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The 2025 NFL season is ready to kick off Thursday, Sept. 4. When the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles take the field, Indiana (PA)’s C.J. Goodwin will begin his eighth season with the Cowboys and 10th in the NFL.
DII football player-of-the-year watchlist
Before we dive into these rosters, here are a few outliers of which to be aware. As always, we are only tracking those players listed on active 53-man rosters listed on NFL.com (as of Monday, Sept. 1). This means only players designated to return from the injured reserve are counted, and there are no physically unable to perform (PUP) or practice squad players — like rookie Melvin Smith Jr. from Southern Arkansas who landed on the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice squad. This list is also only looking at those DII players who were drafted or signed out of DII schools. For example, Isaac TeSlaa spent the bulk of his college football career at DII Hillsdale, but was drafted out of Arkansas, so he will not be on this list. The same holds true with someone like Jaleel McLaughlin, who set records at Notre Dame (OH), but ultimately was drafted out of Youngstown State.
Also worth noting is that some schools you may recognize as DI — Tarleton State and Texas A&M-Commerce (now East Texas A&M), for example — were DII when the listed players were active at those institutions. Thus, no players drafted out of Tarleton State or East Texas A&M after the schools jumped to FCS are included.
This year, I tracked the movement of rosters when training camps officially opened in July. There were 66 former DII players on the rosters during the summer and after cut day, we enter 2025 with 39 DII alumni rostered — the fewest players since we started tracking nearly a decade ago and down from 2024’s 46 and 2023’s 43.
A breakdown of DII players on NFL rosters
- The Miami Dolphins have the most former DII players on their roster with five. West Alabama’s Tyreek Hill and Grand Valley State’s Matthew Judon are multiple-time Pro Bowlers, while Ferris State’s Zach Sieler just inked a big deal after back-to-back 10-sack seasons. Fayetteville State’s Kion Smith rounds out the active DII alumni while Texas A&M-Commerce’s Kader Kohou is on injured reserve, designated to return.
- Defensive backs are the most populous position on NFL rosters with seven. Wide receivers are right behind with six.
- Shepherd’s Tyson Bagent is the lone quarterback on an opening day roster after signing a massive extension to remain the Chicago Bears’ backup quarterback. Bagent is the only quarterback to make a roster since we started tracking DII alumni in 2017.
- Ferris State has the most former DII players on NFL rosters: Sieler is joined by Caleb Murphy on the Los Angeles Chargers and Tavierre Thomas, now on the Minnesota Vikings — who, with the recent trade for hometown Adam Thielen — have three former DII players on their roster.
(Note: All rosters as of Monday, Sept. 1 on NFL.com. With the Tuesday, Sept. 2, 4 p.m. ET deadline looming for final moves, some players could change status, which will be updated by opening day.)
| Player | Position | Team | School |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dee Alford | DB | Atlanta Falcons | Tusculum |
| Kyle Hinton | OL | Atlanta Falcons | Washburn |
| Michael Jerrell | OL | Atlanta Falcons | Findlay |
| David Moore | WR | Carolina Panthers | East Central |
| Tershawn Wharton | DT | Carolina Panthers | Missouri S&T |
| Tyson Bagent | QB | Chicago Bears | Shepherd |
| Jonathan Owens | DB | Chicago Bears | Missouri Western |
| Tanner Hudson | TE | Cincinnati Bengals | Southern Arkansas |
| CJ Goodwin | DB | Dallas Cowboys | Cal (PA) |
| Deondrea Tillman | LB | Denver Broncos | Indiana (PA) |
| Trevor Nowaske | LB | Detroit Lions | Saginaw Valley State |
| Craig Reynolds | RB | Detroit Lions | Kutztown |
| Shane Zylstra | TE | Detroit Lions | Minnesota State |
| Matt Ozrech | LS | Green Bay Packers | Azusa Pacific |
| Emanuel Wilson | RB | Green Bay Packers | Fort Valley State |
| EJ Speed | LB | Houston Texans | Tarleton State** |
| Ashton Dulin | WR | Indianapolis Colts | Malone |
| Kenny Moore II | DB | Indianapolis Colts | Valdosta State |
| Grover Stewart | DL | Indianapolis Colts | Albany State (GA) |
| Dennis Gardeck | LB | Jacksonville Jaguars | Sioux Falls |
| Josh Williams | DB | Kansas City Chiefs | Fayetteville State |
| Caleb Murphy | LB | Los Angeles Chargers | Ferris State |
| Trey Pipkins III | OL | Los Angeles Chargers | Sioux Falls |
| Ethan Evans | P | Los Angeles Rams | Wingate |
| Alex Cappa | OL | Las Vegas Raiders | Humboldt State (now Cal Poly Humboldt) |
| Tyreek Hill | WR | Miami Dolphins | West Alabama |
| Matthew Judon | LB | Miami Dolphins | Grand Valley State |
| Kader Kohou | DB | Miami Dolphins | Texas A&M-Commerce ++ |
| Zach Sieler | DL | Miami Dolphins | Ferris State |
| Kion Smith | OL | Miami Dolphins | Fayetteville State |
| CJ Ham | RB | Minnesota Vikings | Augustana (SD)++ |
| Adam Thielen | WR | Minnesota Vikings | Minnesota State |
| Tavierre Thomas | DB | Minnesota Vikings | Ferris State |
| Kyle Dugger | DB | New England Patriots | Lenoir-Rhyne |
| Nathan Shepherd | DL | New Orleans Saints | Fort Hays State |
| Gunner Olszewski | WR | New York Giants | Bemidji State |
| Dareke Young | WR | Seattle Seahawks | Lenoir-Rhyne |
| Kameron Johnson | WR | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Barton |
| C.J. Ravenell | DL | Missouri Western | Tennessee Titans |
| Austin Ekeler | RB | Washington Commanders | Western Colorado |
** = school no longer DII
++ = Injured reserve, designated to return
Wayne Cavadi has covered all things Division II sports for NCAA.com since 2015. His work also appears in the Substack best seller, The DII Report. Past credits and bylines include hosting the weekly DII Nation Podcast available on Spotify and YouTube, Bleacher Report, MLB.com, AJC.com, SB Nation, FoxSports.com and in print publications like The Advocate and Lindy’s Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @WayneCavadi_D2.
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