Ronnie Hickman Went Undrafted and Became a Starter Anyway — And That’s the Whole Story Right There
Every single year the NFL Draft happens and a bunch of scouts get things spectacularly wrong. Sometimes it’s a first-round pick who flames out after two seasons. Sometimes it’s a guy who doesn’t get picked at all and becomes the best player in Cleveland’s secondary three years later.
Ronnie Hickman is the second kind. Born in Manhattan. Raised in New Jersey. All-American lacrosse player in high school who chose football instead. Second-team All-American at Ohio State. And then — in 2023 — every NFL team passed on him across seven rounds. The Cleveland Browns scooped him up off the free agent pile on May 12th. By 2025, he was starting all 17 games and posting career numbers. Nobody who covers the Browns acts surprised anymore. But they probably should.
Quick Bio
| Detail | Info |
| Full Name | Ronnie Hickman Jr. |
| Nickname | “Rocket” |
| Born | October 11, 2001, Manhattan, New York |
| Age (2026) | 24 |
| Raised | South Orange, New Jersey |
| High School | DePaul Catholic, Wayne, NJ |
| College | Ohio State University (2019–2022) |
| Degree | Human Development and Family Sciences |
| Position | Safety (Free Safety) |
| Team | Cleveland Browns |
| Jersey Number | #33 |
| Height/Weight | 6’1″ / 209 lbs |
| NFL Draft | 2023 — Undrafted |
| Signed | Cleveland Browns, May 12, 2023 |
| 2025 Stats | 103 tackles, 2 INTs, 7 PDs, 17 starts |
| Initial Contract | 3 years / $2.715M (~$220K guaranteed) |
Manhattan Kid Who Almost Played Lacrosse in College. Think About That.
Ronnie Hickman was born in New York City and grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. Already an interesting starting point. He went to DePaul Catholic High School in Wayne — a school that produces serious athletes — and proceeded to be exceptional at two completely different sports simultaneously.
On the football field, he played both safety and wide receiver. On the lacrosse field, he was an All-American. Not just good. All-American. He had legitimate college options in both sports.
He chose football. He committed to Ohio State in April 2018 while he was still a junior. The four-star recruit was selected for the 2019 All-American Bowl — the high school all-star game that showcases the country’s best prospects. He was already known before he ever set foot in Columbus.
Then he tore something up his senior year. The injury cost him significant playing time and forced him to redshirt his true freshman season at Ohio State in 2019. Coming in as a decorated recruit with All-American buzz and spending your first year watching games from the sideline is not the trajectory anyone draws up. He worked through it.
See also “Where Does Eugenia Cooney Live? Her Current Home, Location, and Life Today“
Ohio State: Where “Rocket” Built His Name
By 2020, Hickman was contributing on special teams in five games. Unremarkable production, but he was healthy and learning. Then 2021 arrived and everything changed.
He started all 13 games at safety and produced at a level that turned heads across the Big Ten. One hundred tackles. That number is significant enough that you should sit with it — Ohio State’s last safety to reach a century mark in tackles before Hickman was Raekwon McMillan in 2015. He also added two interceptions, a sack, and a defensive touchdown. The coaches’ All-Big Ten second team came out of that season. The media put him on the third team.
People around Columbus started calling him Rocket. The nickname fit — quick processor, fast decision-maker, always in the right place.
His 2022 senior season was statistically quieter — 53 tackles, one interception, seven passes defensed — but the pass breakups were what people noticed. Seven PBUs in a season at safety tells you something about his instincts in coverage. The Associated Press put him on the second-team All-America list. That’s a national recognition from legitimate media, not a fan vote.
He walked out of Ohio State with a degree in human development and family sciences. And then the draft came.
The Draft That Ignored Him. All Seven Rounds.
The 2023 NFL Draft lasted seven rounds across two days. Two hundred and fifty-nine players got their names called. Ronnie Hickman was not one of them.
