NFL Announces 2026 HBCU Showcase Participants for March Event in Virginia

Eleven players from Nigeria, Germany, Japan, Australia, and beyond will work out for NFL scouts at the end of this month, part of a combined event the league is staging at the Washington Commanders' practice facility in Ashburn, Virginia.

The NFL, working with the Black College Football Hall of Fame and NFL International, released the participant list for the 2026 HBCU Showcase and International Player Pathway Program Pro Day on Wednesday. The three-day event runs March 28–30, with on-field workouts at the BigBear.ai Performance Center at Commanders Park on March 30. Offensive prospects take the field at 8 a.m. ET, followed by defensive players and specialists at 10:45 a.m.

Six of the IPP participants are eligible to be selected in the 2026 NFL Draft. Five others are eligible to sign with clubs starting March 31, the day after workouts conclude.

The participant list, published under the heading "2026 HBCU Showcase Participants" and presented by Microsoft Copilot, includes players whose primary sports range from rugby and basketball to volleyball, alongside traditional football backgrounds. Seydou Traore, a tight end who played at Mississippi State and holds ties to Algeria, Ivory Coast, and the United Kingdom, is among the draft-eligible invitees. Kansei Matsuzawa, a kicker from Hawaii with Japanese nationality, also carries draft-eligible status, as does Felix Lepper, a tackle from Germany whose primary sport is listed as football.

On the defensive side, Chibuike Madu and Uar Bernard, both Nigerian players whose primary background is basketball, are listed as draft eligible and free agent, respectively. Collins Arogunjo, a guard from the University of Lagos who plays rugby, enters as a free agent, while Anjola Oketola, a defensive lineman also from Nigeria with a rugby background, carries the same status.

Three offensive linemen with Australian ties round out the group: Kaia Clarkin, whose primary sport is volleyball and who holds dual Australian-New Zealand eligibility; Kaylan Faumui, an Australian-Samoan rugby player; and Jarrod Gray, an Australian-New Zealand rugby player. All three are listed as free agents.

NFL clubs will attend the Ashburn workouts in person, giving draft evaluators a concentrated look at prospects who rarely appear on traditional predraft circuits. The event's structure, pairing HBCU visibility with the international pathway program on the same field and same weekend, reflects the league's continued effort to widen its scouting footprint beyond the Power Four pipeline.