Quinshon
Judkins.
Quinshon
Judkins.
Ohio State· 6'0"· 221 lb· 4.48s 40
"A stout, powerful back with exceptional contact balance and goal-line prowess, Judkins projects as an immediate contributor who can carry a short-yardage load while refining his receiving and pass-protection skills."Pre-draft read
Compact, thickly built one-cut back who lives between the tackles and asks the defense to tackle him twenty-five times. He presses the line square, keeps his pads under the fitting defender and finishes forward on nearly every carry; the stiff-arm is a real weapon and the leg drive through the second wave shows up long before it shows up in a box score.
The athletic profile is better than the grinder label suggests. He has the burst to hit the crease on gap and duo concepts and enough long speed to pull away once the front is displaced, and he is a plus goal-line option because his pad level never rises. Vision is decisive rather than creative, so his signature is volume without decay: the same back on carry three and carry twenty-eight.
Gap and duo power run game that lets him press the line square and finish downhill, with play-action built off heavy personnel.
Year 1 as the early-down and short-yardage hammer carrying 15-18 touches; ceiling is a true bell-cow who closes games and owns the goal line.
A wide-zone offense that asks him to bang backside cutbacks in space, or a passing-down committee role where he must win as a detached route runner.
His value spikes behind a line that can displace the first level; put him behind a leaky front and the creation limits show up as short gains rather than explosives.
Quinshon Judkins 2024 Highlights | Ohio State
Full national-title season reel showing the goal-line finishing and the contact balance.
Quinshon Judkins Highlights | Welcome to the Browns
Pre-draft cut-up spanning the Ole Miss and Ohio State tape.
Film Study: What Quinshon Judkins brings to Cleveland
Scheme-fit breakdown of his gap-scheme vision and short-yardage value.
Three-year starter and a true bell-cow projection. Judkins put SEC production on tape as a true freshman at Ole Miss, backed it up as a first-team All-SEC workhorse, then transferred to Ohio State and won a national title in a shared backfield without losing his identity as the physical, situational closer.
The evaluation on him was clean because the traits are repeatable. He is a downhill runner with elite contact balance and finishing power, and the 2024 season proved he could handle a reduced snap share, split touches with an explosive complement and still be the guy the staff wanted on third-and-short and inside the ten. The flags were also honest: he is not a creator behind bad blocking, the receiving package was functional rather than expansive, and pass protection reps were promising but incomplete. Scouts wanted to see whether the yards would still be there when the line in front of him was average instead of dominant.
The board treated him as the second back off the board behind Ashton Jeanty, a clear Day 2 value with a starter's floor. Cleveland taking him at 36 was less a reach than a statement of identity: they wanted a runner who could carry an offense in bad weather and bad game scripts.
- 01
Contact balance
Absorbs the first hit without losing his base and routinely converts a stopped rep into three or four extra yards through the fitting defender.
- 02
Finishing power
Runs behind his pads at 221 pounds and consistently falls forward, which makes him a trusted short-yardage and goal-line conversion back.
- 03
Durability and volume
Handled a heavy workload across three seasons and 42 games without his efficiency or pad level degrading late in games or late in the year.
- 04
Testing profile
A 4.48 forty with a 1.51 ten-yard split, a 38.5-inch vertical and an eleven-foot broad jump confirmed the burst that the tape suggested.
- 05
Big-game temperament
Raised his level in the College Football Playoff run and produced his most physical tape when the stakes and the fronts were at their heaviest.
- 01
Creation limits
He takes what the scheme gives him and rarely manufactures yardage on his own when the initial crease is closed or the front wins early.
- 02
Receiving package
Reliable on checkdowns and swings but never asked to win as a route runner, so third-down usage projects as a coaching bet rather than a proven trait.
- 03
Lateral quickness
Ordinary short-area agility means he can be corralled in space and will lose some one-on-one reps against fast-flowing second-level defenders.
- 04
Pass protection
Willing and physical, but the technique and pickup consistency were still developing and will decide how quickly he becomes a true three-down player.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.48sp50
- Vertical
- 38.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 132inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Ole Miss | 13 | 274 | 1567 | 16 | 15 | 132 |
| 2023 | Ole Miss | 13 | 271 | 1158 | 15 | 22 | 149 |
| 2024 | Ohio State | 16 | 194 | 1060 | 14 | 22 | 161 |
| Career | — | 42 | 739 | 3785 | 45 | 59 | 442 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Will HowardQB30%
- Jeremiah SmithWR13%
- Emeka EgbukaWR9%
#6 of 20 tracked contributors · Production leaned on volume · Offense explosiveness 1.34 (p82) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Physical early-down starter and short-yardage closer whose production tracks with the quality of the run blocking.
Same compact build and contact balance, with the tackle-breaking finish that turns stopped reps into first downs.
Useful volume back who is efficient in a good scheme but limited as an independent creator.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Cleveland made him the offensive centerpiece almost immediately. A legal matter kept him out of Week 1 before the charges were dropped, and from Week 2 forward he started all fourteen games he played, carrying 230 times for 827 yards and seven touchdowns while adding 26 receptions for 171 yards. He led the Browns in rushing on a team that spent most of the season trailing, and the 3.6 yards per carry says as much about the blocking and the game scripts as it does about the back. The year ended on December 23 with surgery to repair a fractured fibula and a dislocated ankle, and he finished the season on injured reserve.
In hindsight the pick still reads correctly, but the concerns were the right ones. The finishing power and the short-yardage value showed up exactly as advertised; the creation limits also did, because an offense that could not displace fronts left him running into unblocked bodies. He was the workhorse Cleveland wanted and one of the more productive rookie backs by volume, and the honest verdict has to wait for the ankle. If he returns at full speed behind a better line, the second-round investment looks like a bargain.