Jake Paul NFL Survey: 3 in 10 Fans Want to See the World's Biggest Influencer on the Field

Jake Paul's Wikipedia page will make you feel exhausted just reading it.

The 27-year-old Cleveland native is listed as a social media influencer, YouTuber, actor, and professional boxer. Read on, and you'll see that Paul has also dabbled in recording (releasing a handful of singles and music videos), sports betting (as the founder of Betr sportsbook) and men's personal care (launching his own brand, "W", earlier this year).

And as you can imagine, Paul continues to look for ways to broaden his personal legacy.

In promoting his Nov. 15 fight with boxing legend Mike Tyson, Paul suggested that bigger and better things are ahead, including a major world boxing title. And he didn't stop there, going so far as to say he would make a run at becoming an NFL player once his boxing triumphs are complete.

"You know, I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in the NFL, a lot of dropped passes," he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram earlier this month. "These guys don’t have ends, even though that’s what they get paid to do, and a lot of them are just boring. So I’m gonna bring in marketing and business and catch balls.”

No one doubts his ability to drum up business – but becoming an NFL player seems like it would be a lot more difficult. So we surveyed 2,500 NFL fans to ask them how Jake Paul would fare in his quest to join the NFL – and whether they would care.

Would you be interested in seeing Jake Paul in the NFL?

The idea of a social media influencer suddenly transitioning into an NFL player probably seems absurd to most – even if that influencer is freakishly athletic. But it speaks to just how impressive Paul has been in his other ventures that three in 10 NFL fans would love to see Paul give it a go.

When broken down by fan base, we see that the Houston Texans (47.5%) have the highest incidence of respondents wanting to see Paul in NFL action, followed closely by the Arizona Cardinals (42.3%). The Denver Broncos are third at 37.9%, followed by the Dallas Cowboys (36.8%) and the Indianapolis Colts (35.7%).

On the flip side, the Tennessee Titans (13.3%) are least interested to see Paul grace a professional football gridiron. The Philadelphia Eagles (21.1%) are a distant second, followed by the Seattle Seahawks (23.1%), Pittsburgh Steelers (23.5%) and Detroit Lions (23.5%).

Could Jake Paul play wide receiver for an NFL team?

This response speaks even more to Paul's reputation as an elite athlete, as nearly one in four NFL fans believe he could actually succeed as an NFL wideout if he were to make a run at it.

A trio of familiar fan bases grace the top of this list, with the Cardinals base (34.6%) the most bullish on Paul's potential NFL future. The Miami Dolphins are next at 33.9%, followed by the Broncos (32.8%), New York Jets (32.7%) and Texans (31.1%). Paul's beloved Cowboys came in at 27.3%, good for ninth on the list.

Fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars have the least amount of faith in Paul's pass-catching prowess, with just 9.7% thinking he could succeed. The Lions are second at 11.8%, followed by the Seahawks (14.1%), Eagles (18.4%), Titans (20.0%) and Patriots (20.0%.

Would Jake Paul catch a single pass as an NFL wide receiver?

Now we're getting down to it. It's one thing to nix the idea of Jake Paul being a successful NFL player – but come on, surely the majority believe that he has the athletic ability to catch at least one NFL pass, right?

Yeah, not so much.

Over half of our 2,500 respondents believe Paul isn't capable of even hauling in a single reception at the highest level of professional football. And it's those pessimistic Jaguars fans leading the way again, with 71% saying Paul will catch as many NFL passes as Mike Tyson has.

The Cleveland Browns – Paul's hometown team – are the next-biggest cynics at 66.7%, followed by the Chicago Bears (62.7%), Titans (60.0%) and Lions (59.8%)

Still, a whopping 14 teams teams saw the majority of their survey participants take Paul's side on this one. The Baltimore Ravens were his biggest supporters, with 62.5% saying he could catch at least one ball; Arizona (61.5%) is next, followed by the Dolphins (59.7%), Las Vegas Raiders (57.1%) and Los Angeles Rams (57.1%).

Which NFL team would Jake Paul be best suited to join?*

*Respondents were asked to select up to three teams.

If Jake Paul is going to join the ranks of the professional football elite, fans think it's only fitting that he do so with the Cowboys.

