What college does Keyshawn James-Newby play for?

No verified pre-draft news items in the past 30 days for this prospect. See Day 2/3 Team Fits below for projected landing spots and /news.html for the cross-prospect timeline.

Scouting Nugget: MWC EDGE

Expanded bio coming soon. This prospect is EDGE Rusher #25 in the 2026 class.

Background

New Mexico EDGE from Antioch (CA); three-year MWC rotational pass rusher.

College Production

2023-25 UNM: 15 career sacks, 30 TFL as starter.

Scouting Take

Quick-twitch MWC producer with plus motor. Level-of-competition + frame (6-2, 240) both flags.

Draft Projection

UDFA. Small-school pass-rush specialist.

Sources

Our scouting profile is assembled from these primary sources + cross-checked against ESPN (Kiper / Reid / Miller), PFF's 2026 Big Board, Dane Brugler's The Beast 2026, and Daniel Jeremiah's top-50. See our full methodology and citations.

Day 2 / Day 3 Team Fits

NFL teams that lost a same-position veteran this offseason — and could target Keyshawn James-Newby as a Day 2/3 replacement option.

VERIFIED Kansas City Chiefs: moved on from Michael Danna (speed-rusher) on 2026-02-23. [verified]
Picks held: R1 #9; R1 #29 via Los Angeles Rams; R2 #40
REPORTED Miami Dolphins: moved on from Bradley Chubb (speed-rusher).
Picks held: R1 #11; R1 #30 via Denver; R2 #43
REPORTED Green Bay Packers: moved on from Rashan Gary (power-rusher).
Picks held: R2 #52

Confidence: "VERIFIED" departures cite a publication URL (Spotrac, OverTheCap, ESPN, NFL.com, team transactions page) confirming the move and date. "REPORTED" entries come from public free-agency trackers without a single canonical source we could attach. Fits are archetype-and-position based; we are not claiming the team has expressed interest in the prospect.

NFL Scheme Fit

3-4 OLB / sub-package speed rusher
Pittsburgh Steelers · Dallas Cowboys · Los Angeles Chargers · Houston Texans

Scheme Misfit Notes

4-3 base-DE schemes that demand setting the edge vs combo blocks

Scheme matches are bucketed from the prospect's height, weight, and (for WRs) archetype tag against a static lookup of which NFL teams currently run each scheme family.

Rookie Contract & Landing-Spot Outlook

Projected Rookie Contract Value

~$0.84M base + bonus (1-yr) · Pick range: UDFA · ~0% guaranteed

UDFA 1-yr deal: $840K base + ~$10K-$25K signing bonus

Contract band uses the 2026 NFL CBA rookie wage scale projected from the prospect's expected pick range; guarantee % is the slot-default at that pick. Landing-spot best/worst case is derived from TEAMS data (positional needs + scheme overlap minus same-position R1 conflicts) — not a claim that either team has expressed interest.

Versatility, Limits & Roster Pathway

Position Versatility & Alternative Roles

Stand-up OLB / 3-4 only — Sub-245 frame caps base-down 4-3 DE snaps; fits as a 3-4 OLB / sub-package speed rusher.

Biggest Limiting Trait HIGH

Sub-240 EDGE frame — Below NFL EDGE median; setting the edge vs NFL TE+OT combo blocks is the bottleneck for base-down snaps.

Day-3 NFL Roster Pathway

Day 3 DL projection means rotational sub-package work and special-teams snaps are the realistic Year 1 role; pass-rush production carries the most weight.

Derived from height/weight against the 2026 position cohort and the prospect's projected round. Versatility callouts identify alternate alignments NFL teams have historically used for similar size profiles. Limiting-trait notes flag the single most-cited measurable concern; severity reflects how often that flag ends a Day 1 starter projection. Roster-pathway notes describe the realistic Year 1 NFL role for Day 3 picks.

By the Numbers — 2026 Class Context

Frame: Among 2026 EDGE prospects, his 6-2 / 240 lbs frame sits at the 11th percentile in height and 4th percentile in weight.
Position class: Keyshawn James-Newby is EDGE #25 of 27 ranked EDGEs in the 2026 class. Of those, 8 are projected in the R7/UDFA range.

Computed factually from the 2026 prospect class roster — height/weight percentiles benchmark this player against every other ranked prospect at the same position. Recruiting arc compares his high-school 247Sports/Rivals composite to his current projected round.