Running back Quinshon Judkins tore apart the SEC for two years, and now, he’s transferred to Ohio State to complete his 2025 NFL Draft scouting report.
Entering just his third season, is Judkins already an early-round candidate?
Quinshon Judkins’ Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 5’11”
- Weight: 210 pounds
- Position: Running Back
- School: Ohio State
- Current Year: Junior
Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels scored the gem of the 2022 recruiting class when Judkins joined up with them as a three-star recruit.
Coming out of Pike Road High School in Alabama, Judkins amassed 1,534 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns as a high school senior.
It was known that Judkins knew how to produce coming out of high school, and he hardly missed a beat sustaining that production at the collegiate level. Though he started the 2022 season as Ole Miss’ RB2, he’d soon become a dominant force at the college level.
Down the stretch as a true freshman, Judkins would accumulate 1,567 yards and 16 TDs on 274 carries, averaging almost six yards per attempt. His 2022 campaign — which won him SEC Freshman of the Year honors — featured two 200-yard outings and six multi-TD performances.
In 2023, Judkins returned to the fold and put up another strong season. Across 13 games and 13 starts, he logged 1,158 yards and 15 TDs on 271 attempts while also catching 22 passes for 149 yards and two scores. For the second straight year, he was a first-team All-SEC honoree.
Now, after proving himself in the vaunted SEC, Judkins has transferred to Ohio State. The move inserts Judkins into an offense brimming with potential and a roster that could compete for College Football Playoff real estate.
But it’s also a move for Judkins himself to potentially keep tracking toward Round 1 capital.
Judkins’ Scouting Report
Strengths
- Sports a compact, well-leveraged frame with great lean mass.
- Uber-explosive, energized RB with abnormally fast stride frequencies on acceleration.
- Hyperactive short-area athlete with snappy lower-body flexibility and sudden redirection.
- Has the combined agility and explosion to plant-and-go, escaping early contact threats.
- Uses easy throttle freedom and sharp cutting ability to survey and trigger on zone runs.
- Narrow and fluid runner who can sneak through fleeting creases and snake upfield.
- With lean mass and energetic leg churn, can forcefully drive forward through contact.
- Able to pry through solo tackles with speed, stubborn leg churn, and stiff arms.
- Possesses cumbersome contact balance and can easily absorb hits and reset his feet.
- Has the patience and vision to let blocks set up and then swiftly capitalize with cuts.
- Has shown he can press into blocks to bait LBs, then carve upfield with bristling pace.
- Can recognize backside opportunities on zone runs and bend inside while keeping speed.
- Blazing short-strider speed allows him to warp tackling angles and stretch seams.
- Has shown he can gather short passes away from his frame and reset feet for RAC.
- As a blocker, has at least shown he can square up defenders and play with leverage.
Weaknesses
- Long speed, while exceptional, isn’t quite elite with his short-strider mold.
- Sometimes gets tunnel vision on interior lanes and misses chances to bounce outside.
- At times, presses too far laterally behind blocks, allowing linebackers to close the void.
- Has room to be more consistent and more efficient with his spatial management.
- Can be uncontrolled with setup footwork behind the line, drifting into congestion.
- Doesn’t always show high-level creative instincts in adverse situations.
- Too often over-commits to initial holes and doesn’t take opportunities to adapt.
- Doesn’t quite have the elite mass or power to bowl through successive tackles.
- Hasn’t taken on high-end volume as a receiver, and can improve his route footwork.
- Hand technique can improve at times, as hands are sometimes too wide on approach.
- Doesn’t quite have the size or take-on strength to consistently slow A-gap blitzes.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Judkins grades out as a top-50 prospect and an early-Day 2 talent who could eventually command late-Round 1 capital with more improvement on passing downs.
In a stacked RB class, Judkins is one of the best the group has to offer.
To be as productive as Judkins has been through the first two years of his collegiate career, there has to be something special about his game. For Judkins, that special trait amalgam is his explosive burst, energetic acceleration, and smooth throttle freedom.
Judkins is an incredibly energized mover. His linear acceleration enables him to capitalize on fleeting gaps, and his swift, sudden one-cut ability allows him to offset defenders and sustain acceleration through cuts.
Past his mobility profile, Judkins is an exceedingly physical runner who plays beyond his frame and finishes forward with urgent leg churn.
Mentally, Judkins has very good vision, which allows him to pick out primary and secondary lanes on zone and gap runs. He’s not as proficient as a creator in adverse or early contact situations, but on schedule, he’s dangerous. He’s an explosive carving knife with the tools to keep the chains moving.
Right now, the main issue keeping Judkins from fielding Round 1 consideration is his inconclusive passing down utility. He has room to improve as a pass blocker, and while his RAC profile is promising, his overall receiving profile is not yet. Sharing reps with TreVeyon Henderson in 2024 might not help with development in that realm.
Nevertheless, Judkins will assuredly have a major role in an NFL backfield, where rotational strength is coveted in the modern era. He has the vision and physicality to command volume and the elite explosive athleticism to generate big plays above expectation.