Seydou
Traore.
Seydou
Traore.
Mississippi State· 6'4"· 244 lb· 4.57s 40
R5 · #180 · Miami Dolphins"International-track developmental Y/F tight end who bloomed at the Shrine Bowl and vaulted his stock on Pro Day (4.57, 40-inch vert, 6.95 three-cone) — traits and background as loud as the tape is uneven."Pre-draft read
Operates as a move tight end, often flexing out of the slot or detaching from the formation on RPO or gap schemes. He wins with movement traits, displaying clean acceleration off the line to threaten the seam. His body control at the catch point allows him to track over-the-shoulder throws and adjust to back-shoulder placements. His hands are natural and quiet, consistently plucking passes away from his frame on crossers and out routes.
His route tree remains rudimentary; he sells verticals with pace but lacks nuance in his stems and breaks against pattern-match coverage. Blocking needs development; he shows willingness on the move, but his pad level rises at the point of attack, often catching rather than striking. His ceiling is as an athletic matchup piece.
Shanahan outside zone with strong RPO influences, requiring tight ends to move effectively in space and block on the perimeter in the run game while also threatening defenses vertically with speed downfield.
As a rookie, Traore projects as a rotational F-tight end, detaching from the formation to stretch the seam. He has the upside to develop into a high-volume matchup weapon.
Gap-power run schemes that rely on tight ends to consistently execute in-line drive blocks against strong-side defensive ends.
Traore's elite movement traits perfectly align with Miami's offensive philosophy, making him an ideal fit for stretching the field and creating mismatches from diverse alignments.
Seydou Traore Highlights — Mississippi State TE, 2026 NFL Draft
Full Bulldogs cutup — SEC seams, back-shoulder wins and red-zone touchdowns from his senior year in Starkville.
Seydou Traore — 2026 NFL Draft Names to Know
Pre-draft breakdown that walks through his athletic profile, Shrine Bowl week and NFL projection at tight end.
The British Tight End Chasing the NFL Dream — The Seydou Traore Story
Feature on his International Player Pathway journey from London goalkeeper to Mississippi State starter.
This prospect projects as a developmental move tight end, offering a team an athletic matchup piece who can threaten defenses downfield. His exceptional Pro Day testing, particularly his 4.57-second 40-yard dash at 244 pounds, confirms an athletic profile that suggests he can excel in a pass-catching role, especially when detached from the formation. The team investing here is buying unique movement traits and a high developmental ceiling.
He entered the league after displaying consistent production upgrades over four football seasons, culminating in a five-touchdown senior year at Mississippi State and a dominant Shrine Bowl week. His collegiate usage evolved from a breakout sophomore season at Arkansas State with 50 catches for 655 yards, to two SEC seasons where he continued to be deployed as a receiving threat. He was overlooked by the Combine, but his Pro Day performance validated his athletic potential and boosted his draft stock.
The main concerns revolved around his raw route running, limited in-line blocking experience, and older age for a developmental prospect, entering the league at 23. Despite these flags, his unique background and athletic upside made him a compelling Day 3 target. He was ultimately drafted in the fifth round, with teams willing to bet on his traits.
- 01
Pro Day vaulted the stock
4.57 forty, 40-inch vertical, 10-foot-7 broad and 6.95 three-cone at 244 pounds turned a combine snub into a legitimate Day 3 developmental target.
- 02
Movement traits pop on tape
long strider who eats cushion to threaten the seam and creates chunk-play windows against nickels and linebackers matched up in space.
- 03
Natural hands away from the frame
plucks crossers and back-shoulder throws off the body, high-points contested balls and holds on through late contact from safeties.
- 04
Matchup piece by formation
comfortable detached in the slot, in the flex, and on move release out of the backfield, giving the offense a chess piece against base personnel.
- 05
Shrine Bowl separator
dominated the full week of Mobile practices against Power 4 defenders, translating the workout traits to live reps and cementing the pre-Combine buzz.
- 01
Route tree is still elementary
sells vertical with pace but stems and breaks lack the nuance to shake pattern-match zone or beat NFL corners in isolation on option routes.
- 02
In-line blocking is a project
pad level rises at the point of attack, catches instead of striking through, and gives up ground against SEC edge defenders on down blocks.
- 03
Age curve is real
enters the league as a 23-year-old former goalkeeper with only four football seasons on tape, so his developmental runway is shorter than the profile suggests.
- 04
Contested reliability slips vs true length
small sample of tight-window throws show late hands when NFL-caliber cornerbacks stay in phase down the sideline.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.57sp50
- Vertical
- 40inp50
- Broad jump
- 127inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.95sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Arkansas State | 11 | 11 | 79 | 0 |
| 2022 | Arkansas State | 12 | 50 | 655 | 4 |
| 2024 | Mississippi State | 12 | 34 | 361 | 1 |
| 2025 | Mississippi State | 13 | 35 | 372 | 5 |
| Career | — | 48 | 130 | 1467 | 10 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Blake ShapenQB18%
- Brenen ThompsonWR17%
- Kamario TaylorQB10%
#6 of 18 tracked contributors · Produced well above his snap share · Offense explosiveness 1.28 (p68) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Big-school Y/F backup archetype — special teams and rotational move-TE reps kept him employed on multiple rosters.
Athletic move tight end who won on seams, shallow crossers and formation flex before his blocking caught up as a pro.
Traits-and-story tight end whose Pro Day and off-field profile drew a look but never translated into stable roster snaps.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
**Pre-draft context**
Traore's path to the 2026 draft is unlike anyone else in the class. Born in France, raised in South London as a soccer goalkeeper, he came to American football through the NFL Academy and the International Player Pathway before signing with Arkansas State in 2021. Two Sun Belt seasons — including a 50-655-4 breakout as a sophomore — turned into a redshirt/transfer year and two more at Mississippi State, where he closed his career with a five-touchdown senior season and a Shrine Bowl week that Tony Pauline flagged as the most dominant of any tight end in Mobile. Indianapolis still left him off the combine invite list. Starkville's Pro Day answered: at 6-foot-3, 244 pounds, he ran 4.57, cleared a 40-inch vertical, hit 10-foot-7 in the broad and posted a 6.95 three-cone, testing near the top of the tight end class and drawing attention from multiple organizations with tight end evaluation roles.
**NFL fit — Miami Dolphins**
Miami used the last of three fifth-round picks (No. 180 overall) on Traore to inject athletic upside into a tight end room built around Greg Dulcich and rookie Will Kacmarek. The developmental fit is obvious for a wide-zone play-action offense: a move Y/F who can flex, run seams off play-action, and threaten the middle of the field off pre-snap motion without needing to anchor as an in-line blocker on early downs. The realistic 2026 role is core special teams plus a rotational F, with red-zone snaps against base personnel where the vertical (40 inches) and the catch radius travel. The offseason bet is that a year in an NFL program can add the route detail and functional pop his college tape still lacks.
**Retrospective**
Too early to grade. The pick reads exactly like the archetype: a Day 3 traits-and-story swing on a late-blooming international prospect whose Pro Day forced the league to raise his floor. If Miami can get the run-block and the intermediate route tree to catch up to the movement, they land a genuine matchup weapon at premium cost; if the tape stays raw, he is a special-teams contributor with the ceiling to stick as a fourth tight end on the roster.