Lance Reisland of Cleveland.com does a great job of highlighting a couple of examples of this and how it makes him "Oline friendly" in the video below.
Dylan Sampson has outstanding patience and then burst. Very Oline friendly #Browns pic.twitter.com/SohPoHbu4j
— Lance Reisland (Coach Riz) (@LanceReisland) May 1, 2025
Sampson pairs his excellent vision and patience with explosive acceleration, and those two things together make him a home run threat from anywhere on the field, which is why he was so high in my rankings going into the draft. It just takes a sliver of daylight, and Sampson can explode through the lane and be off to the races.
Sampson is a smaller back, and while that causes some issues in short-yardage situations, it helps him squeeze through narrower rushing lanes and maximize a run even in a crowded box. He is so dynamic with his ability to make people miss in small quarters and create something out of nothing. It's fun to watch.
He had some ball security issues at times during his college career, and adding his ineffectiveness in short-yardage situations, lack of pass blocking ability, it's hard to say if he can be a bell-cow workhorse type of player. I'm not saying he doesn't have any power because he runs hard and will run through arm tackles; he's just not a power back. But you add in the threat he is as a pass catcher out of the backfield or even lined up in the slot, and he can be a very nice player in this offense for Cleveland this year.
If you'd like to see more film and an in-depth breakdown of Sampson's game, you can click here to check out a GameTape pod from Sam Penix and me, which we recorded back in June on YouTube.