The 2026 Duke Blue Devils football team is retooling and revamping after their historic season in 2025. Last year's team achieved the school's first ACC championship in 63 seasons. This year's edition is a pretty decent side, with a fair amount of talent, but they're light on 2027 NFL Draft prospects.
Outside of tight end Jeremiah Hasley (who had a nice game at Illinois with three catches for 53 yards yesterday), there isn't really anybody else on Duke in the '27 draft conversation right now.
However, 2028 is a different story entirey.
Running back Nate Sheppard racked up 101 yards rushing by halftime, on just 12 carries, in Duke's 31-27 win at Illinois. He finished with 24 carries for 147 yards and a score to go along with five catches for 41
yards and two touchdowns.
This followed up his 227 yard, two rushing TD performance in the season opening blowout (yes, with the style of ball that Duke plays, 17-3 qualifies as a "blowout") over Tulane. At 5'10," 205 pounds, he is a load, but he also has an elite speed burst to boot.
His low center of gravity, combining speed and power effectively, evokes the elite rushers of the 1990s like Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith. Sheppard is effective in the pass game too, as evidenced by his two touchdown receptions.
“A very good player, but we made him look better,” Illini coach Bret Bielema said in postgame, citing the early down missed tackles as a culprit for why they got gashed in run defense on Saturday.
Moving on to Bryce Davis, he's a fast-rising edge rusher who originally committed to Clemson. Like most elite high school recruits out of the Carolinas (both North Carolina and South Carolina love to claim that they are the "Carolina"), Clemson is the top choice. However, it wasn't long until Davis switched his commitment to Duke.
In doing so, he became the Blue Devils' highest ranked recruit in about a decade, and you can see that in the way he finds himself consistently in opponents' backfields.
The 6'3" 265 lb. Greensboro native had two sacks in the season opener, and he shows a great penchant for reading and diagnosing plays. You saw that on Saturday in the way that he quickly wrapped up Illini tight end Christian Abney, on a pass reception that served as a safety valve for quarterback Katin Houser.
Both prospects have a lot of talent and raw abilities, but they have their downsides too. Overall, it's too early to give a draft grade for 2028 on Davis and Sheppard. And you never know, they might actually stay until 2029 anyway.
This article originally appeared on Draft Wire: Duke has pair of 2028 prospects in Nate Sheppard, Bryce Davis