The criticism from scouts usually came down to size and athleticism concerns relative to the elite tier of safety prospects that year. On paper — the combine paper, the spreadsheet paper — he graded out a notch below where the draft consensus put its priority safeties. The eye test liked him. The algorithm didn’t love him enough to warrant a seventh-round flutter from any of the thirty-two teams.
Cleveland signed him as an undrafted free agent May 12th. He was one of only two undrafted free agents who made the Browns’ initial 53-man roster that summer. The other was linebacker Mohamoud Diabate. Beating out veterans and late-round picks for a roster spot when you didn’t even hear your name called at the draft is its own kind of statement.
He made the team. And then he got to work.
Rookie Year: A Pick-Six That Made Everyone Pay Attention
His 2023 season was limited — ten games, four starts. The Browns were rotating their secondary and Hickman was working his way into a coaching staff’s trust. Twenty-five combined tackles, three passes defended.
And then December 28th happened. Week 17. Cleveland versus the New York Jets. Quarterback Trevor Siemian threw a pass that Hickman read perfectly, stepped in front of, and returned 30 yards for a touchdown. A pick-six. His first career interception and his first career touchdown on the same play.
It was the Browns’ only defensive score of the entire 2023 season. And it came from the undrafted guy who wasn’t supposed to be on the roster.
The 2024 season was quieter but important. Fourteen games, five starts, 45 tackles, one fumble recovery. Hickman was playing within a rotation that included Grant Delpit, Juan Thornhill, and Rodney McLeod. He was getting more snaps than his rookie year but not quite the full-time role yet. He was absorbing, adjusting, waiting.
2025: The Breakout That Made His Contract Look Ridiculous
The three-year deal Cleveland gave him after the undrafted signing was worth $2.715 million with about $220,000 guaranteed and a signing bonus around $20,000. For context, that’s not money. That’s NFL entry-level minimum structure. For a starter who ends up playing all 17 games of a regular season, it’s embarrassingly team-friendly.
In 2025, Hickman exploded. He started every single game. He finished with 103 tackles — a career high by a wide margin and third on the entire Browns team. He intercepted two passes. He broke up seven passes on top of that. He played 98.48 percent of Cleveland’s defensive snaps for the year.
Pro Football Focus graded him 18th among 98 qualified safeties in coverage that season. His overall defensive grade was 69.8 — not elite but solidly competent, the grade of a legitimate starter contributing at a real level.
You know what that contract paid him to do all of that? Not much. The Browns had one of the better bargains in the NFL running at the safety position.
February 16, 2026: New York Hotel. 4:30 AM.
This is the part of the story that landed in national headlines. Hickman was in New York City on the morning of February 16th, 2026, when four unidentified individuals attacked him in the lobby of the SIXTY LES Hotel on Allen Street — that’s the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The incident happened around 4:30 in the morning.
Police who responded to the 911 call said the suspects punched him repeatedly following an argument and then fled. No arrests were made. Hickman was transported to Bellevue Hospital, treated for minor injuries, and released the same day.
The Browns put out a statement quickly: Hickman was a victim of assault, had been treated and released, was home with his family, and was okay. Cleveland’s PR team handled it efficiently. Police were still investigating whether the attackers recognized him as an NFL player.
The timing was genuinely brutal. He was heading into unrestricted free agency after a career-defining season. The contract negotiations everyone expected — estimated at $7–8 million annually by some projections — were right around the corner. You don’t need a physical setback of any kind, no matter how minor, walking into that conversation.
He recovered. He went home. The investigation continued without public resolution.
The Lacrosse Thing Deserves Its Own Mention
Here’s the detail that makes Ronnie Hickman’s athletic profile unusual in a way that doesn’t fit neatly into the standard football prospect narrative. He wasn’t just a lacrosse player in high school. He was an All-American lacrosse player. He had real options in that sport if he’d chosen differently.
