Scouting Overview

Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cameron Ward is an explosive passer who has the ceiling to be an impact starter at the pro level. He possesses the arm strength, arm elasticity, and mobility within the pocket to be a headache to defend against. He can slide out of harm’s way and rip throws into tight windows down the field for back-breaking conversions against a defense.

His greatest gift is also his greatest curse, however. Ward is, at times, erratic and unpredictable in his execution of the offense. He is a big-game hunter who craves to push the ball down the field and take shots for big plays, even at the expense of easier completions and larger throwing windows on early downs. NFL coaching will need to help him find the right balance in his game. He showed growth in this area from 2023 to 2024 but still put his team in too many precarious situations due to carelessness with the football and sacks taken outside of structure.

Ward isn’t necessarily a rhythm passer, but he offers a concise whip of a throwing motion and can snap the ball out of his hands quickly and generate velocity. From clean pockets, Ward showcases touch and precision accuracy to set his receivers up for explosive plays after the catch. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Eccentric creativity as a passer affords him unique problem-solving skills outside of structure
• Possesses the NFL arm talent to hit nearly any throw from a slew of arm slots and release angles
• Slippery within the pocket to make a first-arriving rusher miss and buy extra time for routes to develop

Negatives

• Consistency of play execution is irregular due to a big-play-hunting mentality
• Gunslinger who has never seen a throw he couldn’t make
• Lacks the athleticism to ideally match his style of play and escapability to extend plays

Background

Ward’s path to the NFL is a road less traveled. Ward, who will be a 23-year-old rookie in 2025, was born in West Columbia, TX, and played his high school football for Columbia HS. Columbia ran a Wing-T offense, leaving Ward underexposed as a recruit coming out of high school and with limited attempts across his career as a starting quarterback. As a result, Ward received next to little attention as a recruit and ultimately committed to play at Incarnate Word — the only program to offer him a scholarship. 

Ward exploded on the scene during his 2020 spring season at Incarnate Word as a true freshman. Ward led the FCS in passing touchdowns (24) that spring en route to winning the Jerry Rice Award for the best freshman in all of FCS. His second season at Incarnate Ward saw him named the Southland Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year thanks to 4,648 passing yards and 47 touchdowns. With his reputation developed, Ward entered the transfer portal for the first time ahead of the 2022 college football season and committed to Washington State. Ward was followed by his favorite receiving target from UIW as well as Eric Morris, who was the OC for Ward’s two seasons at the FCS level. 

Morris softened Ward’s transition to the FBS level, and Ward enjoyed two successful but inconsistent seasons at Washington State before reassessing his situation ahead of his final year of eligibility. Ward initially entered the transfer portal again, then declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. Before the final deadline, he reentered the portal, withdrew his declaration, and committed to the University of Miami — where things went to a whole new level. 

Ward’s reputation as a dynamic passer was met with a signature win early in the year against Florida against the Gators and several come-from-behind victories amid a 9-0 start, the Canes’ first since 2017. Miami lost two of their final three, however — including a collapse against Georgia Tech in the kind of moments Ward had thrived in all season when playing from behind.

The losses cost the Canes a spot in the ACC Championship game and, ultimately, a place in the 12-team college football playoff. Ward was named a finalist for the 2024 Heisman Trophy, named a First-Team AP All-American and won the Davey O’Brien Award for his play in his fifth and final season of eligibility. 

Tale Of The Tape

Ward has a beautiful mind for the game. His ability to identify aggressive windows is matched only by his willingness to push the physical limits of his skill set to create big plays up and down the field. And in the game of developing quarterbacks, you’d much rather have to find a way to reel someone in than have them try to find their edge — and Ward’s edge is bold and, many times, brilliant.

It leads to some high-variance outcomes as a passer that will be frustrating to live with and work out of his system. However, Ward is the kind of unique passer who is still behind many of his colleagues thanks to his modest passing career in high school. 

Despite being a five-year starter at the college level, Ward appears to have plenty of growth potential for two reasons: he played for Eric Morris for his first three seasons of college play before Morris was hired for the North Texas gig in 2023, and Ward spreading his wings to leave the nest and leap to Miami in 2024. So, his exposure to more robust schemes has been limited. So, too, has his throwing volume until the past few years.

For example, Shedeur Sanders attempted 1,238 pass attempts as a prep player at Trinity HS. Ward’s entire high school career, plus his first two seasons at Incarnate Word, totaled less than 1,200 attempts. 

He profiles as a player who will require bold coaching and patience to pull the best of him out. He’s got natural ball-handling skills and offers a dynamic variety of flash fakes and play actions to fool defenders with his back to the defense. The ability to quickly catch and shoot the ball out into the flats and do so while throwing around free runners off the edge makes him a dangerous screen executor as well.

These are the kinds of elements of Ward’s game that should be leaned upon more than usual early in his pro career. Encouraging him to let his pass catchers do the work for him and be more of a point guard and less of a shot-taker will help bring his game to equilibrium. 

As a passer, he can make all the throws. He’s got a twitchy release that generates a ton of spin on the ball, and he’s got a slingshot feel to his delivery that allows him to whip throws in tight spaces without being fully able to get his body into the throw. The reliance on this ability can get him in trouble at times, as it creates accuracy spray and denies him precision passing in congested areas and a tight pocket.

If you’re willing to take the good with the bad, he’ll make some throws that others wouldn’t even try. There’s an ability to drive field outs and double moves up the sideline that will force wide defenders to stay vigilant in their zone spacing or else risk getting beat for big plays up the sideline. This trickle-down effect will impact and negate teams’ ability to crowd the middle of the field and congest certain areas — leaving everything a little more open to access. 

Ward’s arm strength and head movements show his ability to move and defeat zone coverage defenders. He’ll drop his arm slot and whip a throw around an underneath defender or, conversely, stand tall and pull the string to drop a ball with touch overtop of the second level of the defense as the geometry of his release point and route path necessitates. He’s got few physical limitations as a pure passer. 

Ward pairs these abilities with an innate feel of pressure. Nothing feels hurried or too quick for him when he’s forced off his spot, and Ward does a nice job of keeping his eyes down the field to allow receivers to uncover from defenders and work to space. He’s hit a number of big home runs this year while sliding away from a free runner and attacking grass downfield — even when flushed to his left and forced to drive a throw.

He did this for scores against Florida and Louisville this year. His twitch in these instances is good but not great, and he tends to habitually lean on this ability too often for what will be replicable in the pros. More dynamic players on the edge will make him pay for going to the well too often. 

Ward’s processing of play concepts and reading out the defense is capable, but it feels like he scorns the progression order at times when sitting on individual matchups or looking to drive the ball down the field. The instances in which Ward plays within himself and when disciplined are when he is at his best — but the trust he puts in his ability to create will rear up too often and lead to unnecessary sacks or turnover-worthy throws. He threw nearly identical interceptions rolling and throwing late off his back foot across the middle, a troubling reinforcement that he’s got unflappable confidence — at times to a fault. 

Ward is well regarded as a leader and should have no problem assimilating himself to his football team, as he did with the Miami Hurricanes and Washington State Cougars throughout his college career. He has an alpha mentality and confidence at the line of scrimmage — his teammates appear to feed off of it. 

In all, Ward has a powerful and dynamic arm, good but not great accuracy, a sudden release, sufficient mobility, and the bravado necessary to lead. His NFL coaches will be charged with taming some of his wildest tendencies to ensure his impact starter qualities can shine without being canceled out by his own ambition.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Ward should be considered a high-ceiling starter at the NFL level. He’s a physically gifted passer with dynamic arm talent and the ability to win outside of structure when the play design breaks down. His discipline as a passer, however, needs added investment and nurturing to find and embrace easy plays to keep his unit on schedule.

As he matures, his ideal fit feels like a Bruce Arians-style vertical passing offense that cuts the ball loose and encourages the quarterback to aggressively attack defenses into voids further down the field. Of

Scouting Overview

Colorado Buffaloes athlete Travis Hunter is a team-builder’s dream. Hunter has shown elite abilities on both sides of the football, and his instincts and athleticism offer him a seemingly unlimited ceiling at the NFL level.

Teams that desire a run-after-catch threat in the passing game could target him as a wide receiver capable of lining up all over the formation. Teams looking for an impact zone defender on the outside with ball-hawking capabilities could target him as a lockdown starter outside.

Hunter has some of the most eye-popping plays in coverage you’ll see in this year’s class — illustrating rare instincts despite splitting his time equally on either side of the ball. The term generational is often abused in the scouting space, but Hunter is the type of player we haven’t seen in decades. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Elite football instincts in all phases; he is a surreal playmaker on both sides of the football
• Tremendous stamina, as evidenced by his ability to play non-stop in a high-elevation environment like Boulder. 
• Elite fluidity, flexibility, and short-area explosiveness in space

Negatives

• Time on task at either position leaves room for refinement and growth at either position, receiver or cornerback
• Does not have the biggest frame, and functional play strength is not a hallmark skill
• Has suffered injuries in each of his three seasons at the collegiate level — it is worth monitoring workload and usage long-term 

Background

Travis Hunter played his high school football at Collins Hill HS in Suwanee, Georgia. There, he cemented his status as a Georgia HS football legend, breaking the state record for receiving touchdowns (48) while playing cornerback and wide receiver.

Hunter earned the status of the No. 1 recruit in the country as a 5-star prize (247 Sports) before committing to Jackson State and head coach Deion Sanders. Hunter went down in history as a recruit as well, becoming the highest-ranked recruit to commit to an HBCU program. 

During his lone season at Jackson State, Hunter played both ways and was named a finalist for the Jerry Rice Award as a true freshman. He also collected SWAC Freshman of the Year and Second-Team All-SWAC honors despite missing four games due to injury. 

With Coach Sanders taking the Colorado head coaching position, Hunter partook in the exodus of talent from Jackson State to Colorado, quickly establishing himself on the FBS level as a rare two-way talent. He missed an additional three and a half games on account of a lacerated liver suffered on a crushing blow taken against Colorado State.

Despite the missed time, Hunter played more snaps from scrimmage than any other FBS player in 2023, thanks to serving as a full-time wide receiver and cornerback. He was awarded First-Team All-American honors and became the eighth player to receive consensus All-American honors while also scoring Academic All-American status. Hunter was also named the 2023 Paul Hornung Award for the country’s most versatile player. 

Tale Of The Tape

There are blue-chip prospects, and then there is this.

Travis Hunter is a rarity as a legitimate two-way option for the NFL. From a performance perspective, I firmly believe his best outlook lies on the defensive side of football. However, each franchise will have different criteria for traits at either position, and I can foresee a split among NFL franchises as to where to implement Hunter. The underlying commonality is that this is a player who has elite abilities to offer every team—it’s just a matter of where. 

Hunter is a rare mover in space; his foot speed, hip fluidity, and body control allow him to showcase elite change of direction ability both with the ball in his hands as a receiver and playing as an off-corner in coverage. The center of gravity is always under control, allowing Hunter to move with the utmost efficiency when he’s got his angles right. There’s short-area burst, long speed, and lower-body explosion to elevate and go along with that agility, making him a dynamic athlete in all phases. 

At cornerback, it is easy to be blown away by his wide field of vision and anticipation for attacking targets in zone. The ability to leverage multiple routes is amplified by his dynamic transitional quickness, which allows him to squeeze multiple layers of throws on a single rep and get to footballs that almost any other player wouldn’t.

Hunter is an elite defender in zone coverage and has shown growth in his man coverage ability in 2024. The ability to play dominating press coverage won’t be aided by overwhelming strength and power, but Hunter has fluid hips and enough length to dissuade clean releases at a high level in the NFL. He needs to be wary of overplay in the contact window but can keep faith in his recovery speed if he’s challenged vertically and stacked early in the rep. 

Positioning is where Hunter has the most room to gain ground at the position and become a more impactful player with consistency. He’s physically unlimited in the prospects of off-man, zone match, press, true country zone, and everything in between. However, Hunter’s positioning, footwork, and hand placement should be considered easy fixes if he invests his time in this side of the ball. 

If Hunter is charged with playing at wide receiver, his early impact should be expected to manifest with the ball in his hands. He is “blink and you’ll miss him” quick with his cuts and can slither through traffic to get out into open space.

Hunter is savvy with his eyes and hips at the catch point to set up defenders for a missed tackle challenge and create room to run as well. He’s developed excellent chemistry with QB Shedeur Sanders, who can unlock Hunter’s body control with back shoulder throws and high-point opportunities against man coverage in the scramble drill.

Like at cornerback, the growth looms largest at the line of scrimmage, where Hunter could further build out his package of releases against different looks and coverages to set himself up for more success at the top of routes and help him better cultivate separation on a snap by snap basis. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Dealer’s choice. Hunter has the instincts to play on either side of the ball or even both. I do believe his ceiling as a player is higher at cornerback, where his length, ball skills, catching ability, fluidity, instincts, and short-area quickness combine for a genuinely generational type of talent. 

Scouting Overview

Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders is a smooth operator at the quarterback position. He pairs a sharp mind for the game with baseline starter physical traits and plus accuracy as a passer. He won't win the beauty pageant among quarterbacks for most enticing tools, but his family background in the game is obvious when observing how he instinctively processes the field of play.

He’s a capable progression passer with natural second-reaction instincts, plus ball-handling skills, and the needed toughness to win from the pocket in the NFL. Sanders’ toughness might be his most impressive quality — he will take massive hits while allowing plays to develop behind some porous offensive line play.

It all adds up to the final product of a player who appears capable of winning as a traditional passer at the NFL level, although his ceiling may be somewhat dependent on the quality of the cast around him. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Smooth, concise delivery to quickly snap throws after making a decision on where to deliver the football
• Big-play minded passer who illustrates supreme trust in his targets to make plays when isolating 1-on-1 opportunities downfield
• Tough as nails — will stand in against pressure and deliver in dirty pockets to allow routes to develop

Negatives

• Does not have the athletic profile of an impactful scrambler — although he does meet baseline mobility needs
• Has a sufficient arm on drive-throw opportunities but lacks the arm strength to access all areas of the field late in progressions or off-script
• Will take too many avoidable sacks when looking to extend plays and get outside of play structure

Background

Shedeur Sanders is the son of NFL legend and Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders. He was born in Tyler, TX, and played his high school football for Trinity Christian HS in Cedar Hill. As the quarterback at Trinity, Sanders starred as a 4-year starter for the program, posting monster numbers of an excess of 12,600 career passing yards and 166 touchdowns. Shedeur was rated as a 3-star recruit leaving Trinity Christian and committed originally to FAU before flipping to Jackson State to play for his father. 

Sanders made his debut during the 2021 college season as the starting quarterback for Jackson State and won the Jerry Rice Award for the best freshman player in FCS. He is the first player from an HBCU program to win the award. Sanders’ encore in 2022 saw him win the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year award and the Deacon Jones Trophy for the best HBCU talent in the country. 

After the 2022 season, Deion was hired as the head coach at Colorado, and Shedeur quickly followed. Upon his arrival, he was named the team’s starting quarterback and has been a central figure in Colorado’s revival as a program. Sanders faded down the stretch during his junior season after a hot start but returned for a final season of eligibility in 2024 and put together his best season to date. 

Tale Of The Tape

Shedeur Sanders projects as a traditional pocket passer for the NFL level. He’s a rhythm passer with good touch, baseline mobility, and excellent field vision as a player. The Colorado offensive system has exposed him to a myriad of throws at all three levels of the field, and he appears to have the necessary arm strength to hit them all in structure. Sanders has good anticipation, accuracy, and a knack for coming up big in big moments. 

The family pedigree assures that the moment and stage that comes with being a starting quarterback in the NFL won’t be too much for Sanders, who has become one of the faces of the NIL era of college football. The stresses and rigors of a leadership position are immense. Sanders’ growth in this capacity from Year 1 to Year 2 at Colorado should offer plenty of encouragement that he will energize his teammates with his confidence at the next level, too. 

Sanders has a wide field of vision and processes defensive leverage effectively, allowing him to find space and anticipation completions on time to set up his receivers after the catch. He has illustrated the ability to layer the football over the middle of the field and throw to spots where his receivers can run through the catch point.

These reps are most impactful in muddy pockets and under duress — Sanders shows a great sense of how much time his passing clock has before expiration and will allow his receivers to work to open space down the field when extra pressure is brought to compromise numbers on the back end. 

This isn’t to say that Sanders is without flaws, particularly when negotiating pressure. It is easy to like and appreciate the sense of the pocket he possesses; Sanders showcases a good natural feel for peripheral pressure and does have some slipperiness to him to find escape hatches and force a broken angle when he gets off his spot.

However, from this point, some added discipline and jurisdiction would go a long way. Many of his turnover-worthy plays and interceptions have come from off-platform or adjusted arm slot throws, where his lack of ability to drive the ball naturally without his full release can allow late passes to be undercut or cause him to float and overshoot passes he would otherwise drive into windows. 

Furthermore, he takes sacks at a higher rate than you would like when pressured. Sanders has checked in over 20 percent pressure-to-sack ratio in each of his two seasons at Colorado, an indication that his ability to find escape hatches isn’t being followed through with avoiding minus plays.

This is a trait of many big-play passers, but Sanders is at his best when he identifies blitzes and gets the ball out to replace them or throws in rhythm, as opposed to working outside of structure. 

Sanders should be considered a “what you see is what you get” player with pressure. He’s been exposed to about as much of it as any college quarterback during the last two seasons. He’s seen triple-digit third downs under pressure since his arrival at Colorado, and his figures are fairly modest.

Putting him into an environment that encourages quick release time and decisive decision-making is the ticket to limiting the arm talent restrictions that can pop up in his game when forced to drive tight window throws without getting his whole body into the throw. 

Sanders shines in one of the great areas of the field to measure these qualities: the red zone. Among college passers with at least 500 total pass attempts since the start of the 2023 season, Sanders ranks in the top three in all FBS passers in passer efficiency and completion percentage in the red area, where spacing is more restrictive and creates more urgency to quickly process the field. 

Sanders illustrates some nifty ball handling skills, showcasing the ability to sell jet touch passes or, alternatively, shovel the ball out to a slide across the formation if under duress and looking to quickly get an eligible the ball without an orthodox throw.

With that said, he’s generally more effective without play-action passing. Some of this is compounded by the Colorado running game and a lack of consistency in this phase of the program’s offense. But Sanders has been a more consistent and impactful passer when afforded the opportunity to keep his eyes on the defense post-snap as compared to having to diagnose a changing picture post-snap by turning his back to the defense and then needing to re-acclimate his landmarks.

Teams that are less reliant on play-action and allow the quarterback to process are a better immediate fit — although there’s reason to believe Sanders could thrive with a heavier focus on play-action in time.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Shedeur Sanders projects best into a timing-based offense that optimizes his field vision as a passer and his ability to deliver accurate passes on time. When in rhythm, Sanders makes it look easy on the gridiron and can pick apart defenses methodically.

An offensive system that leans into that ability while encouraging him to mitigate some of his outside-of-structure moments stands the best chance to produce a quality starting quarterback. This is an NFL starter, likely on Day 1. 

Scouting Overview

Penn State Nittany Lions linebacker Abdul Carter is one of the most fascinating prospects eligible for the 2025 NFL Draft. Carter has electric traits as a pass rusher and a different gear on the edge that will allow him to threaten pass rush sets with dynamic speed or explosive power.

