What level of prospect is ETN ? What are 2 or 3 rookies from the last decade or so you would put him on par with? Because when I look at his college career, I have a hard time understanding why he's not universally considered a higher level prospect.
I think he's the 3rd best RB in this class, behind Williams(the clear #1 this year to me) and Harris. In 2020 I liked Swift, Taylor, and Dobbins(he's probably the closest for me) more. In 2019, I liked Josh Jacobs(barely) more. In 2018, I liked Barkley, Chubb, Penny, and Guice more. In 2017, I liked CMC, Cook, Fournette, Kamara, Mixon and Hunt all more, but I loved that class. Had Zeke and Henry higher in 2016 as well.
I think he's a tier 3 RB(good, but not great) in my opinion. I don't think he's a huge workload guy, and question his ability to be consistent on a week to week basis. I see him as a very flashy big play guy, but far from an elite prospect. I didn't see him churning out yards, I didn't see him carrying an offense, he had a huge drop in production when the offense got worse, and I see him looking for big plays, instead of settling for 3-4 yards a lot.
Etienne is someone I like, but don't trust. I think he has a wide variety of potential outcomes. If he starts doing the things I didn't see him doing in college, a Jamaal Charles like career could await him. On the flip side, if he doesn't, and NFL defensive speed takes away some of those big plays, he might end up like Tevin Coleman. The truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle of those two in my opinion.
I will say, and perhaps its unfair to Etienne, but I probably would have been a lot higher on him if 2020 never happened. I think it exposed some warts that weren't visible earlier. His 2019 tape was probably as good or better than any of the Swift, Taylor, Dobbins trio, but 2020 put some nervousness into me, that I didn't have with any of them.