Deejay
Dallas.
Deejay
Dallas.
Miami (FL)· 5'10"· 217 lb· 4.58s 40
"A converted Miami receiver who averaged 6.0 yards a carry as a junior and returned kicks for three years, whose third-down and special-teams value outran his lack of an every-down profile."Pre-draft read
Dallas is a 5-10, 214-pound converted receiver who runs with more force than the frame suggests and with the ball skills of the position he used to play. He hits the hole decisively, runs through arm tackles, and finishes forward, and his 6.0 yards per carry as a junior came largely from creating after contact rather than from clean lanes.
The receiving background is the differentiator. He is a natural hands catcher who can align in the slot, and he returned kicks all three seasons. Where he lags is vision: he picks a lane early, and his pass protection is unfinished. The signature is versatility.
A committee backfield in a offense that uses its backs in the passing game and values a runner who doubles as a full-time return man.
Year 1 third running back and kick returner, with a ceiling as a 1B in a committee who takes 120 carries and 40 catches a season.
A power run scheme that wants a single 250-carry workhorse and asks its back to stay in and protect on every third down.
Miami RB DeeJay Dallas Highlight Reel - 2019 Season
His junior season at 6.0 yards per carry, the year he declared early.
Deejay Dallas 2019 Season Highlights | Miami RB
Conference cut-up showing the contact balance and receiving usage.
DeeJay Dallas Miami 2017 Freshman Highlights
His first college season, before the full move from athlete to running back.
Dallas arrived at Miami from Glynn Academy in Brunswick, Georgia as a four-star athlete who had played quarterback, receiver, running back and defensive back in high school, choosing the Hurricanes over Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State and Georgia. Miami listed him as an athlete his first year and moved him to running back after it.
The conversion took. He played thirty-five games across three seasons, returning kickoffs in all three and punts in his first two, and finished with 265 carries for 1,527 yards and seventeen touchdowns at 5.7 yards per carry, plus 28 receptions for 317 yards and two more scores. His junior year was the showcase: 693 rushing yards on 115 carries in ten games at an even 6.0 per attempt, which ranked 24th nationally among qualified rushers, with fourteen catches for 140 yards and a team-leading ten total touchdowns. He missed the Independence Bowl with a dislocated left elbow and declared for the draft immediately afterward, joining three other Hurricanes who left early.
The evaluation was straightforward. He was not the every-down back in the class, but he could catch, return kicks, and run behind his pads at 214 pounds. Seattle took him at 144.
- 01
Efficiency on limited carries
Averaged 6.0 yards per attempt as a junior, 24th nationally, and 5.7 for his career across 265 college carries.
- 02
Receiving ability
A converted receiver with natural hands out of the backfield who can align in the slot rather than just leak into the flat.
- 03
Return value
Handled kickoffs all three seasons and punts in his first two, adding a special-teams role to the offensive projection.
- 04
Contact balance
Runs through arm tackles and finishes forward at 214 pounds, generating most of his production after first contact.
- 05
Versatile background
A high school quarterback, receiver and defensive back whose position flexibility makes him easy to deploy in gadget looks.
- 01
Vision and patience
Commits to a lane early rather than pressing the hole and letting blocks develop in front of him.
- 02
Pass-protection inexperience
Only two full seasons at running back left his blitz pickup unfinished, which keeps a back off the field on third down.
- 03
Not an every-down profile
Never carried a full workload at Miami and projects as a committee back rather than a lead runner.
- 04
Elbow injury
A dislocated left elbow cost him the Independence Bowl and the pre-draft workout process, limiting testing evidence for teams.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.58sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 119inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.18sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.32sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Miami (FL) | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Miami (FL) | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Miami (FL) | 10 | 115 | 693 | 8 | 14 | 140 |
| Career | — | 35 | 265 | 1527 | 17 | 28 | 317 |
Career totals (35 games, 265 carries, 1,527 rushing yards, 17 rushing touchdowns, 28 receptions, 317 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns) and the 2019 line come from the Miami Herald report on his early declaration, which itemized both. His 2017 and 2018 season lines were not published in the sources checked and are left empty rather than derived by subtraction. He scored ten total touchdowns in 2019, eight of them rushing; the receiving touchdown split for that season was not specified.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A hybrid back and returner who lasts a decade on special teams value across several rosters.
The ceiling: a receiving back who becomes the clear third-down answer and posts 500 yards from scrimmage a year.
A rotational back who never earns a real share of carries and is a journeyman by year four.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Seattle used him exactly as advertised. He played twelve games as a rookie in 2020 with two starts, 34 carries for 108 yards, two rushing scores and seventeen catches, then settled into a four-year role as the third back and a core special-teams piece: 33 carries and 21 catches in 2021, 35 carries and seventeen catches in 2022, and ten carries in 2023 while handling kick returns.
Arizona signed him in 2024 and he played all seventeen games, almost entirely on returns, with nine carries. The 2025 season was a journeyman year, three games with Carolina and three with Jacksonville after a preseason release, and he signed with Minnesota for 2026. Through seven seasons he has 86 games, 546 rushing yards, 66 receptions and more than 2,600 return yards with a return touchdown. The scouting report called him a rotational back with return value and that is precisely the career: never a starter, never out of the league, valuable for exactly the reasons the fourth round is meant to find.