Jamal Roberts

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This is the first of 2 profiles I'm doing on Missouri players. After this, we'll look at Cayden Lee, a slot WR.

Missouri RB Jamal Roberts is so lightly regarded that his name isn't even listed on many draft boards. On a couple boards he is a 7th round to UDFA prospect. Sam Teets did list Roberts as a "top player" yet to be evaluated, which to me implies that Teets intends to eventually give Roberts a draft-worthy grade. I'm interested in seeing what Teets will have to say about this player. It is unclear what Jacob Infante from PFN thinks about Roberts. There is a discrepancy between his board listing (157, which would be a 5th round pick. Kyren Williams was drafted 164th overall) and the PFN draft simulator if you use the Infante board (370, which would be an UDFA) so I don't know if Infante has Roberts as a draft riser who is improving his stock or as a faller who is sliding down the board. Over 200 positions is a pretty big move on the board, so something must have changed in Infante's mind.

In late August, Roberts was ranked 834th on the NFLMDD consensus board. He then suddenly jumped up all the way to 153rd but has since progressively slid back and currently is at 273, which would be an UDFA. It is unclear whether Roberts will even enter the draft. Draftscout ranks Roberts as the 17th best RB for the 2028 draft and since several of the RBs on that list are likely to enter the 2027 draft, if everything else stayed the same, Roberts could end up as one of the top 10 RBs in the following draft, likely making him a middle round selection. Over the last decade (including the phenomenal 2017 running back draft, which was the greatest RB draft class in the modern era) an average of about 21 RBs have been selected in each draft.

When you read what I have to say about Roberts, then consider that he's generally projected to be an UDFA, you'll probably wonder why I'm even doing this profile. Why write about a player who is unlikely to get drafted? First of all, Memento asked me to look at a couple Missouri players. Secondly, the distinction between a 4th round pick and an UDFA can be almost imperceptible.

Yesterday, the Miami Dolphins released Jarquez Hunter from their PS. The Rams drafted Hunter in the middle of the 4th round in 2025. The Fins dumped him to make room for Brady Cook, a former Missouri QB who was an UDFA in 2025, the same draft class as Hunter. Maybe Hunter will land somewhere else, maybe his pro career is over. So far, Hunter has only played on special teams. He hasn't played a single snap on offense in a regular season game.

Let's make a list of the career scrimmage yards for every RB (I'll include Sam Rogers, a fullback) that the Rams have drafted on Day 3 in the McVay era, not including Kyren Williams.

Hunter (4th rd 2025) zero yards;
Zach Evans (6th round 2023) 19 yards;
Jake Funk (7th round 2021) 27 yards;
John Kelly (6th round 2018) 123 yards;
Sam Rogers (6th round 2027) zero yards.

The combined total is 169 yards. Now, let's take it a step further. Just for kicks, we'll add in the career totals for Zac Stacy, a 5th round pick from 2013. He had 1,713 yards. This brings the total for all 6 of those players to 1,882 yards.

Why did we add all those numbers? My NFL comp for Jamal Roberts is a RB who was a compensatory 7th round draft pick. In other words, that RB might as well have been an UDFA. He was one of the very last players taken. He spent 5 years in the NFL and had 1,819 career scrimmage yards. By himself he produced almost exactly the same yardage as the combined total from all of the Rams we listed above.

I'm not trying to build a case for the Rams to draft Jamal Roberts in the 2nd round of the 2027 NFL draft. I'm just saying, if the bar is Jarquez Hunter's career total of zero rushing and zero receiving yards, is that bar intimidatingly high if we're considering adding Roberts as an UDFA?

 

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Part 1: Background

Name, Age, School: Jamal Roberts. Turned 22 in October. 4th year redshirt junior. Missouri. General studies major.

Size, estimated speed: Listed 6 feet tall and 216 pounds. Was listed at 5'11'' tall and 197 pounds as FR in 2023, then 6 feet and 211 in 2024, 212 pounds in 2025. Draftscout 5'11 1/4'' tall, 212 pounds, 4.52 seconds estimated 40 time.

3-star to 4-star recruit from St. Louis, MO. Was a sprinter on track team in HS. Played middle linebacker until JR season and in a time-share situation had 98-928-14 rushing, then 167-1,899-28 as SR with 11.4 yards per carry average. He had a game in HS where he had 238 rushing yards, 4 rushing TDs and a kickoff return TD.

As a recruit, was projected to be a starter in college but not a future NFL draft pick, with Kene Nwangwu as his pro comp (I don't like this comparison, because Nwangwu is very fast), with the recruiting expert saying that he was solidly built, a good receiver and had good burst but didn't have elite speed and was more of a north and south runner without great elusiveness. Reported offers from 3 other power conference schools besides Mizzou and 3 mid-major schools. In an interview, Roberts said that Miami was his dream school. He said that likes the brotherhood and family atmosphere at Mizzou, takes pride in his conditioning to wear down defenses and that his background playing linebacker on defense is the basis for his physical mentality. Good natured, has talked about taking younger RBs at Mizzou under his wings.

Voted by his teammates as 1 of 6 team captains for Mizzou for 2026.

Wasn't supposed to be the starter in 2026, but Ahmad Hardy, the superstar starting RB for Mizzou, suffered a gunshot wound in May of 2026 and based on comments (or lack thereof) from the coaches, it sounds unlikely that Hardy will play this season. The 2nd string RB behind Roberts to begin 2026 tore his ACL in the 1st game. Roberts was Hardy's backup in 2025.

Reported leg injury in 2025. He was slow to get up in some of the other plays I watched, maybe suffering minor injuries. One time, he took a hard hit, making me wonder if he suffered a concussion.

2024 (13 games) 53-216-3 rushing (4.1 ave), 5-21 receiving, 1 fumble

2025 (13 games, 2 starts) 124-753-6 rushing (6.1 ave), 18-141-1 receiving, 2 fumbles

2026 (6 games, 6 starts) 147-828-8 rushing (5.6 ave), 138.0 yards per game, 11-84 receiving, 2 fumbles

2-21 career kick returns. 5 career fumbles and 359 career scrimmage touches for a fumble rate of one for every 71.8 touches, a poor ball security rate. According to his team bio, he has 4 career special teams tackles.

PFN impact score of 77.3 in 2025, with a 38.9 elusive score (ranking 72nd) and a 4.4 boom/bust ratio (26th).

PFN impact score of 81.6 so far in 2026 (65th out of 334 players) with 34.0 elusive score (376th) and -3.4 boom/bust (346th)

About a week ago, John Blair for NFLMocks named Robers as one of his top draft risers, complimenting Roberts for his vision and burst. Blair said he upgraded Roberts on the big board from UDFA to a 6th round prospect.

GreatNorthSports 179 (late 5th to 6th round) 18th RB
FirstandTen projected Day 3 pick, 221 (which would be 6th to 7th round)
NFLMDD simulator 273 (UDFA)
SttM board 344 (UDFA)
Jacob Infante board for PFN simulator 370 (UDFA)
Ian Cummings board for PFN simulator 573 (UDFA)
Drafttek not ranked among 450 prospects (UDFA)
AtoZ simulator not ranked (UDFA)
Fanspeak consensus not ranked (UDFA)
Buffalo Fambase not ranked (UDFA), the last RB on this board is ranked 711
Brian Bosarge not ranked among 25 RBs (UDFA)
Draftscout Day 3 prospect for 2028 draft, has a "stock up" designation.
DraftBuzz not ranked among 40 RBs (UDFA)
Shane Hallam 7-round mock (prior to the season) not selected (UDFA)

 

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Part 2: Strengths

He's a chameleon. Roberts is a difficult RB to describe in words, because he doesn't neatly fit into a particular box or mold. He's tall but he's not really a power back. He doesn't have great speed, yet he's broken many long runs in his career. He's not an overly elusive runner, but he has enough lateral jump cut ability to make defenders miss. He is an adaptive player that potentially could fill a variety of roles. If we were a baseball team, the analogy I'd use is he'd be a utility player who could play both in the outfield and the infield. This gives the manager ideal flexibility for substitutions. If you had a 3 RB rotation where one guy was the passing down 3rd down RB, a different guy was the power short-yardage red zone RB and the 3rd guy was the workhorse starter, Roberts could be a candidate to be the "floater backup" 4th RB. Maybe he's not good enough at any particular task to beat out the "first choice" RB at each job, but there is enough diversity in his game that he could do each job at a minimum level, so regardless of which of your top 3 RBs got injured, you'd feel comfortable that you have the bases covered if you needed to use the 4th RB.

Improved. I thought he was better in 2026 vs 2025. Didn't stay the same and I like to see that.

Interesting mix of patience, lateral cuts, burst, power, stiff arm and track hurdler athleticism. Sometimes will pause, waiting for his blocks to develop.

Has vision to see defenders coming and evade tackle attempts. Enough lateral agility to bounce runs outside.

Glides and picks his way forward. Light on his feet relative to his size. If Isiah Pacheco pounds his feet into the ground like driving pistons, Roberts is the exact opposite. Some plays he makes me think of the lizard that can run on water. Are his feet even touching the turf or are they on a cushion of air suspended one millimeter off the ground? When he runs, it looks like he's skipping on the top surface of the grass instead of digging into the ground. Very unique and odd running style.

When he was the backup behind Hardy, Missouri used him as the 3rd down RB. Roberts was used in 2-minute situations and on passing downs. A few times, Hardy might play the early downs but come off the field on 3rd down. So, there seemed to be more trust in Roberts than Hardy in obvious passing situations. This was the case even in critical situations with the game on the line late in the 4th quarter. So, to say that Roberts was the backup shouldn't be taken to imply that his role was just to give Hardy rest. Missouri's coaches valued his well-rounded skill set.

When he's decisive and lowers his pads, he can drop the hammer and power through defenders at the 2nd level. I don't think he does this consistently enough and it was one of my issues with his 2025 tape but he's flashed more of it so far in 2026 so I think there are signs of developmental upside where he still has room to improve his game and get even better as a runner.

Made special teams tackles early in his career in college. Has experience playing defense in HS. I feel that this is important, because he's not a good candidate to be a kick returner, so for him to stay on the roster as a backup RB, he needs to prove that he has value on special teams in some other role. He's tall, has length and isn't afraid of contact, so maybe he could do some things in coverage or as a blocker.

In the same vein, has solid team-oriented intangibles. Not a selfish diva who was a highly touted 5-star recruit. He was a backup RB in college, so if his ceiling in the pros is just as a backup, this isn't a new role for him. He doesn't have the type of personality where he'd be jealous of the starter and complain that he should be the one starting, then cause drama with the coaching staff.

Long arms relative to his frame.

Tough. Not afraid to lower his bads and run directly into contact. Absorbs body blows like a boxer. Not timid or scared.

Good standard stats. Roberts has averaged 5.5 yards per carry over his career, exactly the same as Blake Corum's rushing average at Michigan. He's exploded in 2026 with back-to-back 200+ rushing yard games the last 2 times out. He's shown he can be a workhorse, because he has almost 150 rushing attempts halfway through the year, so at the current pace he'd have nearly 300 attempts by the end of the regular season. Corum at UM never had at least 260 rushing attempts in a single season.

Plays in what I'd characterize as a hybrid offensive scheme. Mizzou uses an up-tempo offense with some spread formations and concepts, but they also use power running formations and plays. The RB has more pass blocking duties than other college spread systems, so from a RB POV, I think that Roberts is more pro-ready than a typical spread offense RB.

He does demonstrate the ability to cover the point of the football with both hands, so even though his fumble stats are poor, maybe he could improve his ball security with more experience, coaching and better attention to his technique.

 

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Part 3: Weaknesses

I don't like his build. Doesn't have ideal proportions, because he's tall with long legs, giving him a naturally higher COG. Average bulk, doesn't have a thick build with enough body mass to be a power RB in the pros. Below average leg drive.

Upright posture. Doesn't run behind his pads with proper forward lean. When he tries to dodge defenders at the 2nd level, his chest and the ball become exposed, because his body is too upright. If he doesn't change his technique, I'm afraid that he's going to get nailed as he tries to weave through contact, resulting in fumbles and injuries. For his own safety, he needs to learn how to avoid placing his body in vulnerable positions and taking full-force shots at high speed.

Lacks explosiveness and threatening downhill burst. Average momentum into the LOS. Disappointing as short-yardage runner relative to his size.

Hip tightness inhibits his ability to navigate obstacles in his way. Lacks instincts and creativity to erase TFLs if blocks are missed. Struggles at POA if met by a defender, doesn't have the raw power to drive through tackles or elite escapability to make them miss.

Gears down to make cuts. Not loose or shifty, average elusiveness. Limited ability to stack multiple lateral cuts or bounces into different gaps. He's not Jadan Baugh.

His footwork can be wrong. Tentative, doesn't anticipate holes, resulting in wasted movement or delay on plays where I want him to put his foot in the ground and be direct, hitting the hole with downhill speed. Too much dancing and not enough get up and go. On an outside zone run, he decelerated into the cutback. His higher COG might make it difficult for him to make sudden and violent angle changes. Can't layer moves or angle changes without losing downhill speed.

Doesn't consistently add enough yards after contact with power and leg drive relative to his size. Leaves yards on the field as if he were a smaller RB.

Below average open-field speed. No extra gear to pull away from the pursuit. He's going to get run down or have the angle cut off in the NFL.

Not good in space in 1 vs 1 situations immediately after a catch. Doesn't have ideal lower body strength and contact balance (see e.g. his teammate, Hardy) to withstand hits and stay upright to gain YAC. Doesn't have the instincts and immediate transition to become a runner, to make evasive moves and get away from the 1st defender. Poor short-area burst right after the catch.

Balance issues, struggles to regain his balance and stay on his feet if he gets tripped up or is drawn off balance.

If he's running at a 45-degree angle relative to the LOS (in other words, running directly towards the corner to try to get to the sideline, his pad level is too high, so if he gets hit or a defender grabs his upper body, he can be easily knocked off his axis. Instead of his body having forward momentum, he becomes like a kid's toy spinning top wobbling, which slows him down. It also exposes the ball He needs to get his pads down and "make himself small" so that he can get to the edge more consistently.

Poor fumble rate. The ball isn't tucked high and tight to his chest. He only tucks the ball with 2 hands if he anticipates contact. If he's running hard, the ball sometimes swings away from his body. Ball is exposed to be punched, ripped or pulled out if he doesn't see the defender coming.

When he loses his balance, for a split second the ball tends to swing wildly away from his body, opening up an opportunity for a 2nd defender to knock it out.

Frequently runs with the ball in the wrong hand. Doesn't transfer the ball quickly from one hand to the other even when he has space and time. When he does transfer the ball, it is slower and more segmented than some other RBs.

Stats impacted by enormous running lanes that you could drive a truck through. Not a true home-run hitter despite gaudy rushing stats. Benefits from big OL blocking in front of him. Sometimes the scheme spreads out the defense. High tempo causes the opposing defense to get tired. Gains very easy yardage served up for him on a silver platter.

Average receiving value. Not good releasing out of the backfield. Wasted body movements slow his releases. A dump-off receiver who doesn't run much of a route tree. Drifts away from the QB to the catch point. Turns too early to the QB instead of being sudden and getting to the top of the route with proper route tempo. No natural feel as a receiver, too robotic. Hands not particularly soft or skilled catching the ball.

Average blocker. Sloppy technique. Absorbs blitzers; doesn't stuff them. Waits too deep in the pocket instead of stepping forward and meeting them to preserve pocket space for the QB to step up. Doesn't scan quickly. Not good as a lead blocker. Hands not always in the frame of the defender.

Average awareness and technique as chip blocker. Needs to engage his legs more into the block. Makes mental errors when scanning, doesn't reliably identify the most dangerous pass rusher or have great judgment determining how to help the OL.

Limited ceiling. He isn't a great athlete by NFL standards. He has average size and running instincts. I don't think he'll ever become a good route runner or a great 3rd down RB. IMO, he projects as a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none RB". He's not terrible in any particular department, but he has no elite trait to sell himself to the coaching staff and cement a roster spot long-term.

 

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A player who is flying up boards is Xavier Gilliam, a DT from Tennessee. Almost overnight, he's gone from an UDFA on the consensus board to a 2nd round prospect and the way some experts are gushing, he'll end up as a 1st round pick. He might even go high in the 1st round. Things have changed so quickly, not everyone can keep up. He debuted on Drafttek's board as a 5th round prospect. On PFN, IC doesn't have him on his board, but Infante has Gilliams on the fringe of the 1st round. Things could literally change hour-to-hour like the stock market, because who knows if the experts are updating their boards quickly enough to reflect their actual current opinions about him.

 

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Part 4: Draft Grade and Pro Comp

Late round grade. (Justin Jackson, compensatory 7th round 2018, Chargers, Northwestern)

Jackson was 5'11 7/8'' tall, 199 pounds and ran 4.52 seconds in the 40. Lance Zierlein liked his unorthodox running style and said he had a slippery and flexible upper body. He didn't like Jackson's slight build, lack of lower body power, narrow running base, herky-jerky style, hitch steps, leggy and upright gait and clumsy hands catching passes.

Jackson began his rookie season on the PS. In a 5-year NFL career, he had 1,210 rushing yards and 609 receiving yards. He only fumbled once in the NFL on 325 career scrimmage touches.

Roberts and Jackson have very similar running styles. As alluded to in LZ's draft profile about Jackson, some people might like this unconventional style but other NFL scouts and coaches might hate it, because it "looks funny". Jackson was a whisker away from being an UDFA.

In 4 years at Northwestern, Jackson stuffed the stat sheet. He had 5,440 rushing yards, plus 858 receiving yards. His JR season he had over 1,500 rushing yards. Even with that impressive resume, Jackson still was considered to be a fringe prospect.

Similarly, I don't think it matters how many rushing yards Jamal Roberts gains this season. He could run for 300 yards every game and I bet some NFL teams still wouldn't like him and wouldn't draft him.

Jackson was just a backup. He wasn't anything special in the NFL, but he had better production that many of the RBs drafted ahead of him. This was the same draft that the Rams took John Kelly. Jackson had about the same production as Rashaad Penny, who was the 27th overall selection. He far outperformed most of the 4th round RBs. In a redraft, I bet Jackson would be about a 4th rd pick.

In the NFL draft, there can be a tortoise and the hare aspect. Everyone wants to draft the hare. When you look back on the draft 5 to 10 years later, some of the better picks would have been to bet on the tortoise.