Every NFL team is searching for that mid-round diamond in the rough - could it be Oregon's Malik Benson?
Every NFL franchise is yearning to find the mid-round diamond in the rough draft pick. Who can they select in rounds three-to-five that will change their roster and do it at an affordable cost?
Unfortunately for all of those prospects, former fifth-round pick Puka Nacua set an unrealistic standard for what these players could be at the NFL level.
However, if a team is looking for the Nacua type, could Oregon's Malik Benson be that guy?
Benson and Nacua share a similar stature. Nacua stands at 6-foot-2, 212 lbs., while Benson checks in at 6-foot-1, 195 lbs. Benson still has some filling out to do, but from a body type standpoint, they are very similar.
From a statistical standpoint, the two players put together similar final seasons in college. Benson registered 43 catches for 719 yards and six touchdowns, while Nacua's final year was 48 catches for 625 yards and five touchdowns.
© Nathan Ray Seebeck | 2026 Jan 1 The similarities are certainly there, and they even go to their pre-draft profiles. NFL Network's Lance Zierlein submitted the pre-draft reports for both of these players and had them graded very similarly. Benson received a pre-draft grade of 6.1 out of 10, while Nacua's was just a 5.8 with a 6th or 7th round prediction.
So, what does all of this mean?
To me, it means that whoever submits the card with kname on it, they will be getting a guy with a high ceiling and potentially a low floor. That said, he isn't much of a risk if he can be selected in the fourth or fifth rounds.
The good part for Benson is that this draft is fairly deep at the wide receiver position. All teams this year are going to be in the wide receiver market because there are just so many good ones. The hope for a player like Benson is that he lands on a team that has a great quarterback.
It would be very hard for him to find early success if he lands at a team like Cleveland or Las Vegas, and the flip side is that if he lands with a quarterback such as Joe Burrow or maybe even Josh Allen, he could find some great success right from the jump.
Saturday is testing day for the wide receivers, and Benson will have to be on his A-Game to continue to improve his draft stock. If he tests well, he will climb the draft boards and become a guy who is identified as a late-round addition that they will take a flier on.
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