cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Justin Lynch /Northern Illinois

Justin Lynch

WR · Northern Illinois · Sr · #5

Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.

2026 RETURNINGReturning to Northern Illinois for 2026

2026 Outlook

Returning to Northern Illinois for 2026

Updated May 27

2026 Depth chart

Returning starter

Wide receiver · Northern Illinois

Returning around him

  • 53% of 2024 offensive production back (Solid continuity)
  • Transfer portal: -17 net (5 in / 22 out)

2026 Award watch

No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)

Northern Illinois · Last season: 3-9 · Talent rank #125 · 2026 recruiting class #84

WR · NORTHERN ILLINOIS · MID-AMERICAN

Justin Lynch

  • 4
  • #5
  • 6-1 | 205 lb
  • Chicago, IL

CFB Zeitgeist WR Score

Awaiting

Heisman Heat

#4271

<1% win probability

Fan Belief

Awaiting

Player-specific FI not yet ingested. Falls back to team mood below.

Respect Gap

Awaiting

Coming online with player-level FI.

Reality Gap

Awaiting

Coming online with player-level FI.

ACCOLADE PROBABILITY

Heisman

<1%

TOP WR AWARD

Biletnikoff

CONSENSUS

All-American

Player Standing · 17 rungs

Tier 1 · 2-deep

R03 · Backup

Backup. On the two-deep, pushing for snaps.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★
#1491 national
CFB
College
2 teams
2021–2025
NFL
NFL Draft
Not drafted (yet)

Identity & Role

The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.

PositionWR
Class4
Jersey5
Measurements6-1 | 205 lb
HometownChicago, IL
Primary teamNorthern Illinois

Recruiting Pedigree

How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.

Top pedigree 3-star No. 1491 recruit
Composite rating 0.8389 HighSchool
Signed with Temple 2021
Origin Mount Carmel Chicago, IL, USA
Class Profile Context
2021 3-star | 0.8389 No. 1491 recruit | HighSchool | Temple

Transfer Arc

Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.

Portal moves 0 No portal entry on file
Latest destination -- --
Transfer stars -- CFBD transfer rating context
Eligibility -- Transfer date TBD
Season Move Context
No transfer portal moves on file for this player.

Heisman Lens · 2024 Season · Final

Where the player landed at the end of the listed season — final nowcast rank, win/finalist/ballot probabilities, and the cleanest official Heisman placement on file.

HIGH CONFIDENCE· through week 16
Current nowcast#4271Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#4293Where the full season sim points
Win probability0.0%Chance to actually win the trophy
Finalist probability0.0%Chance to make the finalist tier
Ballot probability0.0%Chance to appear anywhere on a ballot
Best official finish--Best completed Heisman placement on file

Heisman Futures

Not yet listed on major futures markets.

No achievements unlocked yet this season.

Selector Grid · 2025

AP
FWAA
AFCA
WCFF
SN
SI

Selector recognition fills in once the major honors lists (AP, FWAA, AFCA, Walter Camp, Sporting News, SI) are scraped and ingested.

NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft

Market value, pedigree & pro outcome

Recruit stars

★★★☆☆

to Temple

Composite

0.8389

#1491 national

Today’s Hot-Take

The Hot-Take engine fires when this player’s percentile profile crosses a defensible threshold (top 10% in a cohort, 100+ snap sample). When it’s quiet, the model is honoring its “must be defensible” rule.

Anti-Take

PENDING

The contrarian read fires when the rules-engine detects a stat that complicates the Hot-Take. Quiet here means the model hasn’t found a defensible counter yet — not that one doesn’t exist.

The Room on Justin Lynch

Fan sentiment · Awaiting signal

The Room reads fan conversation around a player — who’s talking, what they believe, and how that shifts. It publishes once weekly volume rebuilds; for most players that’s in-season, when game-week chatter spikes.

Cohort divergence map

Cohort divergence reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.

Rival Radar

How rival fanbases talk about Justin Lynch

No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.

Signature Story

Awaiting candidate metric

He hasn't written his page yet — we'll start filling it in when there are enough snaps to rank against his peers.

Signature Moment

No signature moment on the ledger yet.

Returns once this player puts together a multi-game body of work — single-game flashes alone don't clear the bar.

