DJ Vonnahme

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Good Lauck to You

So, yesterday I was studying the LT for Iowa, Trevor Lauck. I really like that guy. I probably won't do a full profile on him, because I'm not sure he's as good a fit for the Rams. I really wanted to try to find a LT prospect and I think Lauck is probably a LG at the NFL level. Also, I feel he's better for a zone scheme offense. Still, he's a super smart lineman, very technical and has good leadership skills. I think he's going to be a very good NFL player. I don't know if he can snap the ball, but he might have the versatility to move to C as well, so possible 5 position versatility.

I don't have a firm grade on Lauck, because I got distracted and sidetracked by a different Iowa player, Vonnahme, but I'll say at a minimum Day 2. Lauck and Anthonie Knapp are like football cousins. They both played LT in 2025 but both project better at LG in the pros. Both of them are very polished technicians. Knapp is the power tough guy bully but doesn't have much range. Lauck is more explosive to get out in space, better on zone and combo blocks, but he needs to get stronger in his lower half. I have some concerns about Lauck's contact balance and anchor vs NFL power and dynamic interior rushers. Lauck says he's been working hard in the weight room to make his legs stronger, so we'll see if it shows in 2026.

Anyway, so I'm watching Iowa and they have a very young and undersized TE named DJ Vonnahme. By sheer coincidence, in the other forum talking about Rams WRs, I was saying how Jordan Whittington almost isn't a true WR, he's a hybrid, more like a utility player, a blended mixture of a WR, TE and FB. I suggested keeping an eye out for smaller TEs or big but slow WRs who might be ranked low on draft boards but could fill Whittington's role in our offense. The 2025 version of Vonnahme is precisely what I'm talking about.

The more I watched Vonnahme, however, I wondered whether I was selling him short. The thought occurred to me that we could be witnessing the very early days of the next Brock Bowers or the next George Kittle. Vonnahme is a newbie, just a baby at the TE position. He was a QB in HS. He's a former walk-on who was very light when he first arrived on campus. His blocking is really bad now, but his effort is outstanding. He's trying his best, he just doesn't have a strong grasp of the details of the technique and doesn't have a strong enough body.

Vonnahme's receiving ability is way ahead of his blocking. His route running needs polishing, but the raw ability is very impressive. He could be a legitimate NFL weapon in the pass game. So, which is it? Is Vonnahme a future Jordan Whittington or is he the next George Kittle? I haven't made up my mind yet, I still have a couple more games to watch, so my evaluation on him isn't even complete. Plus, it is almost entirely a projection anyway, because he's so young and inexperienced. The guy was a 5th string TE in 2024. He could make a big leap forward in 2026 in his blocking if he continues to work in the weight room and the practice field.

Vonnahme likely won't be in the 2027 draft. Iowa is the best TE factory in the entire country, so he might be best served to stay in school, continue to get great coaching and develop. If he does reach Brock Bowers type level, he could emerge as a 1st round pick down the road.

The Rams just used 2 early round picks on TEs in the last couple drafts. Normally, I'd say it is unnecessary to look at yet another one. I'm telling you, however, there might be something special about Vonnahme. He's not just an ordinary run-of-the-mill TE prospect. Let me watch some more video and I'll tell you why I find this player so intriguing.

 

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Part 1: Background

Name, Age: DJ Vonnahme, turns 21 years old in February of 2027, redshirt sophomore, Iowa. Studying enterprise leadership, academic all conference in 2025.

Size, estimated speed: Listed 6'4'' tall and 241 pounds for 2026. DraftBuzz 4.65 seconds in 40. Was listed as 205 pounds as HS recruit. Iowa listed him as 6'3'' tall and 217 pounds as a FR in 2024, then 240 pounds in 2025.

2-star recruit, walked on at Iowa, had 3 FCS scholarship offers and one offer from Colorado State. Played QB in HS, then transitioned to WR for his SR season, had 28-567-12 receiving, also had a bunch of INTs during his HS career as a safety. Team captain in HS. Played basketball, soccer and was a sprinter in track. Was awarded a scholarship prior to the start of the 2025 season.

The 2nd oldest of 5 kids, all boys. Grew up on a farm outside of a very small town in Iowa, population about 500.

Redshirted in 2024, limited action. Began his career playing special teams. Was low on the depth chart at TE.

2025 (12 games, 5 starts) 29-434-3.

