7 Iowa football players invited to 2025 NFL Combine

IOWA CITY — Seven former Iowa football players have been invited to the NFL Combine, the league announced Thursday morning.

Running back Kaleb Johnson, tight end Luke Lachey, offensive lineman Connor Colby, defensive lineman Yahya Black, linebacker Jay Higgins and defensive backs Sebastian Castro and Jermari Harris will have a shot at impressing NFL scouts next month at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Johnson was the Big Ten’s 2024 Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year after amassing 1,537 rushing yards and a school-record 23 total touchdowns. Pro Football Focus rates Johnson as the fifth-best running back in this year’s draft class.

Castro is PFF’s 67th-best overall prospect, and Colby is 161st. Higgins, the Big Ten’s Butkus-Fitzgerald Linebacker of the Year, is 196th in PFF’s overall rankings after recording 295 total tackles over the last two seasons. Lachey, who could become the third Iowa tight end drafted in a three-year span, is 205th in PFF’s rankings.

Iowa now has sent at least four players to Indianapolis in three consecutive seasons. (Last year’s combine had four Hawkeyes, and the 2023 combine had five Hawkeyes.)

Mason Richman — Iowa’s starting left tackle for the last four seasons — is the most notable exclusion from the NFL’s list of combine invitations. Richman was an all-Big Ten honorable mention in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Defensive end Deontae Craig and linebacker Nick Jackson also did not receive invitations.

The combine will go from Feb. 24 until March 3. The NFL invited 329 prospects from across the country to the annual event, so a combine invite certainly does not guarantee a player will be selected in the seven-round draft.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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