2024 NFL Draft: Tennessee WR Ramel Keyton signs with Raiders after going undrafted
Tennessee wide receiver Ramel Keyton was not selected in the 2024 NFL Draft over the past three days, but he’s still getting an opportunity at the next level. The former four-star recruit who played five seasons for the Vols signed with the Las Vegas Raiders as an undrafted free agent, the team announced on Saturday night. Keyton was projected as a priority free agent going into the weekend and was not one of the 257 players picked over the seven rounds of the draft.
Keyton started all 13 games last season and finished with 35 catches for 642 yards and six touchdowns.
He measured in at 6-foot-2 and 191 pounds at Tennessee’s Pro Day last month and clocked a 4.47-second 40 time with a 33.5-inch vertical jump and 10-foot, 4-inch broad jump to get on the fringes of the draft and ultimately get a look from an NFL team.
After a prep career in which he totaled more than 3,300 yards and hauled in 33 touchdowns, Keyton chose Tennessee over Auburn, Penn State, Ole Miss, Florida, Georgia, Clemson and others, but he played sparingly as part of a loaded wide receiver room as a freshman in 2019. (That was when the Vols had future NFL wideouts in Jauan Jennings, Marquez Callaway and Joshua Palmer, plus redshirting senior Brandon Johnson and redshirt freshman Cedric Tillman). Keyton popped up with a 41-yard catch in the win against Mississippi State and caught two passes for 60 yards in a start for the suspended Jennings in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, but didn’t do much else behind the Jennings-Callaway-Palmer trio.
