Meet Dylan Laube, a small-school RB prospect drawing comparisons to the greats of today's NFL

Photo by Rick Wilson Photography

“It’s unreal.”

That’s what running back Dylan Laube, an NFL draft prospect from the University of New Hampshire, said after seeing his name continuously appear in the same sentences as San Francisco 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey and Washington Commanders’ Austin Ekeler.

Those comparisons aren’t far-fetched. In fact, they’re fitting in a sense. Laube, known for his versatility as a receiver in the passing game, models his game on the two aforementioned players. He’s so effective in the passing game that solely deeming him a running back understates his abilities on the field. That receiving aspect is one of the reasons McCaffrey and Ekeler have had so much success in the NFL.

Last season, in New Hampshire’s second game of the year against Central Michigan, the lone FBS team it faced, Laube caught 80-yard and 71-yard touchdowns en route to 12 catches for 295 yards. On the ground, he rushed 7 times for 30 yards and added another touchdown. He was unstoppable, an enigma Central Michigan’s defense had no answer for.

He ended last season, his senior season, with 158 carries for 715 rushing yards and nine touchdowns while adding 68 catches for 699 receiving yards and seven touchdowns through the air.

That versatility has been getting Laube a significant amount of NFL draft buzz.

---

As a kid growing up in Westhampton, N.Y., Laube’s dream was always to play football at the highest level. He was a high school football standout at Westhampton Beach High School but was under-recruited; he was offered one scholarship to play football: UNH. The team’s contingent offered him once they saw him at their junior day camp. One of the reasons behind that scholarship offer was that his playstyle and skillset resembled the team’s RB from 2012-2016, Dalton Crossan.

In his career at New Hampshire, Crossan rushed for 2,617 yards and 27 touchdowns and caught 105 passes for 775 yards and eight TDs. After going undrafted in the 2017 NFL Draft, Crossan signed with the Indianapolis Colts and later had a brief stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“He (Crossan) was the same type of player as me, a versatile guy,” Laube said. “When they (UNH) saw me, they offered me that night. I committed a week after they offered me…It was just like meant to be.”

The NFL was within reach for Laube after flourishing in his junior season. He rushed for 1,205 yards and 15 touchdowns on 245 carries and caught 49 passes for 464 yards with two more TDs. Agents were calling him non-stop, telling him that if he declared for the NFL draft then he’d be a priority free agent. That’s when he realized he could make it to the NFL, and he knew that his draft stock was only going to go up after his senior season.

However, there were some doubts about whether or not that would be with the Wildcats; Laube contemplated entering the transfer portal. But, after some conversations with head coach Rick Santos, along with others, he chose to return to Durham, N.H. Their pitch? Santos was going to build the offense around Laube’s versatility.

Laube was learning to be ubiquitous on the field in the spring leading up to his senior season. Santos and the offensive staff wanted to showcase his receiving skills in this somewhat new-look offense. He was essentially a chess piece in the Wildcats’ offense.

“All spring, he basically just played slot receiver,” Santos said. “About 90% of the time he was out wide. We were teaching him the entire route tree in our offense: how to run it, certain leverages and stems, ID’ing certain coverage stuff that he hadn’t done as much.”

Fast forward to November. Right before New Hampshire’s final game of the season against Maine, Laube got word of a prestigious invitation. This opportunity would generate even more draft buzz than he had already been getting: He was invited to the 2024 Reese’s Senior Bowl.

“It was such a huge honor,” Laube said. “That’s the one where, if you’re in college football, that’s the one you want to truly go to. It’s the highest stage, the best players in the country. If you want to show you truly belong, that’s the one you want to go.”

The invitation wasn’t the typical package with the black New Era hat sporting the game’s historic logo, easily recognizable by any NFL draft fan. (Don’t worry, he received it later.) He first found out from a phone call from his agent. Laube didn’t care, though. Anytime he gets an opportunity to compete, or even be associated with football, effervescence emerges.

To put it simply, Laube is a football guy. It’s his life. If he’s watching something, it’s football-related. If he’s doing a physical activity, it’s football-related. If he’s talking about something…There’s a good chance it’s football-related.

“I’m just a football guy,” Laube said. “I will bleed for this game.”

Laube is full of ambition. He works hard on his craft, spending countless hours behind the scenes so he can stand out on game day. Nobody wants to succeed more than him.

“I can count on one hand the amount of guys that have that competitive drive, stamina and work ethic,” said Santos, who’s coached at the collegiate level since 2016, spending three seasons as the quarterbacks coach at Columbia University before joining UNH as an associate coach, taking over as head coach in December of 2021. “Whether it was offseason lifting, offseason conditioning, where most of the guys are dreading it at 6:00 a.m., he was the one that would get up and be enthusiastic about it.”

“He truly enjoyed the process…He loved the weight room,” he added.

Laube’s assiduous approach to training and being a student of the game led to him being a two-time FCS All-American selection (2022-2023), CAA Special Teams Player of the Year (2023), Walter Payton Award Finalist (2023) and a two-time First-Team CAA Selection (2022-23).

There’s no doubt that Laube belongs in the NFL. Throughout the process, Santos has reassured him that. But it’s a sizable leap from the FCS to the NFL, and he’s already facing adversity.

“Coming from a small school, and [being] a white RB…I think that itself is such a huge obstacle,” Laube said.

Since 2013, 9 running backs/fullbacks coming out of FCS schools have been drafted to the NFL — only one was white (Kyle Juszczyk, Harvard). Laube is set to be next.

Following the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., where he briefly met with just about every single NFL team, Laube began training for the NFL combine. The combine is another part of the draft process that allows prospects to separate themselves with their athletic testing. He did just that.

Here are Laube’s testing results from the 2024 NFL Combine and how he stacks up against the rest of the RBs:

40-Yard Dash: 4.54 seconds (13th)

20-Yard Shuttle: 4.02 seconds (1st)

10-Yard Split: 1.52 seconds (T-2nd)

3-Cone: 6.84 seconds (3rd)

Vertical Jump: 37’’ (7th)

Broad Jump: 9’10’’ (13th)

Bench Press (225 pounds): 23 reps (5th)

“I think I did the best I could, and I truly showed everyone that I’m that shifty, versatile guy,” Laube said. “I killed it.”

So far, Laube has had one 30 visit with the New Orleans Saints and has another one scheduled with the Chicago Bears. Right now, he appears to be an early Day-3 pick — a consensus projection. Though, the NFL draft is crazy. Many times, prospects are selected higher than thought, and, conversely, prospects fall lower than their projection.

Nonetheless, there is a high probability — and I mean high — that Laube will hear his name called in Detroit, Mich. If that happens, he will be just the 18th New Hampshire Wildcat drafted into the NFL. The last was Jared Smith, drafted in the 7th round (No. 241) of the 2013 NFL Draft.

Getting drafted would be the culmination of Laube’s dreams. He’s faced challenges. He’s heard the critics. But the chip on his shoulder has only grown larger because of that adversity.

“From everyone saying I’m too slow, I’m not fast enough and I’m too small…I’m proving to everyone I truly belong in this game.”