Tulane Football Star Lands Invite to NFL Combine As Strong Draft Prospect
The NFL released the 329 college football players invited to the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, and one Tulane Green Wave defensive back scored an invite.
Caleb Ransaw, who played spear or slot corner for Tulane football last season, is headed to Indianapolis for the premier event from Feb. 24 through March 3.
The combine is a paramount showcase in college football for hopeful draft prospects, and an invite bodes well for Ransaw's future in the league.
In addition to the live on-field drills, measurables, and testing, players will conduct important interviews with NFL executives, scouts and evaluators from all 32 teams.
Ransaw attended the Reese's Senior Bowl, another standout draft event, before many NFL coaching staffs had fully assembled.
He likely raised his draft stock after a productive week in Mobile, Al., where he recorded an interception in the Senior Bowl game.
While prospects will also participate in their local pro day at their school, the combine centralizes a consistent baseline of testing that isn't affected by different field conditions and the quickness of scouts' thumbs on their timers.
With an invite to the combine, it allows a player more freedom on their pro day. Should a player shine in their testing at the showcase, they may not repeat all the drills at pro day.
It's even more important for a player like Ransaw, who doesn't have prototypical size.
When he measured in at the Senior Bowl, he was 5-foot-10, 7/8 inches, and 196 pounds. Both fall below the 50th percentile of typical NFL defensive back sizes.
The popular Relative Athletic Score (RAS) calculator developed by Kent Platte weighs measurements against other prospects at the position and provides a composite score out of 10. Higher RAS scores typically correlate with better athletic ability and successful NFL trajectories.
Each category has a composite score as well.
Height, weight and bench press fall under size. Vertical leap and broad jump are explosions. 40-yard dash, 20-yard split and 10-yard split dictate speed. And the short shuttle and three-cone drills measure agility.
Ransaw's height and weight are considered "poor" or below average.
Higher scores range from okay, good, great and elite.
Players can't grow taller, and sometimes more weight isn't a good thing depending on their stature. Strong testing scores in the vertical leap and broad jump, which measure explosions, can help compensate for the uncontrollable.
Ransaw has the same height as a notable small defensive back who made a splash in the league, Asante Samuel, who was a second-round pick by the Los Angeles Chargers.
Samuel also only weighed 185 pounds. He only had a composite score of 6.61 out of 10 with a 4.53 40-yard dash, which is markedly slow for defensive backs.
A 4.4 40-yard dash would give Ransaw an elite grade in the category if his splits are in line with the necessary short-area quickness.
Recommended Articles
Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com