Three Tar Heels Named To Senior Bowl Top 300 List

MOBILE, ALA. – North Carolina football players Marcus Allen, Thaddeus Dixon and Daniel King have been named to the Senior Bowl Top 300 List, the organization announced Wednesday.

Allen started 12 games for the Tar Heels last season, recording 36 tackles. He also tallied four pass breakups and intercepted two passes.

Dixon, who transferred into the program in January, was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection last season at Washington. He played in all 13 of the Huskies' games in 2024, making 12 starts. Dixon had 43 tackles, including 26 solo stops, and tallied 10 pass breakups. The Los Angeles native recorded an interception against Washington State and returned it 21 yards.

He put together one of his best performances of the season versus No. 1 Oregon, logging a season-high eight tackles with a forced fumble and a pass breakup. Following the season, he was voted UW's defensive skill player of the year.

Hailing from Cairo, Ga., King earned All-Sun Belt Team honors in each of the past two seasons at Troy before transferring to Carolina. In 2024, he was a team captain and member of the leadership council, while starting all 12 games either at right tackle or right guard. He graded out as the fourth-best blocker in the Sun Belt, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). King helped pave the way for a 1,000-yard rusher and 1,000-yard receiver, just the third time Troy had a player reach those milestones in the same season.

The Senior Bowl scouting department, comprised entirely of former NFL scouts, has been hard at work since last February, evaluating over 2,000 prospects from all levels of college football. From that extensive and competitive process, the Senior Bowl Top 300 was composed.

The Senior Bowl takes great pride in identifying and showcasing the "Best of the Best." The results speak for themselves: 50% of the players selected in the top three rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft were Panini Senior Bowl participants. In keeping with that high standard, the Senior Bowl made a deliberate decision to be more selective, thus moving away from the 850 players featured on last year's watchlist and narrowing the focus to a more exclusive group of 300.

This list represents more than just a preseason acknowledgment; it reflects the highest standards in college football. Being named to the Senior Bowl Top 300 list is a meaningful honor and signals that the prospects on this list are viewed among the very best in the country. Only draft eligible players are featured on this list.

The move from an 850-player watchlist to a Top 300 list highlights the 300 most promising prospects for this upcoming draft cycle. These 300 players are the Best of the Best in college right now, according to the Senior Bowl Scouting Department. However, this is just the beginning, and this season is the most important part of the evaluation process. Just because a player is listed on our Top 300 list does not guarantee him an invitation, nor if a player is not currently on our list does it mean he will not be evaluated with the same expertise and attention-to-detail as the players currently on this list. It is very much possible and likely that many players not on this list will earn an invitation to the Panini Senior Bowl depending on how well they perform this season.

The Senior Bowl Top 300 features only players eligible for the 2026 NFL Draft. Of the 300 prospects selected, 54 are underclassmen. Due to the uncertainty surrounding underclassmen eligibility, the Senior Bowl remains cautious in their inclusion—only featuring those whom our scouting department believes are highly likely to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft following a successful regular season.

Players Mentioned

Marcus Allen

Thaddeus Dixon

Daniel King

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