The ideal NFL Draft prospect has insane collegiate production along with jaw-dropping athletic traits. Obviously, many prospects don’t check both boxes. Sometimes you have to trust a prospect’s physical capabilities even if he’s not a great, finished product football player yet or didn’t light up the stat book every Saturday.
This is the second in a two-part series that will examine a pair of unique subsets of every draft class. You can check out the first, my “Trust The Tape” prospects, here. Now we’re heading to the other end of the spectrum with “Trust The Traits” prospects.
For this article, my team consists of NFL hopefuls who didn’t have extraordinary film and/or production in 2024 (or aren’t garnering much buzz) but just give me a feeling that, in time, with the proper coaching, in the right scenario, they can become quality pros because their traits either pop on film or did so at their combine/pro day workout.
This will be my fourth year pinpointing my “Trust The Traits” prospects. While there’ve been misses, hits include Cam Jurgens, Rasheed Walker, Derick Hall, and Nolan Smith.
These are my “Trust The Traits” prospects in the 2025 class.
Badger isn’t the freakiest specimen featured here. At over 6-foot-1 and exactly 200 pounds at the combine, he ran a blistering yet far from ridiculous 4.43 in the 40-yard dash at the combine. His 10-yard split of 1.53 placed in the 48th percentile. His 35.5-inch vertical was nothing to write home about, either.
His inclusion goes beyond those standalone figures. Because of those figures at his size, his Relative Athletic Score was 9.27 (out of 10) for the receiver position. Beyond that, he’s a ‘Trust The Traits’ prospect this year because he doesn’t have the 2024 volume as a pass-catcher that’d get anyone overly excited. Badger caught just 39 passes at Florida. That number alone feels like an anvil that’s kept Badger from ascending boards during the pre-draft process.
Contextually, the 39 receptions was very good on the 2024 Gators team. It was second on the team (vs. 42 catches), and his 806 yards paced all Florida players, leading to a 20.7 yards-per-snag average.
Observationally, Badger’s sudden movements against press coverage, when breaking in his route, and particularly after the catch, are tremendous, particularly for a 200-pound receiver. Oh, he also forced 64 missed tackles on 181 receptions in college, good for a monstrous missed-tackles-forced rate of 35.3%.
Please, I’m asking you to overlook his 39 receptions in 2024, and trust his dynamic yet nuanced traits.
Ransaw had one interception in 47 career collegiate games at Troy and Tulane. I don’t care. Really.
At 5-11 and 3/8″ and 197 pounds, this do-it-all defensive back ran 4.33 in the 40 with a 40-inch vertical and a 10-foot-9 broad jump that places in the 87th percentile at corner and 90th percentile at safety.
In 2024 at Tulane, he played in the slot on 58% of his snaps, aligned as an overhang defender on the line on 35% of the time and played in the box 6%.
And I’ve left the best for last with Ransaw. He’s a spectacularly reliable tackler, and his explosion leaps off the film when he’s charging toward the football. He missed a mere seven tackles on early 1,500 snaps in college. And the vast majority of the defensive backs in this class have major tackling problems. At rock-solid size for a slot defender position, Ransaw squared up ball-carriers on a routine basis, and he has plus range to the close throwing windows, as evidenced by his 4.33 at the combine. He’s a feisty yet uber-athletic cornerback you want on your team.
Frazier’s hardly played to date — he took 596 snaps across three seasons at UTSA. That’s the main knock on him. He’s woefully inexperienced.
But he made the most of his limited sample for the Road Runners with six interceptions and nine pass breakups in 2024, his only season as a full-time contributor. Traits-wise, there’s some stiffness in his transitions when backpedaling, yet the hip stickiness shouldn’t be surprising at nearly 6-3 and 186 pounds with nearly 33 inch arms and a wingspan in the 95th percentile at the cornerback position.
Even if receivers are able to lose him with route-running intricacy early in the play, he’s built to disrupt the catch point with his length alone. When you then consider Frazier has 4.36 speed, a 10-6 broad that placed in the 77th percentile and hit the magical 7.00 second threshold in the three-cone drill and it’s easy to understand why he made this article.
In five seasons at Middle Tennessee State and Virginia Tech, Lane averaged just 40.8 receptions for 506.4 yards and 3.6 touchdowns per season — hardly spectacular raw numbers for a slot receiver position that, in many offenses, represents a chain-moving element for an offense and typically produces high volume.
At the combine, Lane’s workout suggested he can become a more productive professional. At nearly 5-10 and 191 pounds, he ran 4.34 with a 40-inch vertical, scintillating three-cone of 6.75 and had an 11-foot broad jump — Lane is a poster child for this list based on his performance in Indianapolis alone.
And he’s not merely a workout warrior, even though the sheer volume wasn’t there in college. Lane was hyper efficient, and, like his workout, hints at an impending ascension in the NFL. He forced 54 missed tackles on 203 receptions in college and dropped just 12 passes on 294 targets. His athleticism translates to functionality after the catch. Lane’s a quality separator too. Nevermind the 38 catches for 466 yards in 2024 for the Hokies — Lane’s a baller.
Rogers is the author of the freakiest blocks in space in this class. I mean that. He’s a rocket to linebackers and defensive backs on screens or when he’s simply asked to climb to pave the second-level of a running lane. Given his 9.03 RAS, that shouldn’t be too surprising.
And he’s not weak upon contact either. In fact, Rogers plays with a discernible mean streak once he latches on, regardless of the defender with which he’s squaring off.
Typically, these highly mobile blockers are significantly undersized. Rogers isn’t. He’s nearly 6-5 and 318 pounds. His arms are over the 32-inch threshold most teams have at tackle, but his 79-inch wingspan is reasonably short. Encouragingly, though, Rogers was far from strictly a tackle at Texas Tech. Across more than 4,400 career snaps, he played every offensive line position except center.
There are some technical flaws that need to be ironed out of his game. But Rogers is an experienced, highly athletic blocker with a mashing demeanor on the field. Sign me up.
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