MLB All-NFL Team: The Best Football Talents Baseball Has to Offer

MLB All-NFL Team: Running Back

–Ideal size: 6’0”, 230 LBs

–Skills: Strength, speed, agility, vision, hand-eye coordination

Third-string RB: Delino DeShields Jr. – 5’9”, 190 LBs

Presently one of the fastest players in MLB, DeShields was a two-sport athlete in high school. He received scholarship offers from Stanford, Ole Miss, and Georgia Tech to play football, but he instead committed to LSU to play baseball. College ultimately went by the wayside when the Houston Astros drafted DeShields 8th overall in the 2010 MLB draft.

Rated a three-star athlete in recruiting circles, DeShields played running back for Woodward Academy in Georgia. An ESPN analyst described him as a “stout running back who has a low center of gravity and a tough guy to get a solid hit on.”

The 28-year-old outfielder looks and runs like he could maneuver off tackle and break a 70-yard touchdown run. He’s compact like most NFL RBs, and he could certainly go toe-to-toe with all of them in a footrace.

Realistically speaking, DeShields would have to put on 20 pounds or so to blend in. Weight, though, is the only notable separating factor between his baseball makeup and his envisioned football makeup.

Backup RB: Anthony Alford – 6’1”, 210 LBs

Currently an outfielder in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, Alford was a four-star football recruit as a quarterback out of Petal High School in 2012. He played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl his senior year and fielded offers from Alabama, LSU, Clemson, and Ole Miss. He decided, however, to stay close to home and play for Southern Mississippi.

Alford threw for 664 yards and ran for 329 yards his freshman year of college, accounting for eight total touchdowns. He then transferred to Ole Miss, where he unintentionally became a defensive back.

All the while, he was playing professional baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays, the team he was drafted to in 2012.

Though he never played running back, Alford has more college football experience than just about every major leaguer. Therefore, he understands the game and has undergone specific football training. Add his supreme athleticism to the mix, and he’s deserving of the backup running back role on the MLB All-NFL team.

Starting RB: Mike Trout – 6’2”, 235 LBs

Constitute this as a bandwagon pick if you’d like, but it’s easy to see MLB’s best player having success in football.

Trout is already known as a guy who does everything well. Have you ever seen him drive a golf ball?!

Sure, he didn’t even play high school football, but when sized up and observed tracking a baseball in center field, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t be a great running back.

Trout has the RB build with his giant thighs, sturdy core, and broad shoulders. At 6’2”, 235 LBs, he’s slightly bigger than Ezekiel Elliot and barely smaller than Derrick Henry. Parallel to those two beasts, you could imagine Trout being a bruiser from behind the line of scrimmage.

He’s shown his elite speed and agility in the outfield. If scaling the wall in baseball is the equivalent to hurdling a defensive back in football, Trout would make plenty of safeties whiff.

Running backs must be able to see the field and react immediately to oncoming defenders. As Trout is the best alive at squaring up a white blur spinning in all different directions, it’s safe to say his vision can be trusted from the backfield.

Trout follows the NFL fervently as a Philadelphia Eagles fan; thus, we can assume he has a solid understanding of the X’s and O’s of the game. Once he engages his renowned mental strength and athletic ability, it’s game over.