Rasheen
Ali.
Rasheen
Ali.
Marshall· 5'11"· 206 lb
"Marshall's best runner in a decade turned 514 carries into 2,831 yards on pure one-cut burst, but a lost season and a Senior Bowl biceps rupture decided how the league priced him."Pre-draft read
Ali is a one-cut zone back with kick-return juice, built to press the line, plant off his outside foot and take the crease at full speed. He is patient behind pullers and comfortable pressing a bubble before cutting back, and the burst through the hole is the trait — 5.5 yards a carry across 514 college attempts and 39 rushing scores, most of them decided in the first three steps.
He is a real receiver too, not a checkdown afterthought: 76 catches at Marshall, natural hands away from the frame, and enough route feel to run angles from the backfield. Contact balance is fine, power is not — he glances off tacklers rather than moving them. Long speed and vision are the separators; the goal-line and short-yardage work belongs to somebody else.
Outside- and wide-zone rushing attacks that ask a back to press, plant and go, paired with a passing game that uses backs on angles and swings
Year 1: change-of-pace back and primary kick returner, 6-8 touches a game on zone runs and screens. Ceiling: 1B in a committee that hands the short-yardage and goal-line work to a bigger partner.
Gap and power schemes that ask the back to hammer downhill through a fullback's block, or offenses that need one runner to carry 250 touches and pass-protect on early downs
Baltimore's pairing with Derrick Henry is the cleanest illustration: he only functions as the complement, never the load.
Rasheen Ali 2021 Highlights | Marshall
The 1,401-yard, 23-touchdown breakout: one-cut acceleration, cutback vision and the receiving reps out of the backfield.
Rasheen Ali Freshman Season Highlights - Marshall RB
Full-season cut of the 2021 campaign showing how quickly he presses and plants in the outside-zone game.
Rasheen Ali | #22 | Marshall Thundering Herd Running Back
Marshall career reel covering the 2023 return season, including the 180-yard afternoon at Virginia Tech.
Ali is a slasher, not a hammer. Marshall gave him the full workload in 2021 and 2023 and he answered both times with 1,100-plus yards and a rushing average north of 5.4, all of it on vision, timing and acceleration through the first level. He is a natural zone runner who reads the second-level defender rather than the hole in front of him, and he catches the ball like a slot receiver.
The production is loud and the availability is not. He played six games as a freshman, exploded for 1,401 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2021, then missed nearly all of 2022 and returned for only three games before winning Myrtle Beach Bowl MVP. He closed with 1,135 yards in 2023, earned a Senior Bowl invite, and ruptured a biceps tendon in practice before he could play the game. Between the missed year and the pre-draft injury, teams graded the profile as a rotational back with a special teams floor.
Boards had him as a fourth-to-fifth-round change-of-pace runner with return value: legitimate NFL burst, receiving chops, and questions about durability and short-yardage translation. At 165, Baltimore was adding a cheap complement behind Derrick Henry and betting on the kick-return job.
- 01
One-cut acceleration
presses the line, plants, and hits the crease at full speed; the burst through the first level is genuine NFL quality.
- 02
Zone vision
reads the second-level defender instead of the hole and consistently found the cutback lane in Marshall's outside-zone game.
- 03
Receiving back
76 career catches with soft hands away from the frame and enough route feel to be a real third-down option.
- 04
Kick-return value
averaged over 25 yards a return in the NFL immediately, the exact secondary job that keeps a rotational back employed.
- 05
Volume-proof efficiency
5.5 yards per carry on 514 college attempts and 39 rushing touchdowns, production that survived heavy usage.
- 01
Contact power
at 206 pounds he glances off tacklers instead of moving them, and short-yardage work went to bigger backs.
- 02
Availability
missed nearly all of 2022 and ruptured a biceps tendon in Senior Bowl practice, then opened his rookie year on injured reserve.
- 03
Pass protection
willing but late to identify blitzers, and the anchor is not there when a linebacker comes downhill clean.
- 04
Level of creation
production came from clean tracks; he rarely manufactured yards when the design broke down early.
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Marshall | 6 | 5 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Marshall | 13 | 250 | 1401 | 23 | 46 | 342 |
| 2022 | Marshall | 3 | 47 | 273 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| 2023 | Marshall | 12 | 212 | 1135 | 15 | 28 | 213 |
| Career | — | 34 | 514 | 2831 | 39 | 76 | 565 |
Marshall 2020-2023. Season lines verified against the official career table; sums match career totals (514 carries, 2,831 yards, 39 TD, 76 receptions, 565 yards). No receiving line recorded in 2020.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- First-team All-Conference USA (2021)
- Marshall team MVP (2021)
- Led FBS in rushing touchdowns with 23 (2021)
Rotational back whose real NFL job became kick returns and third-down snaps.
Slashing zone back with receiving value who grew into a lead role once the burst translated.
Productive Group of Five runner who never got past the fourth spot on a depth chart.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Baltimore opened his rookie year on injured reserve with a neck injury and activated him in October 2024, using him almost exclusively on special teams. Year two brought a modest expansion — 15 games, seven carries for 24 yards, nine catches for 68 yards and his first career touchdown on a reception from Lamar Jackson, plus 763 kickoff-return yards as the team's main returner. Another injury during the 2026 summer put his roster spot back in question. The vision and burst scouts liked were real; the 206-pound frame and the durability flag were real too, and behind Henry there was never a lane to carries.
Baltimore put him on injured reserve with a neck injury before his rookie season even started, activated him on October 12, and used him strictly on special teams from Week 6 on — six games, ten carries, 31 yards and four kick returns. Year two brought a real if modest expansion: 15 games, first-team snaps beginning in Week 11 against Cincinnati, his first career touchdown on a 30-yard reception from Lamar Jackson in Week 15, and 763 kickoff-return yards that made him the team's primary returner. Through 2025 that is 21 games, 55 rushing yards and one score, with the return job as his actual value.
The retrospective is what the board said it would be. The vision and burst were real, the frame never was, and behind Derrick Henry there was no path to carries even if the body cooperated. He became a returner who takes a handful of snaps, which for pick 165 is a functional outcome and not much more. Another camp injury in 2026 put the roster spot itself back in question — the durability flag scouts wrote in 2024 has followed him every single year.
Data note: Marshall 2020-2023. Season lines verified against the official career table; sums match career totals (514 carries, 2,831 yards, 39 TD, 76 receptions, 565 yards). No receiving line recorded in 2020.