At the halfway point of the NFL season, numerous Florida Gators alumni have made impacts on the field.
Here’s a look at some of the most impactful former Gators thus far this season.
Tennessee Titans WR Chimere Dike
Drafted in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans, Chimere Dike has not only made an impact in the receiving game but has solidified himself as a top return specialist in the NFL.
Dike caught 42 passes for 783 yards and two touchdowns in his one season with the Gators after transferring from Wisconsin to reunite with his former quarterback Graham Mertz. Dike also served as UF’s primary punt returner, recording 187 yards over 14 returns.
With the change in the NFL kickoff rules heading into the 2025 season, Dike was viewed as a valuable asset by the Titans, who instantly plugged him into their return specialist position.
Since then, Dike has shone on special teams. He leads the NFL by a wide margin in kick return yards, taking 42 returns for 1,108 yards. The next best mark is 769 yards by the Washington Commanders’ Luke McCaffrey. Dike also has 10 punt returns for 195 yards, one of which was a 67-yard touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
Dike has also started building rapport with fellow rookie quarterback Cam Ward in the Tennessee passing game. In a two-game stretch from Oct. 19 to Oct. 26, Dike caught 11 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown. His 194 receiving yards on the season rank fourth on the Titans.
“Me and Chim [Dike], we just see it the same way, from how he sees the field to how I see the field, it's the same way,” Ward said Oct. 19. “I think that's something that me and him continue to create that relationship just on the field.”
San Francisco 49ers WR Ricky Pears all
Former UF receiver Ricky Pearsall has emerged as a top target for the San Francisco 49ers: that is, when he’s been on the field. The former Arizona State transfer shone during his two years as a Gator. He made 25 appearances in the Orange and Blue, catching 98 passes for 1,626 yards and scoring 12 all-purpose touchdowns.
Since being drafted 31st overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, Pearsall has suffered through multiple setbacks, including a life-threatening situation when he was shot through the chest on Aug. 31, 2024. After recovering from his wound, he appeared in 11 games during his rookie season, catching 31 passes for 400 yards and three touchdowns.
Despite dealing with a hamstring injury that sidelined him during some of the offseason, Pearsall hit the ground running in 2025. He made four grabs for 108 yards in the 49ers’ season-opening victory against the Seattle Seahawks Sept. 7. He exceeded that performance two weeks later, catching eight passes for 117 yards in a win over the Arizona Cardinals.
“This is how Ricky's been for a while,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said Sept. 21. “We felt it towards the end of last year. He's been this way all through training camp, and it's one of the reasons we wanted to draft him here and hasn't disappointed us at all.”
However, one week later on Sept. 28, he left the 49ers’ loss against the Jacksonville Jaguars early with a knee injury, later determined to be a sprain of his posterior cruciate ligament.
He has been out of action since, but despite that, he remains third on the team in receiving yards with 302, and his 77.1 Pro Football Focus grade ranks 21st among NFL wide receivers. Shanahan said Nov. 3 that Pearsall could potentially return on Nov. 9 against the Cleveland Browns, pending evaluation.
Atlanta Falcons TE Kyle Pitts
One of the most highly decorated Gators in the past decade, Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts was expected to be a game-changing weapon after being drafted No. 4 in the 2021 NFL Draft. But, Pitts’ time in the NFL has been up-and-down. However, he’s on pace for a solid 2025 season.
Over three seasons as a Gator, Pitts made 100 catches for 1,492 yards and 18 touchdowns. In the shortened 2020 season, he caught 43 passes for 770 yards and 12 touchdowns in just eight games, earning him the John Mackey Award, unanimous All-American honors and 10th place in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Pitts continued rolling during his rookie season in 2021, reeling in 68 catches for 1,026 yards and a touchdown. In the three following seasons, however, Pitts dealt with a mixture of questionable play-calling and subpar quarterback play, limiting him to consecutive sub-700-yard seasons.
“He's always going to have the added pressure because of how high he was drafted," Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine. "So, we want to be able to get the young man out there and be the best version of him.”
In 2025, Pitts has bounced back while serving as a safety blanket for second year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. He has made 43 catches for 382 yards, with both marks ranking in the top 10 for NFL tight ends this season.
Pitts’ 68.8 PFF grade ranks 23rd among qualified tight ends and is the best since his injury-plagued 2022 season. Against the Commanders on Sept. 28, he made four catches for 70 yards and a touchdown, earning a 78.4 game grade.
Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Grenada
Another former transfer portal success story in Gainesville, Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Greenard has become one of the most consistent defenders in the NFL.
After transferring from Louisville in 2019, Greenard shone during his sole season as a Gator, recording 15.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, an interception and a forced fumble. He was later drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Greenard had a slow rookie season, but since then, he has emerged as a premier pass rusher. He has 36 sacks over the past four and a half seasons, 22.5 of which came in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, his debut season with the Vikings after signing a four-year, $76 million contract, he made his first Pro Bowl appearance after recording 12 sacks and forcing four fumbles.
In 2025, Greenard hasn’t gotten to the quarterback as much with only two sacks at the midseason mark, but he has been a key cog to a solid Minnesota run defense. His 80.8 run defense grade ranks seventh among qualified NFL edge rushers per PFF.
“He's a very smart player,” Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores said Aug. 2. “You want to talk protections, he's good. You want to talk run game, he's good. You want to talk some pass coverage, he can do that too.”
Greenard’s consistency has been exceptional since his rookie season. In four of five seasons since, he has ranked as a top 30 edge rusher by PFF grade, with the only season ranked lower being his 2022 campaign, in which he only played eight games.
Detroit Lions LB Alex Anzalone
A former team captain for the Gators and now a team captain for the Detroit Lions, linebacker Alex Anzalone has put together an exceptionally solid nine-year NFL career, but 2025 might be his finest season yet.
In Gainesville, Anzalone was plagued by injuries, but his talent and work ethic shined despite his lack of experience. Despite being limited to 24 games over four seasons, Anzalone stood out enough to be drafted in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints.
After dealing with more injury issues over four years with the Saints, Anzalone signed with the Lions ahead of the 2021 season and was instantly named a team captain and plugged into the starting lineup.
Since then, Anzalone has consistently performed in the center of the Detroit defense as the Lions have emerged as perennial contenders. He has earned a PFF grade of at least 66 over the past three seasons, and his 72.6 grade in 2025 is on pace to be his career-high mark.
Anzalone has also shown an ability to be effective in every facet of linebacking. He is one of 15 linebackers with at least a 60 PFF grade for run defending, pass rushing and pass coverage among qualified players at the position.
“I’ve said it before, he’s really our quarterback on defense,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Jan. 6. “There’s a lot of confidence he brings, a lot of energy. He can calm the storms.”
San Francisco 49ers kicker Eddy Pineiro
After featuring for three teams over the first four seasons of his career, kicker Eddy Pineiro has seemingly found a home in San Francisco, where he has been near-flawless in 2025.
In two years as Florida’s kicker, Pineiro was uber-efficient, making 38 of his 43 field goal attempts while converting 56 of his 58 point after tries. After going undrafted in 2018, Pineiro appeared for the Chicago Bears, New York Jets and Carolina Panthers, the latter of which he kicked for from 2022-24.
Despite being unsigned when the 2025 regular season began, Pineiro was quickly acquired by the 49ers to replace the struggling Jake Moody. Since then, Pineiro has been everything San Francisco could have asked for and more in a kicker.
He has made all 19 of his field goal attempts and 14 of his 15 extra point tries in 2025
. In the 49ers’ win over the Cardinals Sept. 21, Pineiro hit a game-winning 35-yard field goal. Then, on Oct. 2, Pineiro hit four field goals, including a career-long 59-yarder and a game-winning 41-yarder to beat the Los Angeles Rams in overtime. He was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for that performance.
“He hasn’t missed one yet except for his first extra point,” Shanahan said Oct. 23. “My confidence is always based off my life experiences with someone, and my life experience has been pretty damn good with him so far. So, he’s doing a hell of a job.”
Pineiro’s 90.9 field goal/extra point kicking grade ranks fifth among NFL kickers and would easily surpass his 75 career-high grade in 2022. His accuracy has also seen him rise up the NFL all-time leaderboards, where he ranks third all-time in field goal percentage (89.7).
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.
Max is in his sixth semester at The Alligator and now serves as The Alligator's Football Reporter and is a junior sports journalism student. He previously served as The Alligator's Sports Editor, and served as reporter for women's tennis, volleyball and lacrosse. He also has made multiple appearances on the Paul Finebaum Show. He wants to shoutout his cats, Scooter and Zoe, and also loves niche professional athletes (shoutout Tomas Fleischmann).
