For the first time in 70 years, two players from the U.S. Naval Academy were selected in the professional football draft.
On Saturday, seniors Eli Heidenreich and Landon Robinson were both picked in the seventh round of the NFL draft. They are the 20th and 21st midshipmen to be drafted into the NFL over the last 80 years. They’re also the first pair of midshipmen to get drafted in the same year since George Welsh and Ron Beagle both were picked for the Chicago Cardinals in 1956.
Robinson is heading to the Cincinnati Bengals. He was the 226th overall pick in this year’s draft. The Ohio native played three years with the Navy as a nose guard, totaling 153 tackles over 38 games. Robinson had been the co-captain for the Navy’s team this past season, and the strongest player according to his lifting stats. He was also named the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2025.
Heidenreich meanwhile was the 230th pick, selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the Naval Academy, he played as both a wide receiver and running back. He was a major offensive force for the Navy, with more than 100 receptions and nearly two dozen touchdowns over three seasons.
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Both players are able to enter the NFL due to provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act. Under statutes in the annual bill, a limited number of cadets and midshipmen from military service academies are allowed to go pro in sports and defer active-duty service. Rules and the number of athletes allowed to defer have fluctuated over the years. Robinson and Heidenreich are both set to graduate in May and will be commissioned in the reserves. Although the Navy’s team has a decades-long history, fewer than two dozen players have been picked through the NFL draft.
In their last year at the academy, they helped the Navy get one of its best seasons in recent memory, finishing with a record of 11-2 and an Associated Press ranking of 23. The team also narrowly beat their rivals the Army Black Knights in the annual match up, winning 17-16 in December.
Alongside the two Navy midshipmen, a West Point cadet also signed with a NFL team. U.S. Military Academy senior Noah Short signed as an undrafted free agent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The slot back started as a defensive player before shifting to offense. In the 2025 season he had 32 receptions.