A 3-act season arc returns once this player has six or more games on the ledger.

Season Pace · Projection

Where the receiving totals stand

projecting to 13-game
Through 3g
0Rec yards
0Receptions
0Rec TDs
Per game
0Rec yards
0Receptions
0Rec TDs
Projected (13g)
0Rec yards
0Receptions
0Rec TDs

To hit 700-yard receiver (currently 0): needs 70/game over remaining 10.

To hit 1,000-yard receiver (currently 0): needs 100/game over remaining 10.

To hit 60-catch season (currently 0): needs 6/game over remaining 10.

To hit 80-catch season (currently 0): needs 8/game over remaining 10.

To hit 8 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 0.8/game over remaining 10.

To hit 10 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 1/game over remaining 10.

What made this player interesting

The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.

Justin Lynch's story is about how role and output meet each other. For Northern Illinois, the card already shows enough current-season production to explain why he is on the serious-player board, and the next layer is determining whether the profile is just very good or actually distinctive.

Current place #4271 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load 2.3% Overall usage share
Profile quirk Transfer path 0 portal moves

2025 Season · Final

Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.

Last season

WR season snapshot

2025 season snapshot | final

2025 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Receptions -- -- rec TD
Receiving yards -- -- per catch
Scrimmage yards 2 Total offensive yardage
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

Receiving weapon against FBS receiving peers.

Balanced profile

2025 Season · Final

2025 season snapshot | final

Rushing

CAR
3 64th
YDS
2 24th
YPC
0.7 19th
TD
0 81st

Game Log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 3 games

Box score · CFBD
WkOppRECYDSAVGTDLONGNote
Wk 1W 19-17vs Holy Cross
Wk 11L 3-42@ Toledo
Wk 12W 45-3@ Massachusetts
Total
Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score

Traditional history

Traditional Stats

Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.

Season rows Career row

Season context · Team result + system

2021Temple3-9HC: Rod Carey · Balanced, slow tempo
2022Northern Illinois3-9HC: Thomas Hammock · Run-leaning
2023Northern Illinois7-6HC: Thomas Hammock · Run-leaning
2025Northern Illinois3-9HC: Thomas Hammock · Run-heavy, slow tempo
SeasonTeam
2025Northern Illinois32------
2023Northern Illinois1388------
2022Northern Illinois64280------
2021Temple75295------
Career4 loaded seasons155665------
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context

Advanced metrics second

Advanced Metrics

Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.

Usage Value Context
Pass share

The player's share of a team's passing-game involvement. It is the fastest way to see whether the receiver is a true focal point or more of a complementary piece.

Role share

A blended workload view that accounts for catches, designed touches, and any return-game involvement that shapes the overall profile.

Peer percentile

Every percentile is compared against players at the same position and level, so an FBS quarterback is judged against FBS quarterbacks, not the whole sport.

Traditional first

The top tables stick to the stats fans already know from broadcasts and box scores. Advanced context is pushed underneath instead of replacing the basics.

Usage 2.3% 0.0% pass-game share | #1114/1137 (2nd pct)
Return yards 0 0 return TD
Touchdowns 0 Across offense and returns
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Usage Pass share 0.0% #1114/1137 2nd pct Air-game usagevs FBS WR
Rushing Carries 3 #146/407 64th pct Volumevs FBS WR
Rushing Rushing yards 2 #302/397 24th pct Volumevs FBS WR
Rushing Rushing LONG 1 #334/346 4th pct Metricvs FBS WR
Rushing Yards / carry 0.7 #321/393 19th pct Efficiencyvs FBS WR
Rushing Rush TD 0 #81/411 81st pct Scoringvs FBS WR
Usage Rush share 3.4% #42/1137 96th pct Ground-game usagevs FBS WR
Usage Standard-down usage 3.4% #618/1137 46th pct Base-situation sharevs FBS WR
Usage Role share 2.3% #900/1137 21st pct Share of team offensevs FBS WR
Usage 2nd-down usage 2.2% #891/1137 22nd pct Middle-down loadvs FBS WR
Usage 1st-down usage 0.0% #1017/1137 11th pct Early-down loadvs FBS WR
Usage 3rd-down usage 0.0% #937/1137 18th pct Money-down loadvs FBS WR
Usage Passing-down usage 0.0% #1009/1137 11th pct Known-passing sharevs FBS WR
Value Rushing WEPA +0.24 #1/8 100th pct Opponent-adjusted rushing value | 63 weighted playsvs FBS WR

Player Standing

Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.

