Generally speaking you can get good RBs outside the first round, there's certainly some excellent recent examples of this in Kareem Hunt (3rd round pick), Alvin Kamara (3rd round pick), and David Johnson (3rd round pick). All these guys could be considered "Hybrid" RBs, and they were all drafted later. That being said, maybe the article is hinting that given the recent trend in pass catching backs in the NFL, that these guys may end up going earlier and earlier and it may be a lot harder to land a Kamara or a Hunt in the 3rd round in 2022. I personally think that the pass catching element adds a certain level of diversity to the position that you can find decent talent late if you have a good scouting team. Guys like Ito Smith(4th round) with the Falcons or Austin Ekeler(UDFA) with the chargers can provide a lot of value to a team, even if they're not grand slam picks.

For example, Kamara doesn't have elite speed. This is why he wasn't a 1st round pick. He's not a guy that's going to burn the whole team. What he excels at is footwork, he makes cuts better than anyone in the league, can make a guy miss and advance levels in the defense. This is what will turn a 2-3 yard run into a 7-8 yard run. Add in a pass catching element, and here you go. Telvin Coleman(3rd round pick) has excellent speed but not the best between the tackles kind of guy(which is why he wasn't a first rounder), you can scheme to get him into space, or even have him straight run WR routes and force a mismatch that way. Ultimately there's many ways to skin a horse, which allows you to find value later and later, rather than just going for the guys that are good at everything. Of course it's up to the teams to diagnose that talent and then utilize it on the field, which is a challenge in of itself.

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