Sleeper RB Keaontay Ingram drafted by former USC Football Offensive Coordinator

USC Football RB Keaontay Ingram has officially been drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft (201st overall). Ingram is a prime sleeper candidate in this draft due to his strong college career. He wasn't seen as one of the top RB prospects in the draft, but he absolutely was one of the better RB's in all of college football throughout his career.

Ingram goes to the team who's head coach is a former USC Offensive Coordinator in Kliff Kingsbury. Of course, Kingsbury took the Cardinals head coaching position just days after he took the USC OC job, which caused quite the controversy. Kingsbury, like the OC that replaced him at SC (Graham Harrell), runs an Air Raid offensive system too.

Considering how effective Ingram was in his time in Harrell's offense, he is a great fit with AZ. Despite being in a back-by-committee offense with the Trojans, Ingram rushed for a career-high 911 yards on 5.8 yards per carry. He also caught 22 passes for 156 yards.

Ingram played the first three years of college ball at Texas, where he was the starter for his first two years. In one of them (his second season), he put up over 1,000 all-purpose yards. Therefore, in his last two seasons as a starting player in college; he put up over 1,000 all-purpose yards. That's even more impressive when realizing that this was done with two different programs.

USC's Keaontay Ingram enters a backfield that's a little less crowded than it was at the end of the Cards' season last year.

The Cardinals just lost Chase Edmonds to free agency (and the Miami Dolphins) this past offseason, so picking up the standout USC RB in Keaontay Ingram was necessary. To get him outside the top 200 picks gives the selection even more value. Ingram averaged 5.5 yards per carry in his college career.

Ingram will likely slot in as the third back for the Cards behind 2018 and 2021 Pro Bowler James Conner, as well as fellow strong Pac-12 RB Eno Benjamin. Ingram will have a chance to compete for that backup spot, but won't be expected to take it right away for 2022 due to Benjamin already having a couple years of NFL experience under his belt.

For what it's worth, Benjamin was a seventh round pick and averaged half of a yard per carry less than Ingram in college. Regardless, Ingram is a great fit for Kingsbury's hybrid Air Raid offense, and is coming over with a lot of momentum from an outstanding college career.