Jaydn Ott looked like a surefire superstar at running back at one time. However, he wasn’t quite to the same level over the last two seasons. Will NFL teams overlook his recent struggles and lean on his early dominance, or will his 2025 season tank his projection?<\/p>\n
More 2026 NFL Draft Profiles<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Height: 5′ 11″<\/span> Coming out of Norco High School in California, Ott was a highly-regarded running back in the 2022 recruiting class. According to the consensus, he was a four-star recruit and the 23rd-best player at his position. He elected to stay home and passed over a host of Power 4 programs.<\/p>\n As a true freshman, Ott took no time at all to break out. After appearing in two games, Ott started the final 10 games for the Golden Bears. In those 12 games, he led the way with 897 yards and eight touchdowns on 170 rushes. In his Cal debut against UC Davis, he burst out of the gates with 104 yards on 17 carries.<\/p>\n As a sophomore in 2023, Ott looked to be hitting his stride and really blossoming into a true superstar. In 12 starts, he led the Pac-12 in its final season of existence with 1,315 yards and 12 touchdowns on 245 carries. He earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors and was a contender for the Doak Walker Award, Maxwell Award, and Walter Camp Award.<\/p>\n Instead of transferring out, Ott returned to Cal for the 2024 season. That year was a far cry from his two previous seasons due to injuries. In 10 games, he only managed 385 yards and four scores on 116 rushes.<\/p>\n Following the 2024 season, Ott transferred to Oklahoma for his final season of eligibility. Again, it wasn’t quite what we had grown accustomed to seeing from him. In seven games, Ott totaled 68 yards on 21 carries.<\/p>\n He was invited to the Senior Bowl and evidently had a strong week of workouts, so time will tell.<\/p>\n Projection<\/strong>: Fifth Round Heading into the 2024 season, Ott looked like a guy who was going to play his way into a premium draft position, even as a running back. Then, he took a step back. Then, he transferred, and it got even worse. He will be an incredibly interesting case to follow as the draft goes on.<\/p>\n The best indicator of the future is the past. One of the best things to look at when trying to predict if a player will succeed in the NFL is breakout age. Ott broke out as a true freshman and legitimately dominated as a sophomore. So, if you ignore 2024 and 2025, he should be fine, right?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, you can’t ignore the elephant in the room. He could not break the rotation at Oklahoma, a team whose leading rusher was a quarterback with 149 carries and a pair of 400-yard backs.<\/p>\n Ott could still be a good running back in the NFL. Oklahoma might have been an atrocious decision for the young man. Folks online questioned his love for the game or his commitment to practice, but if NFL teams sniff anything like that, he’s going to be off their boards completely. Ott showed he has the talent to compete. He could be a steal in the later rounds, but he could just as easily be a guy who doesn’t see the third year of his rookie deal.<\/p>\n Main Image: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the 2023 season, it looked like Jaydn Ott was destined for NFL stardom. After a pair of disappointing seasons, he’s a Day 3 prospect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":275120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,33760],"tags":[33533,34490],"class_list":["post-275110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-profiles","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-jaydn-ott"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275123,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275110\/revisions\/275123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2026 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Jaydn Ott<\/h2>\n
Measurables<\/h3>\n
\nWeight: 201<\/span>
\nArms: 30.75″<\/span>
\nHands: 8.75″<\/span>
\n40-yard: 4.46<\/span>
\nVertical: 40.5″<\/span>
\nBroad Jump: 10′ 11″<\/span>
\nRAS: 9.38<\/a><\/span>
\nSchool: Oklahoma<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nJaydn Ott NFL Draft Overview<\/h3>\n
Strengths<\/h3>\n
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Weaknesses<\/h3>\n
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\nBest Fits<\/strong>: Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, New York Jets<\/a>, Houston Texans<\/a>, Minnesota Vikings<\/a>, Cleveland Browns<\/a><\/p>\nBottom Line on Jaydn Ott<\/h3>\n