He’s a standout disruption talent who has provided ample optimism amid his transition to playing full-time on the edge after several years at stack linebacker. He’s got the violent hands, flexibility, and twitch necessary to find an early role at the pro level. However, he likely needs an implementation and development plan to ensure he lives up to the rare multifaceted talent he’s capable of becoming. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Absolutely electric second gear as a pass rusher will explode out of a hesitation rush to turn the corner or develop power
• Versatility upside is obvious, and has the potential to serve as a true position-fluid player week by week 
• Offers good body control and agility in close quarters to collect, corner, and rally to the football

Negatives

• Run-defending skills are generally behind his abilities as a pass rusher — both off the ball and on the edge
• Sorely lacking in block deconstruction and identification skills, which could be a barrier to early playing time outside of long & late downs
• Should not be considered a universal prospect; he’s not dummy-proof, and unimaginative and disorganized defensive schemes could fail his NFL development

Background

Carter is from Philadelphia, PA, and played his high school football for La Salle College HS. As a prep recruit, Carter earned a 4-star recruiting ranking (247 Sports) as a two-time All-State selection. Carter also participated in the Big 33 Classic before enrolling at Penn State as the latest in the Nittany Lions’ proud lineage of talented linebackers. Carter chose PSU over South Carolina, LSU, Kentucky, Michigan, USC, and others. 

As a true freshman, Carter suited up for 13 games and started in six of them — posting 6.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss during the 2022 season. Those marks were among the best in the country for true freshman defenders. Carter’s passing down production did not grow as a sophomore despite assuming a full-time starting role on the Nittany Lions defense. Still, his role expanded and allowed him to collect First-Team All-Big Ten honors for his efforts in 2023. 

Carter undertook a positional transition ahead of the 2024 season, transitioning from an off-ball hybrid linebacker to a more permanent edge presence to rush the passer on the line of scrimmage. After a slow first month of the season, Carter’s presence rushing the passer exploded as Penn State reached conference play, and he has lived up to his reputation as a player with supreme pass-rushing potential. 

Tale Of The Tape

Carter has the potential to be a terror of a pass rusher on the edge. This is a smooth, effortless mover with explosive qualities and violent finishing capabilities. Carter’s versatility is apparent upon reviewing his college tape, adding exciting appeal to the prospect of what he could someday be at the pro level — but it is worth noting that life in the NFL in such roles would be dramatically different and also harder to replicate. And it is that which makes Carter such a compelling draft profile. 

The case for drafting Carter lies in his value in the passing game. He’s a former stack linebacker who now lives on the edge, and in both roles, he’s proven to have a killer instinct for rushing the quarterback. Whether he’s pressing interior gaps from a mugged-up alignment or attacking off the edge, Carter possesses the short-area acceleration to win real estate and leverage on blocks.

Carter’s rushes are turbocharged. His instant acceleration in second reaction movements presents a high degree of difficulty for blockers and might be his best overall quality. He has a variety of hand counters on the edge, and this element of his game is unfolding before our very eyes. 

Carter’s primary winner off the edge is a rip-and-dip combination paired with speed, but he can also flash across the face and has shown some viability with an inside spin counter as well. He is more of a body positioning and angles rusher than a technical rusher, as you’d expect for someone who was used to pressuring interior gaps prior to this season. The seamless way he’s adjusted to a different launch point and landmark sets a floor as a rush specialist. 

However, the work on early downs currently presents a developmental curve that pro teams must be comfortable with. Carter was not a consistent run defender while working off the ball at Penn State, nor has he played enough to have the needed point-of-attack consistency in the run game while working on the edge. 

As a stack backer, Carter played most consistently as a scrape player despite having the ideal build of a fill player. His eagerness to drive and trigger gaps against the run was hit or miss, and when he did, his fill angles and negotiation of blocks had room for improvement. His play processing of the run and play-action pass in these opportunities did not illustrate a ready-made NFL player. 

In 2024, on the edge, Carter created negative players with his first-step quickness, but teams willing to run volume at him in the run game with tight ends or pullers can create creases as he struggles to leverage his gap.

The hand power and length to be impactful in this phase of the game are present in his game but not anywhere consistent enough to be a reliable down-by-down defender. He loses pad level and leverage when unblocked initially at the point, providing a large surface area for blockers to attach to. His anchor, when pressed with horizontal contact, is irregular, and pullers, lead blockers, or double teams, as a result, can gouge him. 

Ancillary roles for Carter could include some zone drops in simulated pressure packages. He’s been charged with playing in space during his early seasons. While the tackling and instincts moving backward don’t provide a future full-time pathway, he’s athletic enough and well enough versed in dropping to effectively reach a hook landmark and take away a hot throw based on a pressure look. 

The challenge is going to be finding a home for him on running downs. Carter’s assimilation to a defense is likely to be a gradual one but considering how fresh he is in his current role, there’s little reason to doubt he cannot unlock these phases of his game.

He’s got the physical attributes to do it all — it is more a matter of developing a feel for run combinations and block-shedding reflexes in linear hand-to-hand combat. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Carter projects best as a designated pass rusher early in his career. With his stature and frame, he will be best served living on the edge at the next level. His rushing instincts are obvious and should yield wonderful results, even early on, making him an obvious candidate for a designated pass rusher.

His full-time role on early downs must be earned with more development in block deconstruction, point-of-attack leveraging, and play diagnosis. Penetration schemes can lean more into his athletic profile and charge him with creating havoc in the backfield. 

Scouting Overview

Michigan Wolverines DL Mason Graham is a scheme-transcendent talent who can afford value to any and all defensive ideologies. Graham is a stout point-of-attack defender who can win with leverage, hands, instincts, or first-step quickness and penetration.

He has a pass rusher, he showcases a variety of ways to attack interior pass sets and figures to continue to develop as a budding disruptor in the pass game. Teams looking for a high floor, high ceiling tone setter on the interior will undoubtedly be drawn to his consistent teach tape in the middle. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Plays with heavy, violent, and dynamic hands to deconstruct blocks
• Refined football instincts, which have been apparent since his freshman season
• Expanding pallet as a pass rusher gives him a continued ceiling to tap into and justify lofty draft status

Negatives

• Is more of a disruptor than a finisher currently as a pass rusher 
• Consistency of pad level can, at times, betray his point of attack anchor
• Length appears to be sufficient — which narrows the margin for error with hand usage to ensure control of blocks

Background

Graham was born in Los Angeles, CA, and played his high school football at Servite HS in Anaheim. There, he was featured on both sides of the football as a defensive lineman and an offensive tackle. Graham was also a standout heavyweight wrestler.

His football achievements were modest prior to a dominant senior season, in which he logged 14 sacks. Graham entered his final season at Servite with just one Power 5 offer, from Oregon State. However, that breakout senior season included being named the LA Times HS Football Player of the Year and a spike in offers. Graham would go on to commit to Michigan shortly after taking a visit. 

Graham cracked the rotation for the Wolverines quickly as a true freshman in 2022. He played in 14 games and was named a Freshman All-American by Pro Football Focus. His sophomore season saw a jump in both production and snaps — his usage went up nearly 50 percent.

Graham would go on to be named First-Team All-Big Ten, Second-Team All-American, and the Defensive MVP of the 2024 Rose Bowl for his efforts in helping Michigan win the National Championship. Graham’s reputation was, at this point, well-established. He entered the 2024 college football season as a consensus Top-10 prospect for the 2025 NFL Draft. 

Tale Of The Tape

What a delight Mason Graham is to watch play in the trenches. He’s nimble, fluid, and powerful.

You see the instincts kick into high gear often — offering the picture of a player who “gets it.” He doesn’t have all the prototype physical attributes, but as a late bloomer coming out of high school, you can see that growth coming from fundamentals, technique, and football IQ. That, plus a hot motor and enough athleticism? He’s got something to offer everyone. 

Graham shined early in his career as a rotational player, but you could have easily justified him taking all early downs with his ability to play the run. He’s got a compact punch and a naturally compact frame — some will allude to his stature as a negative, but I think it actually plays in his favor in two ways against the run: how he leverages blocks and a center of gravity that affords him sudden change of direction skills. Graham is built compact, but much of his mass lives in his hips and legs. He isn’t a top-heavy belly bumper in the middle that offers zero gravitational pull in the middle. 

Graham’s hands will jolt and create knockback at the point of attack. He’s frequently playing on the plus side of the line of scrimmage. This aids his angles when looking to laterally play off of blocks or crash into a gap. He’s quick to accelerate out of a static anchor at the point of attack as well, which pairs with those heavy hands to give him a big area of influence at the point of attack to process the play and attack the football.

I’m impressed with his finishing ability despite not having a massive wingspan. Graham doesn’t often let opportunities in his general vicinity run by him and get onto the second level, even if he’s only challenging the ball carrier from the side with an angle as compared to fully uncovering in the hole. 

As a pass rusher, Graham has shown some steady growth, and I believe he has his best days ahead of him. He’s quick out the blocks to stress sets and has developed an effective arm-over move to cross-face after inviting the guard to set him outside. Graham shows sufficient lower body flexibility and mobility in these reps to accelerate at an angle out of the counter and into the face of the quarterback.

Offensive linemen who patiently wait him out and force him to commit to half a man will then be challenged with power. You can beat him to first contact if you’re a longer blocker, and in those instances, this is where Graham needs to grow and evolve his game. He’ll try to rip through contact and turn the corner but lacks the dynamic athleticism in these reps to consistently stress the outside shoulder and turn the corner to the target. As a result, you’ll get disruption reps without a finish. 

Graham’s burst comes with an expiration date. Plays that get deeper into the rep or quarterbacks that successfully flush off the spot and roll outside the pocket can stave off his charges. I wish he had the juice for longer to try and chase some of those plays down. It isn’t for a lack of effort, but the quick-twitch element of his game only stands out in close quarters. 

Additionally, pad discipline is a phase for more consistency. Despite his natural leverage, linemen who can get onto his breast plate or root him out with a double team can raise his shoulders and generate some push off his spot. Graham typically has the recovery skills to split the double, but it comes at the expense of valuable real estate at the point of attack. 

Graham has played up and down the defensive line, and teams should have no qualms about playing him at a 1T, a 3T, or as a 4i. He’s got the hand usage to handle all of these roles. Although, you’re watering down his potential impact if you consistently play him in the A-gaps.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Graham has alignment and scheme versatility, which should help see him quickly off the board in April. He’s a capable A-gap defender but shines in the B-gap, where he can stack guards and read blocks before attacking either upfield or scrape laterally in pursuit of outside runs.

Teams that run games inside will reap the benefits of his low build and could potentially free up more penetration production as a rusher. Graham is growing in that area, but he's not as developed as he is in the run game. Still, this is a Day 1 NFL starter. 

Scouting Overview

Michigan cornerback Will Johnson is an elite prospect with the instincts and physicality to be a marquee perimeter cornerback at the NFL level. His eye discipline is wonderful and pairs with a massive sphere of influence in coverage and a jarring, striking ability to create big plays in the passing game.

This isn’t a player you’ll need to worry about lighting a fire under, and his competitive nature gives him the feel of an alpha coverage player who will match wits with opposing WR1s for defenses that want to play matchups in the secondary.

A top-of-the-first-round player, Johnson has the ability to transform a secondary with the domino effect his presence will bring to a cornerback depth chart. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Top-tier coverage instincts and route combination recognition skills 
• Ideal stature, physicality, and length to play on the perimeter in the NFL in press coverage and in run support
• Coverage versatility makes him a potential high-end starter for any coverage scheme and defense

Negatives

• Sufficient in-space tackler who experienced missed tackle regression in 2024
• Height and frame can be a limiting factor for sharp transitional quickness in off-coverage
• Aggressive hands can, at times, create excess contact downfield and tempt officials to make calls

Background

Will Johnson was born in Detroit, MI, and played high school football at Grosse Point South HS. Johnson was a two-way superstar for the program, playing on offense, defense, and special teams.

His monster production helped yield All-State honors and a 5-star recruiting ranking (247 Sports) as one of the most coveted prospects in the entire country. Johnson garnered interest from national powerhouses like Texas, Ohio State, and USC but ultimately chose to become a second-generation Wolverine. 

Johnson’s father, Deon, played corner for the Michigan program in the 1990s, and Will followed in his father’s footsteps when he enrolled during the winter 2022 semester for strength and conditioning work.

By the fall, Johnson was a true freshman starter and a budding star for the dominant Wolverines’ defense. He collected Freshman All-American honors in 2022, First-Team All-American honors in 2023, and was named the defensive MVP of Michigan’s National Championship victory against the Washington Huskies. 

Tale Of The Tape

It doesn’t take long to find Will Johnson on the tape. He’s a prototype build at cornerback who moves well for a player of his stature. His vision and anticipation open the door for contested throws that few will make, including jumping short route combinations in zone from depth.

Thanks to his length and linear explosiveness, Johnson can convert those opportunities into ball production and has reaped the benefits with a number of pick-sixes throughout his career. His wingspan is a massive asset to the player he is in coverage, both on the body of receivers at the catch point and when attacking the angle of the throw to go for the takeaway. 

His play at Michigan is complemented by discipline in all phases. This isn’t a ball-hawking defender that doesn’t bring value on running downs. He’s big and long, and it's difficult to wall off or block him on the perimeter. Johnson offers good eye discipline and feel for developing blocks, quickly stepping up to play, and setting a hard edge in run support.

He’s generally been a reliable tackler in this phase as well — although his missed tackle rate has shown some regression from prior seasons. In all, he should be considered a reliable option when playing support in addition to his coverage duties. 

Thanks to his functional strength, he does well altering releases and compressing throwing windows throughout the contact area. When he gets attached to receivers and rides them through that space, he can be guilty of grabbing too long to disrupt the timing of these routes. He has the needed athleticism and length to trust himself more in these instances and avoid tempting officials with extra contact that could draw a flag. 

He’s loose enough through the hips to flip and carry vertically — although he doesn’t necessarily have the best immediate speed in transition. This includes when he’s charged with triggering from out of the pedal. Johnson is much more impactful and explosive from flat-footed reads, so allowing him to play from some depth is a good way to keep him rooted to the ground and ready to flash and react.

He does an excellent job of spacing multiple routes, utilizing his transitional ability, instincts, and length to play multiple routes simultaneously. He’s not the most quick-footed corner, but he covers his flaws with a high football IQ. 

Johnson can play press, off-man, and zone. He’s a technician who offers physicality and ball skills alike, making him one of the most complete defenders eligible for the 2025 NFL Draft. Expect him to take some time before fully blossoming against NFL talent, but the splash plays should show up early for Johnson in coverage, even against pristine competition.

He can be a perennial Pro Bowl talent and one of the best players at his position by the end of his rookie contract.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Will Johnson is a scheme transcendent talent with the versatility to play in press, off-man, or zone coverage. His impact with ball production is most prominent when playing with vision through to the quarterback, offering his instincts and route combination feel a chance to shine.

His high hips can best be mitigated with opportunities in press. He affords usage solutions for all of the critiques in his game and should be a key starter from the jump in the NFL. 

Scouting Overview

Arizona Wildcats wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan has a prototypical X-receiver skill set for the passing game. He’s physical at the catch point, long, and difficult to play through with his length and catch radius.

McMillan has the kind of hands that a quarterback will come to love. He’s effortless with how he plucks the ball away from his frame, vacuums in passes quickly, and converts into a run-after-the-catch athlete. McMillan is a successful target in all three levels of the field, too.

This boosts his outlook for immediate impact, although he does have room for growth in his release package vs. press and his route savvy to create extra separation. Teams that run a lot of 3x1 with isolation on the back side should have an eye toward McMillan’s game, particularly if they are more of a vertical-oriented passing attack. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Arrogant hands
• Three-level threat in the passing game thanks to a variety of skills
• Massive catch radius and strong ball skills at the catch point

Negatives

• Room for growth in release package vs. press
• Is typically not an active & involved member in the run scheme as a blocker
• Created separation against man coverage illustrated room for route mastery

Background

McMillan was born in Waimanalo, HI, and moved to California with his family when he was an adolescent. He played his high school football at Servite HS in Anaheim, CA. He was a 3-sport standout with the program, playing football, basketball, and volleyball thanks to his height and length.

On the gridiron, McMillan rolled in the accolades. He was Gatorade’s 2021 National Football Player of the Year finalist, the California State Player of the Year in 2022, and was invited to play in the 2022 All-Amiercan Bowl and the 2022 Polynesian Bowl while recording more than 2,600 yards and 34 touchdowns as a highly coveted recruit.

McMillan was ranked as a high 4-star recruit (247 Sports) and pulled offers from programs like Oregon, Arizona State, Miami, LSU, Colorado, Penn State, Texas, Notre Dame, USC, and more before committing to Arizona. 

McMillan became the highest-ranked recruit to commit to the program. His arrival coincided with that of his quarterback, Noah Fifita. The two played high school football together at Servite, and both enrolled at Arizona together. McMillan set a program record for most receiving yards by a true freshman in franchise history (702) in 12 games and eight starts with the program in 2022.

He was a permanent fixture in the starting lineup by 2023, posting monster numbers with a dominant showing — his 1,402 yards and 10 scores challenged program records. He was granted Second-Team All-PAC 12 for his performance. 

McMillan then started his 2024 season off with a bang amid high expectations as a consensus first-round prospect, breaking the program record for receiving yards in a game (304) in the season-opener. 

Tale Of The Tape

McMillan has the traits that you’d expect to find for a dominating presence at wide receiver. It is easy to fall in love with the profile of a receiver with the size and stature to win physically on the outside but simultaneously offer smoothness and wiggle to create with the ball in his hands. The Wildcats have fed McMillan the football since his arrival on campus, and his consistent production is a testament to these qualities. 

McMillan is a catch-point monster who makes it extremely difficult to undercut his targets. Not only does his size offer him leverage as the ball arrives, but his length and confidence in his hands further steepen the angle a defender must take to play the ball in the air relative to once it’s into his frame.

And if McMillan gets hands on the ball, forget about it. He’s got great strength to squeeze the ball and ensure there’s no punch out late in the process of the catch. If granted space, he’s still confident in how he plucks the football before converting up the field — he logged single-digit drops across his first 300+ targets with the program and carried a drop percentage in college of approximately five percent. 

There’s not really a change in his effectiveness relative to his orientation as a route runner, either. Whether he’s working over the shoulder on downfield targets, peeling back late for a back shoulder throw, sitting down with hitches against free access, or running horizontally across the middle with pace. The hands are easy. 

That variety of usage is worth shouting out, too. He has predominantly been a volume route runner with go balls and hitches — they make up approximately 40 percent of his career routes at Arizona. However, there’s healthy variance and balance among crosses, slants, digs, out routes, and posts to compliment his core usage. It affords him opportunities to all three levels as a target. 

Make no mistake, this is not a perfect player — although he has the tools to be a well-rounded target to justify featuring. McMillan is more successful playing through contact down the field and often was granted respect at the line of scrimmage with his size and vertical speed, which is good but not NFL jaw-dropping.

He’ll run plenty fine to alleviate concerns about whether or not he can stack vertically in the pro game. However, the lack of consistency in seeing press coverage yielded some interruptions getting through the initial route stem when he did catch contact, and corners that he simply couldn’t physically overwhelm did offer some stickiness in man coverage. His successful target rate is about 10 percent lower vs. Cover 1 than it is against Cover 3, which are the two most prominent coverages he’s seen across his three seasons with Arizona. 

This isn’t to say that McMillan can’t win vs. man coverage, but the nuance of routes to beat man coverage outside is an area of his game that I would consider to have room for growth. He can be more creative and deceptive at the top of the break for more separation. Additionally, he could do more to win leverage early in the rep if facing disruption in the contact window, especially with how big and physical he has shown to be capable of being. 

That same core concept of playing to his size can be applied in the run game. There are some energy conservation efforts with the Arizona offense and backside opportunities that you understand why McMillan isn’t always involved in the run core.

Still, when runs carry his direction, the effort, the sustainability of blocks, and the frequency of getting down into the box on linebackers and safeties were fairly irregular. I would consider this to be a missing link in his game that can further expand his capability of being a centerpiece of an offense. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

McMillan has so, so much potential. Teams looking to work the ball down the field will find his ball-tracking ability, catch radius, and ability to win vertically attractive, and this does feel like his most immediate impact to success.

