PRO 2026 Rookie Spotlight: Roman Hemby, RB Indiana
Height: 6-0″ – official
Weight: 210 – official
2026 Age: 24 – (8/16/02)
Hands: 9 1/8″
Arm: 31″
40: 4.52 (pro day adjusted)
Breakout Age: 20.25 (SO)
NFL Play-Style Comparison: Bruce Anderson, Kenny McIntosh, Joshua Kelley
Draft Grade: 5.56 (7th Round – PFA)
1,000+ Rushing Seasons: 1
Offensive Market Share Metrics (Final Season)
Carries: 211
Receptions: 15
Scrimmage Yards: 1,220
Scrimmage TDs: 7
Total Production Percentage: 16.8%
High School: John Carroll School (Bel Air, MD)
As a high school prospect: Class of 2021; 3-star (5.6)
College Attended: Maryland (4), Indiana (1)
Pros
– Elite Work Ethic
– 11th in Total Yards After Contact in 2025 (729) – 69% of total rushing yards
– First IU running back to top the 100-yard mark in their Hoosier debut since Jordan Howard in 2015
– 14 of 55 career games featured 18+ touches (25% of games)
– 12 yards shy of 1,000 in 2022, would have made Hemby one of 4 with multiple 1,000-yard seasons.
Cons
– underwhelming vision and no true game-breaking creation trait
– Injuries (Bulging disc in 2023, microdiscectomy)
– exposes surface area and struggles to create at the tackle point
– 24-year-old rookie with over 800 college touches on his body
Highlight/Film
Cody’s Scouting Notes:
After four years of good football at Maryland, finishing with 800+ yards from scrimmage in 3 of 4 seasons. Roman Hemby transferred to Indiana, where he finally crested 1,000 rushing yards in the 14th game of the season. Unlike the previous three seasons, where he compiled 30+ receptions each year, he has just 15 receptions in 2025. One of the first things that jumps off the screen when going through All-22 of Roman Hemby. This guy finds work, play in, and play out. In pass protection, when the defense only rushes four, he finds a chip; when they bring six, he handles a man. As a ball carrier, his style is shorter, quicker, and choppy in tight areas, and his feet never stop moving. At times, Roman can get stuck in the garbage (mosh of linemen) due to a lack of lateral acceleration and edge-bending speed.
If you told me Hemby was 5-9 and 190 lbs, I’d believe you. He plays smaller than he is listed. Downhill one-cut runner that finishes runs with a pop, but not exactly a tackle breaker. Underwhelming field vision out of the backfield, but grinds his way to results. Unfortunately, Hemby lacks a true game-breaking creation trait, consistently winning through one of the following (speed, power, or wiggle).
Alex’s Scouting Notes
- Chain-moving RB1 for the National Champion Hoosiers who will grind out tough yards and efficiently take what is blocked for him, but does not bring game-breaking elusiveness, play-speed, wiggle or pop in the pads to create yards as well on his own
- Diverse experience across programs and run-schemes; All Big-Ten individual honors at both Maryland and Indiana
- Had the luxury of running behind a Joe Moore Award-finalist OL in 2025 with a Heisman Trophy winning QB capable of keeping defenses off-balance
- 57 rushes for first downs ranked 25th in FBS during the 2025 season (however, it should be noted that he played 3-4 games more than other qualifiers who did not make the CFP)
- Slight duck-footed gait similar to Travis Etienne and a similar upright running style as well, but not the same sort of slashing style that Etienne had coming out of college
- Showed at Maryland more so than at Indiana that he can be a major part of the passing game (78 receptions over his final two seasons at Maryland)
- Reportedly had the Maryland team’s best GPA in the classroom
- Terrible pass-blocking grade from PFF (214th out of 279 FBS qualifiers in 2025)
- An all-around good college back lacking one particular superpower trait you feel comfortable hanging your hat on projecting forward to the NFL
- Comp: Joshua Kelley