Nearly one in four respondents believe that America's Team would be the most logical destination for Paul, who will tangle with Tyson on Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium, home of the Cowboys. The Browns, another sensible choice given his Cleveland roots, are second on the list at 20.9%, while three teams with spotty recent histories – the Las Vegas Raiders (19.6%), Carolina Panthers (18.9%) and New York Jets (18.1%) – round out the top five.

Of note: Paul has previously said he was "transitioning" from Browns fan to Cincinnati Bengals supporter. The Bengals finished well outside the top 10 on this list.

Do you think Jake Paul becoming an NFL player would be a positive or negative development for the league?

NFL fans generally have no time for gimmicks – and nearly three in four believe that Paul making the NFL as a player would cast a negative light on the league as a whole.

Among those who opted for "negative", nearly one-third (31.8%) suggested that controversy and distraction due to Paul's presence would be the single biggest issue with his arrival in the NFL. Another 24.3% said his lack of experience would be the most notable problem, while 20% said the hit to the league's reputation would be the No. 1 drawback.

For the "positive" crowd, 37.6% identified increased entertainment value as the biggest draw to having Paul in the NFL, while an extra 36% said his arrival would mean increased interest from a new demographic.

Nearly 16% of those who selected "positive" said the league would benefit most from additional media attention.

Will you watch the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight on Nov. 15?

As for the hotly anticipated Paul-Tyson bout, our respondents were split almost completely down the middle when asked whether they would watch.

Just over half of participants said they plan on seeing the fight, which will be streamed live on Netflix. The fight will consist of a maximum of eight rounds, with each round lasting two minutes.

Our latest Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson odds have the YouTube sensation as a hefty favorite of between -275 and -350 against the 59-year-old Tyson, who has a career pro record of 50-6-2 with 44 KOs but hasn't fought in a sanctioned bout in nearly 20 years.

Who do you want to win the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight?

Well, this is awkward.

We've spent the majority of this survey giving serious consideration to Paul's potential NFL future – but we didn't consider that, while there's no questioning his athleticism, he's just not that popular in fighting circles.

More than nine in 10 are rooting for the former world heavyweight champion, whose advanced age and expected ring rust have him as a considerable underdog in the +210 to +240 range. Despite the huge odds discrepancy – or perhaps because of it – it's easy to see why Tyson is a considerable public favorite over Paul, who has been criticized repeatedly for his foray into the squared circle.

And not everyone is a fan of this fight even taking place. Former heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder told Sportsbook Review back in May: "I don't want to see one of my legends fight a YouTuber."

__________

Now that we've broached the idea of Paul entering the NFL arena, and gauged what the public thinks, it's time to look at how people feel about two other stars who have come up in the "athlete-turned-NFLer" conversation.

Multi-time Olympic champion and 100-meter world record holder Usain Bolt previously received multiple offers from NFL teams to try out. Bolt ultimately wasn't interested, though he did tease his enormous potential by running a 40-yard dash in 4.22 seconds, which would have been the fastest time in NFL Combine history.

Given his blinding speed alone, do respondents think the Jamaican-born track sensation could have been a viable NFL wide receiver option in his physical prime?

Could Usain Bolt have been an NFL wide receiver in his prime?

As the saying goes, you can't teach speed – and entering a new sport with such a massive physical advantage is good enough for more than five in 10 participants to suggest that Bolt could have played receiver in the NFL. And based on the fact that he received legitimate offers from actual NFL teams, this isn't such a crazy conclusion.

What about another incredible physical specimen: Los Angeles Lakers behemoth and all-time NBA scoring leader LeBron James? LeBron told reporters that he had received tryout offers from both the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks during the 2011 NBA lockout, and confidently said "I would have made the team" had he accepted.

Do NFL fans agree?

Could LeBron James have been an NFL wide receiver in his prime?

More than half agree with James here – and you have to wonder if the number would have been even higher had we listed him as a tight end instead (at 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, he would have been much more suited to that position). Regardless, James's dalliance with the NFL leaves us to dream about just how good he would have been as a pass-catcher with the Cowboys (or Seahawks).

How would you rank Paul, Bolt and James from best to worst as potential NFL players?

This might be the least surprising result of all, especially given the responses to the two previous questions. A slight majority of respondents believe James would have made a better NFL player in his prime than Bolt – and both sets of voters agree that Paul belongs at the bottom of the list.

Methodology

We collected 2,500 responses from Oct. 31-Nov. 1; here's the demographic breakdown: