Andrei
Iosivas.
Andrei
Iosivas.
Princeton· 6'3"· 205 lb· 4.43s 40
"The best athlete in the class nobody had seen play: an Ivy League X receiver who ran 4.43 at 6-foot-3, holds the fastest heptathlon 60m ever run, and had never faced a corner who could match him."Pre-draft read
A long-striding boundary X who played bigger than the level he came from, Iosivas was Princeton's every-down outside receiver and the one player the Ivy League could not match up with. He ate ground on vertical stems, worked the sideline on back-shoulder and fade throws, and used a 39-inch vertical to win above defensive backs who simply could not reach the ball.
The secondary trait was contact balance after the catch, and the blocking effort a coaching staff notices. He was a raw route technician - stiff out of sharp breaks and reliant on athleticism over deception - but a genuine NCAA All-American heptathlete, and the burst and body control that came with it are what separated him from every other FCS receiver in the class.
Vertical play-action passing game that isolates an X receiver to the boundary and lets him win on go balls, back-shoulder throws and red-zone fades.
Year 1: fourth receiver, red-zone package and special teams. Ceiling: starting-caliber WR2 who threatens vertically and converts jump balls if the route tree ever fills in.
A short, timing-based quick game built on option routes and choice breaks from the slot, where his stiffness out of cuts and thin release package leave him covered on rhythm throws.
The rare FCS receiver whose testing was verified by a second sport - the athleticism was never the question, the reps against real coverage were.
Andrei Iosivas 2022 Highlights | Princeton WR | 2023 NFL Draft Prospect
The senior season that led the Ivy League in receptions, yards and touchdowns, with the vertical stems and contested catches that drove the evaluation.
Ivy League Speedster - Princeton WR Andrei Iosivas Highlights
Full cutup of the long speed and jump-ball radius against Ivy coverage that was never able to match him.
Andrei Iosivas Highlights | 2025-2026 NFL Season - Bengals
His third NFL season in Cincinnati, including the go-ahead touchdown against Chicago with 54 seconds left.
A Honolulu three-sport athlete who chose the Ivy League, Iosivas arrived as a project and left as the most explosive receiver in Princeton history. He played the X, split wide to the boundary, and the offense simply threw it up when it needed a play. The football identity was a size-speed vertical threat still learning how to run routes, not a polished technician.
The production climbed on schedule. He caught 18 passes as a sophomore in 2019, jumped to 41 for 703 yards at 17.1 per catch in 2021 after the Ivy League canceled 2020, then led the conference in receptions (66), yards (943) and touchdowns (7) as a senior captain in 2022 for an 8-2 team. He finished sixth in Princeton history in receiving yards (1,909) and third in touchdown catches (16) and took Associated Press second-team All-America honors. The Harvard game - nine catches, 176 yards - was the film everybody watched.
Then the testing sealed it. At 6-foot-3 and 205 he ran 4.43 with a 1.52 split, jumped 39 inches and 10-8, posted the second-best 20-yard shuttle among receivers at 4.12 and benched 19 reps. The concern was the competition and the route craft, and boards settled him in the fifth-to-sixth range as a traits bet. Cincinnati took the swing at 206 in a room with two established starters and time to develop him.
- 01
Vertical size-speed threat
6-foot-3 with a 4.43 forty and a 1.52 ten-yard split, so he threatened the top of a defense on a straight stem and forced safeties to respect the boundary.
- 02
Elite jump-ball radius
A 39-inch vertical and a 10-foot-8 broad paired with real body control let him high-point contested throws over defensive backs who had position on him.
- 03
Rare tested explosiveness
An NCAA All-American heptathlete who holds the fastest heptathlon 60m ever run (6.71); the athletic profile was verified in two sports, not projected.
- 04
Ascending three-year curve
Went from 18 catches in 2019 to leading the Ivy League in receptions, yards and touchdowns as a 2022 captain, finishing sixth all-time at Princeton in yards.
- 05
Willing perimeter blocker
Plays with effort in the run game and sustains on the edge, the trait that gives a rookie receiver a reason to be on the field before the routes catch up.
- 01
Route craft
Stiff out of sharp breaks and reliant on speed rather than deception; his separation came from a straight line, not from selling a stem or setting up a corner.
- 02
Level of competition
Ivy League cornerbacks rarely matched his size or speed, so almost nothing on the tape showed how he would handle a press corner who could run with him.
- 03
Release package
Limited hand usage against press; he could be rerouted at the line by physical corners, which the Senior Bowl practices exposed more than the fall tape did.
- 04
Small hands and drops
Measured at 8 3/4 inches, ninth percentile for the position, and the concentration lapses that come with it showed up on routine throws in traffic.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.43sp50
- Vertical
- 39inp50
- Broad jump
- 128inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.85sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.12sp50
- Bench
- 19repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Princeton | 9 | 18 | 263 | 4 |
| 2021 | Princeton | 10 | 41 | 703 | 5 |
| 2022 | Princeton | 10 | 66 | 943 | 7 |
| Career | — | 29 | 125 | 1909 | 16 |
Princeton is an FCS program and therefore absent from cfbstats, so the season lines are taken from the NCAA.com career table and cross-checked against the official Princeton athletics bio. The seasons sum exactly to the career line: 18+41+66 = 125 receptions, 263+703+943 = 1,909 yards and 4+5+7 = 16 touchdowns, matching the school records Princeton publishes (sixth all-time in receiving yards, third in touchdown catches). The Ivy League canceled the 2020 season, so no 2020 row exists. He was on the 2018 roster as a freshman but appeared in no games, so that year is omitted rather than entered as zeros.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A tough, willing-blocking outside receiver who earns a real rotational role and red-zone targets on reliability rather than separation.
A long-strider whose vertical speed forces coverage adjustments and produces big plays in bursts without a complete route tree.
A tall, fast small-school receiver whose route limitations keep him as a fourth option and special-teams body.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Cincinnati used him exactly as a developmental swing should be used. He played all 16 games as a rookie in 2023 with one start, caught only 15 passes for 116 yards but scored four times, because the red zone was where his size cashed immediately. Year two was the jump: 36 catches for 479 yards and six touchdowns across 17 games with eight starts, stepping into real snaps when Tee Higgins missed time and giving Joe Burrow a genuine third option. In 2025 he held that role with 33 catches for 435 yards and two scores in 17 games with nine starts, including the go-ahead touchdown with 54 seconds left against Chicago. Three seasons in he has 84 receptions, 1,030 yards and 12 touchdowns in 50 games behind two of the best receivers in football.
The evaluation held up on both sides. The traits translated - he wins vertically and in the red zone, and the athletic testing was not a combine mirage. The route craft is still the limiting factor, and the reason he is a rotational WR3 rather than someone a defense has to game-plan. But a sixth-round pick from Princeton who has scored a dozen NFL touchdowns and started 18 games is a clear win at 206, and one of the better late-round receiver hits of the class.