NFL Draft
2/27/25
5 min read
Bhayshul Tuten 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Virginia Tech Hokies
Height: 5086 (verified)
Weight: 211lbs (verified)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: Chase Brown
Scouting Overview
Virginia Tech Hokies running back Bhayshul Tuten is a dynamic home run hitter who can change the script of the game with one play, for better or for worse. At his best, Tuten can blow the doors off defenders in the open field and has a nasty blend of vision, patience, and explosiveness to stretch the point of attack and cut back against overaggressive defenders.
At his worst, his ball security issues (spurred on by 8 and 3/4th-inch hands) can take an explosive run and turn it into a catastrophic mistake. If you can believe Tuten can be coached out of the ball security issues, he profiles as a potential game-breaker at running back.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Explosive breakaway ability with dynamic open-field speed
- Well-built, dense runner with a thick lower half, dense core, and good contact balance
- Aggressive in pass protection to attack and deliver blows to steepen exit angles for rushers trying to play off his blocks
Negatives
- Alarming second-contact ball security with eight fumbles in the last two seasons
- Can be a feast or famine runner who was inefficient with 43 percent third-down conversion rate in the last two seasons per TruMedia
- Receiving game profile is unimaginative and will require added growth to be a weapon out of the backfield
Background
Tuten is from Paulsboro, NJ, and played high school football for Paulsboro HS. There, he was a standout talent with 77 career touchdowns in high school. Tuten left high school as an unranked talent and enrolled at North Carolina A&T. There, he was a productive talent who broke out as a sophomore, posting big-time numbers with 1,363 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 208 carries.
Tuten then entered the transfer portal as a 3-star transfer (247 Sports) and landed with Virginia Tech. As a junior in 2023, Tuten was named Second Team All-ACC after logging 863 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season. He repeated as a Second Team All-ACC selection again in 2024 while breaking out with 15 rushing touchdowns on the season as one of college football’s best home run hitters.
Tale Of The Tape
The wide zone systems are going to love Tuten. The speed to the edge, the contact balance, the explosive run ability, the pass protection profile — these are core pillars of runners from the Shanahan scheme tree. And Tuten offers them in abundance.
In the run game, Tuten was predominantly a zone runner who excelled in zone schemes. Of his rush attempts, 2/3rd in 2024 came outside the tackles, setting the perfect stage for a wide zone system to pluck him and take his immediately translatable traits and drop it into a scheme that can ask much of the same from him without a lot of projection. Tuten’s vision and patience were apparent on these runs. He set the table effectively with calm feet to press the edge and was quick to make decisions on push or bounce based on line-of-scrimmage leverage with confidence.
Tuten offers a sharp cut back and illustrates good contact balance to break pursuit trying to flow with him at the point. When his pads are square, he’s compact and dense, which poses challenges for arm tackles — especially when he’s pressing outside, and his backfield cadence can get the second-level fitting defenders out of position.
When he’s not yet turned upfield, his lower half mass and core strength allow him to run through lateral challenges as well. Tuten posted more than 75 yards after contact in more than half of his games played in 2024.
The breakaway speed is electric, and there are a number of arrogant runs in the film where he knows he can’t be caught from behind. Tuten ranked among the top five best runners in the country among backs with 150+ carries this season for a percentage of yards that came on breakaway runs (54%). That can be a blessing and a curse, however, as it indicates some of the feast or famine dynamic of his production this year.
Tuten struggles with ball security, which could be a major variable early in his career. He’s fumbled four times in each of the last two seasons, and almost all of them have come on secondary contact. Tuten, in an effort to play off of contact, can be far too loose with the football and has exposed the team to way too many high-risk turnover situations as a result. If this is not cleaned up immediately, he may struggle to gain the needed trust to be a 200+ touch guy in the NFL.
Beyond the running game, Tuten shows likable ability in pass protection. His frame and explosiveness show up when he challenges blitzers and free runners. He delivers heavy-hitting contact that derails momentum and forces defenders to completely restart their rush and redirect their exit angles off of contact.
His aggressiveness can bite him at times and force unbalanced challenges or a failure to sustain the block, but he boasts the right attitude and physicality to be a factor in six-man protections.
As a pass catcher, Tuten’s hand size is sure to be a concern when receiving the football. He’s not been exposed to a lot of downfield opportunities or middle-of-the-field targets — so much so that only one of his 27 targets on the season in 2024 came between the hashes. That target? Six yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Tuten projects favorably into a wide-zone rushing offense. He has the ability to be a primary ball carrier but will need to fortify his ball security issues to ensure he gains the trust for a significant workload, especially with his modest ceiling as a pass catcher.
Grade: 76.00/100.00, Third Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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