As he develops more as a route runner, McMillan could become a featured centerpiece of a passing offense — although that development feels like it could unfold across his first few seasons. He should still be considered a Day 1 starter coming into the league. 

Scouting Overview

Texas A&M Aggies defensive lineman Shemar Stewart is an athletic freak who fits the mold of a “prototype” end for the NFL. He’s got a tremendous combination of length, power, first-step explosive power, and short-area agility.

Stewart is an impactful run defender who plays on the plus side of the line of scrimmage and creates uneven levels along the front, allowing him to peel off blocks and make tackles on the ball carrier. His pass rush prowess is still developing, but Stewart has illustrated the ability to counter tackles in a number of ways.

If he can refine his pass rush plan and lean more into the power elements of his game, he could be a Pro Bowl-caliber talent by the end of his rookie contract. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Possesses elite length and hand power to create knockback at the point of attack
• Highly proficient in run defense and block construction skills to make plays in the run game
• High ceiling as a developmental pass rusher, but appears to be still scratching the surface of his potential after just turning 21 years old in November 2024

Negatives

• Consistency rushing the passer can be hit or miss; he has an array of counters, but using the right ones at the right time indicates growth needed in his rush plan
• Leverage and pad-level limitations will exist without great discipline thanks to his long frame 
• Has left production on the field by coming into tackle challenges out of control

Background

Stewart hails from South Florida; he was born in Miami and raised in Miramar. He played his high school football for Monsignor Pace HS in Miami Gardens, where he quickly became a prized football recruit in one of the nation’s hotbeds for talent.

He was rated as a 5-star recruit (247 Sports) and showcased elite physical abilities and traits — leading to a top-10 overall ranking in the recruiting class of 2022. Stewart garnered interest from SEC powerhouses, the University of Miami, and more before ultimately committing to Texas A&M. 

Stewart played in all 12 games as a true freshman in 2022, starting half of them. In 2023, he was named the team’s most improved defensive player at the end-of-season banquet and stepped into a starting role for the Aggies in 2024. 

Tale Of The Tape

Shemar Stewart has all the makings of a monster on the edge. He’s already improved by leaps and bounds in certain phases of the game, and there’s little reason to believe he can’t fill out the remaining holes in his on-field product based on his physical gifts.

You simply cannot coach the blend of length, explosiveness, power, and fluidity. Finding it all in one place, like with Stewart, is usually only reserved for one or two guys in a draft class. 

It is easy to love the way he flashes his length and separation skills at the point of attack. He’s got heavy hands that create jolt and knockback on the shoulder pads of opposing blockers, and a well-placed inside hand can stunt all momentum from an opposing lineman at the point of attack. When he can leverage his hips and press to extend, he’s almost impossible to gain control of unless you’re willing to commit a second blocker to his gap to box him in. Stewart showcases a good feel for the angles of blocks and will fight through pressure to challenge ball carriers while in high-traffic areas. 

Stewart does possess the first-step explosiveness necessary to win as a crash defender collapsing across the face of a blocker; he has had success chasing down run plays as a backside defender when winning across the face of a tight end.

As the playside player, teams looking to wham, trap, or kick him can be tested with angles. He has successfully worked to the point of attack and nearly taken the ball off the mesh point on more than one occasion in these instances. Stewart does appear to win here in spite of some first-step inefficiencies. He appears to have room to improve his preload and weight distribution in his stance to further spring out of the blocks and avoid false steps. 

His explosiveness is much more impactful in linear releases and shallow angles. Still, he does have enough short-area agility and fluidity to turn and corner much better than you would expect for a player of this stature. Flexibility is not a hallmark trait of Stewart’s game, however.

His high-cut frame requires discipline on his base to play with bent hinges and sit down on his hips. He can be guilty of playing high once engaged in tackles to peek for the ball carrier, giving up some leverage, or losing his control of the point. 

As a pass rusher, Stewart has illustrated the ability to execute a number of pass-rush counters. He's got a long arm and speed-to-power ability to collapse tackles and compress the pocket. He put LSU OT Will Campbell on skates on more than one occasion during the team’s matchup this season.

Stewart has good acceleration and lean through his twist games as well. He leans well through the A-gap while taking a tight angle to ensure OL exchanges aren’t able to recover from the pick. Stewart has illustrated a cross-chop and some additional counters as well, but the timing and efficiency of these counters are still somewhat irregular. Getting a better sense of when to call upon which counters can help him shed tackles with more consistency and, just as importantly, quicker. 

Stewart has been close to a lot of extra production but has been a half-step off the pace of the release of a pass or the shuffle of a quarterback in the pocket.

Even some of his opportunities to come clean have come up empty due to a lack of balance and control at the tackle point. He’s got a hefty career missed tackle rate, and if he’s going to be able to fulfill his potential, he will need to be more controlled coming through his open-area tackle challenges.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Shemar Stewart projects as a developmental impact starter at the NFL level. With his current prowess as a run defender and gap control player, he affords a team an immediate role with a seemingly immeasurable ceiling if he grows as a pass rusher.

Because he can defend the run, he should be considered a viable Day 1 starter, particularly as a 5-tech end who plays overtop of tackles and utilizes his length to stack the point of attack.

Scouting Overview

Georgia Bulldogs edge defender Mykel Williams projects as an impact player at the NFL level. He’s been a valued piece of Georgia defense's defensive rotation for the past three years, illustrating elite physical ability.

There’s a surreal blend of length, power, and fluidity at his disposal. Williams is well versed in attacking gaps from all kinds of angles and release points thanks to the vast roles Georgia has asked him to fill, and he flashes the ability to in both the run and pass game.

Williams should be considered a possible featured player on the edge, but as he continues to refine his block diagnosis skill and his reactive counters, he’d benefit from a defensive scheme that boasts strategic rush plans and a lot of schemed pressure opportunities to attack mismatches in the front. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Hilarious amount of length and separation ability at his disposal to keep his frame clear for continued progress to the ball
• Surprising and easy power allows him to collapse the point of attack in the run game or soften edge angles as a pass rusher
• Really surprising fluidity and body control to contort and attack creases and gaps on twists, stunts, and games

Negatives

• Needs more consistency with his leverage, both with hand placement and his hinges & pad level
• Actual explosiveness and burst out of his stance are sufficient, but he lacks the elite pop that can win him reps consistently with speed
• Durability is in question due to notable injury history (high ankle injury in 2024 opener, foot surgery in spring of 2023)

Background

Williams was born in Columbus, GA, in June of 2004 and will be 20 years old on draft night. He played his high school football for Hardaway HS. Williams garnered significant interest on the recruiting circuit and was ranked as a 5-star recruit (247 Sports) and one of the top-5 recruits in the 2022 class. Initially having committed to USC, Williams flipped to Georgia before signing day and was the star player of the Bulldogs’ recruiting class. 

It didn’t take long for Williams to find the field. He set career highs in pressures (33) and run stops (16) as a true freshman rotation piece for the eventual National Champions in 2022. He’s played between 375 and 410 snaps in each of his three seasons with the program and was twice named Second Team All-SEC (2023, 2024) despite dealing with a handful of injuries across the last two seasons.

Williams missed spring practices in 2023 due to foot surgery and then suffered a high ankle sprain in the 2024 season opener against Clemson, which cost him time in the first half of the season. 

Tale Of The Tape

If you built a prototypical edge defender in a lab, he’d probably look something like Mykel Williams. There are all the uncoachable elements to his game. Williams has elite length, he offers easy and effortless power, and he illustrates the kind of slippery body control that will allow him to play at steep angles and suddenly clip through creases in the front.

The Bulldogs have embraced his freakish ability by unleashing him in a variety of different alignments and assignments — not overly dissimilar to the ways in which they used Travon Walker. Williams is a more silky, smooth, and fluid player, making him an even more intriguing talent when projecting him into an NFL pass rush room. 

Playing time is one of the big marks on his resume. He has not eclipsed more than 425 snaps in any of his three seasons, and Williams has been on the field for a noted majority of pass rush opportunities in each season. Williams has nearly a 2:1 pass rush to run defense ratio for his entire career. The end result is a player that has dominant flashes with intermittent lapses and plenty of room to grow.

Williams’ ability to punch, extend, and stack blocks at the point of attack is exactly what you would want. His placement of hands, thanks in part to his long levers, can help him move forward with more precision to catch blockers tight in the chest. When he does, he’s effortless in his ability to extend and separate before laterally disconnecting from the block and progressing to the football.

Williams will bully tight ends because of his punch power and how quickly he can tap into force and functional power once engaged with blockers. Skill players don’t offer much value here. 

As a pass rusher, Williams requires some patience and development but should still afford a team an impactful role early on. He is at his best when he’s parlaying off of blocks with heavy push/pulls or clubs. That same “easy power” shows up when converting a long-arm rush into the chest of tackles, and he’ll successfully compress angles and afford himself greater space to disconnect and disrupt the quarterback.

His length makes him a problem to account for even when he’s still engaged with blockers, and Williams can grab the quarterback or swipe at the ball through the frame of the tackle better than most. The Bulldogs’ pressure scheme unlocked a whole slew of opportunities as they ran rush stunts and games, many of which had Williams as a beneficiary.

Williams is easy to catch his momentum and accelerate through a tight crease while hugging corners into interior gaps — and even if Williams doesn’t get home, his wingspan creates a whole new problem for how to throw around his body and reach. Williams’ alignment versatility (he’s played everywhere from a 0 tech out to a 6) puts him in positions to be the looper or the pick setter. 

Williams boasts a good tackle radius and powerful grip strength, so anyone running into his sphere of influence shouldn’t expect added yardage. He’s an impressive talent who also shows the ability to mirror and extend his frame for ball carriers while trying to break his pursuit angle. 

Williams’ initial rush counters show variety but will need more precision to afford him more opportunities to finish pure edge rushes. He has good but not great get-off the ball and makes the most of his power to compensate for his modest ability to test vertical sets from tackles. Without that elite burst, hand usage will be the key.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Williams is a scheme-diverse talent who can align and release from tight alignments, wide 2-point stances, or as a traditional, even front end. His power and length make him a prominent presence on the edge, and there’s still plenty of room for refinement with his overall precision of hand usage and technique after playing less than 1,200 snaps across his three seasons.

This is a developmental starter who can fill a slew of assignments. His ceiling is best in a front that attacks protection schemes strategically with pressure packages and games to help create a variety of angles for Williams to penetrate the pocket. 

Scouting Overview

LSU Tigers offensive lineman Will Campbell has been a standout left tackle for the Tigers program but likely faces a more favorable projection to the interior in the NFL. Campbell’s density, foot speed, and movement at the point of attack would be more isolated as positive variables in his game, with bumpers on either side of him up front, mitigating some of the pass set framing and length concerns that litter his film at left tackle.

Campbell is tough and possesses a ton of natural strength throughout his game. If charged with playing in close quarters in protection, he has a chance to be a tone-setting presence up front. Any team would be well within their rights to test him at tackle first if preferred. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Effective total-body power that can be applied in both the pass & run game
• Surprisingly light feet for a player of his build
• Three-year starter who is held in high regard for his leadership abilities 

Negatives

• Can struggle with framing of speed rushes off the edge
• Overactive base in pass sets that creates narrow feet and soft angles for rushers
• Modest length further impacts his projection to play offensive tackle

Background

Campbell is from Monroe, LA, and played his high school football at Neville HS. He was a standout prospect who earned a 4-star recruiting ranking (247 Sports) and was one of the most highly sought-after players in the country.

Campbell earned offers from the expected powerhouse programs like Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas, USC, Florida State, and more — but the allure of playing for the home state Tigers proved to be too much. Before his enrollment, Campbell was a participant in the 2022 Under Armour All-American Game. 

Campbell became a starter the moment he set foot on the campus. He’s manned the left tackle spot for the Tigers for three seasons now, earning Second-Team All-SEC honors as a true freshman and First-Team All-SEC honors during his sophomore season in 2023. Campbell will have completed three seasons of play before his 21st birthday, which is likely to be an attractive added layer to his evaluation. He’ll turn 21 on Jan. 6, 2025. 

Tale Of The Tape

Campbell is a powerful presence along the line of scrimmage. He boasts a dense frame and some notable power throughout his punches, anchor, and leg drive to offer a consistent identity as a football player. He blends that physicality with some pleasant mobility — particularly through the lens of an interior offensive lineman. He’s got light feet, some good acceleration to the second level, and enough lateral mobility to create stretch and space at the point of attack on outside concepts. 

Campbell does come with some uncertainty if he lands on the interior at the next level after playing three seasons as a starter at left tackle. However, the warts in his game should be significantly diluted if he’s playing with bumpers around him on either side. 

Campbell gets attached to double-teams well and creates vertical push with consistency and effectiveness. Equally important are his late disengagement skills and nimble ability to uncover and challenge a second-level defender who is shooting into a gap to try to fill space. This makes him a preferred option to run behind on the ground, and his mass, frame, and foot speed should allow this to be a translatable staple of his game.

Campbell’s length is sufficient for play at left tackle in the NFL, but his framing and base inconsistencies compound the need to further amplify a potential move inside. Vertical sets can struggle to hit the needed depth vs. speed, forcing Campbell’s base to break down in pursuit of speed rushes off the edge. In these instances, Campbell can be isolated and beaten back across his face as defenders take advantage of the lack of balance and extra room as he flips his hips to the sideline to chase first contact. 

Rushers that can convert speed to power with NFL speed, at times, successfully forcing him into an anchor vs. power — but he can be slow to re-engage his feet in these instances, and savvy rushers can, in turn, attack his post-leg and work back across his face for inside pressure. These issues were notable on the South Carolina and Texas A&M game tapes from 2024. 

However, when you look at his film through the lens of an interior player, where the upfield urgency in pass sets is less common, and the lateral stress is reduced by extra bodies to leverage to frame-blocks, Campbell’s questions seem more like inconveniences towards a pathway to ideal positional value and less like barriers to being an impactful NFL starter on an offensive line.

He showcases good range on the backside of plays, and the angles of cutting off a linebacker will be more accommodating inside. Add in the reduced athleticism of his landmarks and opponents on the A-level of the defense inside, and this feels like an ideal fit. 

Hand usage will determine just how good Campbell will be in the NFL straight away, as he has a ton of power in his punch and great grip strength that sometimes simply comes up empty on a stun punch. Again, a hypothetical transition inside would reduce the challenges of lining that stun up in space, and Campbell has the wide frame needed to ensure he’s not giving up a free gap.

Furthermore, he has the functional strength and effective lateral agility to slide and flatten before re-securing a fit. One of Campbell’s other warts is a habit of leaning into his fits with secure hands. He will need to be mindful of this to ensure he’s not snatched off his base as savvy defensive linemen attack his center of gravity.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Campbell appears to be a scheme-versatile option on the interior. He has the lateral mobility and foot speed to play zone schemes and the power and vertical push to be a strong presence on an interior run-heavy scheme.

His angles are reduced for pass protection in this scenario as well, where his firm anchor can set a consistent depth of the pocket for his quarterback. 

Scouting Overview

Missouri Tigers offensive lineman Armand Membou is a powerful presence in the trenches and has the potential to be a starting talent at tackle or guard. Membou is a multi-year starter at right tackle in the SEC and handled the rigors plenty well.

He possesses a punishing, powerful demeanor in the run game. Membou has enough foot speed and length to play on the perimeter in the right scheme, and his anchor is stout when he’s sitting up on his hips. But his floor and ceiling will likely be higher on the interior, where the fringes of his blocking radius will be insulated, and he’ll be less stressed with speed off the edge.

He’s capable of tremendous leg drive, a heavy punch, and the ability to create and sustain displacement at the point of attack, making him a legit asset from the jump in the run game. Membou’s NFL home is fluid and ultimately may depend on scheme and team fit. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Showcases strong leg drive and ability to sustain power & movement in the run game
• Illustrates impressive body control to peel off his momentum and greet defenders trying to run under his blocks or across his face 
• Scheme and position versatility thanks to a blend of dense frame, light feet, and strong functional athleticism

Negatives

• Punch placement at times concedes soft outside edge and will force him into late recovery mode
• Can be guilty of leaning once, latching his hands in both drive blocks and pass protection while mirroring — leaving him vulnerable to snatches
• Inconsistent release angles leave him with steep landmarks at times that are difficult to overcome

Background

Membou is from Lee’s Summit, MO, and played high school football for Lee’s Summit HS. There, he was ranked as a 4-star recruit as a guard and generated significant interest from a slew of offensive line factory programs, including Iowa, Oregon, and Arkansas.

He ultimately committed to stay in his home state and play for Missouri as a member of the recruiting class of 2022. Membou would quickly find his way onto the field as a true freshman — collecting more than 300 snaps at right tackle and nearly an additional 100 more as a jumbo tight end.

Membou found his way into the starting lineup full-time in 2023, again at right tackle, and has been a staple in the trenches for the Tigers ever since. He was named Second Team All-SEC in 2024 for his play and declared for the 2025 NFL Draft with one remaining year of eligibility in early December of 2024. 

Tale Of The Tape

This is an easy player to like. In an NFL world where light boxes are conceded but pass rushes are fierce, finding an offensive lineman who can generate movement at the point of attack and simultaneously mirror in space can be hard. Talents like that can be at a premium, and Membou looks poised to cash in. His play at right tackle over the past three seasons at Missouri paints the picture of a graceful but powerful presence who has held up well against all kinds of body types and styles of edge defenders. 

His athleticism out of the blocks will appeal to zone schemes. He is capable of exploding out of his stance and putting pressure on defensive linemen while stressing linebackers with lateral flow. Membou delivers jarring blows in these angular blocks and can create knockback with heavy punches. His foot action through contact is persistent, and you see easy power application through his lower half to continue to play through the body of the defender and not be geared down to a stalemate. 

Membou has plenty of second-level ability thanks to that quickness and frame, but his body control really unlocks his ability as a space blocker. Be it on outside zone tracks or as a puller working outside, he’s capable of unlocking his hips to quickly get width and then gear down and peel his body back to defenders who try to take the easy way out and run underneath his angle to try to attack the ball carrier.

He’s created some big-time collisions on back seven defenders out by the numbers in these instances and, on more than one occasion, converted latching his hands into riding a defender down into the grass. 

In pass protection, Membou has enough range in his pass sets to negate speed off the edge and successfully steepens angles with his wide frame. He isn’t the most fleet of foot, and raw speed can force him to overextend at the point of first contact to try to set his hands eagerly — this yields some deconstruction of his center of gravity and leaves his pads extended out overtop of his knees.

Not many rushers he faced were well equipped to make him pay, but NFL rushers with dynamic speed-to-power ability will be a different kind of threat. Membou showcases a powerful punch but would benefit from more variety in his hand flashes to bait rushers into a premature rush counter. He can be patient to a fault and let a rusher attack his outside half before converting to reactivate around the corner. 

Playing Membou on the edge leaves him susceptible to his strike timing consistency and habit of leaning, producing whiffs and empty-handed reps in pass protection. By putting him inside where his angles are reduced, and his ability to leave his frame in front of a defender is amplified, you can cut down on some of the risk involved with his game.

You can also allow him to be more aggressive getting set up on his base and can provide a more direct path to his run game displacement producing explosive plays on the ground. This is a tackle prospect with conditions and considerations — and a slam dunk regardless of scheme or surrounding personnel if allowed to play inside at guard.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Membou has an NFL starter projection at tackle and would be a good power tackle in an inside zone scheme. But given his blend of athleticism and power at his size, he feels like a potential Pro Bowl guard. I believe his ceiling and floor are both higher at guard.

Although teams drafting him are well within their rights to let him play outside first or if a need persists for their respective line at tackle. Expect an NFL starter either way, but he feels like a universal scheme fit at guard who can develop into one of the best players in the league at that position. 

Scouting Overview

Marshall Thundering Herd EDGE defender Mike Green is one of the most impressive pass rushers in the country. Green declared early for the 2025 NFL Draft after leading the FBS in sacks with 17. He boasts dominant first-step twitch, sudden short area quickness, fluidity, and body control to reduce through contact and a bevy of rush counters to attack tackles of all shapes and sizes.

His instincts are impressive after a modest beginning to his career with the Virginia Cavaliers program. Green has illustrated more physicality in defeating blocks in the run game, but his power is one of the more modest elements of his game, and he will likely always be better when playing around contact versus through it.

Green’s motor helps to alleviate his lack of power and will put him back in a position to challenge the ball on extended plays instead of being glued to blockers and being sealed from pursuit. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Robust bag of pass rush counters and an endless variety of ways to attack the quarterback from the edge
• Fluid athlete in short spaces to win across the face of tackles or otherwise dip and accelerate off the corner
• Spatial awareness and feel for developing creases to the quarterback helps maximize pressures

Negatives

• Anchor at the point of attack is modest in the run game
• Ability to stack and deconstruct blocks has shown growth but is unlikely to ever be a major strength
• Lacks alignment versatility and should be considered a rush linebacker who attacks outside in

Background

Green is from Williamsburg, VA, and played his high school football at Lafayette HS. In addition to his play on the gridiron, Green was an accomplished wrestler, finishing in the top three as a sophomore (185 lbs) and junior (220 lbs) while collecting offers from programs like Ole Miss, Boston College, Kentucky, Virginia Tech, and Virginia for football. Rated as a 3-star recruit while playing linebacker and tight end, Green would go on to commit to Virginia and play in 6 games as a true freshman in 2021. 

Green spent the 2022 season away from the Cavaliers program for unclear reasons before entering the transfer portal and committing to Marshall for the 2023 season. Green emerged as a successful pass rusher as a third-year sophomore and then exploded as an All-American and the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year in 2024 while leading the country in sacks (17) and second in the FBS in pressures (63) through the conference championships. 

Tale Of The Tape

Green is a quarterback hunter who boasts an impressive variety of attacks as an impact defender. This is a player who possesses a natural instinct for attacking space — as evidenced by his persistence around the quarterback in 2024.

Green wins with speed, agility, body control and flexibility in space, and his ability to play off of contact with rush counters and force empty punches from opposing tackles on the edge. Green’s best ability is crafting a rush plan. He’s won with an inside or outside spin, a cross chop, a two-handed swipe, a rip & dip combination, some flashes of speed to power, and a swim move at first contact. The willingness to run the loop but subsequently retrace his path to the quarterback has aided his ability to generate disruptive pockets. 

Green can win inside against oversetting tackles or a tightly occupied guard when the B-gap is expanded — he can quickly cross face and flatten with inverse pressure on his outside shoulder just as he would if he were rushing off the outside. The ability to unlock the hips and carry with speed while sustaining a reduced pad level helps to bolster his ability to play with balance through contact, but Green’s functional strength and power are reliable largely when he’s got tackles playing backward. 

As far as pure power, both through his hands and his hips/core, Green could use more of it. His dominance at Marshall came with limited opportunities against Group of 4 pass protectors. He did log a sack against Ohio State (2024) thanks to an outside spin on 3rd & 20, but his ability to compress the pocket and reduce angles with power is modest at best.

Further complicating this element of his game is his length, which appears to be functionally sufficient but limits his ability to press and extend. His best success utilizing length is with a firm two-hand strike to punch through contact, continue to attack space, and try to play around the frame of the tackle. 

His run defense reps flash the most as an unblocked defender off the backside attacking the mesh. He’s successfully run down a number of plays and overwhelmed the back out of the mesh to create tackles for loss. His speed and first-step ability should translate to some production in these opportunities at the NFL level.

Projecting Green to the NFL, he has the athleticism and hip fluidity to play in space in simulated pressure situations to take away a shallow hook if necessary, but he was only dropped into coverage 21 times across more than 1,000 snaps in his two seasons of play at Marshall. So, this is a blind leap of faith in his ability to absorb these reps.

You’re not drafting him to take these reps in high volume, but you should feel good about the outlook of execution here based on his athletic profile. More concerning is filling out his physical profile to be a more complete player. He is generally a space and finesse defender who lacks the length to play through contact and the strength to press into contact to shine in close-quarters combat.

It impacts his ability to win against long, patient tackles — the kind he’ll find in the NFL. Assuming Green can play with some more functional strength and continue to master his pass-rush arsenal, he should have no issues being a high-volume defender. If he struggles with that leap, he may be relegated to a pass-rush specialist and rotational player, but the ways he wins should afford him opportunity-specific wins in the NFL as a high-floor pass rusher either way.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Green projects best as an odd-front linebacker who is given extra space on the edge to work. His first step quickness affords him the ability to claim that real estate early in reps but avoid the close-quarters alignments that would otherwise compromise his integrity of setting the pocket or otherwise playing runs outside.

Green’s hands are active and offer sufficient punch, but he is unlikely to be an effective stack and shed defender. He’s likely a pass rush specialist early with the ceiling of a starting EDGE by the end of his rookie contract. 

Scouting Overview

Penn State Nittany Lions tight end Tyler Warren projects as a multi-faceted player at the NFL level. Warren has been given a slew of assignments with a wide variety of shifts and motions, making him an attractive option for teams seeing a formation adjustor within their offense structure (the Shanahan schemes).

Warren can release from the backfield, in-line, or from the slot and is functionally capable of handling first—or second-level defenders when his blocking posture is refined—although he needs more consistency in this area of his game.

Warren exploded as a pass-game threat with Penn State’s new offensive scheme in 2024, illustrating a massive catch radius, strong hands, and a surreal contested catch ability down the field. This is a potential impact player in the pros. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Massive frame yields great results in 50/50 situations thanks to catch radius
• Surprisingly nimble and dynamic after the catch, earns added yardage by forcing missed tackles in space
• Functionally stout with a strong build that plays well on the edges of the core when sealing down or stepping up onto second-level defenders

Negatives

• Consistency of punch placement and sustainability of blocks on the edge needs added improvement
• Does not have ideal speed to bust defenses up the seam
• Route running yields separation with physicality at the top of the stem, but separation quickness is only sufficient 

Background

Warren is from Mechanicsville, VA, and played high school football for Atlee HS. There, he starred as a multi-sport athlete, lettering in basketball (four times) and baseball (three times) in addition to being ranked as a 3-star recruit (247 Sports) in football.

He was named Atlee’s MVP during his high school career — posting more than 1,000 career passing yards and nearly 700 rushing yards, along with 24 total touchdowns as a senior. Warren was rated as a top-20 athlete recruit in Virginia before ultimately committing to Penn State as a member of the 2020 recruiting class. 

Warren played in two games during the COVID-19 season in 2020, retaining his true freshman eligibility for the 2021 season. Warren logged three total touchdowns (2 rushing) in 13 games as a freshman in 2021, started three games in 2022 while playing in 12 contests, and assumed a starting role full-time in 2023. Warren was named Third-Team All-Big Ten in 2023 before exploding as a primary target for the Nittany Lions in his fifth and final season of eligibility in 2024. He finishes his Penn State career at No. 1 in career touchdowns by tight ends. 

Tale Of The Tape

Warren is an impressive talent who, in some ways, expands beyond a traditional tight end role. Penn State has preserved some of the “athlete” elements of his game that go all the way back to high school, and teams that are looking for special packages or direct snap power run games may be tempted down the road to lean on these elements of Warren’s background.

However, his bread is buttered in the passing game as a pass catcher. Warren has tremendous hands. He’s imposing at the catch point and illustrates high-end ball skills to attack the football in the air and extend to greet the ball through contact. His concentration in these opportunities is outstanding, and he has a high hit rate on contested opportunities as a result. 

He’s something of an accuracy eraser. Warren can reach back onto his back hip or go high on errant high throws in his general vicinity. The catch radius offers him the chance to become a quarterback’s best friend, particularly in pressure situations. He’s become as much for Drew Allar during the past two seasons.

Warren isn’t necessarily a big-time route runner who will cut up coverage defenders in man coverage. Still, he’ll bully you at the top of the route and create separation on hard-angled routes unless you’re playing him over the top in catch coverage with a heavy anchor. He has shown the ability to use savvy and bump defenders off his body. 

Warren wins vertically down the sideline on go and fade routes while also showing the ability to find grass in the middle of the field on crossers. He has logged productive results in basic in and out routes off a short vertical stem, aided by Allar’s ability to push the ball to the perimeter. It is easy to appreciate how he ensures safe passage on these throws by extending to cut short the ball’s flight path.

Penn State has also manufactured touches for him both in the screen game and as a direct snap player to generate short-yardage push or single-back offensive looks. 

As a blocker, Warren has ample potential. I have confidence in his pure strength, although its functional application is still hit or miss due to posture, punch placement, and center of gravity. Too often, he’ll come into blocks with high pads and hips, preventing him from applying force into contact and assuming control of the block. His hands lack the stickiness and grip strength necessary to sustain a high gravitational pull on the edge, and edge defenders can gear down his push and force hard corners to turn back into.

Warren shows good football IQ to handle a slew of shifts and motions into different release angles from the backfield or in the slot. He will need to continue developing a feel for his ability to line these blocks up at full speed. 

Warren shows great balance in space, but his postural balance and center of gravity leaning into blocks can offer improvements by trusting his core power and lower half to do more of the work for him. 

With the ball in his hands, Warren is creative, powerful, and has good vision. He anticipates open-field tackle challenges and can put some wiggle on or, alternatively, run a smaller defensive back over if they come passively into his track.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Tyler Warren projects as a starting ‘F’ tight end at the NFL level. He is at his best detached from the core and utilized as a blocker against safeties, linebackers, and corners. He’s a capable split-flow player and offers the necessary raw strength to play in line.

That said, his blocking posture, punch placement, and center of gravity need to show growth before he’s charged with playing as a ‘Y’ tight end with his hand in the dirt. In the meantime, Warren can thrive as an underneath zone buster and red zone target capable of creating added yardage with the ball in his hands. 12p and hybrid 21p teams will find his versatility overly attractive in their bid to generate mismatches on the field. 

Scouting Overview

Georgia Bulldogs safety Malaki Starks projects as a quality starter and potential franchise cornerstone for his NFL team. He’s been an impact player at Georgia since stepping onto the field as a true freshman in 2022, and Coach Kirby Smart’s defensive scheme will have him prepped for the nuance and detail required to be a splash player in the NFL.

The rigors of defensive coverage responsibilities will not be foreign to Starks, who has the versatility to play on either the second or third level of the defense and contribute as either a zone or man defender as needed based on coverage calls and pressure rotations. This is the best-tackling safety prospect to pass through the draft process since Brian Branch in 2023.

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Supreme versatility on the back end to fulfill high post, deep half, robber, slot, or second-level assignments
• Very physical and reliable tackler who offers good angles and consistency in space as a last line of defense
• Has illustrated elite ball skills in coverage down the field while having to flip eyes back and locate the ball in flight

Negatives

• Positional value knock is one that creates a philosophical question for GMs relative to skill/ability and draft stock
• Not often asked to serve as a pressure player, leaving an incomplete element for secondary pressure-heavy schemes
• The ability to plaster routes from off-coverage is not a primary winning trait 

Background

Starks (full name is William Malaki Starks) is from Jefferson, GA, and played his high school football for Jefferson HS. Starks was rated as a 5-star recruit (247 Sports) and played in the Under Armour All-American Game as the No. 1 ranked athlete in the country from his recruiting class.

Starks played on both sides of the ball, logging big numbers as a defender and offensive weapon. He is credited with 41 combined passing, rushing, and receiving touchdowns in addition to his defensive efforts. In addition to football, Starks was a state champion long jumper (23-7 with a personal best of 24-9) and ranked a 10.55s 100m in track and field while also playing basketball. 

He enrolled at Georgia after choosing the Bulldogs over Clemson & Alabama and quickly assimilated into the defense as a starter. He finished third on the team in tackles while starting 14 of 15 contests for the Bulldogs en route to their second-consecutive National Championship. He has been a staple of the Georgia secondary ever since. He was named First-Team All-SEC and a consensus All-American in 2023. 

Tale Of The Tape

The question for Starks is not necessarily what he can or cannot do; it is instead whether or not the versatility he affords is enough to transcend some of the traditional positional value dynamics that result in safeties sliding down draft boards despite being blue-chip talents. He is an awesome talent with no shortage of roles he’s capable of filling. 

His football instincts are off the charts, and he constantly finds himself in positions to make plays on the football in coverage when quarterbacks look to take shots down the field. His ability to properly leverage multiple route landmarks and be in a position to make plays is one of his better abilities in coverage. Starks has the range to play high in the post and break on throws either across his face or outside the numbers to either side on the vertical plane. 

Defenses that want to keep him more involved and play him closer to the football can successfully do so by charging him with aligning in the nickel, which Georgia has done with meaningful volume in each of his three seasons as a starter with the program. This can come out of nickel, but you could also get there with safety rotation out of base personnel to drop him from the depth and allow him to play forward in second-level zones in Cover-3 rotations from 2-high shells while inserting him into the run fit. 

Starks is a supreme tackler with only a handful of missed tackle challenges in his entire career. He plays the run well as an aggressive fit player who quickly discards would-be blockers in the slot or tries to crack down and seal on his frame. Starks has very good confidence in his lateral mirror ability and his wrap-up skills. It isn’t often that you see anxious tackle posture or a poor form challenge in the open field. 

When given man-to-man assignments, Starks’ sprinter speed shows up on vertical reps from the slot. He’s hauled in a number of incredible interceptions throughout his career on these opportunities. He is the rare safety in man coverage who you’d feel comfortable with leaving without vertical support overtop of him against wide receivers.

He’s more attractive in the soft press than he is playing authentically off coverage, where his hip transitions are not equal to that of a cornerback. When he can get hands-on in the contact window and become attached to receivers, he showcases the ability to disrupt the release and feel his way into the trail position to carry.

When Starks is playing off in zone coverage, his transitions laterally to trigger or downhill for routes in front of his face are bursty and sharp. Off of a flat-footed read, Starks has the necessary explosion to undercut a route and challenge the football. 

Thanks to the Georgia defensive pipeline and Starks’ elite football instincts, this is an NFL-ready starter. His presence has the potential to totally shift the identity of an NFL secondary.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Starks is a scheme-transcendent talent. He can play in any defensive ideology and find success thanks to his high football acumen, tackling ability, coverage versatility, and range on the back end.

He should be considered an immediate starter and has the potential to be one of the best in the league at his position by the end of his rookie contract. 

Scouting Overview

Barron is a physical tackler and instinctive defender who has thrived in the nickel with the Longhorns for the better part of the last three seasons.

He’s been given a larger perimeter role during his final season, but his compact frame, eager hitting style, and appetite for fitting the run all project more favorably into a subpackage role or, alternatively, serving as the primary nickel defender for a team that runs base with five defensive backs on the field.

He projects favorably to match tight ends in coverage but will shine best as a zone defender, where his eyes can help guide him into throwing windows and create ball production in the middle of the field. There, he can leverage routes with his teammates accordingly to be an impactful player in coverage. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Coverage versatility has been expanded due to perimeter opportunities in 2024
• Instinctual coverage player from the Nickel who has flashed spatial awareness leveraging multiple routes 
• Aggressive, confident, run-fitting defender with strong tackle metrics and a dense, physical frame

Negatives

• Foot speed leaves some questions regarding his ability to play on the outside in zone schemes that would best maximize his vision and anticipation
• Can be prone to playing overly physical at the top of the route 
• Questionable vertical speed to be left on islands outside in man coverage

Background

Barron played his high school football at John B. Connally HS in Austin, TX. He was a two-way talent who starred on the perimeter as a wide receiver and cornerback. As a 4-star recruit (247 Sports), Barron generated significant interest and committed to TCU and Baylor before ultimately landing with the Longhorns. 

Barron played in five games as a true freshman in 2020, gradually working his way up the depth chart until assuming a starting role in 2022. He served as the STAR defender for his first two seasons as a starter before transitioning to play on the perimeter in 2024 during his final season of eligibility. Barron earned second-team All-Big 12 honors as a fourth-year junior in 2023 before declaring his intent to return for a fifth and final season in Austin. 

Tale Of The tape

If you like physical nickel defenders who can fit the run and play physical coverage at the catch point, odds are you will like Jahdae Barron’s resume. This is a stout, physical player who offers striking ability on the edge, effective run fits from depth when compressed to the line of scrimmage, and the ability to work underneath zone spaces with deceptiveness. 

Barron does not appear to be the kind of functional athlete who can live on the perimeter at the NFL level, which is important to note given his expanded role in 2024. Barron has played more on the outside and in space, even logging an interception in the biggest regular-season game on the outside against Georgia. Barron’s transitions in space, long speed, and modest length paint a picture of where he'll fit best in the pros. 

His low center of gravity makes him tough to uproot and disrupt for skill players on the edges of the core, offering him the ability to run through lateral challenges or blocks from skill players trying to seal him inside. Barron is quick to process and showcases the needed pop downhill to beat blockers to the spot, earning the opportunity to square up ball carriers bouncing runs to the perimeter.

He is capable of cutting down bigger backs and ensuring minimal added yardage on runs into his area, which aids his nickel resume and offers appeal for special teams roles as well. 

On the perimeter, Barron is seemingly caught in between roles. His lack of length leaves little room for error in press coverage, and his foot speed and hips don’t offer the elite transitions in space to turn, run, and carry receivers on vertical routes. His angles in coverage to contest throws are much more refined when triggering underneath and taking shallow routes to the football compared to being responsible for significant amounts of grass, particularly while needing to keep the roof on vertical routes. 

Barron has the necessary instincts, physicality, and motor to be an impactful player for an NFL defense, even if he lacks the elite physical tools to warrant a role on the outside. I love his play demeanor, and he is a well-regarded piece of the puzzle for the Longhorns defense. I would expect the same for his NFL home.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Ideally, Barron plays inside at the nickel position at the NFL level. His zone instincts, tackling, and run support abilities would shine best as a star defender who serves as a critical bridge between the core and the secondary. Barron should be expected to start swiftly in this role upon his entry into the NFL.

Scouting Overview

Michigan Wolverines defensive tackle Kenneth Grant is a tight-quarters mauler who has the potential to serve a dominant role in the heart of an NFL defense. Grant has a compact, powerful frame and offers explosive hands to jolt and reset the point of attack.

He’s generally regarded as the “other” Michigan defensive tackle opposite Mason Graham — but this is a standalone talent in his own right. Grant has brilliant flashes of versatility and quickness as a pass rusher to bolster his upside. He can develop into a frequent splash player with the right coaching and supplementary players around him.

The floor is a key cog in base defenses, but Grant has shown growth across all phases of his game at Michigan, including in the volume of snaps he’s capable of taking. This trend should offer him early consideration thanks to his rare traits. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Prototypical anchor and power to reset the line of scrimmage and dominate centers to overwhelm the A-gaps
• Freakish athlete with rare movement skills for a player of his size and stature
• Range along the line of scrimmage allows him to stay overtop of blocks and in his gap fit 

Negatives

• Pass rush profile shows flashes, but his passing down outlook is modest, and he’ll likely surrender reps to a more potent rusher
• Can be more consistent with cleanly deconstructing blocks to uncover and finish
• Has been documented as high as 360 pounds, keeping him in a range to maximize his 3-down impact may be a subplot of his career

Background

Grant is from Merrillville, IN, and played high school football for Merrillville HS. He was a two-way player on the offensive and defensive lines while also participating in track and field and competing in the shot put. Grant garnered significant interest at Merrillville, earning a 4-star recruiting ranking (247 Sports) while positing 6.5 sacks, 14.5 tackles for loss, and 8 blocked kicks.

He committed to Michigan in September of 2021 as a member of the recruiting class of 2022 and quickly found his footing with the program. Grant played in all 14 games as a true freshman in 2022, earning honors for defensive and special teams performances. He emerged as a starting talent in 2023, starting five games out of 15 total appearances and earning Second Team All-Big Ten honors for his efforts in Michigan’s National Championship season. 

Grant returned to action in 2024 and set a career-high in snaps by the end of the regular season as a full-time starter. 

Tale Of The Tape

Grant is a brick house of a human being who offers loads of explosive power in his game. It is impressive to watch him bull rush and collapse the pocket on opportunities in 1-on-1 assignments as a pass rusher, and it is equally impressive to see him create knockback at the point of attack.

Grant is a more refined run defender than he is as a pass rusher, but he offers flashes of brilliance in both phases, and his physical presence and frame ensure him what should be a relatively high floor as a run defender in the NFL. 

You don’t, of course, draft run pluggers early in the draft. And that’s where Grant’s physical ability unlocks higher levels of his game and offers the promise of something more. Grant has a quick first step, surprising agility in short spaces, good redirection ability, and a handful of effective rush counters.

He’s at his best, winning with power, but thanks to his build and low center of gravity, there are change-of-direction skills you simply don’t expect to find in a player of this stature. He is nimble when redirecting across the face and showcases the ability to quickly dip into an adjacent gap when working the lock-peek-shed technique on the nose. 

Grant’s moments of dominance don’t run as frequently as his teammate Mason Graham’s, but Grant is arguably a more physically gifted talent when accounting for his size. Grant will seemingly flip the switch at times, as he did against Ohio State (2024), and is capable of completely wrecking a game plan from the heart of the front. He has illustrated a rip and a swim move on the inside, and his heavy hands will allow him to create momentum for bull rushes and force quarterbacks off the spot as a pass rusher. 

Grant will need to continue to master his craft with elite hand placement and refine his rush plan and second-reaction counter ability in order to unlock a significant ceiling as a pass rusher in the NFL. As is, he’s good for overwhelming centers and capable of successfully winning across the face if the center turns away, leaving him 1-on-1 with a guard. 

His run defending ceiling is assured, thanks to his good ability to eat double teams. He isn’t easily moved, although he can be turned out at times through lateral pressure, and would benefit from staying vigilant in fighting pressure to ensure he doesn’t get walled off even if he’s held his point of attack.

Grant should have little issue locking out and pressing blockers on the interior when faced with vertical releases from offensive linemen and should be considered a reliable option early on to help keep linebackers clear. Grant has sufficient length to live in this world similarly in the NFL as he has at Michigan.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Grant projects best as an A-gap defender in the NFL. He has versatility in whether he’s playing in gap penetration or gap control fronts; he should be considered a transcendent option to play in odd or even fronts.

His ability to anchor and reset will be a valuable cog to any team’s run defense, and Grant should be afforded the opportunity to develop more as a pass rusher. I would keep his playing weight north of 320 and lean into his dominant power and natural athleticism at that stature; it is more than enough to win at the next level in the roles he’s filling at Michigan.

Scouting Overview

Texas Longhorns offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. projects as a starting left tackle at the NFL level. Banks Jr. possesses the dynamic movement skills and the frame to play tackle, provided he continues to refine his hands and showcase better sustainability on his blocks.

His athleticism is evident out of his stance and out in space, affording him a large range as a blocker. Banks Jr.’s feet are crisp and disciplined in his pass sets, building a strong foundation for his game. However, his ability to maximize his hands leaves him too often falling off of blocks or overextending to lean and apply more strain — compromising his base and vulnerable vs. savvy defenders who know how to manipulate balance. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Will create consistent initial point-of-attack movement thanks to dynamic athleticism
• Possesses desired agility out of his stance to be well positioned against all kinds of angles in pass protection
• Shows patience and trust in space to connect on blocks out by the numbers or up on the second level

Negatives

• Habitual leaner in pass protection who is prone to overextending when latching grip
• Grip strength and sustained fit with hands is erratic, leading to blocks breaking down in close quarters
• Plays with a sufficient gravitational pull, but longer-armed defenders have tested him

Background

Banks Jr. is from Humble, TX, and played high school football at Summer Creek HS. There, Banks Jr. was named All-District four times and rolled in honors for his play. He was named a high school All-American, selected to play in the 2022 Under Armour All-America Game, and ranked as a 5-star recruit by 247 Sports.

He had offers to essentially every major program and initially committed to Oregon to play for Coach Mario Cristobal before Cristobal left to take the Miami job. Banks Jr. would go on to de-commit from Oregon and enroll at the University of Texas as a member of the recruiting class of 2022. 

Banks Jr. joined the Longhorns program in July and was named the team’s starting left tackle at the start of his true freshman season. He’s been a cornerstone player on the line for the Longhorns ever since, starting every game across his first three seasons until the 2024 SEC Championship Game against Georgia.

He’d started 37 career contests before missing his first start — all before he turned 21. Collegiate honors for Banks Jr. include Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year as a freshman, Second Team All-Big 12 as a freshman, First Team All-Big 12 as a sophomore, and Second Team All-American in 2023. 

Tale Of The Tape

Banks Jr. has all of the tools necessary to be a quality starter at left tackle at the NFL level. The movement skills clearly pop off the screen in the way that Banks Jr. can beat slashing defenders to the spot or drive out of the blocks and attack defenders aggressively. The key to Banks Jr.’s game will, in many ways, be balance. 

How Banks Jr. improves his blocking posture with his hands latched will improve his literal balance and allow him to maintain his fit on defenders for more extended periods of time. How often he is allowed to attack and emulate run-blocking reps to keep opposing pass rushers off balance can weigh heavily in how graceful his pro transition is and keep him on schedule as an early player. 

There are a lot of likable elements to his game. As a run blocker, Banks Jr. shows the pop out of his stance and the foot speed to collect movement and reset the point of attack. This goes for his vertical releases on double teams and solo blocks or when working zone tracks that require stretch laterally.

Banks Jr. creates ample push on down blocks with angles to create wash and soft edges for his backs and pullers/split flow add-ons to the point. When he’s charged with climbing and blocking in space, Banks Jr. shows good foot speed and patience to align himself with flow overtop to the football and possesses the second gear necessary to close ground and get onto the toes of a linebacker. 

Banks Jr. can be guilty of lunging when his eyes get too big or ambitious, but trusting his own range and the back’s ability to cut off his leverage will help mitigate the lost reps where he’s unattached in space. 

As a pass protector, Banks Jr.’s athleticism shines as he drives for depth in his pass sets. He is comfortable expanding vs. wide angles or driving for depth against speed rushers up the field. It isn’t often that he loses a race to the peak of the arc, and he possesses the foot quickness, wide hips, and dynamic lower half to ensure he can temper his pace and cadence accordingly.

However, some first strike and contact irregularities will require refinement to protect him from occasionally coming up empty and having to flip and convert to recovery mode. Banks Jr. carries his hands low, and his outside hand placement can sometimes land with wide variance. These strikes allow precise rushers to work into his chest and attempt to bull or long-arm him.

Banks Jr. will too often latch and lean, seemingly trying to create more width once engaged instead of simply sitting down on his hips and trusting his lower body power to engage and do the work. Some further lower-body strength development could be required for him to fully engage and trust his posterior chain on these latch and squad reps. 

Banks has also been flagged a dozen times in the last two seasons, illustrating the need for more discipline. Given his lapses with balance and attempts to sustain blocks with what is at times inconsistent grip strength, keeping his feet active to stay mirrored on the frame of a defender and not allowing for any chest separation will be an important area of focus while locked up with a defender.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Banks Jr. is not a finished product, but his athleticism and frame are likely going to warrant opportunities to play early.

This is an impressive player with movement skills to become an impactful starter, although he would benefit early in his development from a scheme that invokes a number of the same elements as the one he plays with at Texas — a high volume of play-action reps and screens. These keep Banks Jr. aggressive in playing forward into blocks and leaning more heavily on his more appealing traits. 

Scouting Overview

North Dakota State offensive tackle Grey Zabel is a highly experienced FCS offensive lineman with the play demeanor to make a successful leap to the NFL level.

He’s tough and gritty, plays through the end of the echo of the whistle, and has developed his frame into an NFL body to afford him the needed functional strength to hold up against pro competition. Zabel has maintained sufficient functional athleticism throughout that body transformation and should be a feasible option in any offensive system — but he’ll need to iron out some technical lapses in order to ensure he’s ready to play. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Mauling presence at the point of attack
• Good reactive quickness to flash against undercutting defenders
• Strong lower half mobility to allow him to play with leverage and control while engaged with defenders

Negatives

• Hand placement and discipline will be a technical point of emphasis to reduce grabbing outside contact strike zone
• Height and fairly lean build yield some irregular pad level that can be more consistent
• Penalties were a big issue prior to the 2024 season

Background

Zabel is from Pierre, SD, and played high school football for T.F. Riggs HS. As a 240-lb offensive tackle, he garnered little interest and was unranked as a recruit (247 Sports) while also participating in basketball and baseball at T.F. Riggs.

Zabel was a two-way player on the gridiron before settling into the offensive line upon his commitment to North Dakota State. He’s played more than 2,400 snaps for the Bison and has logged starts at left tackle, left guard, right guard, and right tackle throughout the course of his five-year career with the program. 

Tale Of The Tape

Grey Zabel has the goods. He’s an old-school grinder up front who plays the game with the needed edge to help be an asset along the offensive line. That said, he pushes the envelope and will need refinement to properly apply his gifts as an NFL starter.

His toughness stands out on tape. He’s constantly churning his feet and straining and plays with the killer instinct you like to see from an offensive lineman charged with creating displacement up front. Zabel will mirror with his hands set before converting to try to press defenders down into the grass. 

He gets strong movement on his combination blocks to create displacement, but he isn’t reliant on his guard to create space. Downblocks and turnout blocks showcase the ability to dictate terms. You don’t expect the same level of physical weardown against NFL competition relative to the majority of the FCS schedule, but Zabel did play one of the best games of the season in 2024 against Colorado. 

Zabel has good hinges for a player of his stature, which is significant in making him a reactive athlete. He doesn’t play top-heavy and has plenty of ability to extend his base. He also plays with the needed spring and agility to react quickly to counters.

He passes the eye test with his movement skills in space and when he’s attached to defenders—showing the core strength and center of gravity to absorb contact and reassert his base when catching power rushes. I like the way he eats up and engulfs defenders who try to go toe-to-toe with him; he plays up to his reputation in close-quarters combat. 

Zabel has the ability to climb and secure on the second level, either with a straight release or working off of a combination block. He’s not a dominant athlete, so more athletic linebackers or defenders with anticipation for the flow of the ball could get out in front of him and scrape over the top to the point of attack. However, zone systems will get him in position to play the cutback by the back, and he sticks with plays in a manner that should leave him well-positioned to reattach to the body of the defender. 

That said, it isn’t all good just yet. Zabel’s hands on tape were often all over the map while playing on the edge, negating his strike power and initial knockback off the ball. The subsequent recovery of poor placement offers defenders the opportunity to either run through blocks in close spaces or otherwise get a grab from Zabel and a potential pull.

This fueled his tendency for penalties to be called against him (8 in 2023). The looseness with his hands is still present on tape, even if the penalties are down in 2024. He’ll need better accuracy and more discipline here. 

Zabel plays with good but not great functional length on the edge. His positional versatility as a player who has started at both guard and tackle spots is a nice plus for finding an NFL home. On the edge, his hand strike timing and placement can combine with good but not great foot speed and good but not great length to unnecessarily test him at times. Zabel will need to be disciplined here, and if he struggles with NFL speed to power on the edge, it may prompt him to kick inside. I can see him starting in there, too. 

Zabel is occasionally high at first contact, although this appears to be more of a discipline issue than a functional ability issue. He shows plenty of ability to sit down on his hips to eat power rushes or, alternatively, coil through contact and explode through a defender’s frame. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Zabel projects as a starting offensive lineman at the NFL level. Given his experience, I could see him taking to NFL coaching quickly, thanks to maturity, but his hand placement and technique must be more consistent before he’s relied upon to take the field as a quality starter.

He projects best to an inside zone blocking scheme but could provide schematic flexibility to play in any system thanks to his toughness and sufficient athleticism. 

Scouting Overview

Georgia Bulldogs linebacker Jalon Walker has a number of pathways to playing time. He’s a viable stack linebacker on early downs who has illustrated excellent pass-rush capabilities from both an off-ball alignment and on the edge of the defense.

Walker is built thick, has heavy hands, and booming pads that create good block deconstruction opportunities in the heart of the box. He’s got excellent linear burst and effective lateral redirection ability to pick his way through traffic and pursue the football. Walker exploded on the scene this year as a featured weapon for the Bulldogs as a junior, which makes his potential long-term outlook all that much more exciting given his instincts relative to the room he still has to grow. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• An ultimate versatility weapon on the second level of the defense — brings run defending, pass rush ability & QB spy ability
• Explosive burst and sideline-to-sideline range when triggering in pursuit
• Heavy hands help jolt and deconstruct blocks in close-quarters combat

Negatives

• Ability to play zone coverage and provide real value on these reps is minimal relative to his rush value
• Unlikely to be an attractive man-to-man coverage option on early downs
• Entered 2024 with less than 300 career snaps on defense — sample size is relatively small for assured translation to the NFL

Background

Walker played his high school football at Salisbury HS in North Carolina and is the son of a coach. Walker’s father, Curtis, has been the head coach of Catawba College for more than a decade and has previously served as the defensive coordinator for Coastal Carolina.

Jalon was a multi-sport athlete at Salisbury, playing football, basketball, and track & field. On the gridiron, Walker was awarded the 2021 Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year award and participated in the 2022 Under Armour All-American Game as a 4-star (247 Sports) standout linebacker.

Walker’s first two seasons at Georgia were in a rotational role. He was a core special teamer during his true freshman season in 2022 and enjoyed a productive CFB Playoff run as a rotational defensive weapon. His sophomore season in 2023 saw him play in 14 games; he led the team in sacks (5.0) despite being a rotational player before assuming a more regular role for the Bulldogs entering the 2024 season. 

Tale Of The Tape

Walker is a search-and-destroy heat-seeking missile for the Georgia Bulldogs. Their defensive scheme tasks him with lining up on the edge to rush or dropping down to play shallow spy vs. mobile passers and clean up any loose pockets.

His burst, range, and length are present, which allows him to cut off most QB rollouts and scrambles before they capture valuable real estate on the edge. This role comes at the expense of an added designated rusher or an added defender in space on the back end, which is something each NFL team, considering Walker’s usage, needs to individually account for. As a result, I am not sure this is a universal prospect — not every team will be able to maximize his potential. 

Those teams who can are the ones willing to let him play a blend of traditional stack backer as a MIKE and as a SAM in under fronts. These roles allow Walker to fill gaps between the tackles or set the edge and use his power and heavy hands to deconstruct blocks. Walker has the first-step explosiveness to trigger against double teams and get down into the LOS from off the ball — he has the core strength and balance to run through lateral challenges and rip clean to uncover and challenge the football. 

On the edge, he has enough length to stack blocks with his inside hand and turn runs back into defensive pursuit. Walker can stack or spill pulling guards and turnout blocks from tackles alike, but never mind what he’s capable of offering against skill players trying to pin and seal him on the perimeter. The variety of on/off the ball early down work opens the door for a team with depth at either linebacker or with a big safety to play personnel matchups along the front. 

As a pass rusher, Walker shows some incredible instincts and variety when rushing the passer off the edge. He can win inside, win with speed, and he’s low enough to convert speed to power and agile enough to duck across the face after selling an outside charge.

These opportunities are complemented by acceleration skills and explosiveness to flash and react late to a changing landmark from the quarterback. He’s got great vision on the edge and anticipation of when a quarterback is going to drift to space. Walker is equally dangerous dropping down from the second level. Defenses can change his arrival point and create extra pre-snap work for the offensive line and opposing quarterback in order to account for him and where he’s attacking the front. 

Walker is capable of shallow zone drops underneath and can tackle generic hook/curl drops from a traditional off-ball role. However, he doesn’t have the same fluidity moving backward in drops as he does moving forward or rushing, nor does he have an appealing profile for man-to-man coverage against backs or tight ends. His static agility and change of direction skills lack the same appeal and dynamic ability as what he offers when he’s playing downhill. 

In all, this is a young talent who offers splendid flashes of football instincts despite not turning 21 years old until February of 2025. He’s got tremendous growth potential, as he’s only now taking full-time snaps as a part of the Bulldogs defense.

However, his father's coaching background pops off the tape with his feel for the game. So long as his NFL team leans into what he can do on and off the ball and doesn’t expect him to be a cookie-cutter player in the league, he should develop into an impact starter with disruptive ability. If I had to choose only one role, I would give him opportunities on the edge before playing him as an exclusive stack backer.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Jalon Walker projects best into a multiple-front scheme that tasks their linebackers with a vast menu of responsibilities. This is a three-down player with unique value on early downs as a stack defender and on passing downs as a pass rush weapon — similar to the likes of Zach Baun and Andrew Van Ginkel.

This is not the kind of player that would fit well in vanilla schemes or in a singular role, so creative play callers or defensive depth charts with a number of versatile defensive talents to create overlap and confusion will go a long way in unlocking the best version of him. 

Scouting Overview

Jeanty is undoubtedly one of the best players eligible for the 2025 NFL Draft when you disregard positional value. This highly productive running back creates a ton of added value to his touches thanks to an elite ability to create yards after contact and is capable of hitting home run carries through traffic.

Jeanty showcases top-tier vision and contact balance while offering a sufficient skill set on passing downs, making him a viable option for any kind of offensive system, be it outside zone or gap-principled.

Most importantly, his well-rounded resume should allow him to offer the kind of snap usage that will be required to justify a selection in the 1st-round of the 2025 NFL Draft. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Elite contact balance and pad level for added yards after contact
• Terrific vision to make subtle adjustments on his rushing track and maintain momentum
• Patience pressing the line of scrimmage to force defenders to declare into gaps

Negatives

• Room for growth in pass protection consistency 
• Very good but not elite breakaway speed
• 2023 ball security was an issue (five fumbles on plays from scrimmage)

Background

Jeanty was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and played high school football at Lone Star High School (Texas). His military family took him to many places before he landed in Boise, including a three-year stint overseas in Italy prior to his enrollment at Lone Star HS. 

At Lone Star HS, he was rated as a 4-star recruit (247 Sports) while playing as a 3-sport athlete (football, track & field, and basketball). By his senior season, Jeanty had logged significant playing time on both sides of the ball as a safety, linebacker, and wide receiver before being given the primary running back role. He obliged by scoring 41 total touchdowns. Jeanty finished his high school career with less than 400 career touches. 

In addition to Boise State, Jeanty received offers from programs such as Kansas, Cal, and all three service academies. 

Jeanty has no documented significant injuries on his resume. 

Tale of The Tape

Jeanty is a throwback to prior generations of NFL running backs — he’s a “do it all” threat that a team could easily justify 300+ touches for on an annual basis. The game appears to move in slow motion for Jeanty, who illustrates the kind of elite vision in the box and when stretching the point of attack with perimeter runs that allow him to manipulate defenders and create creases in the running game. Jeanty pairs that vision with strong patience and precise feet.

On zone runs, Jeanty is highly skilled in pressing to the heels of his blockers before declaring himself into a gap, trusting his ability to reignite his forward burst and waiting out linebackers to force them to choose whether they will attempt to run under blockers or scrape over the top before Jeanty cuts against their path.

He is decisive with his cuts and puts faith in his feet, adjusting on steep angles or, alternatively, making slight adjustments out of the mesh point to redirect away from penetration and hit gaps quickly if a crease is present. Those feet stay active in traffic to create additional push and sustain his leg drive.

Jeanty's compact frame naturally offers him leverage at first contact. It makes him a difficult player to get underneath when he’s coming downhill. Still, he also showcases anticipation of hits and braces for contact to make his strike window even smaller and more difficult for defenders to sync up.

Those who would opt to cut him down low in the open field have been made to look silly on more than one occasion, as Jeanty has a nasty hurdle move that allows him to clear smaller defenders in the secondary who know they can’t thump pads with him 1-on-1. 

When Jeanty hits the open field, he illustrates the necessary burst to break angles in space and convert those opportunities into long-run touchdowns. He has been caught from behind occasionally, but player tracking data has suggested he's capable of breaking into speeds of up to 21mph in a live-game setting — plenty of acceleration and long speed for the next level.

Jeanty’s passing game skill set is impressive, as well. His former high school pedigree as a slot receiver is apparent with his ball skills—he makes good adjustments to the football and showcases comfortable hands. Boise used him into the flats as an early progression, aligned him on the boundary, and ran perimeter screens with him. They've also tried to get Jeanty the football in more traditional running back screen reps. 

Pass protection is still a work in progress, but his dense frame and appetite for contact are attractive elements that have allowed him to aggressively stick his nose into second-level pressures and wash defenders into traffic to keep throwing lanes open and the pocket intact. His consistency, particularly in larger areas of space, to square up rushers is an area of improvement to focus on. That said, I believe he is functional in this capacity now, and it should not be a barrier to playing time early in his career. 

Jeanty showed growth in ball security during his second season as the primary runner in 2024, but he did have six credited fumbles in 2023 despite playing in just 12 games. One such play came on an onside kick scrum, but the other five were all fumbles on plays from scrimmage in which Jeanty was fighting for extra yardage. Ball security can be a non-linear issue, so continued focus in this phase as a physical, after-contact runner is absolutely a point of focus. 

Overall, Jeanty’s explosiveness in short spaces, his vision and patience as a ball carrier, his physicality as a runner in all phases, and his capability to contribute in all phases of the offense should have him well-primed to be the top running back from the 2025 class and offer him the opportunity to be a featured centerpiece of an NFL offense for years to come. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Primary ball carrier in a run-diverse offense. This is a universal prospect who offers the ability to win between the tackles, outside the numbers, and in the passing game.

Scouting Overview

Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart has been a productive quarterback for several seasons after transferring from USC as a sophomore. Thanks to an effective marriage with offensive savant Lane Kiffin, Dart has made the most of his opportunity to play in the SEC by launching explosive pass plays to a slew of gifted pass catchers.

Dart has the necessary athleticism to get outside the pocket and extend plays, plus the arm strength to access most areas of the field when he’s flushed off his spot. However, the precision of his game will need tuning in the pros, as the supporting cast and offensive scheme at Ole Miss provide a margin for error that Dart’s play will likely not be afforded at the NFL level. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Toughness inside the pocket to deliver throws under pressure
• Ball handling skills & ability to execute ball fakes
• Possesses the arm strength to access every level of the field

Negatives

• Decision-making & accuracy falter under pressure
• Will leave progression throws on the field to go off-script and flush pocket
• The transition from space-friendly offense at Ole Miss could be a major one

Background

Dart hails from Kaysville, UT, and is a second-generation college football player. His father, Brandon, played safety at Utah. Dart played baseball in addition to football at Corner Canyon HS (Draper, UT) and was a two-time All-State selection in baseball as a third baseman.

He received national accolades as a 4-star ranked quarterback his senior season (247 Sports). Dart was named the 2020 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year and Max Preps’ National Player of the Year en route to crushing the state record book. Dart posted 4,691 yards and 67 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,195 yards and 12 scores before enrolling at USC. 

Dart joined the Trojans in January 2021 and went on to play in six games (three starts) as a true freshman amid a lost season for USC. Less than a year after joining USC, Dart entered the transfer portal and committed to Ole Miss less than three weeks later. Ever since, Dart has been the unquestioned starter of the Rebels program and has steadily seen his production grow each year as the triggerman of the Ole Miss offense. 

Tale Of THe Tape

Dart has a slew of promising physical skills that should be given the opportunity to develop at the next level. When he’s in rhythm and on time, he spins a beautiful football and can lace throws in the middle of the field or vertically on big shot plays.

Enough athleticism complements these skills to get outside the pocket and extend plays with his legs or change the launch point as a means of allowing deeper progressions to develop. With that in mind, his evaluation is a complex one on account of both the dynamics of his offense and his play style. 

It is easy to appreciate and respect Dart's toughness. His willingness to hang in the pocket when he feels he has a throw developing exposes him to some nasty hits, but generally speaking, he does put the ball out there for his receivers to make a play if Dart feels the pressure coming.

Still, his process vs. pressure is not particularly efficient, and his overall performance in this area looms as a big spot for growth. Too often, Dart will drop his eyes when he feels a collapsing pocket and miss opportunities to make easier throws, and even more frustrating are the times when he locks onto a primary read and does not work through his targets to locate secondary options with the football to avoid hits or sacks.

Given the spacing he is afforded in a spread offense at Ole Miss, these issues only compound at the NFL level when the field is more compressed, and the action happens faster. 

The Ole Miss offense gives Dart a lot of opportunities to attack double moves on the perimeter and big posts into the middle of the field. Dart has the strength to attack these throws and can drop throws in the bucket on these reps, particularly as a primary progression when he can hitch off his back foot and cut it loose. He’s typically most accurate on the sideline when getting the ball up and down between 25-30 yards — so extended plays when he needs to put more juice on the ball lose some of their luster. 

Kiffin’s offense is at its best when the run game is firing, and Dart plays off that well with his ball handling. He sells fakes well and can quickly pull the ball out of the mesh point to shoot a throw if given overplay from defenders keying on the run.

This also goes for RPO concepts; he can quickly hit a slide route into the flat if apex defenders look to duck into a run fit and alienate the flat. Those ball fakes can be a force multiplier on some easy bootouts and quarterback runs. Dart is athletic enough to run naked game on the edge and should be considered reliable enough to get outside a crashing defensive end to put a defense on their heels and get on the edge. 

Syncing Dart’s footwork to his route depth with more consistency could help him with some of the general accuracy he illustrates and, at times, has issues with. He has the arm talent to throw off-platform, but Dart does not do himself any favors with his feet. The trickle-down effect leaves him out of position to progress through progressions that don’t flow directly into his initial line of sight and prompt him into some disappointing misses on open throws. He’s missed some layups that should set off alarm bells for evaluators. 

I worry that if Dart is put in a position to play early, he will be drinking through a firehose. Life will be dramatically different than what Ole Miss has afforded him during the past three seasons, and he will need significant leaps in the precision of his feet and his decision-making pre and post-snap to put all of his physical gifts to good use. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

A long-term developmental quarterback in a balanced offense that embraces play-action passing at an above-average clip. 

Scouting Overview

Texas Longhorns wide receiver Matthew Golden is an explosive pass catcher who boasts versatility in how he can impact a passing game. The Texas offense unleashed a downfield weapon that accentuated his burst off the line of scrimmage — but his inside/outside versatility sets the stage for a player who can win from the slot with separation quickness and in underneath targets as well.

Golden illustrates excellent body control and contortion skills at the catch point, unlocking his frame to adjust to throws of all angles and making him a high-percentage target when he’s given opportunities despite coverage that may be working back into his frame. Golden was an impactful contested catch target in 2024 despite not having the biggest frame and boasting significant separation skills. He’s got a little something for everyone. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Excellent route-running and ability to create separation at the top of routes with salesmanship and hard breaks
• Bounce and elevation skills are present to explode into high-point opportunities 
• Illustrates very good ball-tracking skills down the field and reacts late to prevent defensive adjustments at the catch point

Negatives

• Not an overly creative run after catch target
• Some frustrating drops that are put onto his frame despite his notable catch radius
• Modest run blocking profile to serve as an asset on running downs

Background

Golden is from Houston, TX, and played high school football for Klein Cain HS. There, he was a standout football recruit who also competed in track & field. Golden triple-jumped 21.85 and ran a 10.93s 100m but was a 4-star prep recruit (247 Sports) who was awarded Special Teams Player of the Year honors as a junior and All-State honors as a senior. Golden garnered interest from a slew of programs but ultimately decided to stay local and committed to the Houston Cougars. 

Golden played two seasons in Houston, appearing in 20 games on offense (17 starts) and showcasing a nose for the end zone (13 touchdowns). He also handled kickoff return duties and ran two scores back. A foot injury in 2023 cost him the final three games of the season. Golden then entered the transfer portal as a 4-star transfer (247 Sports) and enrolled at Texas. 

He started all 15 games for the Longhorns in 2024 and was a featured player in the offense. At the end of the season, Golden declared for the 2025 NFL Draft and bypassed his final season of college eligibility. 

Tale Of The Tape

Golden is an impressive breakout talent on the big stage — proving that his production at Houston was not just a byproduct of the level of competition. In the SEC, Golden posted a number of career bests and did so by creating impressive amounts of space in his routes.

Golden can win against press or soft-catch coverage thanks to his initial quickness, foot speed, and awareness of how his body can help to create separation at the top of the route. Golden runs an impressive variety of routes and does well to sell false breaks on his stem. 

Golden was more of a screen and vertical receiver early in his career at Houston playing under Dana Holgerson — meeting the traditional Air Raid route distribution. More than 50 percent of Golden’s total routes as a freshman in 2022 were exclusively go balls and hitches. At Texas, the route distribution on such patterns was down to 34 percent. It’s still an area where he wins, thanks in large part to his ability to stack off the line and the physicality he offers with a defender in trail, but his development in this regard is exciting.

Golden will snap off the stem with hard angles and does well on his middle-of-the-field targets to hug his landmarks; this is a disciplined player who will not drift up the field aimlessly and open the window for triggering zone defenders to cut his routes and beat him to the football. 

Golden may be a separator, but he has great elevation skills, very good hand-eye coordination, and just enough physicality at the catch point to be successful when the quarterback pulls him back into contact. That happened at Texas often — as Golden had as many contested catch opportunities in 2024 as he did in his prior two seasons combined. Golden won on back-shoulder targets and underthrown fades in the end zone.

His hands are good enough to pluck and attack the football away from his frame, and his drop rate was cut in half from the prior season at Houston. His total resume boasts some warts in this regard with drops and will be something to watch. Still, he was a space and RAC target at Houston and then a more down-the-field target and big-play weapon at Texas, so hopefully, the volume component can draw more consistency regarding concentration and drops. 

In the run game, Golden is not a notable factor. He has been assigned intermittently with sealing on crack toss but otherwise is typically running tagged routes on run concepts or split wide and running the perimeter corner off the line of scrimmage. Golden shows sufficient grip strength and functional strength, but the effort and strain level need to be much better for him to be dropped into the slot and attack safeties, linebackers, and nickel corners. This does loom as an incomplete element of his profile and may cut down on his favorability as a true moveable asset at all times and in all down and distances. 

In addition to his offensive role, Golden has served for three seasons on the kickoff team after notable prep honors in this regard. He averaged more than 25 yards per return across his three seasons and ran two scores back for Houston in 2023. There’s special team value here that can bolster his value even further if he does not claim a share of wide receiver snaps early in his career. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Golden projects as an impact starter at the NFL level. He may not be a dominant featured player in an NFL passing game, but in today’s world of multiple 100+ target pass catchers in NFL offenses, Golden has the route running, catch point, and downfield ability to justify such a workload.

He’s a scheme-diverse talent and will appeal to every NFL offense’s passing game. Golden would benefit from playing predominantly on the perimeter to avoid run/pass tells and allow him to run off coverage instead of being a primary player attacking the core. 

Scouting Overview

Ole Miss Rebels cornerback Trey Amos is a well-traveled prospect who has spent time with three separate programs across the past three seasons. Stops in Louisiana, Alabama, and Ole Miss have afforded Amos a variety of coverage roles and responsibilities. He’s taken on more man assignments in his two seasons in the SEC and has the makings of an impactful man-to-man cover corner. He’s long, lean, and physical.

Amos picks up the ball well in flight from the trail position and showcases desirable length and body control to extend and bat away the football. He was among the country’s best secondary defenders in forced incompletions in 2024, and as a player with multiple scheme/coach exposures, he appears to have the coverage instincts necessary to contribute to his new team fairly quickly.

He also pops in some of the ancillary areas of the position, including showing a likable taste for run support — which will only boost his value when he’s assigned to playing half-turn deep thirds or hard flats in zone. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Has very good length and implements it with good impact in press coverage at at the catch point to extend for the football
• Natural ball skills have yielded good ball production as a confident defender in isolation on the perimeter
• Shows a desired appetite as a run support defender to play hard edges in support

Negatives

• Illustrates good but not great top-end straight-line speed to protect against vertical shots in isolated coverage on the perimeter
• Inconsistent as a tackler — both in head-up scenarios and as a pursuit/rally defender away from the football
• Can be overly aggressive both with his hands and his eyes; he is eager to make plays but will benefit from discipline 

Background

Amos has been around the block. He was a two-way player for Catholic HS in New Iberia, LA. There, he played quarterback and cornerback in addition to being the 2A Louisiana State Champion in the Long Jump (22-9 ¾). He was rated as a 3-star athlete (247 Sports). Amos received modest interest on the recruiting scene and enrolled at Louisiana. He played three seasons with the Ragin’ Cajuns program, playing in 34 contests with the team before entering into the transfer portal ahead of the 2023 season and transferring to Alabama. 

Amos played less than 350 defensive snaps for the Crimson Tide in 2023, and so Amos once again hit the transfer portal, this time landing with Ole Miss for his fifth season of college play. He finally found the breakout season he was looking for and was named First Team All-SEC for his 2024 performance. 

Tale Of The Tape

Amos physically looks like an NFL cornerback, and he plays like one, too. This is a talent who offers above-average transitional burst despite being built like the modern prototype at cornerback. He’s a big player who can successfully attack and punch up in weight class against big receivers, thanks to his length, feet, and functional strength.

Amos does well as a disruptor in coverage in the contact window and a zone defender charged with playing with his eyes in the backfield. His coverage versatility, at his stature, makes him an exciting player. 

In man coverage, Amos has the ability to catch routes and uproot the route stem before flipping his hips and transitioning into the trail position to carry receivers vertically up the field. From the trail, he boasts the necessary length to extend and interrupt the catch radius of receivers on deep shots down the field. He can be prone and vulnerable to hard-angled routes breaking inside if he’s not attached to the body or playing inside leverage, as his reactive athleticism here showcases some of the high hips of his frame and, by extension, longer strides that need an extra step to flash and recover.

It is easy to like his press technique and foot speed at the line of scrimmage — but in the event that he whiffs or comes up empty with his jam, he has sufficient but not elite recovery speed to work back into the frame of the receiver on vertical patterns. 

In zone coverage, Amos illustrates an aggressive demeanor. It can, at times, get him into trouble and could allow quarterbacks to manipulate his leverage and be moved out of position with good pass protection. This includes potential stutter go’s and sluggos on the outside when playing in quarters or Cover 3. Amos is at his best playing in half-turn and carrying receivers up the field with eyes in the backfield. He illustrates surprising quickness to collect and redirect downhill in either run support or against in-breakers and comebacks while playing overtop as a capped defender in zone. 

When the ball is in the air, Amos shows the desired ability to take proper angles to cut off the throw underneath or, alternatively, play through the body of receivers at the catch point. His length allows him to play through receivers, but he’ll need to be mindful of how he implements his hands to attack receivers and win the last bit of space to extend and greet the ball. His physicality, if mistimed or extended from his frame, can be interpreted as excessive contact. 

Amos’s ball production shined in an Ole Miss defense in 2024 that had a disruptive defensive front. Teams that can play coverage with an organic rush to test opposing quarterbacks’ precision down the field and in tight windows will likely afford Amos, with his top-shelf length, eager eyes, and surprising transitions, the opportunity to hunt the ball and serve as a potential ballhawk at the NFL level.

As a run support player, Amos shows the desired bounce out of flat-footed reads from depth to step up and beat blocks on the edge. He’s a sufficient level tackler but can be prone to dropping his eyes to try to create big contact on the edge and, in space on the edge, this can be a troublesome habit. As a wrap-up tackler, he has the length and functional strength to finish these opportunities sufficiently.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Amos projects as an NFL starting perimeter cornerback. He will need to be vigilant about his hands and how physically he plays the catch point, but teams that desire a deep third corner in Cover 3 or a press-heavy man defender can both find starting roles for a player of his stature and skill set.

Amos should be considered an early candidate to start and be drafted accordingly. 

Scouting Overview

South Carolina Gamecocks safety Nick Emmanwori is a supersized safety who boasts good straight-line burst, explosive hitting power, and unparalleled length to crowd throwing windows and test the catch point.

Emmanwori has been a productive player in coverage despite some transition limitations that make him an unlikely candidate to play on the roof at the NFL level with any consistency. His feel in zone coverage is effective for sinking and mirror-throwing windows, and he’s nearly impossible to throw over in the red zone where space is constricted — despite QBs continuing to try.

Emmanwori is a plus tackler and a tone-setting player in the box, where he’s spent most of his play at South Carolina. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Zone coverage instincts and ball skills pop off the film with a feel for depth and angles with anticipation
• Reliable tackler who runs the alley and attacks his fits with confidence from depth
• 1,600 snaps in the box or at nickel — he’s well versed in processing block development and route distribution in high traffic to take good angles and work through bodies

Negatives

• Transitional quickness and hip fluidity are limiting factors that create difficulty with transitions in space — limiting his range on the back end
• Lacks appeal as a slot coverage option against wide receivers due to high hips and long strides
• Penalties and discipline took a leap in 2024, and he’ll need to mind his physicality in coverage

Background

Emmanwori hails from Irmo, SC, and played high school football for Irmo HS. There, he was a position-fluid defender who played predominantly MIKE linebacker and was credited with more than 230 tackles as a senior. Emmanwori was an All-State selection as a junior and earned a 3-star recruiting ranking (247 Sports) before choosing to stay in his home state and play for the Gamecocks. 

Emmanwori assumed a spot in the lineup in the first possession of the first game as a true freshman after an injury and never looked back. He started 12 games that season and was named First Team Freshman All-SEC and Second Team Freshman All-American for his efforts. He’s been a fixture of the South Carolina secondary ever since. 

Tale Of The Tape

Emmanwori is a hilariously supersized safety that, despite his stature, has a number of winning traits and can be a unique identity piece to a successful NFL defense.

His instincts in zone coverage took a big step forward in 2024. He was more consistent with his spacing and made throws by opposing quarterbacks more difficult thanks to his straight-line quickness and surreal length to contest throwing windows. Emmanwori has predominantly lived on the second level of the South Carolina defense and makes sense as a traditional strong safety who can be charged with fitting the run in the box and playing intermediate zones. 

From a coverage perspective, Emmanwori appears to have the physicality to successfully match opposing tight ends and would be a viable option in instances against a flex tight end in the slot. But his hip fluidity, stride length, and foot quickness do not create a promising outlook in man coverage against slot receivers, leaving him as a matchup-specific man defender who could compromise some of the disguises of the defense unless coaching and pre-snap structure can further lie to opposing quarterbacks. 

Emmanwori’s actual ball skills are quite good. He’s shown good hands to reach and extend the football, and a number of his interceptions have come in the red zone, where there are more intense degrees to bend a ball with touch and fade it around his frame.

Emmanwori has successfully hawked throws in the middle of the field as well, working backside to cut a cross or undercutting a developing in-breaker from overtop to beat his opponent to the football. The length makes him a total headache to try to work around unless you can cross him up in space — which some receivers have done by pressing vertically and breaking off after he’s flipped his hips upfield. 

Emmanwori’s pressure resume isn’t productive, and he’s been limited in opportunities, but he’s got all the makings of a tremendous pressure player from the second level. He’s got explosive straight-line speed, the ability to contest throwing windows by getting hands up off the edge if he’s not going to get home, and the ability to railroad running backs trying to step up and take him on the head-on in pass protection. He has the ability to really grow and expand this dynamic of his game if he lands with an aggressive scheme. 

As a tackler, Emmanwori’s wingspan does him wonders. He’s made a lot of slashing runs from steep angles and successfully prevented further gains, and he is afforded more margin for error at the catch point with a receiver’s first move with the ball, thanks to how big his tackle radius is.

However, he’s a striker at heart and is capable of delivering some powerful blows by driving downhill and attacking ball carriers in head-up situations. He’s done well to beat blockers in space and take down quick throws on the perimeter — he’s not easy to pick off with perimeter screens as a result. He has an appetite for contact, and I love how he attacks these opportunities. 

His ceiling will be predicated on how often he’s isolated in space and what teammates are around him to help keep him in optimal roles. As a tall safety, his transitions are limited by foot speed and hip tightness and that is an element of his game that is unlikely to change just based on his biomechanics as a mover.

His pedal is high, and his ability to collect from a pedal or flip open his hips to drive a throw from the post is not a strength.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Emmanwori projects best as a traditional strong safety or a third safety for teams that covet the personnel flexibility to play big nickel. Emmanwori’s role as a base safety would be best unlocked in a safety role that rolls down into the box from split half shells and is more responsible for playing forward than working in a pedal.

Although he becomes a probable coverage tell unless you’re willing to let him live in some tight half responsibilities. Those opportunities are likely best supplemented with strong perimeter cornerback play to allow him to stay tight to the hash and potentially hunt routes to cut across the middle of the field. Emmanwori is a developmental starter. 

Scouting Overview

Ohio State Buckeyes WR Emeka Egbuka is a well-built, smooth slot receiver who offers reliable hands and toughness at the catch point.

Egbuka should be considered an underneath, chain-moving option at the NFL level who can provide value in 11p-heavy offenses. The Shanahan scheme and all of its branches across the league will likely find ample value in Egbuka’s game on targets that attack the middle of the field. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Reliable hands that pop at the catch point
• Smooth body control to contort to the ball 
• YAC demon with comfort in the middle of the field

Negatives

• Unlikely to offer vertical value at the NFL level
• Underwhelming blocking presence for a dense slot receiver
• Less success stacking defenders on the perimeter 

Background

Egbuka was born in DuPont, Washington, and played his high school football for Steilacoom HS in Washington. There, he earned a 5-star recruitment ranking (247 Sports) and was listed as a top-10 overall recruit in the country and the nation’s No. 1 wide receiver while posting 61 total touchdowns in his high school career.

After the COVID-19 pandemic pushed Steilacoom’s 2020 season to the spring of 2021, Egbuka bypassed his senior season and became an early enrollee at Ohio State before becoming a productive member of the Buckeyes’ wide receiver corp as a true freshman via special teams. 

As a sophomore, Egbuka posted his first career 1,000-yard season for Ohio State while catching passes from now-Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud. For his efforts that season, he was named Second-Team All-Big Ten. Egbuka’s junior season was injury-marred, and he disclosed he underwent a tightrope procedure for an ankle injury suffered that season. In all, he missed three games as a junior before returning for his senior season in 2024. 

Tale Of THe Tape

The first thing that stands out about Egbuka is his proficiency, which allows him to transition from a pass catcher to a threat with the football in his hands. Egbuka has good instincts to feel and attack space with the ball in his hands on underneath targets.

He is capable of creating chunk plays with his initial burst and vision after the catch. This player thrives when given space to operate and has historically thrived as a slot option, where releases into routes are more free access, and he can attack his route stems based on leverage from nickel defenders, safeties, and linebackers. 

Egbuka can also play through soft tackle challenges. He’s not a lightweight receiver and plays tough if defenders aren’t capable of squaring on his frame in the open field. It is easy to appreciate how he plucks and attacks the football to ensure he’s optimizing space at the catch point, preventing defenders from coming through his body to contest the throw.

Egbuka shows good concentration on targets through traffic, seeing the ball into his hands and willing to brace for contact at the hit. This quality is complemented by how he contorts his frame back to the football on throws that force him to flip his hips late in the stem. 

This is a receiver with a strong track record with his hands, but it was notable that a handful of his few career drops have come on targets to his back hip. That and the occasional rep of taking his eyes off the football too early were the primary contributors to his infrequent drops throughout his college career. 

Egbuka has been given opportunities to play on the outside, but he is much more successful working from the slot. I did not see the same success breaking across the face of defensive backs or stacking defenders vertically while playing on the outside and having coverage leverage the sideline against him. As such, I do believe he’ll be best served as predominantly an inside target at the next level. 

From a route-running perspective, he’s frequently impactful on hitches, shallow crosses, slants, and out patterns. He’ll convert first and second-window targets into in-stride foot races. It is easy to appreciate how he will get on top of the toes of defenders before getting into his cuts — he understands the value of closing space and attacking defenders to force defensive positioning before breaking and looking for the football. 

He does have room to grow with being a more impactful all-around player. I would love to see some more fire on running downs, particularly given that he is a thicker slot option. He clearly has the pop in his hands and contact balance to dictate terms and claim real estate against defensive backs playing as an apex defender.

More often than not, Egbuka was charged with playing out RPO routes or serving as a decoy on obvious running situations or short-yardage reps. He can take his game to the next level with more dynamic play away from the football, and he has the physical skill set to do it. 

Egbuka can bring special teams value if needed. He’s an experienced kick returner who played that role primarily as a freshman in 2021. He averaged nearly 30 yards per return, and thanks to his smooth cuts and field vision, I could see him adjusting well to the dynamic kickoff rules in the NFL. 

This is a player with good receiving instincts and ball-tracking capabilities. Timing-based offenses can maximize his run-after-catch capabilities, and pinpoint accurate quarterbacks should help maximize his catch radius and offer him opportunities to use his ball skills and body control to target away from defenders when he is targeted in tight coverage. 

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Primary slot receiver for a West Coast offense. Egbuka is primarily a passing game weapon with room to grow in the complementary areas of the position. 

Scouting Overview

Ohio State Buckeyes offensive tackle Josh Simmons projects as a potential cornerstone offensive tackle at the NFL level. He has a wonderful blend of foot speed, functional movement skills, active hands, and balance that allow him to flash major ability in all phases of the position.

Simmons’ lateral mobility shines in the run game, where he can work backside cutoff to free his guard or alternatively expand rapidly to create expansion on a front-side defender. He’s well built and offers the necessary hand power and leverage to sit down power rushers and combat all kinds of body types at the NFL level as well.

Unfortunately, Simmons suffered a season-ending knee injury against the Oregon Ducks in October that required surgery. This left the biggest red mark on his resume, not as any potential physical ability but instead as a medical check that every team will need to do their homework on. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Elite foot speed provides foundation for success in all phases of the position
• Very good body control and flexibility through frame allow him to unlock play strength at all angles and directions
• Refined pass protector with strong framing on the perimeter vs. speed and integrity of his inside gap

Negatives

• Coming off season-ending knee surgery in October, every team will have their work to do with medicals
• Was a completely different player in 2024, having turned the corner as a player — but had just a 6-game season and missed all of OSU’s games against the best competition
• 25 credited penalties between 2022 and 2023 seasons, split between San Diego State and Ohio State

Background

Simmons is from San Diego, CA, and played high school football for Madison HS & Helix HS. As a recruit, Simmons played on both sides of the ball and was a highly coveted offensive guard prospect who earned a 4-star recruiting ranking (247 Sports). He collected offers from several of the major programs, including Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, and others — but ultimately chose to stay home and attend San Diego State University to start his college career.

Simmons redshirted as a true freshman in 2021 and assumed a starting role for the Aztecs as a redshirt freshman — starting 13 games at right tackle and logging nearly 800 snaps for the season. At the end of that season, Simmons announced he was entering the transfer portal and ultimately landed on Ohio State as his next home.

He flipped from right to left tackle for the Buckeyes and immediately assumed a starting role on their offensive line in 2023 — a job he held in 2024 while experiencing a massive leap in his game. The upward trajectory of his game is hard to ignore, although Simmons’ season came to an abrupt halt with a season-ending knee injury against the Oregon Ducks. He underwent surgery shortly after. Despite missing half the season, Simmons was named Third Team All-Big Ten for his play, and he declared for the 2025 NFL Draft in December. 

Tale Of The Tape

Simmons is physically capable of executing a wide variety of concepts. His zone run work at the point of attack shows grace on his tracks, effective power, and strength to create displacement and sustainability thanks to grip strength and balance. His vertical run game work showcases a lot of ground force applied up through his frame to create jolt and knock a lineman’s pads back at first contact.

His pass protection work best showcases his athletic ability. Simmons will attack set points and is highly confident in his reactive athleticism to flash and close space after a rusher declares himself to a track to the quarterback. 

Simmons’ natural ability was evident based on his first season of left tackle tape at Ohio State in 2023, but the technical refinements he was able to implement over the course of the 2023/2024 offseason are eye-popping and promise a pro-ready player who has the tools to be an impact starter. 

Simmons showcases active and independent hands — not only from one another but also from his feet. He has strike variety on the edge and his play-side punch placement is typically on-point, allowing him to secure blocks and set the hook before seeking to wall off a defender.

When defensive linemen look to swim across his face or push upfield for momentum, Simmons is quick to convert and drive his feet. This allows him to rapidly counter with momentum and wash his man out of the picture altogether. 

Simmons has great gravitational pull as a blocker, both on the edge and on the second level. His body control, length and balance give defenders no easy outs to play around him; they are instead forced to try to play through his frame in pursuit and engage in hand-to-hand combat to try to break leverage.

Simmons is savvy in these instances and will implement false hand flashes with a quick reset, chops to snatch a defender off their set, or simply implement a firm grip to latch and sustain. When he’s in close quarters and faced with gap exchanges and twists, Simmons does well to ride through the first defender and deliver him effectively to his guard before resetting hands to re-frame. 

This is the kind of athlete that you can get ambitious with for assignments in space. Do you want to leave a dynamic speed rusher 1-on-1 on the edge for a deep drop and shot play? Simmons has the ability to execute it.

If you’re looking to run crack toss and push the tackle up through the C-gap to a stack backer on the front side? Simmons has the ability to execute it. Looking to free up numbers on the front side but need someone to cut off the backside 3T? Simmons can do that, too. This isn’t just a reliable pass protector; he's a weapon on the front and a potential math changer for the spacing of the field. 

We were robbed of some big-time prospect showcases this season on account of Josh Simmons’ season-ending knee injury. Ohio State’s late-season matchups vs. Penn State (Abdul Carter) and Tennessee (James Pearce Jr.) could have potentially served as catapults to push Simmons into top-5 overall pick territory — the tape is that good.

As is, he’ll serve as a potential massive steal based on the performance we did get from him this season with an injury tag. And, to be fair to Simmons, his three-year trajectory as a starter is undeniable. He’s been blessed with a lot of natural ability and has been harnessing it more and more effectively each season. If you’re comfortable with the medicals here, Simmons has Pro Bowl potential.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Simmons should be regarded as a universal scheme fit at offensive tackle at the NFL level. He has the physical ability to thrive in just about any concept or scheme, thanks to dynamic athleticism, agility, and power. He’d do just fine in a traditional drop-back offense with a pocket passer.

He has the anchor and mirror skills to attach rushers in space early on and hold his blocks, too. Provided he’s healthy, he should certainly be among an NFL franchise’s best five and starting as a rookie. 

Scouting Overview

Oregon Ducks offensive tackle Josh Conerly Jr. is a physically gifted offensive lineman with dynamic movement skills that will serve him well at the NFL level. He has been a two-year starter at left tackle for the Ducks and has been proficient in the run and the passing game.

His length and punch offer him good bite on the edges, and his foot speed shines as a trait that he can hang his hat on in his pass-set framing and in the run game. Conerly Jr. is athletic enough to pull and attack on the edges of the defense in crack toss & pin, and pull concepts while also showcasing the mobility to climb up to the second level and attack.

He can be more controlled in these instances to maximize his blocks, and he could likely use some additional overall strength and power to his game to help unlock additional pathways to consistent success. But he’s still growing and improving as a player — the sky is the limit here. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Ideal length and movement skills offer him an impressive gravitational pull at OT
• Has the hip mobility and foot speed to play in space as a lead blocker or second-level threat in the run game
• Firm punch and dynamic base offer him an effective anchor in pass protection

Negatives

• Hand placement consistency at times requires extra work to establish inside hand fit
• Could use more upper body strength to sustain his blocks and control at the fringes of his reach
• Consistency of point of attack movement on the first level 

Background

Conerly Jr. was one of the country’s most prized recruits coming out of Seattle, WA. He played his high school football at Rainier Beach HS in Seattle and was a standout basketball player in addition to his status as a prized offensive tackle recruit.

Conerly Jr. was awarded the Anthony Muñoz Award for the nation’s best high school lineman in 2021 and was rated as a 5-star recruit (247 Sports) while receiving invitations to the All-American Bowl and the Polynesian Bowl. His recruitment as a top-10 overall recruit in the country (247 Sports) saw him collect interest from programs like Michigan, USC, Miami, Alabama, Oklahoma, LSU, Penn State, and Texas, in addition to the Oregon Ducks. 

Conerly Jr. appeared in 13 games as a true freshman in 2022, serving as a 6th offensive lineman at times for Oregon before assuming a starting role for the program in 2023. As a true sophomore, he led the program in offensive snaps and was Honorable Mention All-PAC 12.

He returned to the lineup in 2024 and helped the Ducks storm their way through an undefeated regular season and the No. 1 seed in the 2024/2025 College Football Playoff. He was named First Team All-Big Ten and First Team All-American for his play. 

Tale Of The Tape

Conerly Jr. is an easy prospect to like when you watch him move. He’s built dense through the core and trunk, thanks to his 6-foot-4 frame but still boasts plenty of length to project well to tackle at the NFL level.

His athleticism will be his greatest asset early on as he continues to refine the technical portions of his game, but he appears to have already established healthy techniques in a number of ways. Conerly Jr. showcases good posture and balance in protection, illustrating active and sudden feet that allow him to mirror effectively on the edges of the pocket. Conerly Jr. balances this confidence in his movement skills with the effective extension of his reach — he steepens angles with his length and illustrates the ability to sync his punches effectively as rushers try to work into a hip-to-hip position. 

Conerly Jr. has the necessary body mass to drop his hips and anchor — although the timeliness of these efforts is an area where he can show some growth. He is someone primarily responsible for setting the width of the pocket, and rushers that can successfully get into his frame or under his pads can prompt him to be squeezed on vertical sets and then compressed to cut down angles to the quarterback.

These issues arise most with rushers who have start/stop suddenness and can threaten him on either path through the first three steps — but so long as Conerly Jr. catches the rush in cadence with his own feet, he has the ability to redirect and steer the rush to the outside. 

It is easy to appreciate how explosive Conerly Jr. can be out of the blocks, and as a result, he is likely to be popular with the Shanahan scheme offenses. The point of emphasis is that being explosive out of the stance and creating horizontal stretch will put him in the most positions to be successful and lean toward his best traits.

Although, this is still a proficient true pass set player who will be tested only by diverse and disciplined rushers. However, the opportunity to take this skill set and drop it into an aggressive front scheme that puts mobility and athleticism at a premium will be hard for many to pass up. 

In the run game, Conerly Jr. has good pop and, thanks to his length, is quick to gain control of the front side of runs. He isn’t a true mauler, but he will claim space with his quickness, punch pop, and length. Once he’s established a preferred fit, he is effective with sealing a crease for his runner and has the movement skills necessary to mirror on the edge and wall off a defender.

As a space blocker, Conerly Jr. illustrates the body control and gravitational pull necessary to force defenders to bubble or play passively ahead of first contact. He is capable of pulling and wrapping to climb to a front-side backer, he can get outside and mirror to attack a defensive back in the alley, or he can climb up through the C gap and get on top of a linebacker before they are able to run over the top. On the backside, Conerly Jr. showcases the necessary mobility to cut off 3-techs and or attack 30-alignment LBs. 

The Ducks have asked him to club and release into space in the screen game, and the timing of these reps has often felt hit or miss. At times, he feels as though he’s working into space without the same confidence of a landmark that he would otherwise have on outside-run concepts. 

This is a loose mover with fluid hips, quick feet, good initial punch power, and the mirror skills necessary to sustain fits, even if he currently is missing the raw power that would make him a dominant force on the edge.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Conerly Jr. projects best as a starter in an outside zone scheme at the NFL level. His ability to move laterally and explode out of the blocks will be welcomed into that kind of system and lessen the degree of raw power he’ll need to apply to opposing defenders.

An aggressive front that can lean into play action as a counterpunch to the zone tracks of the linemen can help optimize Conerly Jr.’s athletic profile. He should be considered a viable early starter at the pro level. 

Scouting Overview

Ohio State Buckeyes offensive guard Donovan Jackson projects as a developmental offensive guard at the pro level. Jackson has apparent physical ability but has struggled to consistently unlock the fullest extent of his abilities on account of punch timing & placement, footwork lapses, and the need for better awareness of schemed rushers in pass protection.

He operates best as a phone booth worker, yet he showed admirable fight when charged with stepping in at left tackle for the Buckeyes down the stretch amid the injury to LT Josh Simmons. Jackson has enough athleticism and strength to serve as a viable option in any kind of run scheme, but he will need further coaching to develop the technical consistency required to bat at a high average at the point of attack and in pass protection. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Possesses strong grip strength to latch and secure defenders once his hands are fit on their chest
• Has enough core and upper-body strength to absorb power rushes that attempt to work through his frame
• Likable movement at the point of attack on solo blocks & double teams that hit between the tackles

Negatives

• Feet look heavy in space, and teams who can isolate him in protection can test his gravitational pull on the edges of his blocks
• Punch placement and timing are inconsistent and allow defenders to work into his frame and put him on the defensive
• Shows late reactions and poor anticipation for the need to reframe his set out of stance against delayed pressure or loopers

Background

Jackson is from Bellaire, TX, and played high school football for Episcopal HS. There, he was a highly coveted recruit who also threw shot put and discus. A 5-star prospect (247 Sports), Jackson garnered strong national interest and was graded as one of the 10 best recruits in his class. He received offers from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas, Texas A&M, and many others before committing to Ohio State. 

There, he received playing time at both guard spots as a true freshman in 2021 and claimed a starting role with the team as the left guard in 2022 as a true sophomore. Jackson has been named First Team All-Big Ten in each of his three seasons as a starter in Columbus (2022-2024) and was also named a First Team All-American for his efforts as a senior in 2024. Jackson did so despite taking one for the team and kicking to left tackle for the second half of the season. 

Tale Of The Tape

Jackson looks exactly like the prototype you’d expect for an NFL guard. He’s got a broad frame and a stout build, which offers him the necessary strength in all phases of the position to be an effective player. That said, he’s betrayed by some finer points that cancel out his natural strength and apparent athletic ability.

Jackson offers a robust resume as a starter at Ohio State and has seen a lot of football. He’ll be physically prepared for the rigors of blocking NFL talent, but his technique and discipline will be the defining variable for how much success he finds and how quickly he attains it. 

Jackson illustrates a stout punch and good lower-body strength to gear down power rushes in pass protection. His punches are mostly consistent and offer a higher strike rate average on the chest of defenders when he’s short-setting vs. half a man in protection. When he’s charged with setting to close space and getting head up on a defender out of his stance, he can be guilty of overcommitting and leaving his far hand vacant and vulnerable to counters that slant back across his momentum — lateral redirection quickness is not a strength, and he does at times play tall. When he can simply short-set and frame a defender inside out, he’s more consistent in securing the block and then leaning on his grip strength to wall off. 

When left unoccupied in the pocket, Jackson does well to use his eyes and identify opportunities for work to attack defenders who may be testing his guard or center. Jackson offers power in these opportunities to knock engaged rushers off their base.

His anticipation for twist games can be more crisp. However, loopers or delayed pressure from the second level can eat him up as he overcommits to the first color to cross his face. When charged with picking up a twist, he can be late to re-work his hands and struggles to slide and frame, leaving the defender free to pinball off his hip and peel up into the pocket. 

In the run game, Jackson is most effective with vertical releases off the line of scrimmage. This is included in solo blocks and double teams, where he can collect the most of a defender’s frame flush on his hands and chest before rooting his feet to create forward momentum to create space.

He’s effective in these close-quarters opportunities, although in short-yardage situations, defenders coiled in a four-point stance can successfully shoot and get under his pads to create a pile. Jackson’s anticipation of landmarks in zone concepts can betray him at times; he’s not the most quick-footed player, and moving targets can best him as he tries to dial up and secure the appropriate hat placement. In these instances, Jackson can cede penetration upfield and force his back into cutting back. 

As a space blocker, Jackson is most effective for his initial charge out of his stance to climb to the second level but then more impactful in how big he is to force defenders to run over the top or underneath of his real estate as compared to actually mirroring and securing blocks in space.

If you’re looking for blockers who consistently secure over the top flow and wash them out, Jackson may not be the right fit.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Jackson projects best to an inside zone and between-the-tackles heavy run scheme. He’s an NFL guard through and through despite his reps this season at tackle and is at his best when the landmarks and fringes of his blocking radius are not tested.

Allowing him to work in vertical angles can help him draw more consistent hand fits and block framing to generate the expected movement based on his functional strength. Jackson should be considered a developmental starter. 

Scouting Overview

The James Pearce Jr. profile is one we’ve seen before — long, explosive, and dominant cornering ability to get to the quarterback. Pearce Jr. isn’t a perfect prospect, and I’m not sure he’s a scheme-transcendent talent, although he could be if he can sustain his explosiveness and bend while adding some significant mass to his frame.

However, these traits don’t just get drafted early, and they usually transition quite well in obvious passing situations. He can flash like lightning, flow like water, and is one of the most persistent and productive pass rushers in the entire country. Put him on the field on third and mediums and longer, and he should find himself in an impactful role while he rounds out the warts in his game. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Elite explosiveness off the line of scrimmage to pressure angles of offensive tackles and create space
• Possesses elite bend and lower body flexibility to carry speed through steep angles and corner effectively 
• Showcases top-notch length and extension ability to long-arm and create separation for block disengagement

Negatives

• Functional strength and raw power is a question due to lean frame and lack of mass 
• High-cut defender whose ability to play at the point of attack will always be something of a question
• Ability to convert speed to power and reduce angles needs work to offer a fully complete pass rush profile

Background

Pearce Jr. is from Charlotte, NC, and played his high school football at Julius L Chambers HS. There, he was a highly regarded, albeit undersized, pass-rush recruit rated as a 4-star prospect (247 Sports). Pearce Jr. was a closely contested recruit who garnered nearly 20 offers, choosing the Volunteers over South Carolina after posting 14.5 sacks as a senior. 

As a true freshman at Tennessee, Pearce Jr. played in all 13 games while playing sparingly. His breakout campaign came in 2023 as a true sophomore — earning First Team All-SEC honors for Tennessee while posting 10 sacks and 14.5 tackles for a loss.

This production came despite starting just three games and playing in every game. His encore season in 2024 was equally impressive; Pearce Jr. led the SEC in pressures (52) through the end of the regular season and helped the Volunteers punch their ticket to the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff. 

Tale Of The Tape

Pearce Jr. is an elite speed rusher — just don’t miscast him as just a speed rusher. There’s a pleasant amount of variety in the ways in which Pearce Jr. wins in getting to the quarterback, which will set him up for an early NFL role.

He boasts a number of rush counters and is an effective rush planner who can identify early opportunities against heavy feet or oversets to take corrective pathways into the backfield through his first two steps of the rush. It isn’t just the ability to overwhelm and overtake tackles on the edge that pops; it’s his reactive quickness and recognition of how he’s being framed that allows him to be such a dominant presence rushing the quarterback. 

The elite traits, however, give him an area to hang his hat early in his development. He has elite length, bend, and burst. His ability to turn tight corners and flatten at the top of the rush is a critical element of his game, as it allows him more margin to work into a hip-to-hip relationship with tackles and his influence attacking the frame of the quarterback while engaged with rushers is larger than most because of his reach and body control.

This pairs well not just for rushes off the edge but also makes him a dangerous presence in opportunities to run twists and stunts that could potentially turn him loose on interior gaps. Pearce Jr. has the ability to carry speed through tight angles, and the secondary acceleration makes him someone who will close throwing windows with suddenness. 

Pearce Jr. still has opportunities to refine his game. He’s logged less than 600 career pass rush opportunities across three seasons in college, and many of his wins have come courtesy of his movement skills. With that in mind, the precision of how he uses his hands can become more consistent and make him even more devastating as a rusher.

His chops, at times, are mistimed, and his placement on speed-to-power conversions doesn’t always get the meat of the tackle. Pearce Jr. has the mobility to drop his hips on these reps to try to gain leverage and play up and through the chest of tackles, but his raw power will gather more teeth if he can put some added mass onto his frame. 

This is always a dangerous proposition for speed rushers — balancing the prospect of adding mass but not neutering what a player does best. Pearce Jr. can play at his current weight, but to be a high-volume snap taker, he would likely benefit from an added 10-15 pounds on his frame to help his ability to play with more power and boost his presence at the point of attack to hold up against the run.

His block recognition skills in more passive reps are a work in progress, and his upper-body strength and power to press linemen off his frame are currently limited. 

The run defending questions could be mitigated in a wide-9 system that encourages backfield penetration and lean into his strengths as an athlete. But in a perfect world, he’ll be afforded pass-rush snaps early and allowed to further develop his hand usage, leverage, and block recognition throughout the early windows of his pro career in order to earn more snaps.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Pearce Jr. projects as a star pass rusher at the NFL level. However, his early play in the NFL could be somewhat limited, restricting him to a designated pass rush role as a rookie or second-year player.

Still, assuming he continues to refine his ability to deconstruct blocks while further filling out his frame, there’s no reason that this cannot be a double-digit sack artist who plays a majority of downs in the NFL. Pearce Jr. can realistically play as a hand-in-the-dirt end, ideally from wider alignments, or play as a rush linebacker who releases from a 2-point stance. 

Scouting Overview

Iowa State Cyclones cornerback Darien Porter is a supersized height/weight/speed blend at the cornerback position. His stature and burst make him an intriguing talent when you consider he only recently made the transition to cornerback halfway through his six-year college career.

There’s plenty of technical room for growth that can be poured into his game to amplify the foundation of ball skills, length, and zone coverage instincts that he currently illustrates. Porter is at his best in zone coverage as a perimeter cornerback and has showcased the ability to play hard flats in Cover 2 and exotic Cover-3 rotations or, alternatively, play in a half turn and play a deep third in Cover 3.

His ability to play man coverage can be amplified if he develops as a press coverage defender and can get hands on opposing receivers at the NFL level. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Tremendous length and straight-line speed combination make him difficult to stack vertically
• Has very good ball skills and tracking ability thanks to his background as a wide receiver
• Has illustrated some very good zone coverage awareness to layer multiple routes into his assignment area

Negatives

• Will be 25 years old before the end of his rookie season in 2025 with just three years of cornerback experience — creating a challenging developmental curve vs. physical peak dynamic
• Transitions in space and ability to unlock hips and flip vertically in off coverage are limited by his high-cut frame
• Support play on the perimeter in the run game can be more assertive and consistent

Background

Porter is from Bettendorf, IA, and played high school football for Bettendorf HS. He was an accomplished track athlete in addition to his play as a wide receiver at the prep level — Porter won the 4A state championship in the 400m twice (2017 & 2019) and ran the first 400m below 47 seconds in Iowa high school history.

On the gridiron, Porter was a vertical blazer at wide receiver who earned First Team All-State honors as a kick returner in addition to his role as a pass catcher. Porter was ranked as a 3-star recruit (247 Sports) for the recruiting class of 2019 and committed to Iowa State over Nebraska, Penn State, and Minnesota in December of 2017. 

Porter played sparingly as a true freshman in 2019, collecting a redshirt before playing as a special teams contributor again in 2020 and retaining his four years of eligibility for another season thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He played in all 13 contests in 2021, again as a special teamer, before converting to cornerback ahead of the 2022 season.

Porter’s play was again rooted in special teams in 2022, although he did get some opportunities on defense, with nearly 100 snaps in coverage on the season. He did not assume a starting role until 2024 and enjoyed a breakout campaign in his third year as a cornerback. 

Tale Of The Tape

Porter is a really fascinating intersection of potential and upside vs. physical maturity at the cornerback position. This is the kind of talent that will get defensive back coaches and coordinators excited to work with—he has terrific length and good straight-line speed, along with a monster frame on the outside.

As a result, he profiles a perimeter corner. But he’s still green at cornerback and will be 25 years old before the end of his rookie season, leaving him in some limbo between how good he can be and how fast he can get there. 

In coverage, he shines most as a zone corner. There, his background as wide receiver is apparent with how he feels and leverages route combinations. He’s done a nice job of anticipating secondary routes uncovering and developing into his space to fall back into a second throwing window and utilize his length. He’s a viable option as a hard flat defender or a deep third player in zones — where he can utilize his size and length to leverage the sideline and the quarterback to further squeeze windows. 

He lacks some of the foot speed and transitional quickness required to play in more grass and be a consistent trigger performer to attack stuff in front of his face. He illustrates some hip tightness, as expected with his height, and his stride length and foot speed are challenges that are difficult to overcome when forced to sit and wait on a break with too much grass to cover.

Porter will get exposed in this phase if a team plays matchups and gets caught leaving him in the slot. His footwork needs to be pristine to offer him any consistency in these opportunities, and as a result, he should be favored as an outside-only player. 

In man coverage, Porter is most often charged with soft press and catching receivers throughout the contact window to allow him to feel his way into phase. These instances protect him as he filters releases and protect him from early separation that can be attacked with his transitional speed.

Receivers who outside release and run the vertical plane have a hard time running away from him but you do see him manipulated with stack releases, and he can be exposed transitionally in these instances. Refining his press man technique would be unlock another element to his man coverage profile and he certainly possesses the length and strength to be an asset in disrupting timing more aggressively. 

Porter is a special teams stalwart with a number of blocked kicks throughout his career. He should be considered to fulfill a role in this manner on the punt return and field goal coverage units as a level of hidden value to his game as well. The length and linear burst would be a welcome piece for special teams staff that are looking to invest specifically into roles for teams. 

The other area Porter can grow and help himself is as a run defender on defense. He is, at times, slow to react to perimeter screens or outside run games and, as a result, will concede soft edges.

When he’s fully engaged with his hands, he’s very difficult to block due to his wingspan and strength in space. But the reactiveness to which he converts into triggering to the line of scrimmage can be sharper and help him beat blocks with angles more consistently.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Porter would be best served playing as a perimeter cornerback at the NFL level. He should be regarded as a developmental starter due to some room for growth with his footwork and press technique and be afforded the opportunity to develop across his first few seasons while being weaned into bigger opportunities.

In the meantime, his extensive experience as a special teams stalwart can help ensure he’s contributing enough to dress on game days. 

Scouting Overview

Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Tyleik Williams is a player who, in the right environment, could see everything snap into place and become a draft steal. He’s obviously a gifted defender who showcases an understanding of the value of his hands and has an athletic foundation that offers him hope to find a consistent impact on passing downs.

However, Williams never really made “the leap” at Ohio State and will now be charged with regularly finding the best of himself at the NFL level. Williams is a disruptive run defender who offers a squatty build, effective length, and active hands. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Showcases some very savvy hands for block deconstruction in the run game
• History of impressive explosiveness within the Ohio State S&C program
• Potential pass rush upside is present

Negatives

• Pass rush resume in 2024 does not offer excitement for NFL leap
• He has played at a number of different weights during his career between 290 and 320 — is he a 3T, or is he a 1T? 
• Overall play consistency is still lacking

Background

Williams was born in Manassas, VA, and played his high school football for Unity Reed HS. There, he was ranked as a 4-star recruit for the 2021 recruiting class while receiving offers from a slew of national powers. Williams collected First-Team All-State honors and was selected to play in the Army All-America Bowl before enrolling early at Ohio State in the spring of 2021. 

Williams made a splash as a true freshman in 2021, earning Freshman All-American honors while playing in 12 games for the Buckeyes. He logged snaps in 13 games as a sophomore in 2022 before collecting Second-Team All-Big Ten honors in 2023. Williams entered the 2024 season with 38 career games played and 12 career starts. 

Tale Of The Tape

Williams is a stout run defender who has flashed the ability to take over periods of games for the Buckeyes. With a firm punch and good instincts for playing the point of attack, Williams feels like a high-floor player at a minimum at the NFL level. Although, the ultimate valuation he receives in the pre-draft process will likely be determined by the confidence of a team to help him reach his ceiling. 

At his best, he’s got plus quickness and agility for a player of his stature and has flashed the ability to get into the backfield as a penetration run defender and pass rusher. His ability to stack blocks and process pressure before discarding blockers is capable of being disruptive between the tackles.

Williams has the density and strength to absorb contact in vertical releases and usually offers a strong recovery from first contact to gather and control the block. In these instances, he can parlay his hands with enough lateral mobility and agility to drop off a block and trace the back off of a cut into a gap in his vicinity. 

As a pass rusher, he has surprising twitch for a player of his stature, and some of his older tape shows even more agility and burst — so a team will have to make a decision on a playing weight for Williams based on the role they envision him being best at. These opportunities always add variance to an evaluation if the playing weight committed to is not within the equilibrium of Williams’ natural weight, so this is a risk assessment each team will independently have to be comfortable with.

In 2024, he showed modest burst out of the blocks and did not frequently overtake gaps against slide protections, trying to overtake his rush with angles. He won more often with sliding off of blocks than moving targets and was more opportunistic with rushing landmarks than overtaking a setting guard in a half-man rush. 

Williams does offer power, however. He can put smaller blockers on skates and walk a guard back into the lap of a static quarterback. His application of power is reliant on a good start out of the blocks, which is not always a constant in his game.

If Williams gets caught with his eyes up, he can stall his momentum and take away the burst he does have. The start-stop ability is not going to afford him a lot of rush recovery ability in the same way that he can laterally fall off a block, thanks to his hands slingshotting him off of a blocker.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Williams projects best into an even front scheme as an A-gap defender. He has the penetration quickness to threaten the A-gap and the mass to hold anchor against the point of attack. His successes in deconstructing blocks will make him a valued run defender.

Williams has some upside as a pass rusher thanks to pleasant quickness for his stature, but he’s likely a rotational player early on run downs with a chance to further develop a pass rush prowess to command snaps down the line. 

Scouting Overview

South Carolina Gamecocks defensive tackle T.J. Sanders projects as an attacking interior defender for the NFL level. There appears to be a developmental foundation for a more complete role and profile with time — he has enough length and enough punch power to align overtop of blockers and stack the point if he can be more consistent with his anchor, block recognition skills, and hand placement.

As is, he’s an absolute savage rushing the passer who should bolster an NFL team’s sub-package rush group from the jump. Sanders has played more than 150 snaps apiece in the A-gap and head-up over tackles, showing the ability to win from all kinds of angles thanks to his first step, lateral quickness, active hands, and ability to turn tight corners. 

2025 NFL Combine Results

TBD

Positives

• Potent first step explosiveness and second gear to dart across the face or shoot gaps 
• Has very strong lower body flexibility and cornering skills to squeeze through tight creases and peel to the quarterback
• Illustrates a number of rush counters with his hands at first contact to further amplify his quickness through the contact window

Negatives

• Somewhat undersized talent who can get engulfed by double teams or disciplined pad level at the point of attack
• Lacks ideal raw upper-body power for block deconstruction when stacking the point
• Overall, block recognition skills in neutral down rate can be more consistent

Background

Sanders (full name is Tanaeri J. Sanders) is from Marion, SC, and played high school football for Marion HS. There, he was also a standout basketball player who earned All-State honors as a junior. On the gridiron, Sanders was a 3-star recruit (247 Sports) as a strong-side defensive end and also played tight end for Marion. Sanders committed to South Carolina over programs like Tennessee, NC State, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Duke. 

He redshirted his true freshman season in 2021 after seeing action in two games. He appeared in 12 contests in 2022 before collecting program accolades in the spring of 2023 — signifying a breakout on the way. Sanders was awarded the Rex Enright Defensive Player of the Spring that year and went on to collect seven starts in 12 games, leading the team in sacks (4.5) and tackles for loss (9.5) in the process.

Sanders played in all 13 games for the Gamecocks as a redshirt junior in 2024 and was named Second Team All-SEC for his play. He declared after the end of the 2024 season and bypassed his final season of eligibility. 

Tale Of The Tape

Sanders has the ability to become a disruptor for his NFL home. This is a quick but proportionately dense interior defender who sports a quick get-off out of the blocks, violent and active hands at first contact, and pleasant lower body flexibility to carry speed through the corners when rushing the passer. Sanders is not an incomplete player with his run vs. pass defending resume — but the pass rush skill set is what he’s likely to be coveted for and sets the ceiling for his evaluation. 

This is a player who has shown a variety of ways to get after the quarterback. He’s got a nifty inside scissors and swipe counter to cross face against the center when protection pushes his way, he’s capable of coiling and exploding through gaps with effective quickness, and he can, on occasion, convert speed to power and collapse a center or guard back and compress the pocket. He is slippery through contact thanks to some looseness in his shoulders and does well on twists and stunts to probe and feel creases to pop through and create discomfort for the quarterback. 

Sanders’ hands are best when countering punches at first contact. But he does show sturdy punch power, the ability to press back a set of pads, and the ability to hold his own when everything clicks into place. He has the lateral mobility and enough upper-body strength to press and fall off a block to mirror a cut by the ball carrier. However, he lacks the general knockback and dominant power at the point of attack to hold double teams and/or reset the line of scrimmage consistently. 

This may prompt him to eventually collect reps as an odd front end on early downs, but that is more of a projection element of his game than unleashing his athleticism as a pass rusher from all kinds of angles. He has enough acceleration and lower-body power to run pick stunts as the wall setter. He possesses enough grace and balance to pinball off the blocker if he’s not captured with hands and parlay that momentum into a crease toward the quarterback. 

Sanders’ pad level is generally sufficient, but he’s not condensed enough to be immune to poor pad level and losing leverage. These instances, which spring up vs. vertical drive blocks or when a slide protection variation stymies his initial rush, can kill his momentum and neutralize him. Keeping his feet churning can help him sustain momentum through prolonged contact more efficiently and ensure he can play his way back into the action in high traffic.

Ideal Scheme Fit, Role

Sanders projects best as a penetration pass-rush specialist early in his career. He does have enough length to develop his game into an every-down defender for a multiple-front scheme, but his most direct pathway to playing time as a rookie will be as an interior designated pass rusher.

He can align on the nose in rush situations but would be best served attacking the B-gap from 3T and 4i alignments.