7 Most Underrated Prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft

The Draft Experts are Wrong About These 7 Players!

I love watching football. That’s what this blog is about: appreciating football as entertainment. However, I must admit, there’s something I love even more than watching football: being right. Sweet, succulent vindication. Above all, I love being right about football. That’s the good stuff.

These are “my guys.” These are my “I told you so”-s. These are the 7 Most Underrated Players of the 2025 NFL Draft.

7. Syracuse running back LeQuint Allen

LeQuint Allen is a weird-looking running back: a 6-foot, 205-pound power back with a 78” wingspan and 10” hands. A lanky, wiry bruiser.

Despite his lean build, LeQuint Allen generates consistent yards after contact through sheer intensity. He meets his opponent’s pad level, engages contact, and churns his legs, regularly converting in short yardage situations. Allen never hesitates to plunge into—or over—the point of attack, and he trusts his line to push the pile with him. Allen punishes tacklers with brutality. Simply put, LeQuint Allen doesn’t lose. He is a no-nonsense, downhill runner who excels at executing duo and power concepts, often from under-center formations and heavy personnel groups. In other words, Allen has a pro-style game. Firm-footed. Hard-nosed. Aggressive and energetic, before and after the whistle. Just look at his jersey: dirty, scuffed, and stained with the blood of his enemies. And don’t forget about that 32” stiff arm.

That’s one side of LeQuint Allen. The other side of LeQuint Allen is a smooth, methodical, Matt Forte-esque receiver. His routes are clockwork. Sometimes he’ll violently chip an edge rusher without losing tempo on a quick-hitting route. Sometimes he’ll take a beat or two in the pocket, allow defenders to commit to their assignments, then release into the forgotten spaces. LeQuint’s routes frequently stem vertically, gain depth, and attack the leverage of a second-level defender before breaking off in unpredictable directions. LeQuint Allen isn’t a track athlete, but his long strides put defenders on edge and his sudden shifts catch them by surprise. Out of the backfield, Allen can make plays in space with flats and swings, stretch the field with corner and wheel routes, or attack the middle with angle and hook routes. Allen can split out as a flanker or slot and unlock jet motion concepts, open up the screen game, or even win 1 on 1 with a slant. With his reach advantage and blue collar attitude, Allen is a dependable pass protector. Allen has a large catch radius for a running back, and he completes targets that are low-percentage for most running backs, such as over-the-shoulder buckets, toe-taps along the sideline, contested catches, and adjustments to off-target throws.

LeQuint Allen is not a prototypical running back, but he checks all of the boxes for a modern NFL offense. Gap scheme and zone scheme. Shotgun and under-center. Blocking, catching, route running. Short-yardage efficiency. Just enough speed and creativity to create explosives. He’s a glue guy; glue the playbook together, glue the team together. Plus, get this: LeQuint Allen is only 20 years old. In 2023, as a 19-year-old sophomore in the ACC, Allen produced 1,274 scrimmage yards and 10 total touchdowns, then followed that up in 2024 with 1,542 scrimmage yards and 20 total touchdowns, all without having a legal drink.

If you’re new to LeQuint Allen, you’re welcome for the fantasy football sleeper. If you are familiar with LeQuint Allen, whatever misgivings you had about his transition to the NFL should be gone now. LeQuint Allen has skill on tape, numbers in the box score, and the advantage of youth to bank on.

6. Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden III

Why is Luther Burden III in this article? I didn’t expect to get to this point either, but here we are. “Underrated” is a funny term. Underrated… according to whom, or to what? There is no objective source for consensus opinion, but when fans talk ball, we have some intangible idea of who is “underrated”. This is not a list of “sleepers” only; this is a ranking of the most underrated players in the 2025 NFL Draft. Here’s why, objectively, Luther Burden III fits that bill.

There are three kingmakers in the NFL mock draft sphere: ESPN’s Mel Kiper, the O.G. of mainstream NFL Draft content; NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah, a former college quarterback and NFL scout with relationships to front offices around the league; and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who reports on nearly 2,000 draft prospects in a yearly spectacle known as “The Beast”. In January, each of these analysts selected Burden in their Round 1 mock drafts. By February, two of the three analysts capitulated on their initial Burden evaluation, and at the end of March, all three of them excluded Burden from their first-round mocks. There’s also NFL Mock Draft Database, who compiles thousands of mock drafts to construct its consensus big board. Luther Burden peaked at rank #11 on its board, and, at the time of this article’s publication, he is currently ranked #35.

