There are a lot of factors that go into whether or not an NFL player turns into a star once he gets to the league…
It is the individual’s talent, of course, their dedication… and let’s not forget the situation they land in. You know, the coach, the scheme – all of that.
But if you look back at their timeline, you’ll realize that there isn’t a huge correlation between their status as a recruit back in high school.
In fact, we’ve seen a number of zero-star recruits turn into bona fide stars! So, without further ado, let’s take a look around the league at 10 stars that were ZERO-STAR recruits heading into college.
Which NFL stars weren’t highly touted prospects in high school?
Lane Johnson, OT, Philadelphia Eagles
Considering Lane Johnson might be the most athletic offensive lineman of his era, it feels insane that high school recruiters never got the memo.
But when you look a little bit closer, it all starts to make sense… Johnson came out of tiny Groveton, Texas—a speck on the map with a population just over 1,000 people—not as a tackle, not even as a tight end, but as a quarterback.
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Yes, really. The now 6-foot-6, 317-pound All-Pro was once a wiry 6’5″, 202-pound QB who could sling it well enough to earn All-State honorable mention in Class 2A.
That didn’t mean much to the college football world. He was a zero-star prospect with no FBS offers, only light interest as a preferred walk-on.
That’s how his path began—off the radar and on his own. Johnson took the JUCO route to Kilgore College, trying to keep the quarterback dream alive. It didn’t stick. His coaches saw a different future, one that I’d bet Lane thanks them for now! They bulked him up, moved him to tight end, and then to offensive tackle. That’s where things changed. Oklahoma took a chance. They brought in a raw, oversized athlete with bend, foot speed, and work ethic. The Sooners turned him into a first-round pick.
Now, he’s the offensive tackle everyone else tries to copy but can’t replicate. He anchors the most physical offensive line in football, has a Super Bowl ring, multiple All-Pro nods, and at one point held the largest contract for an offensive lineman in NFL history.
Not bad for a zero-star recruit!
Cooper Kupp, WR, Seattle Seahawks
Cooper Kupp has the polish of a coach’s kid and the patience of a man who had to wait way too long to be seen. Born in Yakima, Washington—about four hours from Seattle and even further from the recruiting world’s consciousness—Kupp wasn’t just a zero-star prospect. He was invisible. No offers, no buzz, no hype. He was undersized, overlooked, and underestimated.
Kupp’s father, Craig, played quarterback in the NFL, and his grandfather Jake, was an offensive lineman. But lineage didn’t earn him respect. His high school numbers were solid, but nobody saw FBS-level athleticism. He had a reputation for being smart and technically sound, but not fast enough, not big enough. Eastern Washington was the only program that really gave him a chance.
On the red turf of EWU, Kupp turned doubters into believers. He shattered FCS records. He destroyed secondaries with surgical route-running, deceptive speed, and elite football IQ. Every rep, every catch, every route was a middle finger to every recruiting site that never gave him a single star.
Then came the NFL. The Rams took him in the third round in 2017, and he quickly became Jared Goff’s safety blanket, then Sean McVay’s scheme Swiss Army knife. In 2021, Kupp had one of the greatest seasons in NFL history… 145 catches, nearly 2,000 yards, and the triple crown of receiving stats—plus a Super Bowl MVP.
Now in the latter stages of his career with the Seahawks, one thing is clear: He has beaten the system, from a no-star in Yakima to one of the most respected wide receivers of the modern era.
Quincy Williams, LB, New York Jets
The interesting thing about Quincy Williams is that he actually came from a football hotbed in Alabama, so it wasn’t just a lack of eyeballs on him.
And this guy isn’t just a great story—he’s a reminder that raw aggression and elite athleticism can’t always be captured in a high school scouting report.
Coming out of Birmingham, Alabama, Williams didn’t draw a single star from recruiting services. He was light, raw, and playing safety at Murray State wasn’t exactly a pipeline to the league. Not that it mattered to Quincy. He wasn’t wired to care about rankings. He just wanted to hit something.
Jacksonville took him in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft, but it wasn’t until the Jets picked him up off waivers in 2021 that the league saw his full potential.
Now, paired with his All-Pro brother Quinnen, Quincy has emerged as one of the most explosive linebackers in the NFL. In 2023, he earned first-team All-Pro and racked up nearly 140 tackles. He’s fast, violent, and relentless—the kind of defender that makes offenses second-guess every screen and slant. Not bad for a zero-star who took the long way.
DaRon Bland, CB, Dallas Cowboys
Daron Bland was the prototypical late bloomer, an under-recruited corner out of Modesto, California, just trying to earn a shot at the next level… but nothing came easy.
He started at Sacramento State, where he flashed lockdown ability but never got national love. A transfer to Fresno State finally gave him a bigger stage, and Bland showed out—tough in man, smooth in zone, with ridiculous ball skills. Dallas saw the vision and took him in the fifth round.
Fast forward to 2023, and Bland led the entire NFL in interceptions and set the single-season record for pick-sixes. That’s not just good—it’s game-wrecking. He’s a ballhawk in every sense, with a nose for the football and elite instincts.
