Jacory
Croskey-Merritt.
Jacory
Croskey-Merritt.
Arizona· 5'10"· 206 lb· 4.45s 40
"An NCAA jersey-number dispute cost him his final college season and dropped him to pick 245, and the Commanders got a rookie who led all first-year players in rushing touchdowns for the price of a seventh-rounder."Pre-draft read
Croskey-Merritt is a one-cut zone runner who plays with a flat, decisive path and hits the crease at full speed. He presses the line, sets up second-level defenders with subtle tempo changes, and gets skinny through the hole without gathering his feet. At 206 pounds he runs harder than the frame suggests, finishing forward through arm tackles rather than looking for the sideline.
The separator is the second gear: a 4.45 runner with a 41.5-inch vertical who pulls away once he clears the linebacker level, which is how he produced back-to-back 200-yard games in 2023. He is a serviceable outlet receiver rather than a route weapon, and pass protection is the developmental piece — willing, but the recognition and strike timing still lag.
Outside and mid zone rushing attacks with play-action off the same landmarks; wide zone teams that ask the back to press, plant once and go.
Year 1: early-down zone runner with 12-15 carries a game. Ceiling: 1,000-yard lead back on early downs with a passing-down partner beside him.
A gap-and-power scheme that asks him to bounce behind pullers and diagnose second-level traffic, or a passing offense that keeps the back in protection on third down — his blitz pickup is the weakest part of the profile.
Value depends on staying on early downs; the fumble rate and pass-pro lag are what would cost him the job, not the running.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt — 2024/2023 Highlights | 2025 NFL Draft
Zone vision, one-cut decisiveness and the breakaway speed from the New Mexico year.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt 2025 NFL Draft Tape | Arizona RB
Pre-draft cut-up including the 106-yard game against New Mexico.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt Complete College Highlights
Full college reel across Alabama State, New Mexico and Arizona.
A five-year, three-school runner who reached the draft the long way: four seasons at Alabama State, one breakout FBS year at New Mexico, and a single game at Arizona. His football identity is simple and clean — a downhill zone back with real long speed and a violent finish, not a three-down chess piece.
The signature season was 2023 in Albuquerque: 189 carries for 1,190 yards and 17 touchdowns, the seventh-most rushing yards in New Mexico history, with back-to-back 200-yard games and second-team all-Mountain West honors. Then came the strangest flag on his file — an NCAA eligibility dispute over a 2019 redshirt jersey number limited him to one game at Arizona, where he still went for 106 yards and a score against his former team. He answered it at the Shrine Bowl, taking offensive MVP with 97 yards and two touchdowns.
Boards treated him as a late Day 3 flier: a 24-year-old with one FBS season of real volume, a lost final year and questions about pass protection. Washington took the tape and the Pro Day over the résumé at 245, betting that the missing year was paperwork, not decline.
- 01
One-cut decisiveness
Presses the line and commits to the crease without hesitation, a natural fit for outside and mid zone concepts.
- 02
Second gear
A 4.45 runner who separates once he clears the second level; his 2023 tape is full of 40-plus-yard finishes rather than long chases.
- 03
Contact balance
Runs behind his pads and consistently falls forward, breaking arm tackles and turning stuffed looks into three- and four-yard gains.
- 04
Explosive testing
41.5-inch vertical and a 10-4 broad jump confirm the burst that shows on tape when he plants and accelerates through the hole.
- 05
Proven volume producer
Handled 189 carries for 1,190 yards and 17 touchdowns in his only full FBS season without any drop in efficiency late in the year.
- 01
Pass protection
Willing but late; his recognition of blitzers and strike timing were the clearest reason he graded as a two-down back.
- 02
Limited receiving profile
Eight career receptions in his breakout season; he is an outlet target, not a back who wins on the route tree.
- 03
One-year FBS sample
A single season of Power-adjacent volume against Mountain West defenses, with no full year of Power Four evidence.
- 04
Age and mileage
Entered the league at 24 after five college seasons, shrinking the developmental runway a Day 3 back usually gets.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.45sp50
- Vertical
- 41.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 124inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.28sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.44sp50
- Bench
- 17repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Alabama State | 11 | 72 | 186 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Alabama State | 5 | 43 | 164 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Alabama State | 11 | 120 | 422 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Alabama State | 11 | 120 | 470 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | New Mexico | 12 | 189 | 1190 | 17 | 8 | 72 |
| 2024 | Arizona | 1 | 13 | 106 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 51 | 557 | 2538 | 31 | 0 | 0 |
Rushing lines for the four Alabama State seasons come from the FCS season tables; the 2023 New Mexico line (189-1,190-17 plus 8 receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown) is the figure published by New Mexico and Arizona. Some databases list 188-1,174 for 2023. Receiving totals before and after 2023 are not individually verified and are left blank rather than entered as zero, so no career receiving total is shown. His 2024 Arizona season was limited to one game by an NCAA eligibility dispute.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Explosive early-down zone runner who needs a complement on passing downs.
Ceiling if the receiving and protection work catches up to the running.
Rotational two-down thumper whose snaps shrink when the offense trails.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Year one was the outlier, not the redshirt. Croskey-Merritt won carries out of camp, took Rookie of the Week honors in the opener with 82 yards and a score against the Giants, and by midseason was Washington's lead back on a team that lost its way around him. He finished the season with 175 carries for 805 yards and eight rushing touchdowns — the most of any rookie in the league — plus nine catches for 68 yards across 17 games and seven starts. The two 100-yard games at the Chargers and on Christmas against Dallas showed the home-run trait had survived the jump; four fumbles showed the ball security had not fully arrived.
In hindsight the eligibility mess was the whole discount. The tape and the testing said starting-caliber runner; the paperwork said seventh round, and Washington got roughly 1,000 scrimmage yards for pick 245. The honest caution is that his efficiency slid once defenses had a month of film — he averaged over five yards a carry in September and under four in the middle of the season — so the question is whether he is a genuine lead back or a big-play complement whose ceiling depends on who blocks for him.
Data note: Rushing lines for the four Alabama State seasons come from the FCS season tables; the 2023 New Mexico line (189-1,190-17 plus 8 receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown) is the figure published by New Mexico and Arizona. Some databases list 188-1,174 for 2023. Receiving totals before and after 2023 are not individually verified and are left blank rather than entered as zero, so no career receiving total is shown. His 2024 Arizona season was limited to one game by an NCAA eligibility dispute.