What happened between January and March? No football was played!

I’ve said a lot about Luther Burden III, but who is he? A natural deep threat who stacks defenders behind him and tracks the ball over his shoulder with ease; an instinctual ball carrier with highlight-reel creativity, big-play speed, and a sturdy, tackle-breaking frame (6’, 205 lbs.); a flashy route runner with explosive and twitchy changes of direction. The type of football player that costs $30-40 million per year if you don’t have him on a rookie contract. He is one of those special, exciting talents that doesn’t require time or expertise to appreciate. He’s just “got it”.

A wide receiver could make a good living out of just one of Luther Burden III’s multiple dimensions. Deebo Samuel’s bar brawling; Tyler Lockett’s keen eyesight and concentration; Jerry Jeudy’s haste. Lump them together and you get a receiver with some bumps and edges, but altogether a dynamic and versatile play style. Burden III is primarily a slot receiver, but he does have some route wins as a split end against press man coverage. Burden regularly separates using out-breaking routes versus man coverage, attacking his defender’s inside leverage by posturing up the stem toward an in-cut, sometimes adding a quick inside jab step at the top, before bursting sharply toward the sideline. Against zone, Burden slices through the middle of the field with digs and other crosser-type routes, settles into honey holes with corner routes and skinny posts, and moves the chains with reliable spot routes in 3rd & medium situations. Burden distinguishes himself from other yards-after-catch specialists with deadly verticals. Burden is strong and sudden releasing off the line, getting his shoulders in front of his defender and outracing him on deep posts and fades. Burden III isn’t a finely-tuned route runner, but he mixes tempos in an unpredictable way, slowing down to manipulate his defender or throttling up to get on top of him. There’s more nuance to Burden’s game than he gets credit for.

Luther Burden III has been a super-weapon since 2022, when he forced his way onto the field as a freshman for all-purpose contributions: 45 receptions for 375 receiving yards and 6 receiving touchdowns, 88 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns, and 151 punt return yards with 1 punt return touchdown. To open the 2023 season, as a 19-year-old sophomore, Burden III produced 54 receptions, 793 receiving yards, and 5 receiving touchdowns in 6 games, generating buzz as a Heisman Trophy candidate and future #1 overall pick. Down the stretch, Burden added a touchdown each versus formidable SEC defenses in South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, plus one more in Mizzou’s Cotton Bowl victory over Ohio State, finishing the year with 86 receptions for 1,212 receiving yards and 9 receiving touchdowns.

Here comes the context that the wider NFL Draft discourse seems to be missing. In 2024, Missouri’s offense was restricted by wrist and ankle injuries to quarterback Brady Cook. He couldn’t push the ball downfield. Burden adapted by squeezing difficult gains out of short passing concepts—over half of his receiving production were yards after catch (373 of 676 total)—supplemented by a rushing role (115 rushing yards), totaling 791 scrimmage yards and 8 total touchdowns on the year. A good year for most players, but a disappointing conclusion to a stellar college career for Burden III. Many NFL Draft fans—even some of the so-called experts, I fear—only watched Burden’s 2024 tape before reaching their conclusion. That’s like having an opinion on a movie you watched half of! There’s an opportunity to capitalize on the recency bias and emotional rollercoastering surrounding Burden’s draft stock. In the fantasy football world, we might call him a “post-hype sleeper.”

Another player who has gotten the January-through-March hole-poking treatment is fellow wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who I showcased in my first article of the draft season, 5 No-Brainers and 1 Bold Prediction for the 2025 NFL Draft. Here’s my (satirical) summary of the criticisms for each.

“McMillan is too good at football. He makes it look too easy. Is he even trying?”

“Burden doesn’t like it when he doesn’t get the ball. He gets frustrated when his team is losing.”

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, I suppose, but I’ll leave the profound overthinking to the professionals. I just watch tape, glance at the numbers, and shoot off the hip. Luther Burden III is electric; once my top 5 “no-brainers” are off the board, he’s fair game. He’s my second-ranked WR in the 2025 NFL Draft behind McMillan, and Burden III should make for an easy selection in the top half of Round 1.

5. Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts

Among the philosophical football questions that clutter our minds during the NFL Draft, one of the most confounding is, “How valuable is a safety?” It’s true, I’ve never heard anyone say, “Free safeties win championships.” In recent years, great safeties have slipped past rebuilding teams at the top of the draft, then inevitably nabbed at a discount by competitive teams. The Baltimore Ravens picked up the best defender in the 2022 NFL Draft with the #14 selection (safety Kyle Hamilton); the Tampa Bay Buccaneers somehow managed to draft a player of safety Antoine Winfield Jr.’s pedigree in Round 2 of the 2020 NFL Draft; Detroit Lions pro bowl safety Brian Branch was also the 45th overall pick in his draft (2023); and one might even include Super Bowl LIX hero Cooper DeJean in the mix, a jack-of-all-trades defensive back that fell into the greedy hands of the Philadelphia Eagles in Round 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft. NFL teams will speculate on dozens of quarterbacks, offensive tackles, and defensive ends, only for the best safety in the draft to outclass the majority of players taken before him.

Let’s tease this out in a thought experiment. Hypothetically, if there was a safety prospect who—hypothetically—could talk to God before every snap and hear the offense’s play call. . . hypothetically. . . how early should you draft that safety (hypothetically)? #1 overall, right? He talks to God. Hypothetically, of course.

Xavier Watts: ball hawk, time-traveler, soothsayer. I’ve watched many Fighting Irish football games over the past two years, and I can’t remember a game where Watts did not take the ball away at least once. Over the course of 19 games across his junior and senior seasons, Xavier Watts recorded 13 interceptions, 2 forced fumbles, and 2 fumble recoveries. For many college football fans, their first memory of Xavier Watts is his performance versus the USC Trojans in 2023, when he tortured quarterback Caleb Williams to the tune of 2 interceptions, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery that was returned for a touchdown, and 7 seven tackles.

How does he keep getting away with this?! Watts is a hyper-intelligent coverage player with the play recognition of an experienced veteran. He instinctively reads the quarterback’s eyes and lurks toward his target. He jumps in front of passing concepts with anticipation and excitement. Coaches might say Watts has a horseshoe shoved up his rear, because he collects deflections and overthrows like they were intended for him. Many of Watts’ takeaways can be attributed to hustle. He trails the play until the whistle blows, just in case the ball pops loose. He has sideline-to-sideline range and loves to hit. Watts also has a knack for sniffing out trick plays, such as Ohio State’s direct snap jet sweep during the 2024-25 CFP National Championship that Watts dumped in the backfield. Watts excels at shoring up the edge against the run, and has flashed blitzing ability from the slot. For some reason, Watts matches up perfectly with tight ends in man coverage, completely erasing them from the whiteboard.

Xavier Watts is, more or less, an average NFL athlete: 6’, 204 lbs., 31-inch arms, average speed. What you see is what you get with Watts: a player who has enough juice to get by, but wins mostly between the ears. When Watts doesn’t see things clearly or takes a bad angle, he can get outrun by explosive running backs and wide receivers. Watts can be trusted to keep a lid on the defense, but there isn’t a theoretical version of Xavier Watts that takes away the entire field.

Xavier Watts was a wide receiver in high school, and as a resident of Omaha, Nebraska, I can tell you firsthand, he is a legend around here. Take a peek at his tape and you’ll see why. Sheesh! It’s hard to imagine Watts wouldn’t have worked out as a wide receiver, but we should be grateful for his receiver-like ball skills at the safety position. Football is more entertaining with ball hawks patrolling the backfield. Watts fits perfectly in the split safety zone systems that pervade modern pro football, where he can scan the field in front of him and take chances. The modern defensive strategy is a “bend don’t break” approach that forces offenses to execute long, 10-15+ play drives, betting that the quarterback will make a mental error along the way. Those mistakes are more costly around Xavier Watts. He cashes in on every opportunity.

4. Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson

In the first round, I want my team to draft a dangerous player. A player who keeps NFL coaches up all night throughout the regular season. A player who rips the hearts out of hopeful fanbases in January. First round players don’t need to check every box on the rubric or shore up the roster according to some “positional value” philosophy. First round players take over games and change outcomes. TreVeyon Henderson is that frightening, game-breaking weapon.

