UNC Football: Javonte Williams over Najee Harris?

One NFL analyst has said that he prefers the former UNC football standout over one of the nation’s top running backs.

The NFL Draft is quickly approaching, and the buzz surrounding some of the top available talent is beginning to grow.

As teams continue evaluate talent to see who they want to possibly add to their roster, NFL Draft analysts are also forming their “big boards,” ranking their top players at each position.

Most analysts view Alabama’s Najee Harris or Clemson’s Travis Etienne as the top running back on this year’s board. However, draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah thinks that former Tar Heel Javonte Williams is destined to take over the top spot.

Williams is coming off a tremendous year in which he rushed 1,140 yards and scored 22 total touchdowns. As the Tar Heels offense got going, the duo of Williams and fellow running back Michael Carter seemed to always set the tone.

The last we saw Harris was in the College Football Playoffs where he put on an absolute show. Regardless of what went down in the final weeks of the season, Jeremiah feels that Williams just may be the better back of the two. Here’s what he had to say on the matter when he recently spoke on a conference call:

"“Yeah, I wouldn’t just be limited to Harris. I’m getting ready to update my list. The next time I update it I am probably going to have Javonte Williams from North Carolina over Harris. He is a really good player. To me he would be a great, great fit with Pittsburgh. I wouldn’t have any problems. I know people kind of look at the running back thing one way or the other. When you’re picking down there in the bottom of the first round and you’ve got a chance to get an impact player like Javonte Williams from North Carolina, to me, I think that would be a heck of a pick.He’s just like Nick Chubb, and when you watch him you see it. When you talk to the coaches at North Carolina that have been — they have some coaches there that have come from Georgia, and they say that the similarities are eerie, just they’re all business, physical, great leaders, can catch the ball out of the backfield, can do a lot of different things. I wouldn’t just limit it to him.”"

Jeremiah thinks very highly of Williams, and it’s probably not a reach to say that a handful of NFL teams feel the same way. With his ability to impact the game in multiple ways, Williams could become a lethal weapon for teams in need of some help at the running back position.

Luckily for Williams, his stock seems to be rising as the draft inches closer. As his stock continues to increase, it becomes more likely that we’ll hear his name called at some point early in the draft. If a team falls in love with Williams’ potential, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him drafted in the latter part of day 1 or at any point during day 2 of the draft.

After his stellar career in Chapel Hill, everyone should be excited to see what Williams can do at the next level. If his pro career is anything like his time in college, we’ll be hearing a lot about the former Tar Heel running back on Sundays for a very long time.

Continue to follow the Keeping It Heel team for all the latest news and updates regarding Javonte Williams and the rest of the UNC football program.