Jase
Mcclellan.
Jase
Mcclellan.
Alabama· 5'10"· 221 lb
"A finished, low-ceiling committee back whose contact balance and third-down trust are real NFL traits — the question was never whether he could play, but whether anyone would need him to."Pre-draft read
McClellan is a compact, downhill one-cut back who lived between the tackles in Alabama's gap and duo run game. He presses the line with real patience, lets the double team develop, then drops his pads through the crease with no wasted stutter. Contact balance is the trait: he absorbs the first hit at the second level, keeps his feet churning and finishes forward.
The secondary trait is dependability, not dynamism. He is a technically sound pass protector who finds the free rusher and squares his shoulders, and he catches checkdowns cleanly. What he does not offer is a second gear, so the creases have to be there. His signature is that he never turns a two-yard gain into a three-yard loss.
Gap and duo-heavy run game that asks the back to press the double team, stay north and finish through contact rather than create.
Year 1: RB3 and core special-teams body who spells the starter on early downs. Ceiling: dependable RB2 splitting 8-12 touches a game in a committee.
Wide-zone system that asks him to bounce, stack cuts on the perimeter and win with burst to the edge — he has neither the speed nor the lateral suddenness for it.
The scheme has to hand him a crease; he will not manufacture one.
Jase McClellan 2023 Highlights | Alabama RB
Senior-season cutups showing the patience behind the double team and the finish through contact.
Jase McClellan | Alabama Crimson Tide 2023 Senior Highlights
Full senior reel including the Rose Bowl semifinal work against Michigan.
Jase McClellan: From Texas High School football to the NFL | Rookie Spotlight
Falcons rookie feature covering his path from Aledo to Alabama to Atlanta.
A four-year Alabama back with a starter's frame at 5-10 and 221 pounds, McClellan entered the league as a finished, low-variance role player rather than a projection. He is a between-the-tackles runner whose game is built on vision, patience and balance, and he was trusted in third-down protection by a program that does not hand that job out lightly.
The production context matters more than the raw totals. He sat behind Najee Harris and Brian Robinson as a freshman, tore his ACL five games into 2021, then split carries with Jahmyr Gibbs before finally leading the backfield as a senior with 890 yards on 180 attempts. His best football came in the biggest moments — 87 yards and two scores on 14 carries against Michigan in the Rose Bowl playoff semifinal. The flags were equally clear: a 4.9 career yards-per-carry mark in a loaded run game, no creation ability once the crease closed, and a knee history at a position that punishes it.
He never ran a 40 at the combine, which sealed the evaluation. Boards had him as a Day 3 committee back and a special-teams body, and the sixth round was exactly the right zip code — a rotational Alabama back with a clean profile and no clear path to volume.
- 01
Contact balance
Absorbs the first hit at the second level without losing his base and routinely converts a stuffed look into three or four extra yards through arm tackles.
- 02
Interior vision
Presses the double team, reads the second-level fit and takes the crease that is actually there rather than bouncing everything to the boundary.
- 03
Pass protection
Identifies the free rusher quickly, squares his shoulders and delivers into the chest of blitzing linebackers; Alabama trusted him on third down.
- 04
Ball security
Zero lost fumbles across 355 college carries, an unglamorous trait that keeps a late-round back employable in a committee backfield.
- 05
Big-game production
Saved his best tape for the biggest stage, running for 87 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries against Michigan in the Rose Bowl semifinal.
- 01
No second gear
Long speed is pedestrian and he does not pull away from angles; when a safety takes the correct path the run ends at 15 yards, not in the end zone.
- 02
No creation ability
Once the designed crease closes he has no counter; the sudden lateral cut and jump-cut escape that Day 2 backs flash simply are not on the tape.
- 03
Testing void
Declined the 40 at the combine and never posted a full athletic profile, which left teams grading a back purely on modest college efficiency.
- 04
Injury and efficiency history
A torn ACL in 2021 and a career mark of 4.9 yards per carry inside one of the best run-blocking programs in the country.
— — — positional median (p50)
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| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Alabama | 4 | 23 | 245 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | Alabama | 5 | 40 | 191 | 1 | 10 | 97 |
| 2022 | Alabama | 13 | 112 | 655 | 7 | 14 | 174 |
| 2023 | Alabama | 13 | 180 | 890 | 8 | 15 | 137 |
| Career | — | 35 | 355 | 1981 | 18 | 40 | 409 |
2021 season cut short by a torn ACL after five games. Season totals sum exactly to the career line.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Trusted backup and short-yardage option who plays teams and protects the quarterback without ever earning a full workload.
The realistic dream: another Alabama committee back who turned toughness and protection reliability into a multi-year starting role.
Well-regarded college back who bounces between rosters and practice squads because the traits do not separate at the NFL level.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Atlanta took him with the first of two sixth-round picks and never really found a role. Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier locked up the backfield, and McClellan spent his rookie year as a healthy scratch outside of two appearances, finishing 2024 with 13 carries for 32 yards and no touchdowns. The Falcons waived him in June 2025 without giving him a training-camp look. Tampa Bay signed him in August 2025 when Rachaad White went down with a groin injury, then waived him twelve days later at the roster cutdown. He has not appeared in a regular-season game since his rookie year.
In hindsight the evaluation was right and the landing spot was wrong. Nothing about the tape promised volume — he was a committee back at Alabama for four years and profiled as a backup who protects the quarterback and does not fumble. That player has a real NFL job, but only on a roster with a path to snaps, and Atlanta had already invested a top-ten pick and a fifth-rounder in front of him. The pick itself cost almost nothing; the mistake was spending it on a low-ceiling profile at the one position group the team had already solved.
Data note: 2021 season cut short by a torn ACL after five games. Season totals sum exactly to the career line.