TreVeyon Henderson is an extremely explosive and elusive all-purpose back, the type of player that wins championships (see: 2024-25 Philadelphia Eagles, 2024-25 Ohio State Buckeyes). It wasn’t long ago when players like TreVeyon Henderson were indisputable Round 1 picks, but Henderson has only appeared in one first round mock draft of the Kiper-Jeremiah-Brugler dataset, and sits at #42 on the 2025 Consensus Big Board. If I were an NFL GM, I would look at the healthy menu of offensive and defensive linemen available in this year’s draft class—the so-called “eat your vegetables” selections that forward-thinking team-builders preach—and I’d say, “I’m feeling hungry today. I’ll take the McCaffrey special, please.”

TreVeyon Henderson is a gifted mover. He has the springy, high-kneed running form of a sprinter, accelerating to top speed in the blink of an eye. Henderson’s rapid-fire feet and a flexible trunk enable him to maneuver freely through the line of scrimmage. He puts defenders on skates with split-second stutter step moves and instantaneous cuts. TreVeyon Henderson is a very tippy-tappy guy. The Big Ten Network’s TreVeyon Henderson highlight reel is nearly an hour and a half long; I had a hard time whittling it down to 25 minutes of ridiculous running back play.

TreVeyon Henderson is also a seasoned blocker and twitchy receiver with four years of three-down usage. His compact, well-proportioned frame (5’10”, 202 lbs., 76” wingspan) hits the sweet spot between athleticism and utility. Henderson’s balance and power might not stand out in a class of tackle-breakers, but he’s proven he can hang with the big dogs in the Big Ten and will apply some serious violence when he gets a head of steam. Regardless, the name of Henderson’s game is contact avoidance, arguably the most valuable skill in football. Across his four years of tape, Henderson read out a multitude of wide outside zone handoffs with patience, while also hitting downhill A-gap runs with anticipation. Henderson can get choppy from time to time, but the scale of good reads versus bad is tipped heavily in his favor.

In 2021, as an 18-year-old freshman in the Big Ten, Henderson amassed 1,560 yards from scrimmage and 19 total touchdowns on 210 touches, breaking untouchable Archie Griffin records along the way. Henderson’s 2022 and 2023 seasons were dampened by nagging injuries and substandard quarterback play, but his efficiency never dipped below 5 yards per attempt. For Henderson’s 2024 senior season, Ohio State assembled a two-headed monster of a backfield with the transfer of former Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins, another very underrated prospect in this year’s extraordinary running back class. Henderson and Judkins shared the rock during their joint 2024 campaign, and the strategy paid off. The Buckeyes captured the 2024-25 CFP National Championship, with Henderson hitting a career-high, Big Ten conference-leading 7.1 yards per attempt. Seven. Yards. Per. Attempt. Why is no one talking about this absurd degree of efficiency? If Henderson and Judkins monopolized opportunities on separate teams, their volume stats would have jumped up the leaderboards, and the momentum of their respective “hype trains” would have landed both of them in the first round of these consensus-building mock drafts. Critics say that Henderson can’t handle a large load of touches, conveniently forgetting that he was a workhorse as a freshman and appeared ready for the NFL game at a mere 18 years of age. I tend to respond to durability concerns with a simple truism: it’s football. Why would you expect football players to not get hurt?

Many of Henderson’s runs are one cut, one broken tackle, or one tripped shoelace away from breaking free. Henderson is an extremely slippery player who puts himself in position to break away at astronomical frequency, and he could increase his already tremendous statistical output with continued development. Among the top tier of running backs in this year’s draft class, Henderson can be viewed as the prospect with the most room to grow, given his top percentile explosiveness and rare “phone booth” quickness. TreVeyon Henderson is my second ranked RB of the 2025 NFL Draft. If running back Jahmyr Gibbs is palatable at the #12 overall pick (2023 NFL Draft), then don’t be surprised to see Henderson come off the board within this year’s Top 10. Letting Henderson slip into the second round would be a regrettable mistake for a majority of the league’s 32 teams.

How do you tackle someone you can’t lay a finger on? You can’t. Talented ball carriers win football games; it’s a fundamental truth that has defined football history and can be played out in your own backyard.

