In the stacked 2025 NFL Draft running back class, where does North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton rank? Does he have the composite profile to challenge names like Ollie Gordon II and Quinshon Judkins for the top positional spot?
Omarion Hampton’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’0″
- Weight: 220 pounds
- Position: Running Back
- School: North Carolina
- Current Year: Junior
When gifted runners come along, they’re hard to miss. At Cleveland High School in Clayton, N.C., Hampton was that kind of talent.
Hampton got on the field as a varsity player as a mere freshman, and as a sophomore, he dominated the league with 2,402 yards and 35 touchdowns. He missed most of his junior campaign with an ankle injury, but in 2021, he came back and amassed 1,949 yards and 39 TDs on the ground as a senior.
Hampton was a national star and a North Carolina legend. He won the state’s Mr. Football award as a senior, and he leveraged that play into a four-star recruit billing and an opportunity to play under coach Mack Brown at the University of North Carolina.
For two seasons, Hampton was one of the primary names alongside Drake Maye in the Tar Heels’ backfield. He showed promise in 2022 as a true freshman but truly emerged in 2023 with a season that saw him accumulate 1,504 yards and 15 TDs on 253 carries, as well as 220 yards and a TD on 29 catches.
Now, Maye is gone, and the Tar Heels may rely on Hampton even more as the engine of the offense. The Clayton product — who’ll be a 22-year-old rookie if he declares in 2025 — is well on his way to making the NFL leap.
Hampton’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Rock’em, sock’em runner with a powerful frame, weaponized by constant motion.
- Energized mover who can scrape through solo tackles with leg churn and physicality.
- Has enough one-cut agility to swim around solo defenders and explode into space.
- Has enough flexibility to bend around blocks and and spin past roaming linebackers.
- Powerful knee drive amounts to elite explosive capacity and near-elite long speed.
- Has the vision to quickly recognize interior lanes on gap and inside zone runs.
- Flashes the patience to let his blocks set up before suddenly triggering on open gaps.
- Knows how to press linebackers into interior gaps, then explode through cutback lanes.
- Able to adapt away from early contact threats and bounce outside with lateral burst.
- Capable receiving threat who can contort for imprecise passes and reset feet for RAC.
- Has a solid RB route tree that includes curls, swings, screens, and thru routes.
- Makes a point to get low and drive his pads and legs when finishing forward in space.
- Extremely strong, tenacious runner who can absorb solo hits with his midsection.
- Constantly fights to stay on his feet and churn out extra yards with combative energy.
- Willing pass blocker who can square up rushers, use tight punches, and play to leverage.
Weaknesses
- Lacks elite lateral freedom or hip fluidity, necessitating gathering steps on sharp transitions.
- Sometimes struggles to decelerate quickly and make sharp lateral direction changes.
- Is more of a press-and-go runner than a make-you-miss type when creation is required.
- On occasion, passes up open A-gap lanes and flushes himself into congested areas.
- Is sometimes late to recognize secondary interior lanes, bouncing outside to dead ends.
- At times, has room to quicken his setup footwork to evade early contact threats.
- Tends to run with his pad level too high, which can allow defenders inside his frame.
- At times, can improve his body leveraging in narrow lanes in order to keep momentum.
- Doesn’t quite have elite contact balance and can be wrangled down by pursuit threats.
- With hip stiffness, upside with route tree development may be somewhat capped.
- Can improve his hand precision in pass protection to maximize initial punches.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Hampton grades out as a top-64 prospect who is worthy of early-to-mid Day 2 consideration. He’s one of the top RB prospects in the coming class, and he has exciting scheme flexibility and pass-down utility for a volume back.
At around 6’0″, 220 pounds, Hampton easily fits the volume mold, and he brings the kind of physicality and contact balance you’d expect. On top of his pure combative energy, he’s a supremely explosive runner with the speed to stretch seams and generate chunk plays.
Though he’s more of a press-and-go runner than a pure creator, Hampton has good creative instincts — evident in his ability to press into gaps and displace linebackers — but his main appeal comes as a finisher in space, where he can use his burst and agility in tandem with his physicality to muscle through defenders.
At his size, Hampton has excellent foot speed and accelerative capacity, and those traits are the bedrock of his profile as a runner. Meanwhile, as a receiver, he’s very competent with active body control, hand-eye coordination, a solid route tree, and a strong RAC framework.
Hampton’s hip fluidity, while solid, is visibly non-elite, and there are occasional lapses in first- and second-window vision on tape. But overall, he has all of the tools to be a quality volume runner and lead stable back in the NFL with a dynamic flair, a physical edge, and the receiving and pass-blocking ability to man the field on all three downs.
