No player from Virginia Tech’s 2025 roster was drafted in April. The closest the Hokies came was Mansoor Delane, who went sixth overall to Kansas City after leaving Blacksburg for one season at LSU.

Six months later, Virginia Tech has a tight end inside ESPN analyst Jordan Reid’s top 50.

That’s the cleanest measure of how much has changed in coach James Franklin’s first eight games. The Hokies are 6–2, 3–2 in the ACC, and bowl-eligible after Saturday’s 20–16 win at Clemson. With an off week before a Friday, Nov. 6 trip to SMU, here’s who has helped himself with NFL evaluators and who still has something to prove.

Stock up: tight end Luke Reynolds

Mel Kiper Jr. saw it by Week 3. “He is certainly moving up,” the ESPN draft analyst wrote in September, after Reynolds caught 12 passes for 107 yards and a touchdown at Maryland.

He hasn’t stopped. In June, Reynolds carried a consensus seventh-round grade on NFL Mock Draft Database. Now the database’s consensus has him at No. 57 overall with a second-round projection. Reid ranks him No. 47 and third among tight ends. Mike Renner of CBS Sports has him No. 39 on his midseason board, and Pro Football Focus put him in its stock-up column Monday.

The production backs it up. Reynolds has 50 catches for 493 yards and six touchdowns, and the Associated Press named him a first-team midseason All-American. He caught 26 passes for 257 yards in his final season at Penn State. He’s nearly doubled that catch total with at least four games left.

Here’s why that matters more than it looks. Nine tight ends went on Day 2 of last April’s draft. Teams are paying second- and third-round prices for 6'4", 250-pound tight ends who, in Kiper’s read, find soft spots in coverage and catch what’s thrown to them. Reynolds also fits a pipeline. Franklin’s Penn State staff produced six drafted tight ends, including Tyler Warren at No. 14 overall in 2025.

The one dent: after scoring four times in the first three games, he went four straight games without a touchdown before catching both of Virginia Tech’s scores at Clemson. Both came from inside the 10, including the 5-yard winner on fourth-and-1.

Reynolds is a true junior with two years of eligibility left. If the boards hold, he’ll face a real decision in January. A Day 2 grade at a position that keeps getting Day 2 money is hard to walk away from.

Stock up: wide receiver Que’Sean Brown

Brown has 51 catches for 685 yards and three touchdowns through eight games, including a career-high 182 yards against Georgia Tech.

The number scouts will notice: 533 of those yards came after the catch. That’s 78%, on an average target of just 6.9 yards downfield. Virginia Tech is manufacturing touches for him, and he’s turning them into chunk plays. PFF grades him at 80.3, 43rd among 624 qualified receivers.

Size is the biggest hurdle for Brown at 5'8" and 175 pounds. He’s a redshirt junior with two years of eligibility, so he can bank another season of tape.

Stock up: defensive end Aycen Stevens

Aycen Stevens didn’t record a sack before this season. He has eight this year, tied for fourth in the country and the most in the ACC.

The production has been steady, too. He has at least one sack in six of eight games, including 2.5 against Georgia Tech, and he’s forced three fumbles.

Stevens arrived from Indianapolis as a linebacker recruit, redshirted in 2023, and moved to the defensive line the next year. Now he’s 6'5" and 264 pounds, the kind of frame NFL teams look for on the edge. “His improvement from the time that we showed up to now is significant,” Franklin said.

The draft boards haven’t caught up. NFL Mock Draft Database has him at No. 203 with a sixth-round projection, based on one mock. Clemson was a reminder of the work left: Stevens made three tackles and didn’t get home on a night when Virginia Tech sacked Clemson’s quarterback four times. If he keeps producing in November, that ranking won’t hold.

Holding: quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer

Grunkemeyer has completed 187 of 262 passes for 2,140 yards, 17 touchdowns, and two interceptions. That 71.4% completion rate would break Hendon Hooker’s program record of 65.3%, set in 2020.

He’s also taking a beating. Grunkemeyer has been sacked 14 times in the last three games: five against Georgia Tech, three at Cal, and six at Clemson.

“We had a hard time protecting [Grunkemeyer],” Franklin said after the Clemson win.

Grunkemeyer is a redshirt sophomore who can play through 2028, and he isn’t in NFL Mock Draft Database’s 2027 pool. His draft clock isn’t this April. Every accurate week behind a shaky line is tape for 2028.

Stock down: defensive tackle Kemari Copeland

Copeland opened the season as the face of Virginia Tech’s draft class. He was the Hokies’ lone preseason All-ACC pick, landed on the Senior Bowl’s Top 300 list, and was coming off a third-team All-ACC season with 4.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss.

The 2026 numbers haven’t followed. He currently has 20 tackles and one sack. Renner ranks him No. 126, and the NFL Mock Draft Database consensus has him at No. 252, a seventh-round projection. The preseason knock from NFL Draft Buzz that longer guards can lock out his shorter frame hasn’t gone away.

To be fair to Copeland, interior linemen eat double teams that never show up in a box score, and Virginia Tech piled up 13 tackles for loss at Clemson. But he’s a redshirt senior in his final season. Four games and an All-Star Week are his whole case now.

Sleeper: cornerback Jaquez White

White made 11 tackles at Clemson, including a sack on the Tigers’ final drive. He arrived from Troy after a second-team All-Sun Belt season with 67 tackles, three interceptions, and 11 pass breakups, and he has one year of eligibility.

He doesn’t show up in the NFL Mock Draft Database’s 2027 pool yet. A senior corner who tackles like that is exactly the kind of player an all-star invite can push into the conversation.

What’s next

The tape that matters most is still ahead. SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings is next, and Miami’s Darian Mensah, whom PFF grades at 92.5, waits on Nov. 21. That’s White’s audition and Copeland’s chance to collapse a pocket against one of college's best passers.

The 2027 draft opens April 29 in Washington, D.C. Virginia Tech has gone without a pick in two of the last three drafts. If Reynolds keeps this pace, that won’t become three of four. Whether anyone joins him depends on November.