KJ Duff

#8 · WR · Jr. · Rutgers6′6″ · 225 lb · Riverhead, NY · St. Anthony's

Receiving yards77413th of 467 receiversLast gameL 21–28vs Michigan · Oct 31
Nextat WisconsinSat Nov 7 · 4:15 pm ET
774 receiving yards in 7 games; their best was 196 vs Massachusetts.
Game 1: against Massachusetts, loss 21-37, 196 receiving yards, 3 touchdowns196 · season highLMASSGame 2: at Boston College, loss 21-28, 137 receiving yards, 2 touchdowns137LBC@Game 3: against USC, loss 35-42, 86 receiving yards, 1 touchdown86LUSCGame 4: against Howard, win 58-7, 131 receiving yards, 1 touchdown, FCS opponent131WHOWFCSGame 5: against Indiana, loss 15-47, 78 receiving yards78LIUGame 6: at Maryland, win 37-30, 113 receiving yards, 2 touchdowns113WMD@Game 7: at Northwestern, loss 14-42, 33 receiving yards33LNU@Game 8: against Michigan, loss 21-28, no catches in this gameLMICH
Game 1: against Massachusetts, loss 21-37, 196 receiving yards, 3 touchdowns196 · season highLMASSGame 2: at Boston College, loss 21-28, 137 receiving yards, 2 touchdownsLBC@Game 3: against USC, loss 35-42, 86 receiving yards, 1 touchdownLUSCGame 4: against Howard, win 58-7, 131 receiving yards, 1 touchdown, FCS opponentWHOWFCSGame 5: against Indiana, loss 15-47, 78 receiving yardsLIUGame 6: at Maryland, win 37-30, 113 receiving yards, 2 touchdownsWMD@Game 7: at Northwestern, loss 14-42, 33 receiving yardsLNU@Game 8: against Michigan, loss 21-28, no catches in this gameLMICH
  • touchdown

Michigan · L 21-28

No catches.

Duff has catches in 7 of Rutgers’s 8 games: none against Michigan.

Dashed line: 100 yards.

This week

What’s being said

6 stories this week, from 6 outlets.

Oct 29: 1Oct 30: 1Oct 31: 1Nov 1: 1Nov 2: 1Nov 3: 1L 21-28 vs MichiganLOct 29Nov 4Most in a day: 1
Oct 29: 1Oct 30: 1Oct 31: 1Nov 1: 1Nov 2: 1Nov 3: 1L 21-28 vs MichiganLOct 29Nov 4Most in a day: 1
Stories per day. W and L: the team’s results.

Rutgers football Tuesday practice report: Greg Schiano talks KJ Duff and quarterbacks

247Sports Nov 3

All 52 stories this season

Worth knowing

  • KJ Duff is rated 92 overall in EA College Football 27, tied for 3rd among the game's wide receivers.
  • KJ Duff was second-team All-Big Ten in 2025.

His most important play this season

  1. Q3, 2:37 · Rutgers down 13AJ Surace finds KJ Duff for a 4-yard touchdownRutgers at Boston College, week 2Q3, 2:37 · Rutgers 14, Boston College 20Rutgers cut the deficit to 6 in the third quarterRutgers cut the deficit to 6 in the third quarterA.Surace pass complete short left to K.Duff caught at BC 02, for 4 yards to the BC 00 touchdown, kick goodWatch from this playESPN College Football

All 5 of his plays on video

The story

As of

At 6-6 and 225 pounds, Duff is a matchup problem by construction, and 2025 made it official: 60 catches, 1,084 yards, seven touchdowns, second-team All-Big Ten, and a nation-leading 22 contested catches — the receiver who wins the throw nobody else can. PFF slots him inside its top 20 on the 2027 draft board, the kind of grade that usually leaves school.

Read the rest of the story

He stayed. The forward stakes are personal and programmatic: he's a single big year from the Rutgers receiving record and a strong season from cementing first-round status. For a receiver who already owns the contested-catch crown, 2026 is about adding the rest — and being the player a Big Ten defense has to account for on every snap.

Sources

Style of play

Style of play

Play style

Duff wins where size wins — above the rim and through contact. The defining number is the one he led the nation in: 22 contested catches, the climb-the-ladder, box-out trait of a true jump-ball receiver at 6-6, 225. Our play-by-play frames the rest honestly: a good (97th-percentile) yards-per-catch and explosive rate, with a more modest catch rate (36th percentile) — the natural cost of a target who lives on the hardest, most contested throws rather than the easy ones. He's not a separation-by-quickness slot; he's the back-shoulder, red-zone, win-the-50-50 weapon. For a quarterback, he's the answer to "what do I do on third-and-long" — throw it up and let the big man go get it.

Similar players

Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.

37% of the catches, 43% of the yards, 53% of the touchdowns

  • Catches37%45 of 121
  • Yards43%774 of 1,818
  • Touchdowns53%9 of 17
  • Yards a catch: 17.2. Everyone else on the team: 13.7.
  • A touchdown every 5.0 catches. Everyone else on the team: one every 9.5.

At least 29% of the team's receiving yards in every game

Who caught the team's passes

Share of the team's total this season.

Every catch and target this season

10203040507860773641
leftmiddlerightno spot
a catch, dashed to the catch point then solid afterthrown to him, incomplete

Seen from behind the quarterback; numbers are yards past the line of scrimmage. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed. Of his catches with a spot in the play text: left 12, middle 14, right 18.