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Lew Nichols Scouting Report: 2022 NFL Draft Prospect Report


Running Back, Central Michigan Chippewas #7

Lew Nichols Measurements

5’10” / 220 lbs

40 Time: 4.82 (High School)

Lew Nichols NFL Draft Player Profile

Lew was a three year starter at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan. During his high school career he helped his team to two Detroit Public School League championships. The Technicians also won the 2016 state championship. As a senior, Nichols would rush for 1,078 yards on 84 carriers. That’s a 12.83 yard per carry average! It’s no surprise that he managed to score 23 touchdowns that season. It’s also easy to understand how he was named to both the All-Detroit and All-State teams after the season.

Lew was given a .8505 composite score and three-star rating by 247Sports. While he was still recruited by Power 5 schools such as Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Purdue, and even UCLA the “big boys” of Michigan never showed interest. In the end, and with 10 offers on the table, Nichols decided to stay put in his home state and attend Central Michigan.

Central Michigan College Career

Central Michigan RB Lew Nichols

Central Michigan RB Lew Nichols

Nichols’ true freshman season was stolen from us as the Chippewas decided to redshirt him. Thus keeping the talented back from the public’s viewing pleasure. We would get a glimpse of Lew in 2020. However, with the MAC only playing a six game schedule it was limited. Still, Lew would rush for 508 yards and four touchdowns on 78 attempts. Just a little off the pace of his high school numbers, but still 6.5 yards per carry. Two of those games would be 100+ yard efforts, including 196 against Eastern Michigan. Let’s not forget his 109 yards receiving and a touchdown on 10 catches. Naturally he was named MAC-Freshman of the Year afterwards.

As a follow up performance, all he’s done this season is lead the country in rushing yards. Lew’s 1,170 yards rushing was 74 more yards than Kenneth Walker, who was sixth in the Heisman voting. It was 238 yards more than Breece Hall, who finished tenth in the race for the Heisman. Nichols did this by putting up 100+ more yards in nine games (they play 12 games this season). He also had two games in which he rushed for over 200+ yards. Of course, this time he earned a first team All-MAC nomination. Even with this effort, the only All-American nomination I could find was from Pro Football Network, with a third team placement.

Lew Nichols Strengths

Hard to Take Down

This was my favorite thing when watching Nichols’ games. The first guy that got to him had trouble taking him down. If a defender tried to tackle him alone, he had a tough time with it as well. Teams needed to attack Lew with multiple defenders in order to bring him to the ground. It wasn’t just his ability to break tackles that was impressive. Nichols showed great balance and vision in the open field. He has a good ability to make cuts and make defenders miss. Seeing him do this at the college level makes that 12.8 yards per carry in high school understandable.

Deceptively Quick

Central Michigan RB Lew Nichols

Central Michigan RB Lew Nichols

That 4.8 time that I have at the beginning of the report was from high school. While I don’t think Nichols is going to pull off a 4.4 time, I don’t see him being a 4.8 guy anymore either. Even with a lack of top end speed, Lew carries his pads well. Even in game there are times that he doesn’t look like he’s running all that fast, but suddenly he outrunning everyone. Me personally, I’d rather have a guy that ran fast in pads, over someone that does so in shorts.

Lew Nichols Weaknesses


Pass Blocking

I’ll start off by saying that Nichols is a willing pass blocker. However, he’s just not great at it. I noticed that he has a tendency to want to drop his head and dive at legs when blocking. This would lead to him completely missing the rusher a number of times. If he didn’t miss, it didn’t exactly slow the rusher down at all. The times that he would stay up and take on the blocks didn’t go very well either. Definitely something that he’s going to have to work on.

Lew Nichols Draft Stock

I haven’t heard anything in regards to Nichols being considered a top prospect for the 2022 NFL Draft. Even looking around online, I couldn’t see where anyone is really mentioning him either. You might be asking yourself how this could be? Well, even though this was his third year out of high school Lew still has 3 more years of eligibility left. How is this possible? Well, I mentioned he redshirted in 2019. After the covid season in 2020, the NCAA decided to give all players an extra year of eligibility. So 2021 was technically Lew’s second redshirt-freshman season. 

I don’t know if people just are assuming he’s a true redshirt freshman, or if they are just assuming that he’s going to come back for his “sophomore” season. Either way, he’s currently not on anyone’s radar. However, if he decides to declare this season, that will change quickly.

Final Thoughts on Lew Nichols

The big question is will he declare or will he stay for at least one more year? Central Michigan is coming off an 8-4 season. They finished tied for the West Division lead to eventual MAC champion Northern Illinois. Looking at their roster, I believe that they’ll be returning a lot of talent in 2022. Their biggest loses with be left tackle Bernhard Raimann and right tackle Luke Goedeke, the team’s best offensive lineman. If I had to guess, I would say he’ll play one more season. Small school guys tend to want to stay and finish their degree.

If, however, Nichols decides that he was to come out he’ll jump right near the top of most draft boards. I think he’s right up there with Breece Hall, Isaiah Spiller, and Kenneth Walker in terms of talent.

Lew Nichols Pro Comparison: Nick Chubb

While Chubb is slightly bigger (5’11” / 227 lbs), he and Nichols share similar traits. Chubb is also deceptively quick in the open field. I’ve seen Chubb pull away from defenders on many occasions and look like he’s not even trying. Chubb is also one of the best running backs in the NFL at yards after contact. Very rarely does Chubb get brought down by the first defender. Nick is quietly one of the best backs in the league, so I would take pride in this sort of comparison if I were Lew.

Lew Nichols III Draft Prospect Report / Scouting Report by Brandon Claburn