Class Autopsy

Purdue 2023 — what happened to every signee.

Purdue’s 2023 class brought in 18 signees. 1 reached the NFL, 1 of them from a different school.

18
signees, National Signing Day 2023
1
reached the NFL, 1 from elsewhere.

The journey stack

One row per signee, ranked by signing-day national rank. Each chit is a stop; the line between them is a transfer. Open a row for the season-by-season record.

Drake Carlson
No.718 national · DL
purduePUR
StayedNever transferred
Purdue — 2023: unscored, 2024: 0.0, 2025: unscored
Will Heldt
No.718 national · EDGE
purduePURclemsonCLEM
1 transferClemson
Purdue — 2023: 8.0, 2024: 77.0
Clemson — 2025: 84.0
Arhmad Branch
No.788 national · WR
purduePUR
PortalDestination unresolved
Purdue — 2023: 19.0, 2024: unscored
Entered the portal — destination not resolved in the source data; shown as unknown, not guessed.
George Burhenn
No.810 national · TE
purduePUR
StayedNever transferred
Purdue — 2023: 25.0, 2024: 27.0, 2025: 27.0
Jamarrion Harkless
No.890 national · DL
purduePUR
StayedNever transferred
Purdue — 2023: unscored, 2024: 0.0, 2025: 52.0
Ryne Shackelford
No.946 national · WR
purduePURbaylorBAY
1 transferBaylor
Purdue — 2023: unscored, 2024: unscored
Baylor — 2025: unscored
Dillon Thieneman
No.990 national · S
purduePURoregonORE
R1 · #25Chicago
Purdue — 2023: 97.0, 2024: 79.0
Oregon — 2025: 78.0
Chicago · 2026 draft — No. 25 overall, round 1.
Ethon Cole
No.1014 national · S
purduePURduquesneDUQ
1 transferDuquesne
Purdue — 2023: unscored
Duquesne — 2024: unscored, 2025: unscored
Winston Berglund
No.1026 national · S
purduePUR
StayedNever transferred
Purdue — 2023: unscored, 2024: 11.0, 2025: 0.0
Ryan Browne
No.1026 national · QB
purduePURpurduePUR
1 transferPurdue
Purdue — 2023: 22.0, 2024: 31.0
Purdue — 2025: 44.0
Jaron Tibbs
No.1203 national · WR
purduePURkansas-stateKSU
1 transferKansas State
Purdue — 2023: 20.0, 2024: 36.0
Kansas State — 2025: 57.0
Derrick Rogers
No.1271 national · WR
purduePUR
StayedNever transferred
Purdue — 2023: 16.0, 2024: unscored, 2025: 18.0
Showing 12 of 18

The receipts

No recruiting service wrote a word here. The national rank was the promise; what happened next is the whole story.

Drafted — elsewhere

“The No. 990 player in America.”

signed Purdue → drafted from elsewhere

Drafted No. 25 overall, round 1 — by a program that never signed him.

Never made the league

“The No. 718 player in America.”

signed Purdue → never drafted

Peak grade of 0 on our 0–100 scale.

The report card

Star power and cohesion are graded against all 297 qualifying classes, 2021–2023. NFL production and on-field value are graded against just the 107 other 2023 classes — a 2023 signee simply hasn’t had as many draft-eligible years as a 2021 signee, so those two dimensions compare like-for-like instead of penalizing recency. Overall GPA still ranks across all 297.

D
Star power
15 recruiting points
C
Cohesion
56% never transferred
A
NFL production
1 drafted, vs. 2023 peers
A
On-field value
mean peak grade 40.9, vs. 2023 peers

The class the draft ignored

NFL production, 2023 signing classes in Purdue’s conference

Purdue’s 1 draft picks against every other qualifying class its conference signed the same year.

drafted: 100%
3
drafted: 100%
3
drafted: 33%remaining: 67%
1
Purdue
drafted: 33%remaining: 67%
1
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
remaining: 100%
0
Source CFB Index · player_recruiting_profiles + player_nfl_draft

The fine print

Other ways to read the same class.

Star-weighted retention
58%
Of the class’s combined star rating, this much stuck around.
Fed the conference
1
Transfers that landed at another program in Purdue’s current conference.
Dropped a level
1
Signees whose portal move landed below FBS.
The quiet middle
10
Never transferred, never drafted, 3-star or below. The class nobody writes about.