Running back? Receiver? Eli Heidenreich is Navy’s most unique prospect yet
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
There is no position lonelier than a wide receiver in a service academy offense.
There are many years in the not too distant past where the leading receiver at Army, Navy, or Air Force fails to attain the 250-yard threshold in an entire season.
And then there’s Eli Heidenreich, a born and raised Pittsburgher who spent nine years of his childhood as a competitive ski racer, perfecting slalom and giant slalom on the slopes of Seven Springs. When he wasn’t riding the slopes, he was honing his craft as a receiver for Mt. Lebanon High School.
Yet for someone who logged over 1,300 receiving yards in his senior season, Heidenreich committed to a program renowned for its lack of passing the ball, instead inspired to follow in the footsteps his grandfather and uncle who served in the Navy. And when he entered the premises of Annapolis, MD, he completely redefined what it meant to be a receiver at the Naval Academy.
250 receiving yards is a highly-productive season for any service academy receiver. 243 yards was once a single game’s worth of receiving production for Heidenreich — a total he attained last October vs. Air Force, complemented with eight receptions and three touchdowns. On that Saturday alone, he set the Navy single-game receiving yards record, tied the single-game receiving touchdowns record, and set the program’s career receiving touchdowns record.
Despite holding virtually every program receiving record, Heidenreich isn’t 100 percent defined as a receiver in Navy’s hybrid wing T option offense. He rushed for 1,157 yards on a 6.8 average in his three years with the Midshipmen, frequently breaking loose on sweeps toward the boundary. He isn’t quite a running back either. Navy’s depth chart defined him as a “slotback,” however, that position doesn’t necessarily exist in the NFL offenses.
Still, Heidenreich believes playing in Navy’s offensive scheme laid the perfect foundation to prepare for the waters of the NFL.
“You’re not seeing much midline triple option in the NFL these days, but the biggest thing this offense has helped me with is it allowed me to be the creative football player I am and play a bunch of different roles,” Heidenreich said. “That’s helped market me as a player and show off my skillsets at both running back and receiver. Another thing about our offense is our opposition can be very physical, especially in the block game. You’re expected to do a lot whether it’s iso a middle backer or whatever it may be. That physicality piece is something I developed here in this offense and something that will help me in the NFL.”
The Navy offense Heidenreich committed to in 2022 wasn’t exactly the same system the Midshipmen ran when he was mass-editing the program’s record books. In 2024, Navy brought in former Lenoir-Rhyne (Division II) and Mercer (FCS) head coach Drew Cronic as offensive coordinator to add wrinkles and innovations to the Midshipmen’s classic under center option scheme — a scheme which had been slightly disadvantaged by the NCAA’s changes to cut blocking rules. Incorporating a spread wing T offense at his previous stops, Cronic blended his bread and butter with Navy’s midline triple option concepts that had been prevalent under longtime quarterbacks coach Ivin Jasper since 2002.
The result? Navy’s offense transformed into a unit that lined up in shotgun north of 50 percent of the time and passed on 23.1 percent of plays during Cronic’s first two seasons at the helm (2024 and 2025). These alterations to the triple option offense paved the way for a playmaker like Heidenreich to flourish.
“The biggest thing was the way he incorporated the pass game into the offense,” Heidenreich said. “We probably passed three or four times per game in the old Navy offense, but you come to a Navy game now, we’re passing three or four times per drive. It’s a real different offense. That extra dimension of the pass game allowed me to get involved in that area and start catching passes and show off my skillset that was getting overshadowed in the old Navy offense.”
Cronic understood the talent he was working with in Heidenreich before even stepping foot in Annapolis. Glued to a nationally televised Thursday night showcase between Navy and Memphis in 2023, the then-Mercer head coach quickly identified No. 22 in the white jersey, impressed with his arsenal of abilities in an unorthodox offense.
“You could see Eli was perfect, like he was the prototype for our ‘Z snipe’ position, which is that hybrid receiver/running back,” Cronic said. “He fit that because he’s a fantastic route runner and playmaker. He can run the football between the tackles and all over the perimeter. You just want to find different ways to get him the ball. Then he’s a fantastic blocker. It was obvious from day one he was gonna fit the vision for that position.”
Cronic speculated about Heidenreich’s NFL potential while coaching his first fall camp at Navy. But all it took was one game in the renovated offense for that speculation to evolve into a confirmation. In the 2024 opener against FCS program Bucknell, Heidenreich ran the ball twice and caught four passes for 74 yards and two touchdowns. The production only blossomed from there as he recorded a 444-yard rushing, 671-receiving, 9-touchdown season, highlighted by a 100-yard rushing / 100-yard receiving game against Air Force — the first in Navy history.
“We didn’t tackle him live a ton in practice, so you don’t always know what someone’s gonna do in a game until you see him in person do it,” Cronic recalled. “He had several plays that (Bucknell) game where you went, ‘This guy’s a really good football player. This is a guy we need to get the ball to.’”
