Chase Roberts Took BYU Football From Utah County to the Las Vegas Raiders

Chase Roberts worked out at BYU Football's Pro Day on March 20, 2026, closing a senior season in which he wore a captain's "C," made the Big 12's preseason All-Conference team, and earned a spot on the Biletnikoff Award watch list. The Highland High receiver did all of that inside ten miles of where he grew up.

BYU's Pro Day release named the participating Cougars and the NFL scouts in attendance. Roberts was among the listed athletes. Pro Day is not a draft guarantee, but it placed him inside the formal NFL evaluation calendar — between the late-February Combine, where he ran a 4.64-second 40-yard dash that landed near the bottom of the receiver group, and the April draft.

Highland to Provo

Roberts is from American Fork, Utah, and played his prep football at Highland High School in Salt Lake County. The route from Highland to BYU is short enough that the entire arc fits on a single Wasatch Front map — under an hour from his old high school field to the LaVell Edwards Stadium parking lot.

That short route is part of the program's pitch to in-state receivers. BYU's recruiting record over the last decade has leaned hard on Utah County and the south Salt Lake corridor, and Highland — one of the area's busiest 6A football programs — is a regular feeder. Roberts arrived at BYU as part of that pipeline and stayed for the full collegiate clock.

His senior class at BYU includes other Utah-developed receivers and tight ends. Roberts is the one who became a team captain and the one who carried the most-decorated 2025 award profile.

The senior season, on the record

BYU's 2025 season-opening release named Roberts a team captain — one of the offensive leaders the program asked to lead the room. Captaincy at BYU is voted by the players, and the Cougars' release described the receiver as the senior the offense looked to for the route-running detail work that holds a passing game together.

The Big 12 listed Roberts on its preseason All-Conference squad. The conference's preseason team is voted by the league's head coaches, which means the rest of the Big 12 staffs already had Roberts on their pre-game scouting reports before the season opened. The Biletnikoff Award watch list — given by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation to the country's most outstanding FBS receiver — added him to its August release.

The combination is the trio every senior wideout wants on a draft profile: a measurable on the roster page, a coaches' vote in the form of preseason All-Conference, and a national-award nomination. Roberts arrived at Pro Day with all three.

What the BYU receiver room looked like around him

BYU's 2025 receiver room operated inside the program's second year of full Big 12 membership. The Cougars' offense was structured around a more vertical passing approach than the program had used in its independent years, which meant Roberts spent the season working both as a primary read and as a route-clearer on intermediate concepts that opened the middle of the field for the tight ends.

The role suited a senior receiver with a tall frame, sure hands, and the kind of body control NFL scouts look for in red-zone matchups. BYU's offensive coordinator's releases through the season treated Roberts as the trusted target — the receiver the quarterbacks looked for on third downs and inside the 20.

The Cougars finished the 2025 regular season inside the Big 12's top half of standings, which gave Roberts a postseason game in his senior calendar and added another evaluation tape to the draft package.

The Pro Day workout

BYU staged its 2026 Pro Day on March 20 inside the Student Athlete Building on the Provo campus. The school's release recorded the attendance — a list of NFL franchises sending area scouts — and the Cougars worked out their full draft-eligible group.

Pro Day workouts are designed to fill in the measurable gaps from the Combine for players who were not invited to Indianapolis. For a senior wideout, that usually means a 40-yard dash, the vertical jump, the broad jump, the bench press, the shuttle, and a receiver-specific route circuit run against an NFL coach. Roberts went through the full menu, and BYU's release listed him among the players who ran routes during the on-field portion.

The Pro Day setting also matters for the Big 12. The conference's pre-draft circuit includes Pro Days at every school, and the Provo workout drew evaluators who had also been at the Texas, Kansas State, and TCU dates. That cross-program visibility is part of why senior captains at first-year Big 12 schools have a different evaluation reach now than they would have in the Cougars' pre-Big 12 years.

Undrafted, then a Raiders contract

The draft did not call Roberts' name. Across the seven rounds in Pittsburgh on April 23-25, 2026, the receiver went unselected — a 25-year-old wideout whose 4.64 forty did not separate him from a deep class. The priority free-agent window opened minutes after the final pick, and on April 30, 2026 Roberts signed with the Las Vegas Raiders as an undrafted free agent. BYU's own release listed him among the Cougars who reached the NFL through the draft-and-free-agency window.

His BYU career closed with the numbers that earned the look: a 2025 season of 54 receptions for 802 yards and six touchdowns, plus the captaincy, the preseason All-Big 12 selection, and the Biletnikoff watch-list nod. The Raiders contract is a camp invitation, not a roster lock — but it puts a Highland High receiver on an NFL depth chart and gives the BYU-to-Utah-County pipeline a current professional name.

Key facts: Chase Roberts

• Player: Chase Roberts, wide receiver, BYU (2025)
• Hometown: American Fork, Utah (Highland High School)
• 2025 season: 54 receptions, 802 yards, 6 touchdowns; team captain, preseason All-Big 12, Biletnikoff watch list
• Pre-draft: 4.64-second 40 at the NFL Combine; 25-year-old prospect
• 2026 NFL Draft: Undrafted (April 23-25, Pittsburgh)
• NFL landing spot: Las Vegas Raiders — undrafted free agent, April 30, 2026