The Navy's Hidden Gem: Eli Heidenreich

Draft is coming up! On a series of posts about players that people like, thought I would bring some attention to a day 3 guy I think could be great for our team: Eli Heidenreich

I will say I am not a tape savant guy and can't tell you a lot about footwork, route running technique, etc beyond a very simplistic understanding of it. There's a reason he is being mocked in the 5th/6th. But what I can tell you is that his usage and profile demand attention

Stats

Heidenreich spent all of his college career at Navy, playing as a starter in 2023, 2024 and 2025. He's best defined as a weapon, a mix of WR and RB. In 2025, he had crazy numbers: he ran for 499 yards and three touchdowns on 77 carries, while also hauling in 941 yards and six TDs on 51 catches. This is an more than 18 yards per catch. And even better, it translates to 4.97 yards per route run, a mind boggling number. For reference, the highest number of the NFL this decade is Tyreek Hill at 3.82 yards per route run with the Dolphins. He's a good runner too, had a total of 6.8 yards per attempt during his entire college career running the ball. Importantly, across 3 seasons as a starter, he only had one single fumble.

The testing

He's not an athletic freak and didn't blow up the combine, but he's not bad at all. Measured at 6'0'', 198 pounds, with slightly shorter arms (29'1/4''). He ran a 4.4 40 yard dash with a 1.55 10-yard split, 35.5'' vertical, 16 bench press reps, all of which are around average. His unnofficial pro day 3 cone rep was 6.55 seconds, though, which is a great number. In total, he had a Relative Athletic Score of 9.23, which is pretty good.

The intangibles

Some stuff doesn't show up on the stat sheet. Eli was team captain and is of course a Navy Academy graduate, which speaks to his work ethic. He was clutch, catching the game winning TD vs Army. And he's a willing and tough blocker too. Obviously I haven't interviewed him, but seems like a high character guy all around. His knack for finding space and football IQ is also great

The bad

As I said, there's a reason he's going day 3. The biggest one is the obvious one: he played for Navy. The competition wasn't the best, and the offense they run is far away from a pro style offense. He got a lot of designed touches in space, space that will probably not be there all the time in the NFL. He ran a very limited route tree, too. And of course, he doesn't have one single athletic trait that can win at all times, he's not super fast, elusive or strong. He's also a bad pass blocker, so he won't take too many 3rd down snaps in obvious passing situations

My view

As I mentioned, I am not a scout so please don't take this as some sort of report. This is just my opinion on him as a player. I think Heidenreich could be an incredibly creative piece to add to our offense. He will never be RB1, and he will never be WR1 or WR2 and maybe not even WR3, but what he can be is a problem. Get him the ball 3/4 times per game, run the triple option with Lamar and Henry, find him on screens and slant routes, take advantage of his deep ball ability to take some shots. I think our running game is very much designed to take advantage os his capabilities. Obviously we don't fully know how Doyle is going to run this offense, but from my POV, with an athletic QB like Lamar and a powerhouse of a runner in Henry, getting a receiving weapon with versatility in that backfield could be very good. Would not mind it at all if he was a Raven, even if we slightly "reach" for him at the bottom of the 5th with one of our many picks