprisingly not being mentioned in the conversation of possible ROTY and OROTY nominations among media outlets. At 5’11 and 195lbs he has prototypical size at the position and shows excellent burst through the second and into the third level of the defence. His 4.49 unofficial 40 looks to be solid when he’s in open space, as he can out-speed players on the side-line, even with a disadvantage on angles. The Ball Carrier vision in open space is also held in hard regard, he looks for a gap and attacks it aggressively. This is exactly what you want from a young back, someone who can hit a home run play, even with limited touches. He shows a shiftiness in the backfield with his cuts, they’re sharp and decisive and he doesn’t telegraph them prematurely. Given he is a young prospect who is below the age of twenty-one, the sky is the limit in terms of his potential at the next level. His athletic ability is simply on another level than most players in the league and his 10.6 YPC in his last youth season with the Huskies is a testament to how far ahead he is compared to his peers.
As far as the tape shows parts of his game can and will be improved. There is a tendency to dance in the backfield a little too long, rather than taking a short gain he will wait as long as possible for a gap to open up. He doesn’t often go through the middle and take contact, preferring to bounce outside and make a player miss, this wouldn’t make him a Three-Down back as sometimes you only need a yard or two. Also, his receiving value is not as high as other backs out of the backfield, and we will have to wait and see if he’s able to contribute to blocking against the ELF quality DL talent. Fernandez, Zeregba and many other players that are in the Western Division will look to test him early on this part of his game. I can see him being in the rotation and seeing 5-10 touches a game to build up his experience and give him the best opportunity to use that big play ability. We’ve witnessed Sören Hauff do outstanding work with the Running backs at the Sea Devils, Toonga being the best in the league last year and the previously mentioned Ameln winning the OROTY, so I have no doubt he’ll get the best out of Harting-Candido.
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