Zander
Horvath.
Zander
Horvath.
Purdue
"A 9.83 RAS fullback who scored twice as a rookie, then spent two years on practice squads before going to the CFL and running for 723 yards and 16 touchdowns in a single season."Pre-draft read
A 6-1 3/4, 232-pound fullback and short-yardage back who tested like a defensive end and ran like a tight end. He posted 31 bench reps, a 4.61 forty and a 6.75 three-cone at his pro day, a profile that scored 9.83 out of 10 on the Relative Athletic Score scale.
He is a straight-line runner with real mass, best on downhill gap runs where he hits the crease at full speed and finishes falling forward. His most translatable trait was his hands: 30 catches in six games in 2020. The lack of lateral agility is the issue. He does not make defenders miss in a phone booth, his 3.5 yards a carry as a senior reflected how easily fronts squeezed him, and his blocking technique was raw for a player whose NFL job would be blocking.
A gap and duo run game that keeps a fullback on the field and uses him as an isolation lead blocker and short-yardage hammer.
Year 1: fullback and four-phase special teamer. Ceiling: a 200-snap lead blocker who catches six to eight passes near the goal line.
A spread offense with no fullback on the roster, where he is a third running back with no defined snaps and loses the job to a receiver.
His CFL production proves the runner was always in there; the NFL just had nowhere to put him.
Zander Horvath, Purdue running back highlights
The downhill running and receiving work that got him drafted.
Every Zander Horvath rookie season touchdown
Both of his NFL touchdowns, scored as a receiver.
Zander Horvath breaks loose for a 58-yard touchdown
The long run from his 191-yard game against Winnipeg.
Alexander John Horvath, known as Zander, was born in Mishawaka, Indiana and attended Marian High School there. He committed to Indiana as a preferred walk-on linebacker, then flipped to Purdue when running backs coach Chris Barclay offered him the chance to play his natural position.
He redshirted in 2017 and had a bit part in 2018, carrying nine times for 42 yards and a touchdown with four catches across 13 games. His role opened up in 2019 with 79 carries for 377 yards and two scores plus 17 receptions for 142 yards and a touchdown in 11 games with four starts.
The 2020 season, shortened by the pandemic, was his best. In six games he ran 89 times for 442 yards and two touchdowns and caught 30 passes for 304 yards, averaging 73.7 rushing yards and 50.7 receiving yards a game, which earned third-team All-Big Ten. His senior season slipped: 91 carries for 320 yards at 3.5 a rush with 17 catches across eight games. He finished with 268 carries for 1,181 yards and eight touchdowns and 68 receptions for 592 yards, then went 260th overall to the Chargers as a fullback conversion.
- 01
Testing profile
a 9.83 Relative Athletic Score built on 31 bench reps, a 4.61 forty and a 6.75 three-cone at 232 pounds.
- 02
Receiving back value
30 catches for 304 yards in six games in 2020, production that belongs to a move tight end.
- 03
Contact balance
he runs behind his pads on gap schemes and consistently falls forward through the first hit.
- 04
Positional flexibility
a former linebacker recruit who can play fullback, short-yardage back and core special teams.
- 05
Frame
at 6-1 3/4 and 232 pounds he already carries all the mass an NFL lead blocker needs from his first day.
- 01
Lateral agility
he cannot make a defender miss in tight space, so any run that is not blocked cleanly dies quickly.
- 02
Senior efficiency
3.5 yards a carry in 2021, a full yard and a half below his 2020 rate behind the same program.
- 03
Blocking technique
he arrived with the body of a fullback but not the hand placement or leverage the job requires.
- 04
Roster math
fullback is a disappearing position, so his path depends entirely on a coordinator who still uses one.
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Purdue | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Purdue | 13 | 9 | 42 | 1 | 4 | 38 |
| 2019 | Purdue | 11 | 79 | 377 | 2 | 17 | 142 |
| 2020 | Purdue | 6 | 89 | 442 | 2 | 30 | 304 |
| 2021 | Purdue | 8 | 91 | 320 | 3 | 17 | 108 |
| Career | — | 38 | 268 | 1181 | 8 | 68 | 592 |
Season rows sum exactly to the career line of 268 carries for 1,181 yards and eight touchdowns with 68 receptions for 592 yards across 38 games and 14 starts. Figures are Sports-Reference totals including bowl games, cross-checked against cfbstats for 2020 and 2021.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A big-bodied lead blocker who bounces between rosters as offenses drop the position.
A receiving fullback whose pass-game value made him worth a real contract.
A drafted fullback who never found consistent snaps and left the league quickly.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Los Angeles drafted Horvath 260th overall and he made the roster right away, appearing in 15 games with two starts as a rookie in 2022 and scoring twice as a receiver. His line was small by design: four carries for eight yards and five receptions for eight yards with two touchdowns, the work of a lead blocker who gets the ball at the goal line. That season remains his entire NFL statistical record.
What followed was the modern fullback's career path. He signed with the Pittsburgh practice squad on September 2, 2023, returned to the Chargers practice squad on November 22, joined New Orleans on March 7, 2024 and Miami on August 19, 2024 without playing a regular-season snap for any of them. He went north instead: BC signed him on January 24, 2025 and he found a real role in the Canadian Football League: 24 carries for 231 yards at 9.6 a rush as a part-time back in 2025, then a breakout 2026 with 141 carries for 723 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns plus 24 catches for 229 yards and three scores. In Week 9 of 2026 he ran for a CFL season-high 191 yards and three touchdowns against Winnipeg, with runs of 58 and 35 yards. The NFL never used him; another league did.