Israel
Abanikanda.
Israel
Abanikanda.
Pittsburgh· 5'10"· 216 lb
"A sprinter playing running back — the cleanest home-run gear in the class attached to a single season of featured work and zone vision that still has not caught up to the acceleration."Pre-draft read
Downhill one-cut back with a build-up gear that turns creases into chunk plays. Abanikanda ran mostly gap and duo concepts at Pitt from single-back sets, pressing the line square, planting once and accelerating through the second level without wasted footwork. He runs behind his pads on contact, absorbing arm tackles and falling forward.
The separator is long speed: once he clears the linebacker level he pulls away from safeties rather than getting run down, and he finished 2022 with a stack of explosive runs no other ACC back matched. He is functional but unrefined in the pass game — reliable on checkdowns, raw in protection. Vision on outside zone lags behind his burst.
Gap and duo-based downhill run game that lets him press square and hit one crease at full speed, ideally paired with a play-action passing attack that manufactures light boxes.
Year 1 complementary early-down runner and returner behind an established starter, with a ceiling as a 1B thunder-and-lightning back if the zone vision and protection catch up.
A wide-zone offense that asks the back to bank runs on stretch, read the second-level cut and stay on the field for third-down protection — his eyes and blocking technique are the two things that scheme punishes most.
Trait bet, not a scheme-agnostic starter: put him in a gap system with defined creases and the speed plays immediately.
320 yards and 6 TD vs. Virginia Tech
The record-setting 2022 afternoon that broke Tony Dorsett's Pitt single-game rushing mark.
2022 regular season highlights
Full junior-season reel showing the one-cut burst and finishing speed that won the ACC rushing title.
NFL Draft tape
Pre-draft cutup used by evaluators to study his gap-scheme runs, contact balance and pass-game usage.
A one-year producer with genuinely rare acceleration, Abanikanda forces you to separate traits from resume. Brooklyn-born and a high school sprinter, he arrived at Pitt as a change-of-pace piece and only became the featured runner as a junior. Everything on tape says burst first: the plant-and-go out of a single cut, the way the second level disappears once he squares his shoulders, the finishing speed on long touchdowns.
The 2022 body of work is real. He won the ACC rushing title, hit 100 yards in nine of his eleven appearances, and delivered the loudest single game in the class — 320 yards and six scores against Virginia Tech, breaking a Pitt record that had stood since Tony Dorsett. The flags are just as real: one season as a primary back, a habit of pressing zone runs past available cutbacks, and pass protection that is more effort than technique.
The board treated him as a Day 2 talent in a deep back class that kept sliding, and he slid with it. Teams valuing vision and third-down reliability had him behind a half-dozen names; teams chasing home-run juice had him higher. The Jets, already set with Breece Hall, took the swing at 143 as a developmental complement rather than a plug-in workload back.
- 01
Long speed
True sprinter's top gear that separates from second-level defenders; once he clears the linebackers he finishes runs instead of getting caught from behind.
- 02
One-cut burst
Plants and accelerates in a single step out of gap and duo concepts, hitting the crease at full speed without gathering or false steps.
- 03
Contact balance
Runs behind his pads and consistently falls forward through arm tackles, converting stalled runs into positive yardage on early downs.
- 04
Explosive-play volume
Produced chunk runs at a rate no other back in the class matched in 2022, including a record 320-yard, six-touchdown afternoon.
- 05
Ball security
Carried a heavy junior-year workload without giving the ball away, protecting it in traffic and through contact at the goal line.
- 01
Zone vision
Presses stretch and outside zone too quickly, arriving before blocks develop and running past cutback lanes that were available.
- 02
Pass protection
More willingness than technique; late to identify blitzers and inconsistent with hand placement and anchor against bigger rushers.
- 03
Receiving polish
Functional on swings and checkdowns but an unrefined route runner with limited experience detached from the backfield.
- 04
One-year sample
Only one season as a featured back, leaving evaluators projecting from a single body of work rather than a proven track record.
| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Pittsburgh | 7 | 28 | 95 | 1 | 2 | 11 |
| 2021 | Pittsburgh | 13 | 123 | 651 | 7 | 24 | 197 |
| 2022 | Pittsburgh | 11 | 239 | 1431 | 20 | 12 | 146 |
| Career | — | 31 | 390 | 2177 | 28 | 38 | 354 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Downhill early-down complement who produces on defined gap runs but never wins a three-down job.
Sprinter-built back whose long speed eventually earned a real workload once the vision caught up.
Athletic Day 3 back who bounces between rosters and practice squads without carving out touches.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Jets took him behind Breece Hall and Michael Carter and never found a role. He made the roster as a rookie in 2023 and appeared in six games, carrying 22 times for 70 yards with seven catches — usable snaps, but nothing that suggested a rotation was coming. He spent 2024 buried on the depth chart until New York waived him in December; San Francisco claimed him off waivers to finish the season. The 49ers waived him the following July, Green Bay claimed him and cut him before the 2025 opener, and he landed on Dallas's practice squad in December before signing a futures deal for 2026.
In hindsight the evaluation was more right than the pick. The speed was real and remains the reason he keeps getting claimed, but the concerns that pushed him out of Day 2 — zone vision, protection reliability, one year of tape — are exactly what has kept him inactive. Backs with this profile need volume and a downhill gap scheme to matter, and he has never landed in one; the Jets drafted him into a backfield that had no carries to give. He is not a wasted pick at 143 so much as an unresolved one: still on rosters at year four, still waiting on a job that fits the trait.