Inside the Hall logo

Former IU football standouts D’Angelo Ponds, Kaelon Black selected on day two of 2026 NFL draft

 

Photos of IU football vs. Illinois football at Memorial Stadium on September 20, 2025.

Former IU football standouts D’Angelo Ponds and Kaelon Black were selected on day two of the NFL draft on Friday night.

Ponds was the No. 50 pick (second round) by the New York Jets, while Black was the No. 90 pick (third round) by the San Francisco 49ers.

Through two days of the draft, four IU players have been selected.

Here are details on the selection of Ponds and Black, via IU Athletics:

Ponds

A third Hoosier is off the board, as D’Angelo Ponds was selected in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft. The New York Jets selected their second-straight Indiana standout with the 50th overall selection, after taking Omar Cooper with the No. 30 pick on night one of the draft.

With his selection in the second round, Indiana has three picks in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft for the first time in program history. IU has three-or-more picks in the same draft for the 26th time in program history and the first since 2016 when Jason Spriggs (2nd; T, Green Bay), Jordan Howard (5th; RB, Chicago) and Nate Sudfeld (6th; QB, Washington).

Ponds is the highest-drafted Indiana cornerback since Tracy Porter went with the 40th overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Ray Fisher was the last IU cornerback picked in the draft when he was a seventh-round selection by the Indianapolis Colts in 2010.

This is the fourth time in the common draft era that the same team has picked Hoosiers in the same draft: New York Jets (2026), San Francisco 49ers (2025), New York Giants (1988), Chicago Bears (1981).

He appeared in 41 career games with 37 starts – 28 appearances with 27 starts as a Hoosier – and earned All-America honors in each of his two seasons in Bloomington. A second-team selection in 2024, Ponds earned just the second-ever first-team All-America honor for a cornerback at IU (Tiawan Mullen, 2020). He also garnered Freshman All-America laurels as a true freshman at James Madison.

Ponds was a two-time first-team All-Big Ten pick in 2024 and 2025 with 118 tackles (80 solo), 20 pass breakups and five interceptions. He was the second-highest graded cornerback over the past two seasons (min. 800 snaps) in the Power 4 at 91.5 per Pro Football Focus and forced 21 incompletions.

Black

Bloomington West is gaining steam with the selection of running back Kaelon Black by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Black is the third Hoosier picked by the organization over the past two seasons along with CJ West and Kurtis Rourke in 2025.

Indiana continues to set program marks in its NFL Draft history and now has a program-best four selection in the first three rounds and its most picks in a single draft since four during the 1988 draft.

Black is the highest-drafted Indiana running back since Tevin Coleman was the 73rd overall selection by Atlanta in the 2015 NFL Draft. The last IU ball carrier taken in the NFL Draft came 10 years ago when Jordan Howard was a fifth-round selection of the Chicago Bears.

With 56 career games played and 16 starts – 29 games as a Hoosier – the posted the 21st 1,000-yard rushing season in program history with 1,040 yards on 186 carries and 10 touchdowns in 2025. Over 16 games this season, Black produced double-digit carries in 13 times and produced at least 60 yards rushing 11 times to go along with a 110-yard effort at Maryland and 99-yard outing against Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

Combined with Roman Hemby’s 1,120 yards rushing, the duo is just the second in program history to reach the century mark in the same season. The only other season IU had multiple 1,000-yard rushers was the 2015 campaign with Jordan Howard (1,213) and Devine Redding (1,012).

For his career, he had 2,596 yards rushing and 17 scores to go along with 55 receptions and 528 yards and six scores. He owned four career 100-yard rushing games (1 at IU; 3 at JMU) and produced 3,202 career all-purpose yards with 23 touchdowns (17 rush, 6 receiving).

See More: Football