AWAITING CLASSIFICATION

On-team2-deepStartingRecognizedEliteApex

AWAITING CLASSIFICATION · Rung None of 16

Why he’s here

Standing classification populates when honors, Heisman, and roster signals all align.

What moves him up

What moves him down

Accolade streams

StatusAwaiting tracker

Heisman model tracks the top FBS contenders weekly; this player hasn't entered the watch list yet.

Splits · Per-game

2025 season · 3 games

Home/Road · Win/Loss · Season halves

Home vs Road

REC/gYDS/gYPRTD/g
Home1g
Road2g

Win vs Loss

REC/gYDS/gYPRTD/g
Wins2g
Losses1g

First half vs Second half

REC/gYDS/gYPRTD/g
Weeks 1-71g
Weeks 8+2g

Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.

Savant · Box-rate percentiles

Where this profile ranks vs the WR cohort

2 metrics · season cumulative

Concern: rush yards (22nd).

Rush TDs#67 / 287 · 39th pct
0rush
Rush yards#218 / 287 · 23rd pct
2rush

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.

Advanced Savant · WR · 2024

Percentile Card

Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.

P4G5All FBS
EPA / dropback
awaiting
CPOE
awaiting
Success rate
awaiting
Explosive rate (20+)
awaiting
aDOT
awaiting
Deep-ball accuracy
awaiting
Pressure-to-sack
awaiting
3rd-down EPA
awaiting
Red-zone TD rate
awaiting
Play-action EPA
awaiting
Scramble EPA
awaiting
Turnover-worthy play rate
awaiting

Advanced Savant

Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.

Advanced opponent-adjusted metrics are coming soon for this player. Selected cohort: P4.
Peer Comparator returns once this player clears the Savant metric floor (4+ scored bars).
DNA Match awaiting data — similarity scores compute once season stats clear the volume gate for this position cohort.

Supporting Cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Thomas Hammock

Pass share

33.0%

244 pass / 495 run

Plays / game

61.6

12 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

7.3%

234 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-heavy, slow tempo.

Coaching Lineage · 2021–2025

1 coach
2021
Thomas Hammock
Northern Illinois
2022
Thomas Hammock
Northern Illinois
2023
Thomas Hammock
Northern Illinois
2025
Thomas Hammock
Northern Illinois

Played his entire career under Thomas Hammock.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.

HometownChicago, IL
Height6'1"
Weight205 lb
Class4
PositionWR
Jersey5

Trophy Case · Detail

Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.

Honors

No formal honors on the ledger yet

All-America, all-conference, player-of-the-week, watch-list, and postseason awards land here when they're earned. The absence is the signal: most players never collect formal honors, and that's its own kind of context.

Honors Timeline

Season-end distinction and week-by-week recognition on one timeline.

Season Honor Scope Team / Selector Context
No formal honors on the ledger yet. All-America, all-conference, weekly awards, watch lists, and postseason trophies land here when they’re earned.

Heisman By Year

Modeled rank and official finish by season.

Season Team Role Latest Model Forecast Win Finalist Official Finish Points Context
2024 Northern Illinois WR4 #4271 #4293 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Mid-American
2023 Northern Illinois WR4 #3981 #4000 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | Mid-American
2022 Northern Illinois WR4 #4352 #4943 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Mid-American
2021 Temple WR4 #4338 #4673 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | American Athletic

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2025 Northern Illinois Mid-American WR 4 No. 5 | 6-1 | 205 lb | Chicago, IL
2024 Northern Illinois Mid-American WR 4 No. 5 | 6-1 | 205 lb | Chicago, IL
2023 Northern Illinois Mid-American WR 4 No. 5 | 6-1 | 205 lb | Chicago, IL
2022 Northern Illinois Mid-American WR 4 No. 5 | 6-1 | 205 lb | Chicago, IL
2021 Temple American Athletic WR 4 No. 5 | 6-1 | 205 lb | Chicago, IL