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Former Walk-On, Zander Horvath made a name for himself early on at Purdue. Coach Barclay realized from the time he arrived at campus that Zander wasn’t your typical Walk-On.
Zander found his way on to the field early, during his 2nd year on campus, he was playing special teams. Eventually, he became the feature back in the pass heavy Purdue Offense, but he provided many sparks in the run game.
Well, it turns out, he is an athletic freak. While he was not invited to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, during the Pro Day at Purdue, he put up numbers that tested better than 90% of the running backs that attended the combine.
He is an outlier in this draft and his pro day definitely got him at least an UDFA deal, but maybe he will sneak into the 6th or 7th round - as there were 30 NFL Teams at the Purdue Pro Day.
I do believe that he can find a niche in the NFL, only a few teams run with a fullback nowadays, but many use a hybrid H Back, that blocks and catches out of the backfield, I could see that for him. He can also be an impact guy on Special Teams for any NFL team, in my opinion.
NFL Draft Prediction:
- Day 3 pick, Preferred UDFA
- Career Stats: 268 Carries, 1181 Yards, 8 TDS, 68 Catches 592 Yards