Brittain
Brown.
Brittain
Brown.
UCLA
"A 24-year-old zone runner who left Duke for UCLA and found 6.0 yards a carry, then spent four NFL seasons collecting roster spots and injured reserve stints instead of touches."Pre-draft read
A tall, upright runner at 6-0 1/2 and 208 pounds on his pro day, Brown ran 4.69 with a 34-inch vertical and a 10-foot-4 broad jump. He is a one-cut zone back who presses the line, plants and gets north, and his best runs come when the crease is where the play design said it would be.
He has long strides and real finishing speed once he clears the second level, which is how a back with pedestrian timed speed produced a 219-yard game. What he does not do is create yardage that the blocking never made. He runs tall, which makes him an easy target for defenders working his legs, and he is not a tackle-breaker in the hole. As a receiver he is a reliable checkdown option rather than a route-running weapon.
An outside zone or wide zone rushing attack that asks a back to press, plant and run downhill without needing to create on his own.
Year 1: fourth running back and core special teamer. Ceiling: a rotational change-of-pace back for 8-10 carries a game.
A gap-scheme offense between the tackles that asks him to break the first tackle in a crowded hole, where his high pad level gets him stopped on contact.
His two best college seasons both came in Chip Kelly's zone-heavy UCLA offense, not in Duke's power looks.
Brittain Brown highlights, UCLA vs. Stanford, 241 yards from scrimmage
The 2020 finale that produced his career-high 219 rushing yards.
Duke RB Brittain Brown breaks tackles for the touchdown
His Duke tape, where the workload was heavier and the creases tighter.
Brittain Brown vs. Hawai'i (2021)
Full-game look at his final college season in UCLA's zone scheme.
Brown grew up in Canton, Georgia and played at Cherokee High School before signing with Duke, where he redshirted in 2016. He debuted in the 2017 opener against North Carolina Central with 120 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, then finished the year with 130 attempts for 701 yards and seven scores across 13 games.
Injuries defined the middle of his career. He carried 80 times for 369 yards in nine games in 2018, then appeared in only three games in 2019 before a season-ending left shoulder injury. After four seasons at Duke he transferred to UCLA, and the change of scenery worked: 543 yards on 82 carries in seven games in 2020, including a career-high 219 yards on 29 carries in a double-overtime loss to Stanford in the season finale.
His final college season produced 102 carries for 615 yards and seven touchdowns in 10 games, with a two-touchdown day against Oregon. He finished with 2,284 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns over 42 games and 11 starts, plus 41 catches for 431 yards. He was a 24-year-old rotational back on draft day with an injury history, which is how a productive Power Five runner lasts until the 250th pick.
- 01
Vision in zone
he presses the line patiently and reads the second-level defender before committing to a single crease.
- 02
Long speed
once he clears the front seven he pulls away, which produced a 219-yard afternoon against Stanford in 2020.
- 03
Efficiency
6.6 yards per carry in 2020 and 6.0 in 2021 at UCLA after a heavier, less productive workload at Duke.
- 04
Pass-game reliability
41 career receptions, including 18 as a senior, as a dependable outlet on early downs.
- 05
Character and preparation
a computer science and education studies major who consistently drew praise from coaching staffs.
- 01
Pad level
he runs tall through contact, which costs him yards after first touch and invites hits on his lower body.
- 02
Injury history
a season-ending shoulder injury in 2019 and only two full college seasons in five years on campus.
- 03
Age on draft day
he turned 24 during his rookie season, leaving almost no developmental runway for a seventh-round pick.
- 04
Creation ability
he does not make defenders miss in the hole, so his production rises and falls with the blocking.
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Duke | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Duke | 13 | 130 | 701 | 7 | 14 | 161 |
| 2018 | Duke | 9 | 80 | 369 | 3 | 1 | 44 |
| 2019 | Duke | 3 | 12 | 56 | 0 | 2 | 13 |
| 2020 | UCLA | 7 | 82 | 543 | 4 | 6 | 84 |
| 2021 | UCLA | 10 | 102 | 615 | 7 | 18 | 129 |
| Career | — | 42 | 406 | 2284 | 21 | 41 | 431 |
Season totals sum exactly to the published career line of 406 carries for 2,284 yards and 21 touchdowns plus 41 catches for 431 yards.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A depth back whose roster spot depends on coverage units as much as carries.
A late-round back who carved out years of value through special teams and third downs.
A 2022 seventh-round back whose NFL sample never got past a handful of touches.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Brown's NFL career has been a four-year fight for a roster spot. Las Vegas drafted him 250th overall and used him on special teams for six games as a rookie, with no carries. His second season ended before it started: the Raiders placed him on injured reserve on August 27, 2023, and he never played a down in 2023. He spent 2024 on Seattle's practice squad after signing there on September 18, then signed with Chicago on August 11, 2025. That gave him the only real NFL football of his career so far: one game, five carries, 37 yards and a touchdown, including a 22-yard scoring run. Seven games played, 37 rushing yards, one score, through four seasons.
What keeps him around is everything besides the carries — special teams value, a clean locker room reputation and the versatility to hold a practice squad spot. He was placed on injured reserve again on August 30, 2026. During his 2025 free-agent stretch he did cybersecurity training and looked at sales jobs, which tells you how thin the margin has been. The tools were always rotational. The pick was a lottery ticket that has not hit.