2025 Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Profile: Quinshon Judkins, RB Ohio State

When the Ohio State Buckeyes won the National Championship Game in January, the best offensive player on the field was Quinshon Judkins. He dominated the Irish, rushing for 100 yards and two touchdowns, and catching another touchdown in the passing game. Even though he split a backfield with TreVeyon Henderson, Judkins took command of that Ohio State backfield especially in the games that mattered the most.

We’ll dig into it all with Judkins and determine his value in dynasty fantasy football leagues.

The Stats

Judkins’s college stats, courtesy of Sports Reference.

Judkins was a three-star recruit out of high school in Pike Road, AL. He got offers from most of the big name schools out of high school, but his choice came down to Notre Dame and Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin was particularly excited about him, and he chose to commit to the Rebels for the 2022 season.

As a freshman, he immediately became a crucial piece of the Rebels offense. He made his college debut against Troy in week one, rushing for 87 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. He was immediately Mississippi’s lead running back and the centerpiece of their offense, getting his first 100-yard game the next week against Central Arkansas. He led the team in rush attempts, rush yards and touchdowns, going for 1,567 yards and 16 touchdowns on 274 carries. All of those numbers would go on to be career-highs for him. He was the SEC Freshman of the year in 2022 and was named first-team All-SEC.

The next season continued Judkins’s domination of the Ole Miss backfield, but his explosiveness took a step back, going from 5.7 Y/A down to a career-low 4.3 yards. He had his only career three rushing touchdown game against Texas A&M, where he ran for 102 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries in the win. He ran for another 106 yards in the team’s Peach Bowl victory over Penn State before entering the transfer portal. One of the top names in the 2024’s portal, he quickly committed to complete his college career at Ohio State.

In Columbus, Judkins committed to splitting a backfield with fellow NFL prospect TreVeyon Henderson. Judkins led the committee, outcarrying Henderson 194-144, but Henderson was the more effective runner, going for 7.1 Y/A vs. 5.5. He had his best season as a pass-catcher in his one year with Will Howard, catching 22 balls for 161 yards and two touchdowns. While the regular season was relatively quiet for him, he went off when the games mattered the most in the College Football Playoff. In the four games in the playoffs, Judkins ran for 255 yards and six touchdowns on 47 attempts. He also caught seven passes for 52 yards and a touchdown. He topped it off with a three-touchdown game over Notre Dame in the National Championship Game. After raising the trophy, he declared for the NFL Draft.

The Film

 

For more film, check out Judkins’s DLF Profile.

Judkins ran the ball 14 times for 95 yards in this mid-season game against Penn State. He also caught two passes for five yards. 6.8 Y/A was a great number, but it was in a bad stretch of his season. In the two games before this one and the one game after, he failed to go over 3 Y/A in any of those games.

Judkins is a bit of a contradiction on film. He is built like a traditional three-down, up the middle running back. He’s a big guy, weighing in at 221 lbs. at the Combine, but he had his most success when he was able to run the ball outside the tackle box. Despite the success he had running outside the numbers, he doesn’t have elite speed to outrun linebackers and take advantage of the space outside.

He is a back who craves contact, running into would-be tacklers instead of wiggling around them. He struggled to get past the first tackler at Ohio State, averaging only 3.04 YCO/A and forcing only 43 missed tackles on 193 attempts.

He proved to be a great goal-line back for the Buckeyes, rushing for 14 touchdowns last season, and 45 over his three-season career. That nose for the end zone will be extremely useful for his transition to the NFL. Judkins is also a really polished pass blocker for a college running back.

Judkins’s best talent may be his vision in the trenches. He does a great job in the muck of the line of scrimmage finding the little holes and breaking through them for larger gains. There’s room for improvement here, but Judkins has proven that he can handle a full workload and be a team’s bellcow back. Coming off of a season where he played in 16 games, but only ran the ball 194 times, could help him enter the league fresh in his rookie season.

The Measurables

Image courtesy of NFL.com.

Judkins had an outstanding NFL Combine, starting with his 4.48 40-yard dash. At his size, that gave him a speed score of 109.7, a 91st percentile score for running backs. Even more impressive was his 10-yard split of 1.51 seconds, tied for the second-fastest acceleration in the class, even faster than his track star teammate Henderson.

Quinshon Judkins is a RB prospect in the 2025 draft class. He scored a 9.87 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 26 out of 1935 RB from 1987 to 2025.

Pro day pending for remaining tests.https://t.co/eEeEMSgdoG pic.twitter.com/zvL7e0HNqs

— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) March 11, 2025

 

The jumping went really well for him as well, especially the Broad Jump. He was the only running back in Indianapolis to jump for 11 feet in the broad. The athletic profile is somehow even more impressive than the tape has been for him.

 

In the drills, Judkins floats on the field, making cuts easily and showing strong footwork in the running game. He wasn’t a prolific pass-catcher in college, but he did just fine in the passing drills, running clean routes and showing solid hands, despite a drop here and there.

The Value

Quinshon Judkins’s mock draft history, courtesy of NFL Mock Draft Database.

In a loaded class of rookie running backs, Judkins has a chance to slip into the first round, but will more likely hear his name called on day two. Once Ashton Jeanty goes off the board, North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton is next. Then, it’s a battle between Judkins, Henderson and Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson to see who will go next.

There are plenty of teams that need a running back in this draft, especially after the lackluster crop of running backs available in free agency this month. The Vikings and Steelers are two teams that are often mocked for Judkins. Dipping into the second round, I think the Patriots and Bears are two very interesting teams that could add running backs in the early second.

Data from DLF One Quarterback ADP.

He’s currently the 23rd running back selected in DLF Startup Dynasty drafts, 73rd overall. He’s being valued just after Travis Etienne, and just before David Montgomery and Joe Mixon. His rookie draft ADP is fourth overall, the third running back drafted after Jeanty and Hampton. The DLF Rookie Rankings agree with the ADP, ranking him fifth overall as the RB3.

Dynasty Outlook

Landing spot and draft capital are two very important factors for running backs in the NFL Draft. As long as those pieces fall into place for Judkins, he could have a massive fantasy football ceiling, as early as this year. He’s a three-down running back who could easily be a team’s bellcow back as early as 2025. In this running back landscape, it’s more likely he will split carries with another running back, so he may need to earn touches away from a veteran in a committee.

In rookie drafts, he’s a really nice running back option in the middle of the first round. Typically, high-end running backs go very early in rookie drafts, but the depth of this class helps push some very talented backs down the board. Judkins is a back who could’ve been a top three pick in previous rookie drafts, but because Jeanty and Hampton are ahead of him, he becomes a nice mid-round value.

I’m impressed by what I see from him and can’t wait to see where he ends up. He’s a really solid runner, who has a skillset that transitions really well for the NFL. One issue may be his pass-catching chops, but if he’s given the opportunity to do that in practice or in games he could improve there. I think Quinshon Judkins has a good chance to be a high-end RB2, or maybe even a low-end RB1 in dynasty fantasy football in the coming years.