3. Kentucky defensive tackle Deone Walker

Most people don’t know this, but there’s an eclipse coming in 2025. His name is Deone Walker. 6’7”, 331 pounds — a mythological giant whose mass blots out the line of scrimmage. One of the most entertaining aspects of football is the opportunity to gawk at the extreme spectrum of human bodies. Tutu Atwell (5’9”, 155 lbs.) plays the same sport as T’Vondre Sweat (6'4 ½”, 366 lbs.), each in their own specialized role. A football team is composed of a unique collection of world-class athletes.

Deone Walker manhandles offensive lineman with brute strength and unfair reach advantage, pushing and pulling them according to his bidding. Ball carriers get grabbed, picked up off ground, and thrown back down like ragdolls. Walker is not just a large, immovable pillar in the middle of the defense. He has an agile first step, shooting gaps and closing distance with unexpected quickness. When he has enough gas in the tank, Walker will chase down wide run concepts and scrambling quarterbacks. His size and mobility alone are overwhelming, but Walker also has very effective hands, pummeling his opponents with punches, swims, and rips. He even has a spin move that he pulls out with frequent success. Walker’s grace enables him to affect the game more than most defensive lineman of his weight. He can stay on the field for pass-rushing situations, and align as a wider 3- through 5-technique on neutral downs. Deone Walker can even drop into zone coverage.

After the 2023 college football season, Deone Walker was a consensus Round 1 selection by major publications in their “way-too-early” 2025 NFL Draft mocks, generally as the second defensive tackle taken (see: Pro Football Focus, NBC Sports articles from April 2024). Deone Walker earned his reputation with black hole run defense and 51 pressures in 2023, which ranked 1st among FBS interior defensive lineman. After an up-and-down 2024 season, he’s an afterthought in a well-stocked supply of defensive tackles.

Wee-ooo-Wee-ooo. Context alert. Deone Walker played through the 2024 season with a broken back. Yes, a broken back. And he didn’t miss a game.

Deone Walker has a large body of work (yes, puns are always intended here): 35 straight starts from Week 3 of his freshman season through his junior year, compiling 132 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, 6 pass deflections, 1 fumble forced, and 1 fumble recovery. Not only are his numbers impressive in the aggregate, Deone Walker’s brightest flashes on tape are more striking than those of his peers. For a guy who takes up so much space, Walker adds surplus value by moving dynamically and making instinctive plays on the ball. Walker’s individual production is well worth putting him on the field, but it’s the advantages he offers his teammates that puts him over the top. He absorbs double and triple teams. He crashes into bodies on stunts/twists to set up loopers. He penetrates the backfield and sends the ball carrier off-track. He crumples the pocket and sends the quarterback scrambling. He interrupts the throwing window and deflects the ball. These are sacks, tackles for loss, and interceptions that show up on the box score for his teammates, but deserve to go to Walker.

The primary limit to Walker’s game is stamina, which is a price that NFL teams are typically willing to pay for a gargantuan run stuffer. Life might even be easier in the NFL for Deone Walker than in college. The college game has wider hashes, so offenses use more spread formations and run plays to exploit that extra space. The hashes are tighter in the NFL, leading to more condensed formations and balanced offense. Walker will still be an outlier in terms of size, but in a reduced space, where size advantages are more impactful. Further, college offenses operate at a faster pre-snap pace, utilizing no-huddle to call plays, using less of the clock between plays, and, as a result, running more plays in total. Walker will have more opportunity to replenish his O2 in the NFL, where teams huddle up, burn some clock, line up in a variety of formations, go through a cadence, motion around, then snap the ball, resulting in fewer plays run per game and more frequent substitutions between plays. Still, whichever NFL team drafts Walker will need to have a vision for him. I wouldn’t consider Deone Walker a true, 0-tech nose tackle—he plays tall with occasional lapses in balance—but he can play plenty of 1-tech shade snaps for your run defense. You’ll just get the most out of him deployed as a 3- through 5-technique with situational and matchup-based discretion.

As a Chiefs fan, Deone Walker is on my wish list. In a loaded defensive tackle draft, Deone Walker is among my preferred options at the 31 selection, and I’ll be yelling at my TV if he’s still there at pick 63.

