The 2026 NFL Draft RB class is widely believed to be Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love and everybody else. However, a common contender for RB2 status happens to be none other than Love's teammate, Jadarian Price. The two formed a dynamic duo in South Bend during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, with Price making enough of his 1B opportunities to perhaps earn a shot at a lead role at the professional level.

Today, we'll get to know Price a bit better by breaking down four cool things about the strong-armed talent, including:

• How we got here: Damn you, Achilles
• Biggest strengths: Good things happen when Price touches the football
• Causes for concern: The little things weren't great
• Two cool stats: Trojan slayer

And of course, we'll finish things off with several provocative comps that will hopefully get the people going.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

RELATED: Price currently ranks as our RB3 in the class on our NFL Draft Big Board.

2026 NFL Draft Scouting Report for Jadarian Price | RB

How Jadarian Price Got Here: Damn you, Achilles

Price hardly came out of nowhere, as the Texas native was graded as a four-star recruit by 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN, among others. This was thanks to a high school career that produced north of 5,000 rushing yards and a whopping 58 total touchdowns. Price would commit to Notre Dame over other top programs like Auburn and Arizona State.

Unfortunately, things didn't exactly get off to a good start at the collegiate level: Price missed his entire freshman year due to a ruptured Achilles and then only handled 52 touches in 2023 as the clear RB3 behind Audric Estime and Jeremiyah Love.

But then something funny happened: Price started getting the rock, and the man didn't stop making plays. Overall, he turned a relatively modest 243 touches into 1,517 total yards and 20 scores on offense while also finding a way to score three kick return touchdowns on just 22 career returns. This is an explosive football player right here.

• 5'11", 203 pounds, 4.49-second 40-yard dash
• 2025: 113 carries-674 yards-11 TD rushing, 6 receptions-87 yards-2 TD receiving, 2 kick return TD
• 2025 All-American honors as a kick returner, Paul Hornung Award Finalist
• Mock draft projection: Not projected to go in Round 1

Jadarian Price's Biggest Strengths: Good things happen when Price touches the football

Price certainly does plenty of things well, but three factors in particular stand out after grinding the ole film.

Menace in the return game: Again, three kick return scores in 22 chances! That's good for a career 36.1-yard return average—good for the highest career mark of ANY FBS player with 20+ career kick returns since 2000!

Didn't handle a huge workload in college: AKA the man's legs should be quite fresh. A lot of RBs are forced to rack up bunches of touches for college offenses without a better avenue to go with the football, but Price's willingness to stay patient and work alongside Love should help him hit the ground running at the next level.

Does all sorts of cool shit: Literally. I made up a stat called "Cool Shit" that takes an RB's total touchdowns, explosive plays and tackles avoided, divided by their total carries and targets. You know, cool shit. And yes: Price accomplished more cool shit on a per-touch basis than any other draft-eligible RB last season, and that's not even including his aforementioned special team prowess!

Causes for Concern with Jadarian Price: The little things weren't great

Of course, as is the case with any prospect, there are some potential red-ish flags to concern yourself with here.

Tends to bounce outside at the first sign of light: Price runs very hard, but he seemed at times too willing to simply take his chances on the edge as opposed to letting the play develop. It was rare to see Price display patience in the hole, as his always-forward body lean prevented him from jumping from gap to gap. He certainly made plenty of big plays by getting to the outside or cutting back across the field, but he might not be every RB coach's cup of tea with this constant 0-to-100 real quick style.

Very minimal receiving production: The obvious caveat here is that the Irish generally trusted Jeremiyah Love to do the bulk of the backfield's receiving duties, but still: 15 total receptions across 41 career games leaves a bit to be desired. Credit to Price for catching 55 passes in his last two high school seasons and for not being charged with a single drop in college; he seems plenty capable of catching the football when given the opportunity. 

The little things weren't great: Price was a below-average pass protector among his peers in terms of pressure rate allowed, and his ball security left a bit to be desired as well. Overall, Price had four fumbles on 296 career touches, good for a bottom-three rate among our 14-back cohort. The fact that several occurred within shouting distance of the end zone didn't help matters. The only reason why he isn't near the bottom of the below "Little Things" leaderboard is thanks to not dropping any passes, but that's not quite as big of a flex as you'd think, considering the aforementioned reality that he only had 18 career targets.

Two Cool Jadarian Price Stats: Trojan slayer

Two cool stats and facts about Price that line up with what you'll see from watching him play:

• This is a tough man to tackle: Just ask PFF's "Elusive Rating", which assigns a single number for elusiveness based on a player's tackles avoided and yards after contact per touch. Anyways, Price's 118.6 rate was good for the eighth-highest mark among 84 qualified Power Four RBs in 2025.
• Trojan slayer: Price seemed to save his best moments for the Fighting Irish's rivalry with USC. First, he notched his first career kick return touchdown against the Trojans in 2023. Next, he turned 12 carries into 111 yards and a score against them in 2024. Finally, he turned 13 carries into 87 yards and a score while returning ANOTHER kick to the house in 2025.

Jadarian Price NFL Draft Player Comps

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for: My favorite comps for Price:

• Tank Bigsby in a good way
• Gen-Z Felix Jones
• Tevin Coleman
• Glass cannon

Best of luck to Mr. Price on his NFL journey, and thank you all for reading!

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