Lacrosse at the All-American level develops specific physical skills — hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, reading angles, quick body adjustments. These are not incidental overlaps with safety play. They’re direct translations. The same instincts that let you track a lacrosse ball at full speed help you break on a football in coverage.
Whatever combination of nature and athletic development went into making him the player he became, his background is broader than the average safety prospect. He came to football with tools that most defensive backs don’t have.
Final Words
Here’s the honest take. Ronnie Hickman is exactly what people mean when they talk about the draft process having real limitations. He came out of one of the most visible programs in college football. He had accumulated 158 tackles across four seasons at Ohio State. He was a second-team All-American in his final year. And every single team in the NFL let him slip through all seven rounds without using a single selection on him.
The Browns picked him up off the wire. He’s now one of their most important defensive players. He just led their secondary in snaps played during a full 17-game season. He’s heading into a free agency situation where he could make $7–8 million annually because the number he posted — 103 tackles, seven PDs, two picks, full-time starter, every game — is exactly what a real NFL safety looks like.
He was also an All-American lacrosse player who graduated with a degree in human development. He got punched in a New York City hotel lobby and walked out of the hospital the same day. He earned the nickname Rocket in Columbus because of how fast he processes what’s happening in front of him.
None of that fits the draft profile that teams passed on in 2023. All of it fits the player Cleveland has watched develop for three years.
The scouts got this one wrong. Hickman is making sure they don’t forget it.
FAQs
1. Where is Ronnie Hickman from?
Born in Manhattan, New York, on October 11, 2001. He grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, and attended DePaul Catholic High School in Wayne, NJ.
2. What position does Ronnie Hickman play?
Free safety for the Cleveland Browns. He wears number 33 and has been a full-time starter since the 2025 season.
3. Was Ronnie Hickman drafted?
No. He went undrafted in the 2023 NFL Draft across all seven rounds. The Browns signed him as an undrafted free agent on May 12, 2023.
4. What college did Ronnie Hickman attend?
Ohio State University. He played there from 2019 to 2022, recording 158 career tackles, three interceptions, and two forced fumbles. He graduated with a degree in human development and family sciences.
5. What were Ronnie Hickman’s 2025 stats?
He started all 17 regular-season games and finished with 103 tackles (51 solo), two interceptions, and seven passes defensed. His PFF coverage grade for the season ranked 18th among all qualified safeties.
6. What is Ronnie Hickman’s nickname?
Rocket — earned during his time at Ohio State for his ability to quickly read plays and get to the football.
7.Was Ronnie Hickman a lacrosse player?
Yes. He was an All-American lacrosse player in high school at DePaul Catholic. He chose to pursue football in college despite having legitimate lacrosse options.
8. What happened to Ronnie Hickman in New York in 2026?
On February 16, 2026, Hickman was assaulted by four unidentified suspects in the lobby of the SIXTY LES Hotel on Allen Street in Manhattan at approximately 4:30 AM. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital, treated for minor injuries, and released the same day. Police investigated but made no arrests.
9. What was Ronnie Hickman’s contract with the Browns?
His initial undrafted free agent deal was three years at $2.715 million with roughly $220,000 guaranteed. Following his 2025 breakout season, projections for his next contract landed in the $7–8 million annually range.
10. What was Ronnie Hickman’s rookie season highlight?
A pick-six in Week 17 of 2023 against the New York Jets — he intercepted Trevor Siemian and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown, the only defensive score Cleveland recorded that entire season.
11. How does Ronnie Hickman’s PFF grade compare to other safeties?
His 2025 overall defensive grade of 69.8 ranked 28th among 98 qualified safeties. His coverage grade of 72.7 ranked 18th. His run defense grade of 61.7 ranked 78th, which is the area most analysts identify as the weak point in his game.
12. Did Ronnie Hickman play any other position in high school?
Yes — at DePaul Catholic he played both safety and wide receiver on the football side. He was a two-way athlete before committing to safety at Ohio State.
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