2. Oregon cornerback Jabbar Muhammad

Thumbs down. That’s Jabbar Muhammad’s message to quarterbacks every time they test him. Muhammad is gifted with reaction speed and hand-eye coordination. Over his five-year college career, with stints in three different Power 5 conferences, Jabbar Muhammad broke up 40 passes, which is tied for 8th on the all-time NCAA FBS leaderboard for passes defended (tracked since 2005). Muhammad is battle-tested, with iconic lockdown performances against Texas Longhorns wide receiver duo Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell in the 2023 CFP Semifinal, as well as Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver duo Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Ekbuga during the 2024 regular season. Why do quarterbacks keep trying Jabbar Muhammad?

He is 5’9” and 182 pounds. That’s why quarterbacks target him. Here’s why they regret it.

Jabbar Muhammad is teaching tape for the cornerback position. He is consistently aware of the throw, whipping his head around and locating the ball. Muhammad is mischievous, reaching into the cookie jar and disrupting the receiver's hands without drawing penalties. Muhammad has a fluid backpedal. He can gain rapid depth to stay on top of verticals, yet can trigger downhill at a moment's notice. Muhammad is patient, holding his ground against double moves and slow releases. Muhammad will read his opponents body language and run the route for him, breaking to the ball first. Muhammad lines up with confident inside leverage to take away in-breakers, stabs receivers up the stem to knock them off their route, and crowds them out toward the sideline until they run out of space. Muhammad is an intelligent zone defender who anticipates quick passing concepts and snuffs out yards after catch.

The obvious question is, can he tackle? He sure can. Muhammad takes an aggressive beeline toward perimeter runs and screen passes, typically wrapping up ankles in space, and occasionally tagging the ball carrier with a hit stick.

Muhammad does have missed tackles on tape. If he doesn’t have an advantageous pursuit angle or proper wrap-up on the lower body, Muhammad can get outmuscled or run over entirely. It’s a mixed bag of very good and very bad results. If he can smooth out his tackling technique, Muhammad will have an outsized impact at the next level.

Jabbar Muhammad is much quicker than he is fast. When he lines up against a top-percentile speed receiver, Muhammad plays with focus and fearlessness, and doesn’t tend to lose. However, if he gets caught off guard by a sudden release or explosive change of direction, Muhammad has some difficulty recovering. I don’t want to exaggerate this issue—allegedly, the NFL mistakenly listed Muhammad’s vertical jump 6 inches lower than it really is. For a cornerback that is so undersized, one would like to see more linear explosiveness out of Muhammad. Regardless, Muhammad moves well in a functional, transitional sense.

It’s not easy finding comparisons for Jabbar Muhammad, but certainly not impossible. Historically, Antoine Winfield Sr. was an all-time great at the cornerback position at 5’9” and 180 lbs., and Mark “Mighty Mouse” McMillian had a successful NFL cornerback career while standing at 5’7” and 155 lbs. Currently, there are short kings across the NFL playing nickel/slot corner at a high level, such as Indianapolis Colts Pro Bowl cornerback Kenny Moore or Pittsburgh Steelers undrafted phenom cornerback Beanie Bishop. Remember Muggsy Bogues giving Michael Jordan problems and blocking Patrick Ewing at the rim? That’s my projection for Jabbar Muhammad. He’s the smallest player on the field, and he’ll take on the best player you got.

1. Southern California running back Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks

Is there a YouTube video you go back to time and again to relax while you work or study? Have you ever hung out with Lofi Girl and her cat? Do you ever hover over Norway and wish you lived there? Perhaps you watch one of those cabin-building videos for a double-dose of ASMR and DIY. For me, it’s the Big Ten Network’s 38-minute Woody Marks highlight reel, a steady stream of optimized running back gameplay. Decisiveness. Suddenness. Ball security. Chef’s kiss.

Woody Marks gets the job done. His superlative quality is vision. To get a real sense of Marks’ artful running, take in that whole 38-minute reel in one sitting. It is densely packed with short and moderate gains where every inch is hard-earned. Marks presses the hole, manipulates defenders with his eyes and pathing, then cuts into open field with perfect timing. He shrinks his surface area to fit into tight interior gaps. He wiggles his frame to avoid and deflect contact at full speed, then he’ll pump the brakes and put a nasty shake-and-bake juke on some poor defender, before re-accelerating for another chunk of grass. Marks finds impossible bounce-outs and backside cutbacks when the point of attack is fully walled-off. When he can’t find a way around a defender, Marks will torpedo through him with compact muscle (5’10”, 207 lbs.) and unmatched competitiveness. Woody Marks truly squeezes every yard out of every touch. Marks might not beat the stopwatch (4.52 40-yard dash), but his game speed feels different. Anyone who has ever watched him live will insist it. Marks has an initial burst that propels him past defenders for the first 5-10 yards of his run, and his proactive style puts him a step ahead of the defense.

