Jabari Small

Jabari Small — RB, DET — 2026

Verdict

AVOID (high confidence) at mock-undrafted. Small is a 2024 UDFA with zero NFL regular-season touches across two seasons (TEN practice squad 2024; DET injury-settlement cut Aug 2025 → practice squad from late Nov 2025), on a 2026 futures deal, sitting fifth or sixth in a six-man RB room behind Gibbs, Pacheco, and the Saylors/Vaki RB3 battle (SI Lions roster-bubble, 2026-07-02). The market prices him at zero and the market is right — the only way to get this wrong is to mistake Sleeper's depth-chart-order-4 label for handcuff proximity: the real succession behind Gibbs runs Pacheco → Saylors/Vaki, so Small has no contingent path even through multiple injuries. Per rb.md §7 this is the roster-clog quadrant (low standalone × low contingent): AVOID at any meaningful pick — the verdict exists to block a name-recognition waiver add, not because a draft pick is at risk. Every pedigree gate (capital, college receiving, breakout profile, athletic testing) fails; there is no screen hit here.

Projection & comps

Bottom-up per skill §4: projected carry share ≈ 0% (not on the 53), projected route participation ≈ 0% → touches ≈ 0. The ceiling is the only non-zero branch and it requires depth-chart carnage he doesn't control. Games-played risk: high — the base case is zero games; he also missed nearly all of 2025 to an early-camp injury (SI, 2026-07-02).

Comps (role/profile, not stat-matched): the perennial UDFA practice-squad back on a deep contender backfield — e.g., Jacob Saylors' own 2024 (DET PS, no fantasy line), Patrick Taylor Jr.'s Green Bay fringe years, Jashaun Corbin (NYG 2022–23). All ~0 PPR seasons; exact comp point totals not pulled (immaterial at a zero projection).

Usage profile — rb.md §2 opportunity table

No NFL snaps exist: GSIS 00-0039652 has zero rows in data/stats/2024/weekly.csv and data/stats/2025/weekly.csv (nflverse, pulled 2026-07-07). Every cell below is 0 / no sample, which is itself the finding.

Receiving profile (§3), game-script (§4), efficiency (§5): no NFL data — all N/A. Career NFL touches: 0 (nflverse weekly 2024–25; PFR page SmalJa00 confirms no game log).

Pedigree (prospect-pedigree.md, weighted up because the NFL sample is nil — and it all fails):

• Draft capital: UDFA, signed by Tennessee Titans 2024-05-10 (Wikipedia, checked 2026-07-08). Per pedigree §1: UDFA screens require *demonstrated NFL usage first* — he has none.
• College production: Tennessee 2020–23 — 419 car, 2,122 yds, 24 TD; best season 792 yds (2021); demoted in 2023 (95/475/2) behind Jaylen Wright, who was the one drafted (R4, MIA). 32 career receptions — below the ≥40 threshold that predicts an NFL three-down role (rb.md §11). (Sports-Reference/Wikipedia via web search, 2026-07-08.)
• Breakout age / dominator: never a dominant college season; committee back who lost the lead role as a senior. Fail.
• Athletic testing: RAS 5.24/10 — size grade "poor" (198 lb pro day), 4.59 forty (low speed score), good-not-great explosion (ras.football PlayerID 25155, fetched 2026-07-08). Fail for a UDFA who needs traits to overcome capital.
• Age 25, NFL year 3, zero touches — not a mileage risk, just a runway-expired UDFA: pedigree §1 decay rule says by year 3 believe the usage record, and the usage record is empty.

Context (cites data/team-profiles/DET.md, built 2026-07-07)

• Backfield: Gibbs is the workhorse lead (55% carry share, 94 targets, 13 rush TD in 2025 — nflverse via team profile); Pacheco signed as the early-down complement (1-yr, $1.81M gtd — backup money, but a real 53-man claim); Saylors vs Vaki compete for RB3, with Saylors' return-game production (33 KR, 897 yds) the edge (SI, 2026-07-02). Small and Robichaux are explicitly framed as practice-squad candidates who do not threaten the 53 (SI, 2026-07-02).
• Handcuff test (rb.md §7) requires fragile starter + good offense + *clean succession*. DET is a good offense (10.5 win total — DK/BetMGM, early July 2026) but succession is the opposite of clean for Small: a Gibbs injury feeds Pacheco, then Saylors/Vaki. Small needs three players displaced before touching a live role. Contingent value ≈ 0.
• Scheme (Petzing, new OC): run-lean, heavy-personnel, zone-lean with duo mix — irrelevant to Small's outlook; scheme fit doesn't matter for a player with no snaps to fit into.
• Discrepancy note: Sleeper (2026-07-07) lists Small depth_chart_order 4 ahead of nothing meaningful — beat reporting (SI, 2026-07-02) outranks the feed label per rb.md §7 ("never from depth-chart labels").

Tripwires (re-run eval if any fire)

• Small makes DET's initial 53-man roster (beats Saylors or Vaki outright) — cut-down day ~2026-08-29.
• Two or more of Gibbs/Pacheco/Saylors/Vaki injured or departed during camp/preseason, elevating Small to top-3 in the room.
• Beat reports of first-team camp reps or meaningful preseason usage with starters (not fourth-quarter mop-up).
• DET releases him and he signs to a materially thinner RB room (team change voids this eval).