Draft Analyst Says Iowa's Jay Higgins Is Hard To Bet Against, And He's Right

Jay Higgins has been one heck of a linebacker for the Iowa Hawkeyes over the past two seasons. He came into Iowa City as a 3-star recruit out of Indianapolis, Indiana, and he leaves an All-American.

That's a great story, but that's a typical transformation at Kirk Ferentz's Iowa program, which has been taking lesser-known recruits for years and turning them into stars.

Higgins was undoubtedly a star for Iowa, but now he's looking to translate his talents to the NFL level. There, he's a little bit harder to project as a prospect. Much like he was as a recruit, he's coming in a bit under the radar.

"The Draft Network" considers him a day three prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft. "Bleacher Report" likes him as a third rounder. NFL Draft analyst Kyle Crabbs over at "The 33rd Team" thinks he's a fifth rounder.

Let's call Higgins a third-to-fifth rounder for the sake of this exercise, but hidden deep in Crabb's scouting report of the Iowa linebacker is a line that will resonate with anyone who knows anything about Iowa draft prospects.

"This is the kind of underdog that’s hard to bet against," Crabbs writes. "It is easy to love the leadership, toughness, and motor that Higgins plays with. These central pillars of his game make it hard to dismiss his potential as a viable answer for an NFL team on the second level of the defense, but he doesn’t fit the traditional profile for a starting linebacker."

Higgins is a draft underdog, without a doubt, but that's the type of Iowa prospect who always seems to thrive in the NFL, isn't it? Sure, the Hawkeyes have also put a ton of high-level prospects into the NFL, but some of their very best players have been underrated.

Case in point? Tight end George Kittle was a fifth-rounder in 2017. If you want to look at linebackers, Christian Kirksey was a third-rounder in 2014, Josey Jewell was a fourth-rounder in 2018 and Ben Niemann was undrafted in 2018. All three have had respectable NFL careers.

If you're a team looking for a solid NFL player, drafting out of Iowa tends to work out more than it doesn't. Now consider the case of Higgins, specifically. You don't go from a 3-star recruit to an All-American captain of the defense at Iowa if you're not a "gamer", and Higgins absolutely knows how to play linebacker the right way.

Higgins notched 295 tackles (132 solo), three sacks, three forced fumbles, five interceptions and eight passes defended over the past two seasons for Iowa.

How could you bet against that type of player? If you do, it will be at your own risk.