July 2, 2025

Coming into the 2024 season, perhaps no collegiate running back was thought to have a higher ceiling than Oklahoma State's Ollie Gordon II. Unfortunately, following an inefficient, injury-hampered junior season, Gordon saw his stock plummet before the 2025 NFL Draft, where he was eventually selected in the 6th round by the Miami Dolphins, 179th overall. The 2023 Doak Walker Award winner will now attempt to carve out a role in an offense that doesn't appear to be a natural fit for his skill set. After taking approximately 58% of his career carries out of a man-gap scheme and then running a disappointing 4.61 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, he'll now battle veteran addition Alexander Mattison for the third spot on the depth chart in Mike McDaniel's zone-based system that relies heavily on speed and spacing. Lacking any elite traits outside of size, his clearest path to fantasy relevance will be through goal-line work, where at 6'1" and 226 pounds, he presents a very different look from De'Von Achane (5'9", 188 pounds) and Jaylen Wright (5'10", 210 pounds). Barring injuries ahead of him, Gordon projects to be a non-factor in season-long redraft leagues, and even as RotoBaller's rookie RB12, the hit rate of NFL 6th-round running backs taken in the third round of rookie-only drafts is incredibly low. While it can be tempting to look at Gordon through rose-colored glasses, focusing on his dominant 2023 season and making excuses for his 2024 shortcomings, he did very little in the pre-draft process to prove that the latter season was the anomaly. And by letting him slip to the 6th round, the NFL has shown which version of Gordon they believe is entering the league. At his current draft cost, Gordon can be avoided in all league formats.--McGrumble