I know it doesn't look like he had much yardage, but Iowa rarely passes the ball. They have a run heavy philosophy. Vonnahme led the team in receiving. The second leading receiver on the team was a WR who had 24-278-1.

Vonnahme is the TE version of Charlie Becker, because he hardly did anything until the final 5 games of the 2025 season. The large majority of his receiving production and all of his starts came at the very end of the season. If you put Vonnahme on a pass-oriented team and extrapolate his production over a full season, it is easy to imagine him approaching 1,000 yards.

DraftBuzz: UDFA projection, 340 overall. (+) 6 of 7 contested catches, elite timed speed, from a TE factory school, had 146 yards in team's bowl game. (-) The worst blocker in the TE class, allowed 2 sacks, only 240 pounds, unlikely to be in the 2027 draft.
Drafttek not ranked among 450 players
Sam Teets 3rd round tier, 81 overall
NFLMDD sim 145
PFSN sim 108: More likely to be in the 2028 draft. (+) Urgent and physical, great explosiveness, excellent torque for size. Elite late hands timing and body control, threatens seam, physical at stems, good RAC. (-) Below average size, easy to dislodge and displace, struggles to maintain leverage and pad level through contact, needs to get stronger, 6.5% drop rate.
Ian Cummings mock draft 3rd round, 77th overall.

 

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Part 2: Strengths

Still in the very infancy of his football career. I hesitate to even use the words "scratching the surface of his potential", because that doesn't even begin to describe it. If Vonnahme were a new bicycle a kid got for Christmas, not only would the training wheels still be on, but half the bike would still be in bubble wrap inside the box, waiting to be assembled. He didn't play TE in HS. The kid was barely over 200 pounds. There's hardly anything to evaluate from a draft standpoint. If he were a cake, not only is the cake not yet in the oven, we haven't even finished mixing all the ingredients together. I feel silly even giving him a draft grade at this stage of his career, it is way too early.

If you're familiar with George Kittle's story, his path to the NFL is eerily similar to Vonnahme's biography. Kittle was a very skinny and lightly recruited player, listed as a 205-pound WR, exactly the same weight that Vonnahme was listed at as a recruit. He might have become a walk-on, but multiple other recruits fell through for Iowa, so they added Kittle late in the process as a fallback option. Kittle was mostly a backup in his early years at Iowa. He also got hurt his SR year. Consequently, he only had 48-737-10 receiving for his entire career at Iowa. His single season career best stats were 22-314-4. In other words, Vonnahme's 2025 season is better that George Kittle's best year at Iowa. Kittle was a 5th round pick. While he was very athletic, he was considered to be too small to be a starting TE.

If we compared Kittle to Vonnahme at the same stages in their respective careers, after their redshirt freshman seasons, Kittle had a grand total of 5 catches for 108 yards. He hadn't played much at that point. Kittle spent 5 years at Iowa. If Vonnahme does the same thing, he'll be in the 2029 NFL draft.

He's a former walk-on. On paper, Vonnahme never should have gotten to this point, we shouldn't be talking about him as a potential NFL player. He says that he embraced his special teams role as a way to prove himself and earn the trust of the coaching staff. In interviews, he's grounded, intelligent and detail oriented. He grew up on a farm and NFL players who were farm kids typically have discipline and a solid work ethic.

Iowa has a pro-style, old school offensive scheme. He's had a ton of run blocking reps. Each game, each practice he's getting valuable lessons, even on the plays where he takes losses.

Even though he's a small TE, Iowa used him all over the formation. He was the Y-TE directly next to the OT, the move TE in motion, split out in the slot, split out wide like a WR. He's learning to do a variety of tasks as a blocker and a receiver from a number of different angles and responsibilities in formations that translate to the NFL. There are multiple reasons why Iowa is so good at producing NFL TEs and their offensive scheme is one of the factors.

His short area burst is more like a WR, not a TE. Very quick to get downfield and turn to the QB on short routes. While his route tree is very limited so far, he does show the necessary athleticism to someday be able to craft more complex routes at all 3 levels of the field. Flashes sudden COD ability. Had a nice curl and go double move that went for a long TD. Very smooth runner.

Legitimate deep seam stretching speed. Speed stretches the defense horizontally as well.

Hand quickness to contend with jams at the LOS.

Soft and confident hands catching the ball. Fluid adjustment to pass behind him.

Very good acceleration after the catch to eat up YAC. A threat to take short passes at or behind the LOS and turn them into chunk gains.

