From Kansas State University, DJ Giddens has the potential to be one of the second-round steals in 2025 Dynasty Rookie Drafts. The 21-year-old had solid numbers during college and was a key part of the Wildcats offense this past season. Giddens is a dynamic three-down player who checks many boxes to be a productive future NFL player. He’s beginning to get more talk and should continue to impress scouts throughout the rest of the pre-draft process. Also, depending on where he ends up, he could quickly become an NFL starter at some point during the season. I view Giddens as a major sleeper, and in the right situation, depending on where he gets drafted, he could take a major leap with his Dynasty outlook. Let’s take a closer look at him.
* Within this article, the statistics were pulled from Sports Reference, KeepTradeCut (KTC), Pro Football Focus (PFF), and Sleeper.
College Production (2022 – 2024)
Giddens wasn’t a highly sought-after player coming out of high school, and he played all four of his collegiate seasons at Kansas State. He redshirted in 2021 and saw limited work in 2022, backing up current Dallas Cowboys RB Deuce Vaughn. During his redshirt freshman season, when he started to get his feet wet, Giddens had 518 rush yards (5.8 yards per carry average) with six touchdowns. He also added eight receptions for 98 yards (12.3 yards per catch). In his sophomore season, Giddens produced 1,226 yards (5.5 yards per carry average) with 10 touchdowns. He also added 29 receptions for 323 (11.1 yards per catch) with three touchdowns. Giddens’ final season before declaring a year early for the 2025 NFL Draft was his most impressive. He totaled 1,343 rushing yards (6.6 yards per carry average) with seven touchdowns. Through the air, he also added 21 receptions for 258 yards (12.3 yards per catch) with one touchdown.
Giddens made a name for himself while at Kansas State, making the Maxwell Award watch list, finishing All-Big 12 Second Team, and becoming a Doak Walker Award semifinalist. Whichever NFL team drafts him in April will likely ease him into the fold, but Giddens has shown the ability to be a true three-down player with playmaking abilities.
Strengths
Listed at 6′ 0″ and 212, Giddens was impressive during his collegiate career, especially over his final two years. From a film perspective, he’s a patient runner with vision and clean footwork in the backfield. Also, Giddens has good lateral quickness for a bigger runner back, which allows him to get into open rushing lanes. He shows solid shiftiness to make defenders miss in space by mixing in jukes and spin moves. It’s easy to tell that Giddens is a creative runner who can make something out of nothing, proving to be a good athlete. Once Giddens gets into space, he’s dangerous with his vision. He has good build-up speed and, at the NFL Combine, showed off his wheels with a 4.43 40-time, ranking him 7th amongst running backs in this year’s class. What I like about him is that he consistently runs through arm tackles and has shown good flexibility, giving him good contact balance. He’s also a very competitive player who gets behind his pads and fights for more yards after contact. He’s shown excellent ball security with just three fumbles on 518 collegiate carries. Additionally, Giddens is effective in the passing game, and he’s shown good hands as he made a living out of swing routes, creating many highlight reel plays. He’s also shown flashes of being a good blocker; his size should allow this to become a strength for him.
Most importantly, what separates him is his athleticism and three-down abilities. He’s a tough and competitive player, and I expect his stock to continue to rise as we approach the 2025 NFL Draft.
Weaknesses
Giddens does have some weaknesses in his game that stick out to me. First, he’s not the most explosive runner, as he’s more of a smooth athlete. He lacks the long speed to create chunk runs. Also, as a taller running back, his pad level tends to be a little too high and upright as he tends to leave his body open to bigger hits. He is a long strider, which makes it tougher to make quick cuts.
Additionally, Giddens struggles to break through tackles before he gets up to speed. For a bigger back, he’s also not as effective at pushing the pile as you’d think for someone his size. While he’s a good receiver out of the backfield, he’s not the most reliable, as he had five drops this past season and seven drops on 58 career receptions. He also struggles to bring in off-frame throws. Giddens can improve with his blocking and blitz pickups, as he allowed three sacks this past season (PFF).
Going back to my first point, my biggest knock on him is that he’s not the home run-hitting running back that will outrun an entire defense. It’ll be key for him to get placed with a top coaching staff at the next level who can help him continue his development.
Draft Projection
Giddens is projected to be a late 4th-round pick (113th overall prospect), according to NFL Mock Draft Database as things currently stand after the NFL Combine. While he’s a talented player, he doesn’t come without his flaws, as he does need some refinement in his game. However, he has the potential to be a very good all-around running back if he can reach his ceiling in the NFL. Giddens is a player that most of your league mates are probably starting to get more familiar with and taking notice of his stock on NFL Draft boards. Impressively, he raised his stock with his performance and measurables during the NFL Combine. Giddens scored an elite 9.78 RAS score while also adding a 10-foot-10 broad jump and 39.5-inch vertical leap, which each finished tied for second amongst running backs.
Currently, he projects in the mid-to-late second round of Dynasty Fantasy Football Drafts, and he could be one of the gems of Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Drafts this year, especially with a nice landing spot. As a projected day-two selection, a team needing a running back, such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, Los Angeles Chargers, or Dallas Cowboys, could help him fulfill his potential and add to his Dynasty value with a great landing spot. The Chiefs or Cowboys are intriguing, with Giddens sharing the backfield with Pacheco or Dowdle, as Giddens has the talent to eventually surpass both of these players and own the backfield in the long term. But if he lands with the Chargers, he could own the backfield right away on a run-heavy team under head coach Jim Harbaugh. If Giddens falls into a good situation, he has the chance to become a very productive player in the NFL.
Conclusion
While Giddens has a few concerning weaknesses, I think he will become a very steady and productive future NFL player. I like the fact that he showed production with back-to-back 1,200-yard rushing seasons, has proven to be durable, and is a younger prospect who, with some refinement, can easily fix his current flaws. Also, in his final season with the Wildcats, he had an impressive 4.16 yards after contact per attempt. Giddens is a player who catches your eye and would be a great value in the second round of Dynasty Rookie Drafts. Giddens has been compared to players like Chuba Hubbard and James Conner. While I do see some of those players in Giddens, I also see the vision of a ceiling like David Johnson for him. Hubbard and Johnson are both similar in size to Giddens and are running backs who are effective in space as three down-backs who also don’t possess top-end speed. Giddens glides as a runner, which reminds me a little of Johnson. However, time will tell if he can live up to his pro comparisons. If Giddens can add more strength and refine a few of his flaws, he has the makings of an excellent running back who can do just about everything on the field. Overall, Giddens possesses the skill set to contribute immediately to a committee and shortly develop into a feature back.
As things stand now, Giddens’ stock is trending up, and I will be watching him closely leading up to the NFL Draft to see if he can keep climbing up draft boards any further. It will be important to see where Giddens lands because if an offensive-minded team like the Chargers drafts him in a run-heavy scheme where he could immediately own the backfield to himself, his stock will rise. And if that’s the case, I’ll be targeting Giddens heavily as one of “My Guys”, especially if he has a good landing spot that would make him the steal of Dynasty Rookie Drafts. Giddens could be of great value and a diamond in the rough in the late second round on his way to becoming a very valuable Dynasty Fantasy Football player long term. I’m betting on Giddens to be one of the better running backs in this year’s 2025 rookie class. Get him on your team, as he projects to be a steal from round two of Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Drafts.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and I hope you gained some valuable information. If you have any questions or you’d like additional insight and analysis, please follow me on Twitter/X at @MonicasHubby. #DFFArmy #AlwaysBeBuilding
