Tommy
Mellott.
Tommy
Mellott.
Montana St.
"A dynamic FCS quarterback who swept the Walter Payton Award, his draft value hinges entirely on whether his elite explosiveness and vision as a runner can translate to a new role beyond quarterback."Pre-draft read
A four-year starter and the engine of Montana State's downhill option offense, Mellott worked almost exclusively from gun-based zone read, RPO and designed quarterback run concepts. He is a legitimate home-run threat with the ball in his hands: 4.39 speed, sudden lateral cuts, and the contact courage to finish runs through arm tackles at 5-11, 206.
As a passer he was efficient rather than expansive, living on play-action shots, boot keepers and defined half-field reads with compact, repeatable mechanics. The signature is athletic: a 41-inch vertical and elite short-area burst that flash on returns and in open grass. Every serious NFL evaluation of him was really an evaluation of a receiver and returner convert, not a pocket passer.
Gadget-friendly offense with a defined hybrid package — Saints/Taysom Hill or Dolphins-style motion and jet usage, paired with a special teams unit that wants a returner
Year 1: developmental slot and kick returner who earns a helmet on coverage units while learning releases and route detail. Ceiling: a package player with 20-30 designed touches a year plus a full-time return job.
A pure dropback West Coast offense that wants him to keep playing quarterback, or a team with an established veteran returner and no designed-touch package — he has no path to snaps as a conventional receiver yet.
His value is unlocked only by a coordinator willing to script touches for him; he will not win a receiver job on route running in the next two years.
Tommy Mellott 2024 Montana State Bobcats Highlights
Walter Payton Award season reel: designed QB runs, play-action shots and the open-field burst that drove the receiver projection.
Tommy Mellott 44-yard TD run vs. Northern Arizona
Single-play look at the second gear and perimeter vision that made him a home-run threat on manufactured touches.
Tommy Mellott 61-yard run vs. Cal Poly
Long designed run showing acceleration through the crease and the ability to finish a chunk play against leverage.
Mellott is a positionless FCS star whose football identity was never really quarterback play — it was explosiveness. He won 33 games as Montana State's starter, took the Bobcats to two national title games and swept the 2024 Walter Payton Award as the best offensive player in FCS. What travels on tape is the run game: perimeter vision, second-gear separation and a willingness to lower a shoulder that belongs to a bigger back.
The passing profile is where the projection narrows. The offense asked for a low volume of full-field reads, protections were simplified, and the throws that carried him were play-action and movement-based rather than layered progressions from the pocket. Arm strength and accuracy were adequate but never the reason he was on a board. The flags: level of competition, size, and a best trait with no positional home.
The board treated him as a projection first, quarterback second. A pro day timed at 4.39 with a 41-inch vertical turned him into the class's Julian Edelman conversation, and Las Vegas made the bet in the sixth round with the stated plan of learning receiver and returning kicks. That is a fair place to buy a traits-and-tools athlete with no positional reps.
- 01
Home-run speed
a 4.39 pro-day 40 that plays on tape; once he clears the second level he is not caught, and Montana State manufactured touches specifically to hunt that.
- 02
Explosive lower half
a 41-inch vertical and 10-4 broad jump translate into cuts made at full speed and immediate acceleration out of breaks and off return blocks.
- 03
Contact toughness
plays far tougher than his 206-pound frame, finishes runs through arm tackles and takes the hit rather than sliding when a first down is on the table.
- 04
Production and pedigree
2024 Walter Payton Award winner with 55 career passing touchdowns and 43 rushing scores, and a 33-8 record as a four-year FCS starter.
- 05
Ball-in-hand feel
reads perimeter blocks like a returner, changes tempo to set up leverage and consistently turns creases into chunk plays in the open field.
- 01
No positional home
has never played receiver or defensive back in a game; route running, releases and catching in traffic are all projections rather than evaluated skills.
- 02
Level of competition
the athletic edge that decided plays against FCS defenses will be neutral or negative against NFL nickels and gunners.
- 03
Frame limits
5-11, 206 with a running style that invites contact raises real durability questions for a player whose value is special teams volume.
- 04
Passing ceiling capped
the offense asked for defined half-field reads, and the full-field processing and pocket detail needed to stay a quarterback simply are not on tape.
| Yr | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Montana State | 1 | 28 | 53 | 484 | 4 | 0 |
| 2022 | Montana State | 12 | 128 | 210 | 1698 | 10 | 4 |
| 2023 | Montana State | 9 | 73 | 117 | 1064 | 10 | 2 |
| 2024 | Montana State | 16 | 203 | 300 | 2759 | 31 | 2 |
| Career | — | 38 | 432 | 680 | 6005 | 55 | 8 |
Four-year totals including FCS postseason; season lines sum exactly to the career line (680 att / 6,005 yds / 55 TD / 8 INT; 491 rush att / 3,526 yds / 43 TD). Regular-season-only figures cited by some outlets are lower (551 att / 4,745 yds over 39 games) because Montana State played 12 playoff games in this span. Games played per season not verified per source, so left unset.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Taco DowlerWR10%
- Ty McCullouchWR9%
- Rohan JonesTE8%
#1 of 11 tracked contributors · Produced in line with his snap share · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Same conversion arc and same athletic profile — flashes on gadget touches and returns, never established as a real route runner.
The template every evaluator cited: college quarterback with elite short-area quickness who became a full-time slot after two developmental years.
FCS-style dual-threat convert who bounced between practice squads without carving out a positional role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Las Vegas drafted him as a quarterback on paper and immediately began working him at receiver and on kick coverage. He appeared in three preseason games, caught two passes and returned kicks — including a 42-yard return against San Francisco — but never closed the gap between traits and position, and the Raiders waived him on August 26 without adding him back to the practice squad. New Orleans, the organization with the most institutional patience for a hybrid, signed him to its practice squad on September 1 with the intention of continuing to develop his quarterback work alongside receiver reps. That stay lasted five weeks; the Saints released him on October 7, ending his rookie year with no regular-season snaps.
The honest read is that the athletic testing outran the football projection. Everything that made him a sixth-round pick — the 40, the vertical, the Payton Award — was real, but a conversion project needs a defined job on day one, and neither team could hand him one that did not already belong to a proven special teamer. He is still young enough that a camp invitation and a full offseason strictly at receiver could change the arc, and the Taysom Hill template remains a genuine outcome. As of now, the pick has produced a training-camp body rather than a contributor.
Data note: Four-year totals including FCS postseason; season lines sum exactly to the career line (680 att / 6,005 yds / 55 TD / 8 INT; 491 rush att / 3,526 yds / 43 TD). Regular-season-only figures cited by some outlets are lower (551 att / 4,745 yds over 39 games) because Montana State played 12 playoff games in this span. Games played per season not verified per source, so left unset.