Over the last few months, we’ve been breaking down all undrafted free agents signed by the Jets. We continue today with former Toledo running back Chip Trayanum.
The 24-year old Trayanum is listed at 5’10” and 224 pounds and spent time at Arizona State, Ohio State and Kentucky before breaking out with a thousand-yard season at Toledo last year, which earned him first team all-MAC recognition.
Background
Trayanam was a four-star high school recruit who began his collegiate career at Arizona State. He
was productive as a true freshman as he racked up 290 yards and four touchdowns in four games, but then opted to redshirt because of the pandemic-shortened schedule.
In the following season, he started three games but ultimately saw his playing time fall off after a couple of fumbles. He ended up with 402 yards and six touchdowns in nine games.
At the end of that season, Trayanum opted to transfer to Ohio State, who initially converted him to linebacker. He had 13 tackles in that role, but then converted back to running back late in the season. He ultimately rushed for 92 yards, with the bulk of that coming in a game against Michigan where he rushed for 83 on 14 carries.
In 2023, he was back at running back full-time and spent the year in a rotational role that saw him start three games. He had 373 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Having entered the season with just six receptions, he also added nine catches.
2024 saw Trayanum head to Kentucky where he was hoping to get an opportunity to start, but injuries limited him to just three appearances in which he rushed for 101 yards.
However, in 2025, having made the decision to transfer yet again, he finally got his chance and rushed for 1,015 yards and 12 touchdowns for Toledo. He also caught 21 passes for 212 yards and two scores.
Despite being invited to the East West Shrine Bowl and performing well at his pro day, Trayanum was not selected in April’s draft.
Trayanum was one of the first round of undrafted free agents signed by the Jets and his contract reportedly includes $195K of guaranteed money. That’s a change from previous reports that suggested he didn’t have any guarantees.
Let’s move onto some more in-depth analysis of what Trayanum brings to the table, based on in-depth research and film study.
Measurables/Athleticism
Trayanum has solid size, and put together a solid set of workout numbers, highlighted by a 37-inch vertical and 27 bench press reps. He also ran 4.52 in the 40-yard dash and posted solid agility numbers.
Usage
As a running back, Trayanum has primarily been in a conventional role. He hasn’t really produced out of the slot or when lined up wide.
As noted, he played a year of linebacker in college. He also played linebacker at high school, as well as safety and cornerback, and in youth football he played fullback and nose guard.
Running ability
Trayanam was productive even when in a reserve role, averaging over five yards per carry in his first five seasons as a rotational player and then averaging 5.6 as a starter last year.
He’s more of a power back than a speed back, as he didn’t have a play of over 40 yards until he got to Toledo. However, he flashed some breakaway speed last year with a 57-yard catch and runs of 42, 63 and 75 yards. Over half of his 10-yard runs for his career came last season and he is decisive when he sees a lane.
Trayanum runs with a physical downhill style and can drag tacklers, fall forward at the end of a run or straight-up truck a tackler in space.
When moving laterally, he displays good footwork, keeping his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage.
His numbers are not all that impressive in terms of breaking tackles, but he has the strength to break through an arm tackle or run through people and can make some good decisive cuts at times.
As noted, he had issues with fumbles in his first full season at Toledo, which saw him benched. He seemed to have resolved them over the next few years with none in 2022, 2023 or 2024 but then he did have two more last season.
Trayanum has shown that he can carry the load, although he hasn’t had many chances to do so. He rushed for 100 yards five times in his career, carrying 20 times on four occasions. 27 was his highest number of carries during a game in his college career.
Short yardage
With 25 career rushing touchdowns, including 12 last season, Trayanum has proven that he has a nose for the end zone. He also had two two-point conversions in his career.
As a sense of their trust in him, Ohio State went to him late in a big game against Notre Dame and he scored the walk-off game-winning touchdown.
Pass catching
Pass catching is one area where Trayanum hasn’t really shown much yet, although his production in the passing game did improve over the course of his career. Basically all of his production came on short passes, though, including a dump-off that he broke for a big play last season to pad his averages.
The only route running he displayed came basically on seam or V routes out of the backfield and he hasn’t exactly impressed on these so far.
He had a 71 percent catch rate for his career, which is reasonable but nothing special when they are all short passes. He also dropped four.
Blocking
Trayanum got plenty of experience in pass protection during his career and his coaches praised his willingness to do the dirty work. However, he did give up three sacks.
Special Teams
Trayanum got plenty of special teams experience in a variety of roles in college. He was on the kickoff return team, primarily as a blocker, but did field four returns, albeit that his longest runback was just 17 yards.
In addition, he was on the offensive line for punt protection, rushed punts, spent time on the field goal defense and covered kicks and punts. The only unit he didn’t see time on was the placekicking unit.
Trayanum had nine special teams tackles during his career, most of which were in the year when he was playing linebacker, an experience which will obviously make him a more experienced tackler than most running backs. He also had two special teams penalties.
Instincts
Trayanum’s experience as a linebacker lends itself to him having a good understand of defensive fronts and leverage and he has noted that he can sometimes tell when a defense is going to stunt.
Once he gets the ball, he displays good patience and vision, both when hitting the right hole and also in the open field.
In pass protection, there was one play at Ohio State where he didn’t recognize the blitz off the edge, leading to a sack, so that may be an area where his awareness is lacking. However, he showed a good knack for finding an open area on this third down conversion.
He graduated college in 2023 and added a business certificate in 2024.
Attitude
Trayanum has shown plenty of mental toughness and determination to make it to the NFL after bouncing around during his college career and facing several setbacks and direction changes. He said the injuries that ruined his 2024 season at Kentucky were particularly draining.
At Toledo he was a leader and was named as a permanent team captain for the 2025 season.
His on-field discipline is solid with just two offensive penalties in his career, although one of these was a holding penalty that negated a touchdown.
Injuries
As noted, Trayanum’s 2024 season was wrecked by injuries. He broke his hand in preseason, then rushed to get back into the line-up only to last just three games before aggravating it and requiring a second surgery.
In 2023, he was knocked out of one game due to an injury and he missed most of his senior year at high school with undisclosed injuries.
Scheme Fit
Nearly every young back the Jets have brought in during recent seasons has had a diverse skill-set with good abilities in the passing game, but that’s not really the case with Trayanum. However, he could work on developing that aspect of his game while being someone who can potentially produce if you give him a few carries here and there to keep the starters fresh.
He was a teammate of current Jets wide receiver Gee Scott while with the Buckeyes.
Conclusions
Trayanum was a late-developing running back with a history at the linebacker position, which led to him drawing some comparisons to Tyler Allgeier in the scouting community. Maybe that’s the kind of player the Jets believe they could try to mold Trayanum into.
The pair are basically the same size and Trayanum’s workout numbers are slightly better. The main difference is that Allgeier – who was a fifth round pick – had two thousand-yard seasons while Trayanum just had one, but Allgeier didn’t have the same kind of earlier history or success as a rotational back.
That’s definitely a best case scenario for Trayanum but, given his guarantees, you can expect the Jets to keep him around all season, if only on the practice squad. We can then perhaps start to see if they have anything with him from next year, but he’ll get a good chance to start making an impression on the fanbase in preseason.