Gives consistent effort as blocker. He's not any good at blocking, but it isn't due to a lack of focus or effort, he's doing his best. In some instances, the block fails because he's trying too hard. An "A for effort, F for execution" type of blocker. The one type of block he seems to be decent at is as a pull blocker.

Occasionally flashes pop in his hands when blocking. Good quickness for reach blocks and to get to the necessary angle for seal blocks.

His frame should be able to accommodate more muscle. His route running and technique will only get better with time. He might be a "mediocre" player right now, but his developmental upside is very high due to his uncommon speed, athleticism and ball skills.

 

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Part 3: Weaknesses

Too small. The first game I watched, I nicknamed him "midget". He's too short. He's too light. Not very muscular. He'll fall well below prototypical NFL size standards. He'd look tiny standing next to Colby Parkinson. Until and unless he fills out his frame more, he's not a "real TE" in the eyes of the NFL, he's just a glorified WR.

Truncated route tree. He mostly was used on about 5 basic routes. Didn't have a full route tree. His route running ability is pretty basic. Nothing overly advanced in terms of his releases, at the top of the route or in terms of creating separation from defenders. Routes lack detail and polish. His route tempo needs to be faster on intermediate routes. I'm not overly concerned about this, because I believe that he'll learn these types of things eventually. Nevertheless, I think the draft experts who have Vonnahme ranked as a Day 2 prospect have gotten a bit carried away with their grades and mocks. Even if we completely ignore his poor blocking, Vonnahme still has plenty of work to do to become a complete receiver.

There aren't many plays where he demonstrates the ability to sink his hips and explode in or out of breaks. Until he puts more types of routes on game tape, it is impossible to properly evaluate him. Many of the most common routes run by NFL TEs, he never ran any of those routes in the games I watched. I have no clue whether he can run those routes effectively. There's almost no data either way.

He needs to be more physical and aggressive in the stem and the top of the route.

Insufficient size and length to block bigger opponents. Doesn't have a wide frame. No leg drive. Too hyper and out of control at times, not maintaining proper body control. Overruns landmarks by being overeager. As move blocker, collided with his own teammate instead of hitting the DE. Poor effective play strength. Weak chip blocks and almost pointless combo blocks. Easily jacked off his feet. Weak anchor, can get driven backwards into the RB's running lane. Shows little feel and natural instincts as a move blocker, not confident with his timing, angles or footwork, resulting in weak block attempts. Got decked by the DE on a move block. No help on double team blocks. Got mauled at the POA by an average size OLB setting the edge.

Hand placements need to be more accurate. Sometimes late to engage with his hands. Unable to sustain blocks, frequently shed after about a second. Isn't consistently square to the defender, falling off the block. Ducks forward and lunges into some blocks.

Poor pass block resulted in a strip sack fumble that was nearly devastating in the middle of the 4th quarter of a close game.

Appeared to line up incorrectly, drawing a penalty. Appeared to make a route running mistake that caused an INT.

We're evaluating him based off of a tiny sample size. He has yet to be a starter for a full season. The cart is so far out ahead of the horse that it is just a cart. The horse is still in the barn.

 

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Part 4: Draft Grade and Pro Comp

5th round grade. Grant Calcaterra (6th round 2022, Philadelphia Eagles, SMU).

The Eagles won the Super Bowl in the 2024 season, beating the Chiefs. Dallas Goedert had an injury plagued year, resulting in Calcaterra starting many games. Calcaterra was considered to be one of the worst blocking TEs in the league that year. He also had under 300 receiving yards during the regular season. He's still with the Eagles.

I like Vonnahme. I think he has high upside. If he can reach his full potential, I believe that someday down the road he'll be either a 1st or 2nd round draft pick. In other words, I think he has Pro Bowl level ceiling. We might be waiting quite a while. He's from Iowa. He's playing for his home state college team. He turned down scholarships to play for Iowa. If he's enjoying the experience, why jump early to the NFL? Keep living the childhood dream and use all your eligibility.

At the moment, however, he's not NFL ready. His blocking is terrible and his receiving skills need considerable improvement as well. He's a developmental project and unless he makes a massive jump in 2026, he might need multiple redshirt years in the NFL before he could handle a starting job. Consequently, I'm only giving him a Day 3 grade. Vonnahme isn't a proven commodity; he's a speculative gamble.

Keep an eye on this player. He's an X-factor in the draft, because if he has a breakout 2026 season, he could crash the early round party.