The most exciting part about Bland is that he is still very young in his career and continues to develop at a rapid pace.
Meaning, for the Cowboys, or whatever team his NFL career takes him to, the ROI on this zero-star recruit will only continue to rise.
Cam Ward, QB, Tennessee Titans
Cam Ward still has a lot of work to do to prove that he can be a star at the NFL level, but when you get selected first overall, the truth is that you’ve already arrived at that level—it is just a matter of being able to keep it.
For Cam Ward, the journey to this moment is nothing short of improbable.
He wasn’t just a zero-star recruit—he was a ghost in the system. Coming out of West Columbia, Texas, Ward had no real attention, no offers from major schools.
He landed at Incarnate Word, an FCS program most casual fans couldn’t find on a map. That’s where it began. Ward rewrote the record books with his arm talent and playmaking ability at Washington State and Florida State.
Now, he will kick off his NFL career where the lights are the brightest. He’s no longer overlooked—and it’s officially time to prove that he has arrived as a legit star in the league.
Granted, he’ll have his work cut out for him down in the Music City where it has been tough sledding in recent years…
But with the right stroke of luck, we might see Ward lighting up Broadway!
Jack Conklin, OT, Cleveland Browns
Coming out of Plainwell, Michigan, Conklin walked on at Michigan State, betting on his ability to outwork everyone.
And you know what? Credit to Conklin because he answered the bell and then some.
Because he didn’t just earn a scholarship as a Spartan, he eventually managed to earn first-round draft pick status.
Conklin became the prototype… a technically sound, gritty, and mean in the run game force to be reckoned with.
He is now a two-time All-Pro who helped pave Derrick Henry’s path to a rushing title in Tennessee, then brought that same edge to Cleveland.
When healthy, he’s one of the most reliable tackles in the game… and there is really no shortage of teams that would be lining up for his services on the open market.
Devon Witherspoon, CB, Seattle Seahawks
Devon Witherspoon didn’t play football until his junior year of high school. That alone explains how every recruiting service whiffed. But what happened after is what makes his story different.
He came from Pensacola, Florida, played at a small high school, and as the result of his nonqualifying test scores that almost derailed his college eligibility, he nearly fell through the cracks entirely…
But Illinois took a flyer and, man, did they get some ROI. More specifically, what they got in return was a corner with attitude, range, and the kind of ferocity that sets the tone for an entire secondary.
And now he is a two-time Pro Bowler in the NFL—and one of the most promising young NFL stars.
Dalton Kincaid, TE, Buffalo Bills
A basketball standout at Faith Lutheran in Las Vegas, Kincaid’s natural hands, leaping ability, and spatial awareness translated instantly to the gridiron when he went out for the team for the first time in his senior year.
He put up 745 yards and eight touchdowns in that one season—impressive, but not enough to break through the recruiting noise. There was no in-line blocking tape. No elite camp circuit… and thus… no stars.
Now, he is turning into one of the better young NFL tight ends in the league, snagging catches from Josh Allen with 117 catches, receiving yards, 1121, and receiving touchdowns 4. The numbers haven’t been massive yet, but the talent is there, and everyone is just waiting for him to pop.
Carson Wentz, QB, Kansas City Chiefs
Alright… let’s call a spade a spade, Carson Wentz is no longer a star, but he is a big enough name in the NFL and had a star-level peak worthy of making the list. Given the advancements he made in his career, it is stunning that he was not ranked coming out of high school in North Dakota.
Wentz wasn’t just overlooked—he was practically invisible, as evidenced by his FCS college career… And this was despite being a three-sport athlete at Century High in Bismarck.
The problem was he was only 5’8” and 125 pounds as a freshman and didn’t grow—eventually hitting 6’5”—until late.
But the late growth spurt didn’t exactly put him on the recruiting map.
By 2016, he was the number 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft, despite being a Bison for his entire career.
In Philly, where he was drafted, Wentz looked like the future—an MVP candidate in 2017 before a torn ACL derailed it. The Eagles won the Super Bowl without him, but unfortunately, he never quite reclaimed that spark.
Adam Thielen, WR
If you dropped a recruiting analyst into Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in 2008, you’d probably find them checking their phone signal or asking for directions to the Twin Cities. What they wouldn’t be doing is scouting Adam Thielen.
Thielen was a multi-sport athlete—football, basketball, baseball, and golf—but none of it registered on a national scale because of the location and his size.
On the gridiron he was an all-state receiver, sure, but there were no FBS offers. Not one.
He eventually walked on at Division II Minnesota State, where, no surprise here, he turned into a steady, consistent contributor and ultimately into one of the school’s most productive pass-catchers ever.
Coming out of school, there wasn’t much NFL interest, and he went undrafted in 2013 and scraped his way onto the Vikings roster via a local tryout.
But once he got a shot, he never looked back. Thielen blossomed into a Pro Bowler and one of the most reliable route runners in the league—never the fastest guy on the field, but almost always open.
The craziest thing about Thielen is he’s one of the older players on the list and in the NFL, frankly, and he is still doing it.
And he isn’t just a mentor or a voice in the locker room. The guy finds a way to contribute week in and week out, like the true professional he has always been.
