‘Unstoppable’ London-raised NFL rookie on collision course with idol Travis Kelce

Seydou Traore is ready for anything the NFL can throw at him.

The young Mississippi State tight end was a rather unique talent in the Bulldogs’ locker room and did enough to see the Miami Dolphins swoop int he fifth round.

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In fact, you could look in locker rooms up and down the nation, and find only a few players like him.

Traore, who is part of the NFL’s 2026 International Player Pathway class, didn’t grow up in the United States.

He didn’t play pee-wee football, and didn’t come through the high school sports system, like many of those who play Division I football.

Raised in London, England, he played soccer growing up, mainly as a goalkeeper. And that gives him an edge.

Seydou Traore is London-raised tight end chasing NFL dream

“Having a background of playing multiple different sports, I feel like I’ve taken stuff from each of those and been able to apply it to my game,” Traore exclusively told talkSPORT.

“Being a goalkeeper, the hand-eye coordination that came along with that, I feel like that helped in terms of ball tracking and catching abilities.

“Playing different sports like rugby and basketball — there’s so many different aspects of each of those. I feel like I took and translated that into football.”

Traore’s road to college was long.

He was part of the very first intake into the NFL Academy, a London-based global initiative created by the league that provides full-time high-school education alongside intensive American football training, with the aim of creating pathways for international talent.

Post-Covid, Traore graduated and attended Clearwater Academy in Florida — where he got his first taste of 11-on-11 football — with hopes of earning a Division I scholarship.

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He did just that, and committed to Arkansas State as a three-star recruit in 2021.

Traore played sparingly as a freshman, before exploding onto the scene the following year.

He finished 2022 with 50 receptions for 655 yards and four touchdowns, and led the Sun Belt Conference in receptions en-route to earning First-team honors.

During his time at Arkansas State, Traore shone under head coach Butch Jones.

He now has dreams of making the kind of NFL impact that another of Jones’ proteges made.

Seydou Traore has hopes of sharing field with NFL legend

A decade before taking the Red Wolves job, Jones was head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats, and had a certain Travis Kelce on his roster.

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Traore, unsurprisingly, has modeled parts of his game of the Kansas City Chiefs star, and hopes the pair can share the same field in 2026.

“Everything that he’s done for the game, and what he’s shown from the tight end position, has been great,” the 23-year-old said of Kelce.

“It would be great to share the field. Obviously being coached by the same coach in college, it’d be great to catch up and talk about that.

“It’d be a good experience, for real.”

He may well get his chance with the Chiefs and Dolphins set to play each other in 2026.

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Kelce, though, isn’t the only player Traore has been watching closely.

Speaking of his game, the Bulldogs prospect explained: “When I was getting recruited to Arkansas State, Butch Jones coached Travis Kelce when he was at Cincinnati, so he was obviously a guy that off the rip I was watching.

“I tried to pick pieces from a bunch of different players — Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, Kyle Pitts, George Kittle.

“I try to pick pieces from everyone and try to apply it to different parts of my game.”

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After that 2022 breakout season at Arkansas State, Traore entered the transfer portal, and landed at the University of Colorado.

There, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter — two of the biggest names of the 2025 NFL Draft — and worked under head coach Deion Sanders.

But he was in Boulder for just one semester, and swiftly entered the portal again, transferring to Mississippi State.

Due to transfer rules set by the NCAA, he was forced to sit out for a season in Starkville.

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Traore was able to turn what could have been a frustrating time on the sidelines into a positive experience.

“I feel like that year just taught me a lot about myself, taught me about what type of person I am,” he explained.

“It was a moment of gratitude at the same time, it allowed me to see how far football has taken me. I was putting in the work every day, as if I was going to play every week.

“And it’s hard to do that, knowing that without question, you’re not playing this week and you’re not playing next week.

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“But still to put in the work and the effort… it really teaches you a lot about yourself and how far you’re willing to push without seeing a piece of the path.”

Seydou Traore up for grabs in 2026 NFL Draft

Having sat out that 2023 season, Traore went on to play 23 games for the Bulldogs over the next two years.

The tight end seriously impressed in his Senior Year, with a career-high five touchdowns, which happened to come in the toughest College Football conference of them all — the SEC.

But playing powerhouse programs week in, week out, didn’t faze the London-raised prospect.

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In fact, he was often of the feeling that he was a serious problem for some of the best defenses in the country.

“Honestly, every time I had gone onto the field, especially for game day, I started to realize they really got to come and see me,” Traore revealed.

“I started to realize a lot of these guys are messing with me. So from that point, I was like, ‘OK, maybe next week I’ll feel a bit more challenged from someone covering me.’

“And it just never really came, or at least how I expected it to. So then it started becoming more of a realization, like, ‘They’ve got to compete with me.’

“The way I can play right now, I feel unstoppable. I feel like I can’t be stopped. When you feel like that, it’s pretty dangerous because it’s very easy to get too high.

“But I feel like you have to have that confidence, that no one can play with you. And with that comes the idea of, ‘I’m going to play at the next level too.'”

The next big challenge will come in the NFL.

With a game modeled on some of the top tight end talent in the league, and a confidence that few could compete with him on his day in the SEC, Traore will be an intriguing name to watch throughout camp.

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