If you played any sport growing up, you probably had a coach tell you: “Don’t take your eye off the ball.” Woody Marks may be the exception that proves the rule. He is as sure-handed as they come, and his confidence as a receiver allows him to transition into a runner before the ball touches his hands. Marks owns the Mississippi State Bulldogs record for career receptions (214)—and that’s for all players, not just running backs. Marks snags errant throws, holds onto catches through big hits, and straddles the sideline. Marks has ample experience splitting out in empty formations and moving the chains with quarterback-friendly hitch routes. Marks’ vice grip on the ball has also led to another incredible career achievement: 0 fumbles, ever. You can count on Woody Marks.

There are two plays on Woody Marks’ tape that reveal his extraordinary situational awareness.

• Play 1: Week 3 of the 2024 FBS season, USC Trojans against the reigning CFP champion Michigan Wolverines. Q2 2:40. USC 10, Michigan 20. The USC offense has marched to the 6-yard line. 3rd and Goal. Michigan edge Josiah Stewart explodes off the snap, blows by the USC right tackle, shrugs off a late chip attempt by Marks, and strip-sacks the quarterback. Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant scoops up the loose ball and becomes a 6’3”, 331 lb. ball carrier. Marks, determined not to lose—possibly angry at himself for not picking up a difficult block—chases down Grant and strips the ball from his grasp, setting up 1st and 10 for his offense on the Michigan 27. Two plays later, the Trojan offense scored a touchdown.

• Play 2: Week 6 of 2024. #4 Penn State Nittany Lions at the USC Trojans. Q2 15:00. PSU 3, USC 7. The USC offense has 2nd & 10 near midfield. USC head coach Lincoln Riley calls a HB toss double-pass to open up the second quarter. As soon as the ball is snapped, Penn State DE Dani Dennis-Sutton (#33) penetrates from the backside edge, and Penn State DT Zane Durant (#28) sniffs out the throwback to USC quarterback Miller Moss. Marks turns to make the lateral, pump fakes #33 off his feet, reverses field, and sprints around the backside corner of the defense for a 20-yard gain. Most non-QBs have a hard time declining the rare opportunity to throw the ball. In this instance, Marks’ discipline turned a sure disaster into a chunk gain.

Marks might not be the perfect running back, but he is my perfect running back. Marks processes information quickly and chooses the correct decision, again and again and again. He’s a box-checker: speed, quickness, vision, balance, power, catching, routing, blocking. Woody Marks is experienced and durable; he logged 44 starts in 57 appearances, only missing one game due to injury. In fact, Marks is perhaps too experienced, as his 24 years of age remains one of the few knocks against him.

Woody Marks has always been doubted. Despite his legendary high school career in the football state of Georgia (6,391 rushing yards, 10.4 yards per carry, 59 touchdowns), the Georgia Bulldogs did not offer the four-star recruit a scholarship. Despite his record-setting career in Mississippi State’s Air Raid offense, NFL scouts advised Marks to return to school for a fifth year and prove he could play smashmouth football. Despite his 1,113 rushing yards and Second-team All-Big Ten selection in 2024, NFL Draft analysts project Marks as a day three pick.

I believe in Woody Marks. I believe Woody Marks can produce like Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams, who has over 3,000 scrimmage yards and 31 total touchdowns in his first three years in the NFL, or like the great Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook, who amassed over 10,000 scrimmage yards and 70 total touchdowns in his illustrious NFL career. Each of these players had the same doubts—too small, too slow, too old—but superstars come in every shape and size. Many of them are just very smart players, like Marks. If Marks is not a superstar, he undoubtedly has some role in the NFL. Who can forget James “Sweet Feet” White, a core piece of the New England Patriots’ 3x Super Bowl-winning formula in the 2010s? My projection for Woody Marks is appropriately Toy Story inspired: “To infinity, and beyond!”