Cowboys draftee Bo Scarbrough’s 10th grade photo had Kirk Cousins feeling a little slim

Bo Scarbrough had all 14 of Alabama’s points in the first half of the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Clemson. He’d been so impressive in the Playoff that even NFL quarterbacks took notice.

It was at that point that Kirk Cousins pointed out what Scarbrough looked like as a recruit, compared to himself in high school. The comparison is pretty hilarious, to be honest.

One of Scarbrough’s touchdowns came after he juked a Tigers defender and then carried another one on his back.

As a high school football recruit, Scarbrough played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. He was rated as a five-star, and was listed as an athlete, the No. 2-ranked prospect in his position group. In high school, he was listed at 6’2, 215 pounds. That’s 215 pounds. In. High. School. He verbally committed to Alabama in September 2012, and remained committed until he signed with the Tide on National Signing Day in February. 2014. He held 18 offers, including Alabama, from the likes of Clemson, Florida State, and Michigan.

If healthy, Bo might be the smartest RB pick in the entire draft, based on an advanced-stats analysis:

Bo Scarbrough isn’t quite as big as Henry, a fellow former Bama back who produced a plus-1.4 percent marginal efficiency with decent explosiveness as a rookie. But at 6’1, 232, he’s still awfully big, and his upright running style makes him seem about 6’4. He had some standout moments in college, most notably at the end of his sophomore year, when he rushed for 180 yards and two touchdowns in the CFP semifinals against Washington, then went for 93 yards and two more scores before getting injured in the finals against Clemson.

But there’s the “I” word. He’s been hurt a lot. One never knows for sure how to deal with that moving forward. Adrian Peterson was injured frequently at Oklahoma but missed only nine games in the first seven years of his NFL career. And Murray only played one full season at OU but still managed to post a patently absurd 392 carries in one year (2014 at Dallas).

Scarbrough is an obvious injury risk, and that’s part of the reason he’s projected as only a mid-round pick. He’s had ACL tears, knee sprains, broken bones, you name it. But that doesn’t automatically doom him to future injuries. And hey, buying an injury-prone big man at a slight discount worked pretty well for the Sixers ... eventually.

Kudos to Cousins for giving credit where credit is due.