Evan
Hull.
Evan
Hull.
Northwestern
"The evaluation was never about whether he could carry an offense; it was about whether a 210-pound back who catches like a slot receiver could own third down for a decade. Then Week 1 happened."Pre-draft read
Hull was Northwestern's every-down back and, by his final year, the most-targeted skill player on the roster. He aligns single-back in gun, offset, and split out as a true receiver, and his defining trait is receiving equity: 55 catches for 546 yards as a senior, running option routes and wheel concepts with a wideout's tracking rather than a back's checkdown instincts.
As a runner he is a one-cut, downhill zone back with 4.47 speed who presses the line and gets north instead of dancing. That style produced a 1,009-yard junior season but only 4.1 yards per carry as a senior behind a rebuilding line. The signature is the third-down snap: he can be the protection answer and the outlet, which is how a 210-pound back stays on the field.
Outside-zone running game inside a spread passing offense that empties the backfield on third down
Year 1: third-down and two-minute back who runs real routes, plus 6-8 outside-zone carries a game as the change-of-pace. Ceiling: a 1B in a committee, 500 rushing yards with 50-plus receptions.
A gap-and-power offense that asks its back to press an A-gap double team and finish four-minute drives — Hull has no power element and no tackle-breaking margin between the tackles.
Value collapses if the offense keeps its starter on the field on third down; he needs a coordinator who substitutes by situation.
Evan Hull - 2021 Highlights
His 1,009-yard junior season: one-cut outside zone, perimeter speed and early receiving usage.
Evan Hull - 2022 Highlights
Senior year reel showing the 55-catch receiving workload and heavy every-down volume.
DFF Film Room - Evan Hull
Pre-draft film breakdown of his vision, contact balance and third-down projection.
Hull is a receiving back with real starter reps, not a scatback who caught a few screens. He redshirted in 2019, took over the Northwestern backfield as a redshirt sophomore, and spent two years absorbing an enormous share of a bad offense's touches. Coaches used him everywhere: between the tackles on early downs, detached as a slot receiver, and on kick returns.
The production is the argument. A 1,009-yard rushing junior season, then a senior year with 221 carries for 913 yards and 55 receptions for 546 yards — including a 14-catch, 213-yard receiving day. He earned All-Big Ten recognition in 2021 and ran 4.47 in Indianapolis, so the athleticism holds up. The flags are the ones you would expect from a back who carried a one-win team: 4.1 yards per carry as a senior, tackles broken that came from leg drive rather than elusiveness, and a body type that raised durability questions given the volume he had already absorbed.
Boards had him as a Day 3 receiving specialist — the fourth-down-and-passing-situations back who could be a roster's third body and its best pass-catcher out of the backfield. That is a real NFL job and a cheap one. Round five at 176 was a fair price for a back with legitimate third-down value and no illusions about becoming a feature runner.
- 01
Receiving back
55 catches for 546 yards as a senior on option routes and wheels, tracking the ball like a receiver rather than a back turning around on a checkdown.
- 02
Long speed
Official 4.47 forty at the combine, enough juice to threaten the perimeter on outside zone and to be a genuine wheel-route problem for linebackers.
- 03
Decisiveness
A one-cut zone runner who presses the line and gets north immediately; he does not dance behind blockers or waste steps searching for a better crease.
- 04
Volume durability
Handled 221 carries plus 70 targets as a senior and 196 carries the year before without missing games, an every-down workload on a struggling offense.
- 05
Versatility
Split out as a slot receiver, returned kickoffs and took punt-return reps, giving a roster three ways to justify the spot he occupies.
- 01
Contact balance
Falls forward on leg drive but rarely breaks the first tackle in the hole; his 4.1 yards per carry as a senior reflects a thin margin after contact.
- 02
Elusiveness
Limited lateral juice and jump-cut creation in short areas, so when the initial crease closes he takes what the blocking gave him and nothing more.
- 03
Pass protection
Willing but inconsistent; he can be beaten by a blitzing linebacker's speed-to-power and his hand placement drifts on the second effort.
- 04
Between-the-tackles ceiling
At 210 pounds without a power element, he projects as a complementary early-down runner, not the back who closes out a four-minute drive.
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Northwestern | 4 | 46 | 286 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Northwestern | 9 | 25 | 209 | 2 | 6 | 41 |
| 2021 | Northwestern | 12 | 196 | 1009 | 7 | 33 | 264 |
| 2022 | Northwestern | 12 | 221 | 913 | 5 | 55 | 546 |
| Career | — | 37 | 488 | 2417 | 18 | 94 | 851 |
2020, 2021 and 2022 verified line-by-line on cfbstats.com (player 1104869, Northwestern team 509); 2019 taken from StatMuse and reconciles exactly against the published career totals (37 G / 488 att / 2,417 yds / 18 rush TD / 94 rec / 851 yds / 4 rec TD). 2019 was his redshirt season - Northwestern's official roster lists him as a Redshirt First-Year in 2020 - and the four games he played fall within the redshirt-preserving limit. The 2019 zeros in the receiving columns are verified zeros (one target, no catch), not placeholders. Starts are not published per season and are omitted rather than estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The role Indianapolis literally drafted him to inherit — passing-down back, slot alignments, return work, modest carry share.
The optimistic version: a Day 3 back who turns receiving equity and speed into a durable, valued third-down job on a contender.
The downside is not a lesser player but a lesser career: a back who bounces between rosters and practice squads without ever locking down a situational role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The NFL never got to see the plan. Indianapolis drafted Hull to be its third-down and change-of-pace back, then lost him in Week 1 of 2023 to a knee injury — 8 snaps, one carry, one catch — and placed him on injured reserve, ending the rookie year. He was back on the Colts roster in 2024 but appeared in a single game without a touch, buried behind Jonathan Taylor and a healthy depth chart. New Orleans gave him the first real look: signed off the Saints practice squad to the active roster in late November 2025, he played six games and carried 19 times for 48 yards. The Saints waived him after the 2026 draft, Houston signed and released him, and Arizona claimed him off waivers in August 2026 before he landed on the Cardinals practice squad on August 31.
In hindsight this is less an evaluation miss than an injury story. The pre-draft read — third-down back, receiving specialist, no feature-runner upside — was accurate, and it is a role NFL offenses use. Hull simply never got a healthy, uncontested runway at it; the Week 1 knee cost him the rookie season that a fifth-round back needs to establish himself, and the depth-chart math never opened again. Three years in with 20 career carries, the pick has not returned value, but the failure mode was availability, not projection.