Heidenreich’s NFL realization occurred nearly a year later in 2025 summer camp. Carrying out day-to-day military responsibilities was always a priority for the Pittsburgh native, but he realized a professional future was in the works when several agents reached out to him that summer, relaying him information that several NFL teams assigned him a draftable grade.
Even with a level of assurance, the best was still yet to come for Heidenreich. In 2025, he shattered the Navy single-season record with 941 receiving yards, serving as a focal point of a team that finished 11-2 and ranked No. 23 in the final AP Poll. But at Navy, one achievement matters above the rest and that involves beating Army on the second Saturday of December. And on 4th and goal from the 8-yard line in the waning minutes of the contest, Heidenreich cemented himself in the historic game’s lore, securing the game-winning touchdown pass to upend the Midshipmen’s arch rival.
“If you watch the third down play, I ran a corner route,” Heidenreich said. “They were playing a cover zero but had a spy on our quarterback. The other backer was on Alex (Tecza) our fullback. But the safety was playing super heavy outside leverage on me. He had no help in the middle. I saw that look on third down and they gave the same exact look to me the very next play. This time, I had a five-step slant instead of a corner route. I knew I just had to run a good clean route, stick my foot in the ground and get inside. We had a long drive. I was breathing super heavy. We had one play and I had a feeling the game would come down to this. Blake (Horvath) gave me a good ball and I made that catch. It’s something we’ll remember here at Navy for a very long time.”
After riding off into the sunset with a second-straight win over Army and a second-straight bowl victory, Heidenreich was one of 319 draft hopefuls to earn an invite to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. However, his presence at the Combine elicited a series of questions for NFL teams to ponder.
Is he a running back? Is he a wide receiver? At the Combine, the letters “RB” were printed on his gear, officially designated as a running back during workouts. He tested well comparatively to the other running backs, posting a 4.44-second 40-yard dash and showing off explosiveness to the tune of a 35.5-inch vertical and a 10-foot broad jump. But when Heidenreich is questioned about his role in the NFL, he doesn’t assign any labels.
Other than simply, “football player.”
“I’m just a football player on offense,” Heidenreich said. “If you turn on my film, even as far back as high school, you’ll see that I’ve been playing both running back and receiver that entire time. That’s the biggest thing. Teams see that. Some of them view me as more as a receiver, some of them view me more as a running back, and some kind of see me as both. It really depends on the team. So I’m trying to sell myself that I’m just a football player, not a single position guy.”
As far as an NFL comparison, Heidenreich models his game after Christian McCaffrey. Any comparison to a 3-time First Team All-Pro and Offensive Player of the Year is certainly ambitious, but the two produced nearly identical Combine numbers. The differences are marginal at best — one inch in height, four pounds in weight, 0.04 seconds in the 40-yard dash, two inches in the vertical jump, and one inch in the broad jump. And stylistically, both double as capable rushers and receivers, each completing the rare feat of a 100-yard rushing / 100-yard receiving outing at the college level.
“It’s a big jump, but I’ve always looked up to Christian McCaffrey,” Heidenreich said. “He’s an incredible player. If you compare me and him, you put our Combine numbers side by side, I think we look very similar. Similar build, height, weight — it’s kind of funny. As a running back, I’d be able to do a lot of things he does in the receiving game.”
Plenty of time has passed since Navy sent a skill position player to the league. 2010s Midshipmen quarterbacks Keenan Reynolds and Malcolm Perry converted to running back and receiver and saw brief action as professionals, but the last non-QB from Navy to record a rushing yard or reception in the NFL was fullback Kyle Eckel in 2009.
Option-style offenses aren’t utilized at the professional level, so Cronic understands Heidenreich must adapt his game. Still, the offensive coordinator believes those Swiss army knife tendencies will pay dividends in securing a spot on an NFL roster.
“We asked him to do a lot of different things, so I think he’s comfortable lining up in different places and trying different things,” Cronic said. “He’s probably got the least amount of experience doing something like an I-form tailback. But he’s so instinctive it won’t take him long. His comfort level is gonna be more running routes, catching the ball, and being on the perimeter.”
Another important factor to consider is the service academy element. Heidenreich graduates this May and will commission into the Marine Corps reserves, initiating a 10-year service contract. However, the contract allows him to specialize in football for the time being. Cronic believes a football-oriented focus could unlock an even more lethal version of Heidenreich, who juggled a hectic service academy schedule with his on-the-field work the past four years.
“Here’s one thing people don’t understand,” Cronic said. “These Naval Academy kids are gonna thrive when all they have to worry about is football. When they go to school here, they got tough academics, they got the service element and they’re on their feet all day, it’s harder to recover, and there are certain challenges that come with being a Navy Midshipmen and playing football. When all he’s gotta worry about is learning the playbook, taking care of his body, eating the right way, recovery — when it’s just football 24/7 — you’re gonna see him excel even more.”
Prior to that graduation, Heidenreich will learn of his NFL fate. And what better city for his football future to materialize than Pittsburgh, the home of the 2026 draft. And to Heidenreich, it’s the place where he first threw on the pads before redefining what it means to be a receiver at Navy.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos