Kansas City Chiefs recently met with a prospect who could be one of the biggest steals in the entire 2025 NFL Draft
The Kansas City Chiefs brought in a prospect for a top-30 visit already heralded as a potential steal, but not necessarily a sleeper or a secret, in the later rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft. As first reported by Arizona football beat reporter Justin Spears, the Chiefs recently brought in Wildcats RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt for a […]
The Kansas City Chiefs brought in a prospect for a top-30 visit already heralded as a potential steal, but not necessarily a sleeper or a secret, in the later rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft.
As first reported by Arizona football beat reporter Justin Spears, the Chiefs recently brought in Wildcats RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt for a top-30 visit. Croskey-Merritt posted an Instagram story from Kansas City's locker room on Wednesday, April 9.
Croskey-Merritt spent four years at Alabama State University after being an unranked recruit out of high school. That includes a redshirt year from the 2019 season that would prove problematic for his eligibility later. He appeared in 31 games with 15 starts for the Hornets over four seasons, recording 328 carries for 1,161 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. He also caught 29 passes for 335 receiving yards and one touchdown.
He'd go on to enter the transfer portal and commit to the University of New Mexico for 2023, where he instantly became a star for an otherwise struggling Lobos team. He finished his 2023 season, appearing in 12 games with 10 starts, recording 196 touches for 1,262 scrimmage yards and 18 touchdowns.
He sought to further prove his ability by entering the transfer portal once more, this time as a graduate transfer, landing at the University of Arizona. He appeared in just one game for the Wildcats, against his former Lobos team, where he had 13 carries for 106 yards and a game-sealing touchdown run. He sat out the remainder of the 2024 college football season due to an eligibility issue stemming from
After sitting out the year, Croskey-Merritt accepted an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl and was named the Offensive Player of the Game after recording 87 yards and two touchdowns.
How does Jacory Croskey-Merritt fit with the Chiefs?
Croskey-Merritt is an older prospect, 24 years old as a sixth-year senior, but there's a lot to like about his game.
At 5-foot-10 and 208 pounds, he's got great footwork with the ability to start, stop, and cut on a dime. Zebra Sports tracking data shows that his max acceleration and deceleration aren't just the best in the 2025 NFL draft class but among the best they've ever tracked at All-Star games dating back to 2018.
The athleticism doesn't stop there, though. At the Big 12 pro day, he ran a 4.45s 40-yard dash, jumped a 41.5-inch vertical, a 124-inch broad jump, and posted 17 repetitions of 225 on the bench press.
He's proven that he's got chops for the passing game, both catching the football and blocking, which is imperative in the Chiefs' pass-heavy offense. His vision as a receiver and a runner will instantly make him one of the more effective skill players in Kansas City when it comes to finding lanes and working through traffic with minimal contact. That's not to say that he can't put his shoulder down and run through someone's face, but he's often finding ways to avoid contact.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt can keep up a trend for the Chiefs
With most of his experience coming in the SWAC, there is a lot of projection with a pick like Croskey-Merritt, which is probably why late Day 2 is his likely ceiling. His lone season of tape at New Mexico is impressive, but the team was 4-8 and struggled to find consistent quarterback play and success on defense. There's a strong belief that had Croskey-Merritt been eligible to finish the 2024 college football season, he would have drastically raised his draft stock.
He did help himself a lot at the East-West Shrine Game, which is important for a team like Kansas City. If you look at the last three off-seasons in Kansas City, the Chiefs have either drafted or signed a UDFA running back who attended the Shrine Bowl (H/t to friend of the site Jared Sapp). It's no coincidence that Isiah Pacheco, Deneric Prince, Emani Bailey, and Carson Steele each played at the All-Star Game. In recent years, the team has also preferred to wait for a late-round steal or a UDFA option rather than selecting a running back high in the draft. Croskey-Merritt would keep those trends going.
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