Measurables
- 5‘8 Height
- 174 lb. Weight
2025 Stats
- 31 Receptions Allowed / 63 Targets = 49.2% Completion Percentage when Targeted
- 357 Yards Allowed
- 55 Yards After Catch Allowed (1.8 YAC per Reception)
- 0 TDs Allowed
- 2 INTs
- 9 Pass Break Ups
- 53.5 Passer Rating Allowed
- 54 Solo Tackles
- 11 Assist Tackles
- 2 Missed Tackles (3% Missed Tackle Rate)
- 17 Run Stops
- 2 Pressures (11 Pass Rush Snaps)
- 1 QB Hit
- 1 Forced Fumble
- 1 Penalty
Awards/Accolades
- National Champion (2025)
- First Team All-American (2025)
- First Team All Big10 (2024 & 2025)
- Rose Bowl Defensive Player of the Game (2025)
- Peach Bowl Defensive MVP (2025)
- Freshman All American (2023)
- Second Team All Sun Belt (2023)
- D’Angelo’s Pond in Bloomington named after him.
Strengths
- Ponds plays like every snap is his last, with competitiveness akin to a starving predator fighting for its last meals.
- Speed, quickness, agility; Ponds flies around the field really well.
- Plays bigger than his size with his physicality and strong explosiveness to contest even in jump ball situations with most Wide Receivers.
- His backpedal is one of the best in college football and can maintain it on deeper zones very well to shadow receivers while keeping his eyes on the QB, with an excellent hip flip and can explode out of it to disrupt passes downhill. Can follow the hip pocket of receivers very well by mirroring them.
- Despite his size he contests very well. Allowed just ____% completions and had ____ Breakups.
- Plays the run intensely with nice hits, strong awareness, and good tackling technique (just 3.3% missed tackle rate in 2025).
- Highly instinctual, plays with great anticipation and understanding of route concepts. In Zone his eyes are disciplined on the QB can can read the opposing passer’s eyes well to make plays on the ball.
Weaknesses
- Will not hit some team’s size thresholds. Height is either 5’8 or 5’9 depending on the source and his weight is in the low to mid 170s.
- He has 1,845 snaps as an outside corner. Some analysts believe Ponds should shift inside as a slot in the NFL, he only has 27 snaps inside at slot. Can he continue to succeed outside in the NFL or does he have to move inside? For some NFL teams the projection is unclear.
- Can he contests the bigger and longer Wide Receivers in the NFL consistently?
- Struggles to get off of blockers in the run, will lose matchups against pulling linemen or Tight Ends in space if they get their mitts on him, needs to go around them which isn’t always optimal to stop the run.
Draft Projection
Round 2 Grade
In the first iteration of my Top 100 Big Board, I had Ponds 69th overall and the top player in the Round 3 Grade tier. I had just watched his first 20 yard reception allowed (by Ohio State phenom Jeremiah Smith) two days prior to the article’s release. But in the last month and a half, Ponds has done everything possible to tell me one thing:
I was too low on him.
Fair enough, grades are fluid and can be subject to change; and Ponds has made sure to silence a lot of doubt on him. He now is a potential top 50 player in this draft when my next big board releases. Turns out you need to be a prospect potentially worthy of the overused in the draft community but fabled G word to be able to win vertically against Ponds.
In the last 2 drafts 5’9 Mike Sainristil (50th overall) and 5’8 Upton Stout (100th Overall) went in the top 100 and showed strong play at the NFL level as rookies.
The notion that corners have to be big and lanky to have success with the Gus Bradley-Legion of Boom archetype is incorrect. It certainly can help, but size and length also mean little if you can’t put yourself in position to make plays consistently to disrupt offenses. Smaller corners can have success in the NFL, even if they lack the 5’9 Kenny Moore II’s 32.625” arms.
Stout has been a slot only player while Sainristil has played a majority (1,273/2,003 snaps) outside. But D’Angelo Ponds at Upton Stout’s height and weighing reportedly nearly ten pounds lighter than both is challenging the preconceived notions that smaller corners need to move inside to be successful in a whole other way. He has played just 27 snaps as a nickel slot corner in his entire collegiate career and despite his size has thrived on the outside for years. Can he do so in the Pros and stay outside full time despite his smaller and lighter frame? Some teams having to grapple with this question might not believe in him with their thresholds for the boundary Corners.
Good news for him, the coach he’d have in Indianapolis, Defensive Coordinator Lou Anarumo, has no qualms about using smaller Corners outside in his scheme as long as they are competitive in man coverage and have speed to recover and track deeper routes. Ponds has both. He should be granted an opportunity to prove himself outside first before potentially moving to the slot.
The simple fact is, Ponds’ tape is sensational. Had he grown roughly 3 inches taller and had his arm length and weight grow proportionally, his tape would warrant not just Round 1 discussion, but created a Top Corner in the Class debate with LSU’s Mansoor Delane. Even without that extra growth spurt, Ponds has maximized every athletic gift he’s been given and plays with a fiery intensity that shines bright. As one of the chairmen of the Upton Stout = Stud committee leading up to last years’ draft, I can’t help but love the tape and trust in the player’s clear passion to work itself out; measuring tape be damned.
With Charvarius Ward mulling retirement, 2025 3rd Round Pick Justin Walley recovering from an ACL tear, and Jaylon Jones falling out of favor with an awkward fit in Anarumo’s new scheme, outside corner remains a need for the Colts to address. Sauce Gardner might be locked in as the Colts top corner, but they still need to give him a running mate outside. Kenny Moore II also isn’t getting any younger in the slot. By adding Ponds, the Colts get another outside option at Corner and a potential successor to Kenny Moore II after his contract expires post-2026 season.
