2025 NFL Draft: 'Trust the tape' prospects who shouldn't be overlooked despite lacking elite athletic traits

These prospects don't possess freaky athleticism or elite measurables but have the polished games to eventually be stars

If you're creating the perfect NFL Draft prospect, he'd be enormous, with insane collegiate production and awe-inspiring athletic gifts. Of course, the vast majority don't check all those boxes. Sometimes you have to trust a prospect's film even if he's not an athletic freak. 

This is the first in a two-part, annual series that examines a pair of unique subsets of every draft class. Below are NFL hopefuls who don't have requisite physical traits or maybe didn't crush their combine/pro day workouts, yet I still really like and believe in as prospects. They can be good at the NFL level, I'm telling you! 

While I've certainly missed on some of these prospects in the past (since 2022), hits include Nakobe Dean, Drake London, Karl Brooks, Brian Branch, Jayden Reed, Bucky Irving and TBD on Kris Abrams-Draine.

These are my "Trust The Tape" prospects for the 2025 class. 

Believe it or not, running back is the position I least care about when it comes to a pre-draft workout. Really? A skill position? It's just because there are many past examples of backs who brought subpar workouts into the NFL and ultimately flourished. LeSean McCoy, Josh Jacobs, Najee Harris, Rhamondre Stevenson and most recently, Kyren Williams and Irving. And that's just naming a few. 

Johnson only participated in the 40-yard dash before this draft, and at 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds ran 4.57 with a 1.62 10-yard split that placed him in the 24th percentile at the position since 1999. 

Don't care. On film, this is a free-flowing, effortless bruiser, born to tote the rock on inside and outside zone, two staple run plays utilized by every single team in the NFL. In 2024 at Iowa, despite lacking elite level measured explosiveness, Johnson forced 66 missed tackles on his 240 rushes. That 27.5% missed-tackle-forced rate is damn good. Plus, he plays to his hulking size upon contact. No, he doesn't seek out physicality, but when it arrives, he's ready. 

His 4.42 yards-after-contact-per-rush average was second in college football -- behind Ashton Jeanty -- among the 31 running backs with at least 200 attempts. Draft Johnson as your old-school feature back. He's got the game to be that type in the NFL, 4.57 in the 40 be damned. 

Evans doesn't look overly fast in his routes or after the catch on film, and that observation was confirmed at the combine when he ran 4.74 in the 40-yard dash (56th percentile), and neither his broad jump, vertical, nor three-cone surpassed the 57th percentile at the tight end position in those drills. 

His 1.55 10-yard split was in the 90th percentile, but he still qualifies for this article because of his overall, on paper, average workout in Indianapolis. 

On film, this 258-pounder, who stands over 6-5, became the consummate security blanket for Notre Dame quarterbacks through his career in South Bend. His reception and yards totals increased in all four seasons with the Fighting Irish, and in 2024, en route to a national title appearance, Evans snagged a respectable 43 passes for 418 yards with three scores all while coming down with eight of his 11 contested-catch opportunities with just three total drops on his 59 targets. 

The cherry on top with Evans on film -- he's a menace after the catch. He forced 21 missed tackles on 77 career collegiate receptions, and he's not entering the NFL as some 24- or 25-year-old fifth- or sixth-year senior. Even though he's not fast and can't jump high, Evans is precisely the type of tight end you want on your NFL team's roster. 

Joyner isn't a freaky athlete. His 10-yard split was in the 29th percentile, his vertical jump landed in the 15th. But he is a freaky specimen. At 6-4 1/4" and 262 pounds, he has a wingspan in the 82nd percentile at the edge position. And Joyner knows how to deploy his length as a weapon at the point of attack. A captain on Minnesota's defense last season, the fourth-year senior pressured the quarterback on 14% of his rushes in 2023 and 2024 across more than 540 pass-rushing opportunities. 

Despite not having electric burst, that's an impressive figure given that high volume of rushes.

Also, thanks to his mass and length, Joyner is in the running for the sturdiest edge-setting run defender at the position in the class. Whichever club picks him is getting a pure, three-down defensive end who can push the pocket with pass-rush moves that stem from his long levers and upgrade the outside of the run-halting unit. Even if Joyner is picked on the third day of the draft, this is a big high-motor rusher who will outplay his draft position. 

At not quite 6-2 and just under 300 pounds, Norman-Lott has the size of a dynamic upfield defensive tackle. He plays like it too. The workout indicates the explosiveness may be there, or simply didn't translate from the field to the workout arena. 

At the Tennessee Pro Day, he ran 5.15 in the 40-yard dash -- 37th percentile -- and what is deemed to be vital on the interior -- his 10-yard split of 1.79 placed in the 26th percentile at the position. 

One of the players involved in the mass exodus in the early 2020s from Arizona State, Norman-Lott was a tremendous transfer-portal find for the Volunteers program. While never an every-down player, he registered an almost unprecedented 14% pressure rate at defensive tackle across two seasons in Knoxville. He wins with an array of hand work at the point of attack and first-step quicks to threaten interior offensive linemen of any shape and size. 

You have that type of production, across multiple seasons in the SEC, you, most likely, can play. 

Paul's film is fantastic. It's littered with heady, smooth movement in coverage that led to plays on the football in the air, and highlight reel sticks against the run between the tackles or on perimeter runs. 

His combine just sunk his stock to Day 3 levels. And that's fine with me! Better value.  

Paul is not quite 6-1 and 222 pounds. Thankfully, the linebacker position has intentionally shrunk over the past five years in the NFL -- many second-level defenders play in the 220s now. His short arms are going to hurt him when super-long blockers are climbing to the next level, and he does have problems defeating blocks because of that physical limitation. 

But he's a keen block-avoider and it's a real challenge to find him miss a tackle or coverage assignment on film. Frankly, on film, he reminded me of Ernest Jones, who was much longer but only 6-1 and 230 pounds at the South Carolina Pro Day in 2021.

Paul has the super-reliable game to outplay his draft position, whenever he's picked on the third day of the draft. He's a magnet to the football against the run and, vitally, in coverage.